72hrs With The Ethiopian Tribes of Omo Valley

Every time we book a trip with a local guide on whatsapp and have to like go to a small airport somewhere in the middle of nowhere we always hope that when we land somebody will show up and today someone did. Today we have Murat for a guide and we have Ketch our trusty driver. We just picked up a new passenger this is Bergi. Bergi right? Bergi. Bergi and he's he's our scout so it's not because it's dangerous or anything like that it's just in certain regions of Ethiopia it's just like that you just pick up a scout extra safety extra security it's all good. So for the next few days we'll be exploring the Omo valley part of Ethiopia a very culture rich area of the country and our tour starts by paying a visit to the Morsi tribe. The Morsi tribe are about 15 000 in the country making them one of the second less populated tribe of Ethiopia and they live in around 30 different villages. So the main thing that they grow here is something called sorghum and basically they can make like a bread out of it as well but they prefer making a beer because it kind of serves two purposes. You have your liquid and it's kind of thick so you still get full from it as well. So from the top you get the seed and then you grind it down into a flour. So the same crop that they're using for the bread and the beer apparently the middle is also kind of a sugar cane so they just chew on it as well for the juice. So yeah when you eat it like it's almost more like well it's like a sugar cane but it almost has more of like a cucumbery like light taste to it. So behind me is actually kind of like a structure of the house so basically the women build the houses here and the kids right now are practicing and they're learning how to build it so that's why there's a smaller scale one here kind of like the bones or structure of the house. There's the skeleton of the house and then it's grass laid over top to make the rest. Oh that was very interesting. So the man living in this house was telling us a little bit about his story through our translator obviously. So he has so far three wives, 10 children, he's planning on marrying another three wives and have another 10 children. In these kind of hut they can have up to 10 people living there but since they're polygamous only one wife per tent basically. So this man right now has three different wives so three different huts. So the scarification has two different meanings one is simply like decoration for beauty but the other one actually has a deeper meaning. So here he has three different circles the first one is when he first killed a buffalo the middle one is a lion and the smaller one is a cheetah and in the culture here actually killing those animal is a sign of strength it means that you can get a better woman and also gives you a status in the tribe. So the women here starting at age 15 they actually start piercing their lip and it starts expanding. So these plates here are actually lip plates and they started this way back when the women were actually being abducted so they're basically trying to make the women ugly and kind of not appealing to be abducted. Now though it is actually a sign of beauty so the bigger the plate that you can have in your lip the more beautiful that you are. Thank you it was very interesting. Tracey I don't think we have time to appreciate her face painting. Oh there we go you found this out. Something super funny when I was with the men beside the hut talking about their scarring I asked the guy how do you kill like a buffalo and a lion I was because they have like those long spear and I'm sure that back in the days that's what they were doing but then he told me Kalashnikov which is like pretty much an assault rifle so different. Birgi what do you think? Is it good? Yeah good good good Thank you Birgi. So now we have about two and a half hours from Jinka to Turmi but it wouldn't be a road trip without road trip snacks. But first let's have a drink. Cheers Welcome to Turmi. Every time I look at myself in the camera I kind of forget that I have face paint but hey we're almost at the lodge after two and a half hours driving on dirt roads and yeah we're gonna have a little dinner here even though it's a little bit late for us to have dinner it's almost like 10 p.m but I can't refuse you know good Ethiopian meal you have a St. George so cheers. So we're tired it's late we're gonna hop in the shower but before we do so I'll just show you where we're at. So we're at Buska Lodge and this is actually included in the package so we have a bed with a net which is absolutely needed. This is the first time we've seen a fan so very excited over that because it's a little hot and then a little living space and the bathroom. Everything we need. I'm gonna take a nice shower. And wash your face. And wash my face. So today was great I love these kinds of experience over any other kinds of travel but if you thought that today was cool just wait tomorrow. Tomorrow's the true adventure. Got work going on tomorrow. Tracy needs to go to bed. There you go bud. Good morning we slept quite well and now we're gonna have a nice little Ethiopian breakfast before getting back on the road. Everyone seems to get a little surprised whenever we order like national dishes for breakfast but to be honest we really prefer them over top of just like pancakes normal omelette things like that so we're gonna continue to do that. Hey why are you guys wearing the same shirt? Well I'm glad you asked it's because they're very nice and comfortable and you can get your own at adventureseekers.store. You're welcome. Just on time. Before we start our day that was actually perfect we're gonna have a street coffee. You guys know that David doesn't like coffee but he just but I love the I love experiences. Yeah. So I never say no. An Ethiopian coffee is so strong. That's gonna keep me up for like days. I'm gonna be honest like this is not the worst coffee I've ever had though. Back on the road. So we just arrived at a village of the Karo people. They live along the Omo river which is the second longest river after the Nile and it actually ends up in Lake Turkana which is mainly in Kenya so yes we are very very close to the Kenyan border right now and the the name of their tribe actually means fish eater because since they live very close to the Omo river they mainly eat fish. So the Karo tribe is actually the smallest tribes in terms of number they are just under 8,000 people living mainly in three different villages so in every of those three villages there's hundreds and hundreds of people. I've been to many tribes around Africa and this is the largest village I've ever seen. There's nothing like a good old Instagram filter to break the ice. So if you see someone who has their ear kind of cut like that it actually means that they're married so it's a type of ring like a permanent ring and yeah symbolizes a marriage. Let me tell you that this is not something I thought I would be doing today. They have a pool table. So the way they play pool is a little bit different than what I'm used to. Normally one person has a half the other one has the full but here they play in order and they don't break the bunch at the beginning they just align them on the side of the table and so far I'm losing. New videographer that's good. If she says something not correct you tell her. Really? Okay Tracy tell us. So this school was actually built in December of 2008. It was built by Save the Children Norway and they actually have teachers from the community and from outside the community because they keep the same like curriculum kind of like across Ethiopia. Is she right? So sometimes when we come to these places we just never know like how you're gonna be received because kind of feel like you're intruding sometimes but just let you know like include it in the package like you pay basically to come here and photography fees and everything like that so you're good to do whatever. But I have to say they really did welcome us here and just kind of treated us like we were part of them sat and played pool and we're able to play like soccer and stuff so I don't know it was a really nice experience. Okay so normally we would leave this on however we're going to another tribe after this so I just feel weird wearing different tribe things to different tribes so we're gonna reset. One of the younger guys was actually super interested by the camera and I gave it to him for a while and actually some of the clips that you'll see in this vlog were were from him so future videographer. So now we're going back to the termite for lunch hang out a little bit and then another drive. So we see these a lot and normally the hotter the climate the higher the termite mound is. I have to say this is the hottest one that we've ever seen. Perfect all that for a team photo. Every time there's a cool driving shot that's me staying back and then I have to run and catch the truck back. Just arrived at a little local restaurant for lunch. There's no better place to have Ethiopian food than straight on the side of the road. This is as local as it gets. So right now we are in Termi. This is a small town in the southern part of Ethiopia. Most people here actually belong to the Amur tribe. The Amur tribe is the largest tribe in Ethiopia over 65,000 of them. The Termi town basically is used for market, clinic, schools and things like that while most people actually still live in small villages around the area and this is actually where we're going to spend the night tonight in one of those villages. So anywhere that you see a stick with a bucket on top it basically means a local bar. One of the women of the village came and picked up Tracy and I think she's going for a makeover. Wow. So when we first arrived we were kind of chatting about the culture and everything and then I was invited to try on the women's clothing. So this I think is a traditional dress. I think this is supposed to go in these two. That's teamwork right there. That little goat is just trying to like you know get some milk but they're milking at the same time so maybe there is like I'm gonna take care of that. So basically too when the sun starts setting and that's when they bring all the animals back because I have like houses here for the animals so that way they're protected overnight. Oh and this is home for the night. So this little boy is basically learning to walk and he's taking some of his first steps and they're just so darn cute. It's so cool across the many villages we've visited during the tour. A lot of people when they see the camera they want me to take their photo just so they can see it on the screen and they're always like super impressed but it makes for some beautiful photos. So here she's making a local beer called Percy and just beside me those kids are having a lot of fun with Tracy's phone. So now we're gonna sit down and relax watch the fire while everyone else is watching us. The stars are absolutely gorgeous. There's zero light pollution here and it's just making them all come out. The sky is clear. Oh man I'm loving it. What a night. So this is one of the traditional food. It's called morga and it's actually made from sorghum which is one of the main crop that they cultivate. Pretty good. It's very like a wheaty. For a familiar taste we kind of taste like Weetabix. Yeah that's actually exactly what it tastes like. Just in case you're dying to know what those kids do at night while they make a fire, catch bugs and throw them in the fire. That's what they do around here. Good morning. This village is like truly asleep for just a few hours because these these rooster they start screaming at 3 58 in the morning. So we didn't sleep much but it was an adventure. I liked it. Just like me they start the day with coffee and they actually serve it in a calabash basically like a skin of it and here they actually use the shell of the coffee bean. So if you see like the shell inside they boil it and they make a tea out of it that way. So I'm no coffee connoisseur but it's basically like almost like a tea from coffee. It's a very very light coffee. I personally like this over real coffee. I don't know what the older man was telling the rest of the people in the hut but it's just like beautiful to see like you know 10 11 12 people just you know sitting in silence just listening to whatever story was telling them. I'm not sure why but he really wants me to run. Little morning run. It's very healthy. So as we walked beside another hut that invited us for coffee apparently it's rude to say no so look at me I'm at my second coffee this morning. It's so funny to me because as we walk through the village there is like multiple hut and everyone in the hut this morning is having coffee but when we were just like a few hundreds of kilometers south of the border with the Samburus when we showed up with coffee some of them had never had coffee in their entire life so it's just like few hundred kilometers completely different culture. Too much coffee for me. So we just stopped at a little place on the side of the road once again to get some food before our long drive back to Jinka. I'm hungry. Me too. Here you never know what you're gonna find on the side of the road. I bet you weren't expecting that. No, neither were you. So what an adventure. Trust me it's always a pleasure for us to be able to like see experience and better understand other culture that seems so far from what we know. And honestly like the communities they welcomed us with open arms and like it was just absolutely fantastic. On that point too it's actually kind of giving back to the local communities as well because there is a fee that you're paying when you go there and photography fees and everything like that so it's not like you're just going there and exploiting kind of. It's a full-on business like it's part of their daily lives like they they receive tourists like us like you know on the day not necessarily on a daily basis but on a weekly basis so it is actually encouraged because it it does help the communities. So otherwise we're gonna put the link down below of the guides that we've used. They are 100% MANI approved. Those guys were the best. Great driver. Amazing guide. They truly made this experience extra special so once again all their information are going to be down below with prices and everything that you need to know. Now let's get back on the road and head to the airport. We had a we had a public while we're doing that. Cheers. Thank you so much guys. It was a great trip. Getch, great driver. Murat, one of the best guides we've had. Highly recommend these guys. Thank you. Cheers. And we're at Lasbio. We'll see you guys in the next one.