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Ethiopia

October - November 2022
A 26-day adventure by skip's retirement travel Read more
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  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 15

    Abinata-Shalla Park and Lake Lantana

    October 31, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Abinata and Shalla are 2 small lakes around which the small park is preserved. The 1st picture is typical of the park landscape. There are some animals here. The 2nd picture is an ostrich, and the 3rd is Grant's antelope. I did also see a warthog, wild tog and guinea fowl, but I wasn't quick enough to get pictures.
    The next 2 pictures are at Lake Langano from the beach at the resort. That 5th picture is a white heron.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 16

    Halaba

    November 1, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    The Halaba people are one of the many ethnic groups of Ethiopia. They live in the central Highlands of the country. These pictures are in a small village in the region.
    The 1st picture is a typical house, and the 2nd picture is a larger look at the village. The 3rd picture is the woman of the house wearing a traditional Halaba hat.
    The 4th and 5th pictures are inside the house in the 1st picture. The construction is interesting. I haven't seen this type of roof support. Living is arranged around the outside, while cooking is in the center. The 5th picture is the kitchen storage area on the side opposite the previous picture.
    The last picture is the man of the house separating the wheat from the chaff in the old traditional manner, letting the breeze carry away the chaff.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 16

    Droze village

    November 1, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    The Droze people are an Ethiopian ethnic group living in the highlands in the southern part of the country. They are perhaps most famous for their houses. The 1st picture shows these houses made from bamboo that look like elephant faces (intentionally). The trunk is the entry. The eyes provide light and a vent for rainy season cooking fires. The next 2 pictures are inside the house, showing a sleeping area and some crockery.
    They are also well known for their textiles. The 4th picture shows cotton being spun from raw cotton bolls brought up from the lowlands. They remove the seeds to return them for the next crop.
    The 5th picture is a weaver at work along with some of the wares. I'm told that Droze weavers provide for Ethiopian Airlines flight attendants.
    One of their staple foods is the false banana. In the 6th picture, the woman is shredding the plant from the fibers and outer covering. The fibers are used for rope, among other things. The plant pulp is fermented in the ground for 3 months and then dug up and used. A primary use is for bread that is cooked and a plate similar injera, but the dough is baked between leaves.
    The 8th picture is the finished beard with fishes of local organic honey and a spice paste. In the back is homemade arack, their local alcoholic beverage. I got to enjoy all if it, including their ceremony for drinking the arack.
    The last 2 pictures are more examples of their artistic talent and craftsmanship.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 17

    Lake Chamo

    November 2, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Lake Chamo is one of the Ethiopian rift valley lakes and lies within one of the national parks. The 1st picture looks along a section of shoreline where the lake has encroached and killed the trees. The 2nd picture is of Turtle Island, named for its shape. The 3rd picture is another African fish eagle with a nest. The 4th and 5th pictures are Nile crocodiles. These are sunning themselves at the end of Turtle Island that I decided to call Croc Beach. There were far more Crocs there than I can show. The ones living here are said to be among the largest Nile Crocs anywhere. The 6th picture has a heron hidden to the left of center. The last picture catches a couple hippos swimming. They spend their days in the water, making this about as good a daylight picture I can hope to get.Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 17

    Ari village

    November 2, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The Ari people are another tribal group native to the Omo Valley of southern Ethiopia. The Ari are thought to be the largest and oldest tribe in the Omo region. They are well known agriculturalists, providing much of the food for the region. They also have skilled potters and blacksmiths.
    The 1st picture is a look at a family compound of the 2nd wife of the village blacksmith. The 2nd picture is the blacksmith at work at his forge with a few of his products laid out. The 3rd picture is the potter shaping a baking plate for injera baking and other cooking uses. The 4th picture is the working still making the homemade liquor. The 5th picture is one of the many fields. Growing here are sorghum, corn (maize), beans and more. The last picture is again making injera. This time the batter is made from corn instead of tef as in this region, tef is much more expensive and so used only at celebrations, holidays, etc.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 18

    Mursi village

    November 3, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    The Mursi are a small tribe (fewer than 20,000 individuals) of the Omo Valley not far from the border with South Sudan. They are agro-pastoralists and historically nomadic. Their most important possession is their cattle. They also cultivate crops that can be harvested in the time between moves for pasturage and water for the cattle.
    Their houses are made entirely of bamboo as seen in the 1st picture which shows a look the the village. Each small village is a single clan. The 2nd picture showed the detached door in place. The entry is less than a meter tall. This is said to be below the height where most mosquitoes fly, making it less likely that they will enter the house. The interior is shown in the 3rd picture.
    The 4th picture is a young man with many decorative scars that you can see by enlarging the picture.
    The 5th picture is a grinding stone. The 6th picture is half ground sorghum. They grind it once; dry it; and grind it again.
    The last picture is a longer view of the village. Every time a son marrys, the woman joins the man's village. So the clan grows.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 18

    South Omo Museum

    November 3, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The Museum of the South Omo Research Centre is an ethnographic museum housing the research centre's collection of artifacts. The display is organized by tribe that lives in the South Omo Valley. There are 15 or more tribes here. The pictures below are of the exhibits. There is way too much here to detail each tribe. So I photographed each cabinet so the the tribe name is visible. In most cases there is a sign thst identifies the contents of the case. Check it out by enlarging the photos.
    You should be able to recognize the names of the tribes I visit and connect some artifacts to them. I encourage you to see other posts, some already posted, others yet to come. There is lots more information on line about the tribes than I can post here. Take a look. This is a fascinating and illuminating part of the world.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 19

    Bana family

    November 4, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    The Bana are another of the Omo Valley tribes. The people live as individual families spread out rather than in gathered communities. In the 2nd picture, you can see a couple of these among the fields. I'll come back to the 1st picture.
    The next 4 pictures are inside the family's house. The 3rd and 4th pictures look at the house. You can see the structure. They sit and sleep on goat skin mats that are better seen in the 5th picture. Immediately behind the center post is the small kitchen. In the 5th picture our host is making coffee husk tea. That's really a thing. They take the husks remaining after being removed from the bean, chop it up and throw them into hot water to steep. It tastes more like tea than coffee. In the 6th picture you can see the gourds that are used as tea cups. Our host's husband is about to pass that gourd to me, which is that 1st picture. I was surprised that the coffee taste was minimal.
    The last picture looks across the family compound to the view.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelEthiopia
    Day 19

    Bull jumping

    November 4, 2022 in Ethiopia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Bull jumping is practiced by the Hamer tribe (see another post). It is a right of passage for boys to be recognized as adults. Only after successfully completing this ritual will they be allowed to marry.
    This is a whole community event that lasts a couple of days with lots of drinking and feasting provided by the family of the jumper. All the women of the village gather to sing and dance. The 1st picture shows this, but please see another post with a video of the singing and dancing. After a while, certain of the young men who have passed the ritual show up with sticks to whip the women who work hard to receive the lash. The 2nd picture captures this, and the 3rd picture shows that this isn't just a trivial ceremony. I'm told this is to show the boy who is jumping how much he is loved. The closer the relationship to the jumper, the more extensive the whipping.
    While all this is going on, the boy who will jump arrives. He is the boy with the goat skin garment in the 4th picture. He is to Ng for this ceremony. It seems there are many reasons why he might be jumping so early.
    After the whipping those same young men have their faces painted as in the 5th picture
    While all that is going on, there is a lot of drinking and talking among the family and the elders to finalize the ok for the ceremony to take place.
    As the time approaches, the women who have been continuing to sing and dance move to the bulls and sing around them. See the 6th picture.
    The ceremony takes place near dusk. As the bulls are encircled by the watchers, the boy who is jumping goes among the bulls and selects the ones he will jump. That's the 7th picture. The bulls are lined up for the jumping as in the 8th picture.
    Finally the main event. In the last 2 pictures, the boy is completing the ritual. There is another short post with a video of a bit of his effort.
    And, yes, this is always done in the nude.    Read more

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