Our introduction to Ethiopia started at Customs. A guide called Antony latched onto us (you are rarely alone in Ethiopia!). We stayed in a pretty rough hotel at the border where they slaughtered goat for supper outside our room with a huge sabre! We had injera (like a huge pancake with the consistancy of foam rubber) and goat meat. OK, can’t complain too much for the equivalent of 60 pence!
The following day was a muslim holiday and a huge outdoor gathering was taking place in Moyale. It also meant we had to go on before we could get the tyre fixed. We stayed the night in Konso the capital of the Omo region we had come to see, again a rough hotel (as no campsite) and injera and spicy goat!
We met a local guide Greisha near the Tourist office who took us to a couple of villages and a stunning gorge known as New York! The village of Mecheke was interesting, the local tribes have a complex culture. Every 18 years the new generation takes responsibility and a pole is erected to mark the event. They also have community houses where boys live until they marry.
We then went to Key Afar a local town with a weekly market. However en route we were stopped at a police checkpoint and asked for our papers. We had read that sometimes the police wanted a letter from the Tourist Office in Konso, Jinka or Addis but we were told in Konso that it wasn’t needed. The local police thought differently and insisted on escorting us to the local police station where we had a major debate through an interpreter with the local Sergeant. In the end I told him I wanted his name and he refused to give it so I went to a group of onlookers at the compound gate and asked them for it. They told me they knew it but wouldn’t tell me. By this time however the Sergeant was worried why we wanted his name and agreed that we could take an armed officer to Key Afar where they would decide.
We duly took the officer to the station at Key Afar where the senior officer was happy that we had a valid visa and an entry stamp at Moyale! So all sorted.
In Key Afar we met a local lad who directed us to somewhere to camp (the ones in the guidebook had all closed). We had a huge gathering of inquisitive local kids here, one of whom Mekonen later acted as guide to some of the local villages and markets. We also met Amanuel who we gave a lift to Jinka and back to see his uncle (another policeman). It turned out that the police escort we had to Key Afer was also a relative!! When we later returned to Key Afer we met Amanuel’s sister on the road and she invited us for coffee and to stay in their compound. They insisted in demolishing their fence so we could get George in and generally made us very welcome and comfortable.
The local museum at Jinka about the local tribes and their customs was very interesting. They have a bull-jumping initiation for boys and also a tradition of body scarring.
One of the Hamer tribe women we met in a village showed us her son who had eyes that were swollen out of their sockets. We later enquired of a Norwegian Hospital Doctor who worked at the local Lutheran Mission what might be the problem. He explained it was an eye infection and that sadly his sight would have been lost. A very tragic thing to see, his mother had taken him to the Doctor in Jinka but sadly it was too late for anything to be done.
Mekonen took a lot of the photos in the villages and markets. The locals expect 1 birr for their photo but he kept snapping away, cheeky fellow!