Ethiopia 2016 day 4 Jinka

                                                                      DAY 4
                                                     
                                                    JINKA TO MURSI VILLAGE

Waking up was the answer to our action that day and watching the weather.
It was not raining. It was just a perfect day.
We were going to see the Mursi in their village.

Get ready for the best time of our lifes.
LIKE YESTERDAY WAS...

Early morning, we had breakfast at the hotel pay the bills and left.
We drove there took a coffee on the road. Try to get some change to  give away. This was a big problem for us. Remember that.

Get a guide-Pay entry fee- and there we went

I saw my first Barna man
on top of wooden stick

Then we met those 2 guys

The ladies arrived from the water creek

One Mursi woman with old tradition and one yong woman without it

Giving away small token of my appreciation of being on their land for me it was important to give them a little something beside money something they will like. I tought it will be for kids but men women wanted the long neclaces it was fun they were happy

They wanted the necklaces for their babies, afterwards, I told the guide to tell them I found it very dangerous for kids perhaps they could wait to give it to them.

Definetely was in a rush to come here. Didnt brush my hair in that tarentula nursery washroom.

Then a young boy painted with white paint over his body

right on the side of the road we got off
the jeep
some more people join us running towards us
2 yong men
then a bunch of women who probably were going to wash themselves at the river they arrived with basket and babies to see us.
We exchange it was fun to meet them

                                                         For me this picture is Ethiopia

The Mursi village

Men are coming to see us too

                                                        Waiting for us to get out of the jeep

We finally arrived at the village
Just like going to your oncle and aunty we got off the jeep and they came to great us

omg

my eyes was full of pictures
my head was full of questions to ask
overwelhmed by their welcome.
people were scratching my arms with thier nails in order for me to look at them

It was like a whirlpool of emotions
wondering why
why
on earth they live like this
wondering why in 2016 we were so fortunate to see people like them.
or why was the connection still to this day was not done and these people were set back in time

As far as I can recall, I was looking at my grand dads encyclopedia in black and white and I would see stuff like this. It was just fantastic for me to live this just like the encyclopedia.

Kind of a dream come thru
Right at this very moment, I was the ethnologue of the day, discovering these women, children, men,
this tribe, in a far away land, for the very first time.
It was just fantastic!
A great moment.
The sun was hitting real hard.
My skin was roasting.

But what about her, her lip, her dish inside her lip, her suffering to get this done, her tradition, her mouth hanging loose, her lips, her lost teeth, her love life, her misery, her hard working day with this on....

What about her ?

who am I to say I'm suffering because of sun rays on my white skin ?
who am I to say I'm suffering ?

To each its own suffering.
Or can we change the course of their life and stop this.
Who are we to judge them?
WHo are we to say this is right and this is wrong?
Is this the way to live?

Growing up in inserting in the middle of your lip a dish that gets bigger and bigger?
Not knowing how old are you?
Having your body pierce and mark with some kind of design to show how tuff you are.
who am I to complain here?

I tried to read their eyes, I tried to read their lips, I tried to have answers to my questions but I couldn't.

It was ugly, no different, and then, some women were so pretty. Some didn't seem to mind

Do you really get used to this?
Every single day of your life...

I never ask if they had a mirror to look at each other.

Every picture we took, we show them back to them.
They took picture of us too.
We made sure we took picture of those without the dish to say its alright not to have a dish.
We sat down and chat together.
We laugh.
We smile.

They didn't smile when we got here perhaps it hurts them to smile with lips like this with a dish in your mouth but even little boy had a hard time to smile.

It was a lesson to be learn.
We are what we are.
Accept it.

For some its just a reflection in the mirror.
For others, it's who they are and they have to do with it.
No need for botox here. No.
Just being yourself is important.
Just to accpet yourself.

You can accept it or change it but then, can they stop this.
Can they change it?
The governement is trying to stop them from doing this but will they?
Who forces them to do that?

      Oh! she is so (frele) so tiny beside me. I have become so big over the last 2 years. She is so tiny.


I ran out of little money to give away for picture taking, a small token of affection.
I ran out of all my bracelets and necklaces to give away. Wish I had more space to pack all my gifts  I left behind.


Another charming person who came along with her family and infant to say hi to us.
Using animal skin to hold the baby.

While i was taking the picture I was also looking at the scene behind it watching my sister withthe others.

The two men

The children. You can see different part of their wardrobe here.
short, nothing, skirt wrap around at the waist with ttwo piece of material, skirt wrap from the top, skirt wrap to the waist.
men and women wear the skirt here.

so decided to wonder around in the small hut village.
we met the old men the old ladies the blind lady one of our friend we met at the market who walk 2 hours down 2 hours up to her village just to see us amazing people
and we had so much to say but language barrier the guide was busy with my sister or changing money so it was overwhelming for him to answer all our questions.

She was trying to bring me to her. She was showing me her mother. She was telling me that she was a mother as well but she was her mother and she couldnt see.

Then the entire village was looking after me with my sister and they found me here so I explain to my                                sister what I understood ask the guide to translate everything ...

Little notice:
Look at the person in the left side she is tyring to get my attention she uses her nail to scratch me deeply in the skin with a suntan it hurts...but nothing compare to what they have to endure right

My sister and I were very happy to experience this type of meeting. It was out of this world.
We didnt want the day to end.

then the driver give us a sign that it was time to go if we wanted to catch our plane back home
so sad to had so little time with them,
but quite an experience to live, I will never live something like this again unless I come back here go thru those horrible mountains in order to see more tribes.
omg

we had to say good bye

good bye Mursi ladies good bye
good bye guide

amansegamale that's in amharique I forgot how to say it in Mursi language

Lunch time, we werewondering how we could eat with the dish or even without the dish and lips extra stretch...

The answer remain:
in extreme pain for sure.

How much pain can one endure really ?
or do we really get use to it...

                                            my sister going to the bank machine cute

                                               we are on our way to visit another tribe
the Ara. The tribe of our chauffeur quite difficult to refuse to see his village, right.

We when on foot to the Ara village.

new construction houses

very typical of the Ara house the drawing on the front

inside his house

Little girls having fun playing in my sister's hair

here the lady is doing enjera for the village

We learn how to do it ourself
poor women always bending down to work, in the field, in the kitchen, in their own house, if only we could build them some shelves to ease their daily work.
I wish I knew how, I did some in my house but we have so little time...
too bad

 this is the mixter we put on the dish in a spiral motion

 its kind of a crepe but only flip ounce its tasteless it serve as a purpose to hold the dish together and afterwards to dig in the sauce or take chunk of the meat with it with your right hand

Now, here its the distillery, they do hydromel or eau de vie very stronge almost 98 % proof
we had to drink it in the afternoon ouf its hot

huge termite.

I decided to go and see it from close. Its very difficult to walk here its full of sharp bushes full of pines. Maybe there are snakes here...was not sure if I should walk so more. I tought I was all alone inthe field and turn around and saw those 2 guys with long knife looking at me.
Ah!

Hello!

its getting hot now

                                  the hammer girls they walk a lot we see them every where

                                                                    very distinct to this group

                                                               entering a village


ok well lets have a meeting here my sister just found out that she lost all her pictures while downloading them in the jeep on her computer Not funny here.
Rather walk for a little while, while we think of the next step to do.
We had such a baeutiful day.
It had to rain on our parade.
LAst night in the room, she wanted to dry her umbrella. I told her not to put the umbrella inside the room.
She put it on her side of the room look what happened.

Here when it rains it could be drastic it was filling up so rapidly it was doing some waves
we learn after that on this very particular day in this area 50 people died and a lot of sheftel too

It was no fun now. Lets go home quick.
Got back on the jeep with a sad sister, awful tragedy, you are going on a picture safari, the trip of a life time and then this....

Our trip ended on a sour note, on top of it, we were supposed to go back to Kampa lodge to spend the night because we had find it so nice. We were going to celebrate our trip picture htere in a nice lodge. We were going to clebrate our meeting with all these beautiful people; no!
The woman tells us a price.
we said: no that is not what we were told, get the gentleman that was there this morning
so he arrived and suddenly refused to acknowlege what he had said, the day we went for breakfast and visited the room.
we were supposed to get 2 rooms at $50.00 us He refused to respect it.
We tought he was so nice.
I hate liars.
Liar.

I couldn't stand this.
and we were not in the mood here.
It was low season
Im a stewardess we could had a little airline discount, no like the rest of the world.
We bring the people to your place body
a little respect is nice
and top of it
there is no one here
he rather loose so much money
oh well!
Im not going to stay here and argue some more especially that my sister lost all her picture
not only that he remove the sign of master card so we had to pay cash only
we saw the sign
terrible place to go
not reliable very pretty
but
German style rip off

We did all that road thinking we were coming here to sleep, we evn call ahead...
will not recommand this place.
and beside being beautiful and having a beautiful set up with flowers and all and great fried eggs and service; the bread sucks, it taste rotten big time!
big time!
so keep your resort for yourself and learn how to bake bread because the Ethiopian do.

we went on to the next resort
down size
we each took a room separately at that price and spend the night there
we went for dinner in a local bar.

Flashlight on to guide us thru the night
tired we went in
again we felt like fluorescent light in a black box

Everyone staring at us with our chauffeur
then after five minutes they went back on to their hobby
watching tv in the bar.
The light went off in the bar for a little while I guess cooking our meal was toomuch for the voltage...
Finally, dinner arrived. Our chauffeur had local engera but we had something else.
Beer St George and scramble eggs





SPENDING

hotel room
breakfast included


tour guide
entry to the market
park


picture taken in the village....

I can not remember will have to count the picture x 5 birr
souvenir: mursi plate 100 birr


visit to the hara village
entry and guide to the village

17. U.S.

souvenir
encent potery holder 200. birrs

Hotel room
Dinner st george and a scramble egg

ma soeur a enregistré une émission radiophonique a radio canada



je partage