Day 8
Up early after another night in a tent. We get to see the village in the morning. When the cows are well fed, Mursi people bleed them in the morning and drink the blood for strength. The bleeding is done when we arrive but we can see this young guy drinking a good liter of blood... Ew. During the visit, we give away the supplies we asked our guide to buy in Jinka. They need soap like the Daasanech but also razor blades for their hair style (shaven for women, patterned for men) and salt for the food. We come upon our first musician (the little horns used for the bull jumping ceremony don't count as music). He's playing the "Kung", a small string instrument.
I record a bit of it and play it back to him, surprising everyone around! We don't linger too long, we have a date with wildlife. The chief brings us in the savannah to see one of treasure of the region: zebras. They have a special place in the Mursi culture and they are not hunted. We drive down the road for a while and then we continue on foot in the savannah. 15-20 min later we see our first group of zebras. It's the first of many. We walk for a good hour and see countless groups of zebras. The routine is always the same; They look at us getting closer and when it's close enough for them, they run away. We also see antelopes in the distance but they are way more shy than the zebras since the Mursi hunt them. We drop off the chief at the village and head back to Jinka. The 4*4 acts again on the way. Same cause, the fuel filter clogs and it takes 10-15 minutes to clean it. The quality of the fuel is far from great here especially if you buy it at the black market; storing it in jerrycans on the roof can't help either.
We have a real room with a real bed tonight with toilets and a shower...luxury!!! It's too early to enjoy the room yet and we drive to Gazer; it's market day for the Ari tribe. Our driver has a kidney pain and I take over for the 15km drive to the village. First time driving a 4*4 in real conditions; it's really fun ;) At a ford, we come across a scary accident. For whatever reason a public bus failed the crossing and is on its side in the river. There's a lot of people on the scene and we're told everything is under control. I suspect it went a bit fast and one of the wheel slipped outside of the concrete area.
The market is very colorful. Our guide tells us they get very few tourists here. It probably has to do with the fact they are the most "developed" tribe. Instantly we become the attraction and are escorted throughout all the visit. We visit the different stands - local alcohol / ingera (crepe) / spices / incense / pottery / etc... There's a big cattle market nearby too. Even though we are the attraction, they keep a respectful distance. We sense no aggressively or pressure for pictures. A boy carrying one hen under each arm will follow us all the way to then end ;) it's one of the nicest visit we had and we were not expecting much of it. The Ari have been moving towards more social complexity for some time and is the more powerful tribe of the region. It's not visited as much because it's not as "tribal/ethnic". The impression it left us was much more respect and a poor but well-kept village. This tribe should survive the changes introduced by tourism much more easily than the others we've seen.
Back in Jinka for the rest of the day. The second try at the ethnic museum is successful. It's closed when we arrive but the guy, hanging out in the garden, sees us and opens the museum. The more interesting part is an interview of women from different tribes they conducted a few years back. It had to do with all aspects of social life from a women point of view (wedding, kids, housekeeping, fashion, etc...). The other very interesting piece is a documentary shot by a Mursi about the Mursi. It stopped halfway through because the power went out but it was addressing the issue that is kept us talking over and over these last few days - the benefits and danger of tourism for these tribes. We also came across some "faranji" (foreigners) for the first time; An older couple of Spaniards. It's so nice to talk with westerners after a week in total immersion!!! ;)
Day 9
A night in a real bed is such a treat! Nothing like a few rough day to enjoy comfort like never before :D Today is our last day of expedition. We'll be back in Arba Mich tonight but the program is packed. We get breakfast in a place that has a first floor (2nd floor U.S.) and it feels very Parisian to do some people watching while having breakfast. Most people don't spot us so they go about their daily life without disruption.
It's market day in Jinka which is why the road is crowded with people and animals carrying goods. We recognize the Ari tribe since they are the only one using horses. We get a bit of rain on the way; the interesting side effect is that cows leave the road to find shelter, goats not so much of course... Driving in this region is about driving up in a mountain and down into a plain. It could seem boring but it's so majestic it never gets old. And you have the cattle traffic and waving at locals to keep you entertained anyway.
We pull up in the Arbole village and learn there's a important ceremony going on right now. Our guide never had the chance to see it either so we follow the local guide to the site and try to understand what's going on. It's called "ambisit". Today a bull was sacrificed and will be cooked and eaten by all the surrounding villages. The family who raised the bull like a kid is very sad and some of them want to die by jumping in the fire used to cook the animal. Their friends prevent them from doing so. The head of the animal is close to the fire and guarded by relatives. Warriors coming from the other villages show strength and discipline by walking and running in line and shooting their rifle in the air. The idea is to show everyone is committed to defend their cows, even dead. The ceremony is just for men, the women are waiting in the village, especially the wife of the bull owner. Everyone will come have coffee in her house at then end of the ceremony I suspect to present their condolences. It's all a show of course. It's a great honor to have your bull sacrificed. This tradition is a way to maintain social cohesion.
On the way back we do a quick stop in a Tsemay village. They have a special place amongst the tribes of the region; they perform special rituals and magic so everyone leaves them in peace. Even if it's just a few kilometers away, the way they build their house is different. Where the Erbole have two sections in their hut, one for the daytime to handle the heat and one for the nighttime to be protected from the wind, the Tsemay have a circular hut with an inside round wall. It was hot and steamy in the nighttime hut of the Erbole but it's nice and cool in the Tsemay inner section. Interesting to see 2 very different solutions to the same problem just a few kilometers apart.
We're closing the loop with the exact same lunch at the exact same place with the exact same beautiful blue birds cleaning the plates where we had it the first day of our expedition. What remains now is a bunch of hours of driving with the inescapable cattle traffic and the dancing kids. On the way to Arba we'll see 3 trucks out of the road; one missed a curve, the other two seem to have bumped into each other and end up on their roof on either side of the road... Scary! One last empty bottle of water given and we're stuck in cattle traffic jams in the suburb of Arba Minch. It's 6:30 and all the cattle is coming back from the field.