Omo Valley

The omo valley is one of those special places in the world. a place that kind of got forgotten whilst the rest of the world was thinking about things too much. the valley is host to a number of tribes, the principle ones being the Hamer and Mursi. they are everywhere and all you have to do it ride down the road and stop. they come. they stare and we all laugh. i can just imagine them chatting over a hot cuppa cows blood later that evening ' so there we were, herding some goats when these two red ufos came along. they stopped. took off their helmets and they were white! with this funny hair on their face. and my gawd did they smell!!!'. we are literally aliens for them. there is very little we have in common and its just and incredible experience to be there with them. these guys live in huts, they herd goats. theyve probable never walked further than 30 km from their village. live is very simple. they paint themselves with body paint which turns it into a really surreal experience. we stayed there for about 5 days cruising around all the villages. the Mursi (lip people) have these huge lip plates. these guys were super agressive with us, we had to be escorted by a scout. all of them were swingin ak47's and machettes. we got off the bikes and they would tug us, pull us and krikey... i felt like we were being accosted by them. took lots of photos and did a drawing of one kid. it got a bit sickening after a while as just by being there we felt that we were playing a part in killing this culture. so we left. the day after we visited the market. were all the tribes come together to sell and swop their wares to the other tribes. its the best place to view all of them together. and again its very surreal. everyone is practically naked, wearing goatskins and donning red die in their hair... at one point i was feeling pretty left out! mental note to everyone that reads this blog: this is a place to visit in your lifetime. go soon, their beautiful culture is vanishing as we speak.

Nella Omo Valley si possono incontrare diverse tribu’ indigene. Ognuna con differenti caratteristiche ed abitudini. Venerdi 24/01/2008 siamo andati in un villaggio Mursi. Le donne usano portare un piattello labiale alla bocca, mentre gli uomini decorano il proprio corpo con cicatrici procurate ad arte. Visitare quel villaggio e’ stata sicuramente un’esperienza particolare. Ci vuole un po’ di tempo per superare quella sensazione di disagio che si prova quando ci si trova in mezzo a tanta gente cosi’ diversa. Ma la cosa piu’ strana e’ che tutte queste persone apparentemente semplici e genuine hanno sviluppato un fortissimo senso del denaro. Appena arrivati il capo villaggio pretende di incassare 100 birr come “tassa d’ingresso” e poi si viene letteralmente assaliti da tutti i componenti della tribu’ che cercano in tutti i modi di convincerti a farsi scattare una fotografia in cambio di un po’ di soldi. Non e’ sicuramente una situazione piacevole. Da una parte a causa dell’aggressivita’ delle persone e dall’altra per il fatto che ci si trova costretti a scegliere solo alcune persone da fotografare dovendo rifiutare tutte le altre richieste.

Colonna sonora: “Hop, Hop, Hop” Goran Bregovic