Down And Dirty With The Dasanech Tribe In Ethiopia

24/2/2008

Tenayistillign to all you comfortable western world folk

Well we are finishing up our trip around the Omo region in south Ethiopia and yesterday we got back from one of the most desolate villages we have ever seen.

Yesterday morning our guide grabbed a kid who stuck us on a freakily unstable hollowed out log on a grotty brown river and we made our way to the village of the Dasanech tribe.

HOLY CRAP… up until now we thought we’d seen some tough tribes like the Hamer and the Mursi tribes, but those folk actually live in some tree lined areas.

The Dasanech tribe live on an exposed plain in huts constantly ravaged by dust storms with no grazing or pasture areas and only a dirty creek for their fresh water.

Man you need to check out some of the photos of us walking around the village to get an idea of how dusty this place was.

We literally left that place covered in dust storm and you’ll see in these pictures when we got back how exhausted we were from the visit.

MAN… living there would take more resilience than most people would have. We are humbled by experiencing a place like that.

We’ve just visited another tribe called the arbore tribe though who in comparison really have milked the tourist money well though.

They are considered the most beautifully painted tribe down here and all the kids and elders know how to milk that tourist money for what it’s worth.

Anyways we are back at camp now hanging out with the Hamer tribe and we have just sat in a hut drinking crushed coffee beans mixed with goats milk. Oh MAN… I had a rule about not drinking anything I’m going to get sick from, but fuck me… it’s really hard to say NO in situations like this.