Turmi.
February 2012.
We enter Ethiopia.
There is no border post here and we will stamp our passports in the next town.
Thank you Barry for travelling with us in this remote area.
The hard part being behind, we separate from each other.
All the best to you for the end of your trip.
Ethiopia is a country apart with:
a different calendar, we are in 2004,
a different time, the day begins not at midnight but at sunrise,
and a very specific writing.
Here, Europe is everywhere! In two weeks we'll see a thousand of these panels.
A wild track takes us to the heart of the Hamer country, a tribe as there are still a few in the south-western Ethiopia.
We are fortunate to arrive in a village on a feast day.
The "oukouli" is the ritual that accompanies the transition from adolescence to adulthood for boys.
This young man, with a strange hait cut, will indeed join the club of men to marry.
Octavie finds him very ugly, although he welcomes us very kindly.
The hairstyles of old warriors are incredible.
Women smear their hair with a mixture of butter and clay, and are adorned with multiple bracelets and necklaces.
During this unusual ceremony, the women of the boy's family will show their courage by claiming lashes.
A first group of whippers arrives, armed with rods.
Women surround and provoke them.
The rods whistle and fall on the back of the courageous ladies.
The show is a little hard to watch.
But it does not seem to impress this young man who is taking care of his teeth with a piece of root !
Everyone takes a break waiting for the next group of whippers.
Like many tribes in Africa, Hamers seat on little wooden stools, used as well as headrests when sleeping.
Matthieu tries one but without much success !
The heat is terrible and we stand under the trees to have some shade.
When a new group of whippers arrives, women engage in a fiery dance before rushing towards them.
And off you go again ...
And they do not pretend !
This young warrior with scarifications all over the body has, apparently,
killed an enemy of the tribe, which gives him the right to wear this kind of decoration !
The paintings that men make on their faces give them an incredible look !
The ceremony ends with the cow jumping test.
Cows are aligned and held somehow by warriors.
The young man will have to jump four times over the cows without falling down, otherwise he will become the scapegoat of the whole tribe !
He succeeds brilliantly, but Octavie finds him even more ugly when naked !
At the end of the ceremony, patients crowd around the car !
Matthieu treats a woman whose hand became infected following a whiplash badly received during a previous session.
Anotherone who has a sore knee !
We end up bringing them back to the village where many new patients show up.
All our stock of eyes drop goes, but what an incredible day!
