To Demeka… the heart of the Hamer Tribe

Reported my findings back to the tourism department and park manager and we decided on the places I should go to check out. I was to head to a place called Demeka where I first needed to meet the administrator of the Hamer region who’d help me organise my community meetings so I could delve a little deeper into the issues with them. 

I got a bus to Demeka and waiting in the bus station for a pretty long time I got chatting to someone who owned one of the buses but was going a different way. Turned out the original bus wasn’t coming anymore so he took his in the end and happily he sat me in the front seat which was very luxury compared to the back believe me! Less people being sick, less bumps, windows open and better views. 2 minutes out the bus station we did however break down. Fixed it and then broke down again. Dust in the fuel pipe I understand. Every vehicle I go in seems to have this problem! Eventually we got on the way… Stopped for lunch in a place called Key Afar where they bus owner bought me water, we shared Injera and he wouldn’t let me pay for anything. Always nice. Ethiopians seem to be hugely hospitable and generous in general. 

Got back on the rickety bus and I felt like we were driving into a coffee table book basically. We properly entered the Hamer region and it seemed like everyone was wearing fancy dress - or sometimes nothing at all to be honest. Now and then we dropped people off in the middle of the desert so it seemed, I have no idea where they were going?! And how they recognised that small shrub as the place to get off. Very bizarre. Arrived at Demeka which was surreal, not really sure how to describe the feeling of the place but I liked it. Everyone was Hamer and it just felt like I had stepped back in time. People were so incredibly helpful. 

The bus owner introduced me to the traffic cop who could take me to the administrator the next morning as their phone network had been down so I couldn't get hold of him to arrange anything prior to getting there and so had to take a chance that he’d be there. Which he wasn’t but he was due to come back the next day. The next morning I went to the police station to find the traffic cop, Gadi, who got a motorbike and took me to the administrators office. He wasn’t there so we went to his house, no joy, and then eventually he turned up in town in his shiny jazzed up 4WD. His English wasn’t brilliant but we managed to get the generator fired up, a phone working and got him to call the tourism guy from Jinka who explained in better detail. I presented the company info and then got the thumbs up to get going. 

He assigned Gadi as my assistant and translator so Gadi dropped his police job for the time-being and shifted to Big Beyond! I love it how that can happen at the drop of a hat, only in Africa hey. He organised a government car to take me to a village called Area Kysa. It wasn’t the right place for us to work, way too small, remote and nothing going on to support yet. We had to give the car back so hired someone’s motorbike instead and headed to Bachada, the other place recommended. Found the chairman of the village and he invited us in his house which is a small round hut with thatch roof and a fence surrounding it made of branches with a small hole to climb through - a typical Hamer home. Inside, one of his wives, with the red hair and goatskin attire, was cooking in a large clay pot on the fire and pounding the grains on a stone. Again, one of those surreal images and atmospheres that you can’t explain very well and it’s totally inappropriate to bring out a camera to capture in some way! Was quite cool though. 

I scheduled a meeting with his community so we could chat about their lives and the opportunity of Big Beyond working together with them. It actually turned out this was the village Bruce Parry based himself when filming his Tribe series - they asked me if I knew him - the episode where he did bull jumping if anyone saw that. Quite a strange coincidence.