It was a 2-1/2 hour ride to Turmi for a stay at Evangadi Lodge. Next stop, a visit to the Karo People. The Karo also have an interesting culture and, with a population of around 1,500 people, are thought to be the Omo Valley’s most endangered group. They’ve turned to agriculture since disease wiped out their cattle. …View image…

The Karo are considered masters of body painting, especially when a dance, or celebration is coming up. Everyone paints their body…men, women and children. They use white chalk, yellow mineral rock, black charcoal and pulverized red iron ore. The men also have some wild hairstyles and ornaments. Did we see them? Yes. But it wasn’t the body painting that gave me flop-sweats. It was the long nails sticking through their bottom lips for ornamentation.

Karo with nail through lower lip in Ethiopia

that had to hurt when it was first done, Karo man in Ethiopia 

Karo granary with different sizes to store grains, Ethiopia
Perhaps, 500 people lived in the Karo village we visited. They were busy with their daily chores, grinding sorghum and asking for money.

Karo driving their cattle down to the Omo River in Ethiopia 

Omo River, Ethiopia
Out of the Karo village past Murelle Lodge on the Omo River (used by game hunters who fly in by charter), vultures sitting in a tree (there must have been something dead in the area), and back to the Evangadi Lodge in Turmi.

Hey…vultures. I’m not dead yet – Ethiopia 

Other trivia learned in the last few days:

- We’ll drive 2,800km/1,739mi in 11 days.

- The Omo River starts in Weyleta and ends in Lake Turkana in Kenya.

- Nechisar and Mago National Parks had the worst roads of the entire trip.

- Villages are relatively clean. Think about it. No plastic. No paper. Everything they use is biodegradable. No throwaways. If there’s a piece of metal lying around, they make a necklace or bracelet out of it.

- Hardly anyone smokes.

- We saw exactly two people wearing glasses the entire trip. Why is their vision so terrific? Or is it just because they can’t afford glasses?

- Girls marry between 15-20; boys usually 20+.

- To sleep… Perchance to dream? Not for me. Donkeys braying during the night, roosters (don’t they know it’s not dawn?), people talking and so much visual stimulation each day that I can’t turn my mind off. It keeps rewinding the day’s events over and over again. I’ll sleep back home.

- My favorite comment to date was by a little boy in the Dimeka market when we politely refused to buy something. “Oh, but sir, you can only find these in Ethiopia.” Now that little boy will make something of himself…