The Joys of Camping
Ethiopia
A room with a view
Traveling to remote places involves a certain degree of hardiness on the part of our film crews. Isolated communities rarely possess the means to support large groups of outsiders and consequently, on these journeys, all of us are spending quite a bit of time under canvas. The mountains of Northern Ethiopia were one such place.
With so many of us now living in towns, it’s easy to forget that the natural world is our home. We can be forgiven for feeling separate from nature when all we can see around us are man-made things. The truth is we are not separate. We are nature. We are the human animal who just got very good at building a shell around ourselves within which we feel safe. There are a lot of unhappy people living in cities. I think I am one of them. In my case I reckon that this unhappiness arises from a detachment from nature. Maybe you are the same. There’s a simple way to find out. Go and gift yourself some quiet time alone with mother nature and see how you feel in the moment. If you’re anything like me, you might notice a beauty that can help put some of the more convoluted aspects of life into context.
Has anyone seen my copy of 'Hello' magazine?
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Interested in more stories from Ethiopia? Try HERE
TASEARCHETHIOPIA
Growing Up in the Mountains
Ethiopia
Watching over the herd
This, my second trip to Ethiopia for Human Planet was my most memorable experience thus far. The simple reason for this was the lovely people we met there. Our time was spent with a family in a very remote settlement, a long way from the nearest road, high in the mountains. For the most part the children of the family became our guides and allies in this harsh terrain and it was their story that we ended up telling.
One of them was a 5 year old girl called Maza.
Maza had three things she could call her own. Her blue dress, her necklace made from white string, and her green shawl that she slept under at night. Her days were spent looking after her little sister and herding the family’s goats around the mountains. At sunset, if she was too far from home she would sleep in a cave that she knew with the animals. I really enjoyed spending time with Maza. We chatted a lot. Neither of us understood the other’s words, but we laughed loads. One day I asked Zablon, our Amharic speaking fixer to ask her what her most favourite thing was that she did during the day. She said that when she knew the goats were safe, she loved to make toys from the soil. Sometimes she pretended she was making bread like her mother, and she enjoyed that the most.
I’ve never seen such an infectious smile as that possessed by Maza. Look out for her in the film. She’ll be the one skipping along the cliff edges laughing at the film crew.
My hand is more than 30 years older than Maza's
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Interested in more stories from Ethiopia? Try HERE
TASEARCHETHIOPIA
My Scar Tattoo
Ethiopia
It was September last year when we spent time filming with the Suri Tribe in Southern Ethiopia. Half a year on, and I still have one memory from my time there permanently imprinted in my mind. Well, on my body actually… and semi-permanently I think . Whilst we were there I had my shoulder scarred with a toxic plant to form a tattoo. Don’t ask me what the name of the plant was. All I remember is that it was a grass, which a local lady had stripped of its cuticle to reveal a white sap within. The strips of grass were then laid on my skin and left for 20 minutes while the poison scarred my arm. It didn’t hurt much. I will liken it to the aching feeling you get after you’ve had a series of injections in your upper arm. Sleeping on it at night was uncomfortable for a couple of nights too.
The scar immediately after the grass was removed from my arm
After 2 weeks the scabs had fallen off revealing a white imprint of the pattern the grass had made on my skin. The Suri told me that the scar would last a year. I think it probably will. Anyway, 6 months later this is what it looks like…
The scar 6 months later
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Interested in more stories from Ethiopia? Try HERE
TASEARCHETHIOPIA
Phantom Fighters
Ethiopia
Stick fighting in the evening sun
In Southern Ethiopia, witnessing a Suri stick fight or ‘Donga’ was one of the most awe inspiring public displays of aggression I think I’ve ever seen. Stick fighting is a brutal sport there is no doubt, but when you see it in the flesh, you realize that it is a very fair and honest way of testing the physical and mental ability of a man. On surface inspection you might think that this is a simple sport… and to a certain degree it does do ‘exactly what it says on the tin’, so to speak. However, the fighters are extremely skilled, and there are strict codes of fighting conduct and ritual. Saying that, adrenaline is a powerful drug that can empower men with superhuman strength. People get hurt, and during the stick fighting season each year men die. You’re not safe in the crowd either. Twice we witnessed bystanders get badly hurt by wayward sticks. One such incident involved one of our Suri security guards who we knew affectionately as ‘Bob’ due our limited grasp of Surinese. Assigned to protect our camera man amidst the 1000 strong crowd, Bob, who carried a loaded Kalashnikov at all times, was sent to his knees by a wayward stick at one point much to the horror of onlookers. What ensued reminded me of a scene from ‘The Fist of Fury’ as Bob, obviously quite embarassed at his loss of face in front of us, grabbed a stick from a bystander and randomly set apon anyone within a 3 metre radius, arms flailing like a windmill in a hurricane. Nevertheless, as I had witnessed on many occasions before at a stick fight, a few minutes later, aggression released, Bob returned to his duties and the crowd to the main attraction, and the incident was all but forgotten. Such is the way at a Donga.
Bob takes a blow
On a techy note, for me, one of the unexpected highlights of filming in Ethiopia was seeing the amazing footage captured by American Cameraman Steve Romano. Steve shoots high speed film using a Phantom HD camera which can capture moving images at fantastically high frame rates. No doubt you are familiar with footage showing water-filled balloons exploding in studios, but just wait until you see the effects of a 3 metre long Suri stick as it makes high speed contact with a mans torso. Truly astonishing.
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Interested in more stories from Ethiopia? Try HERE
