The geberay people of the Amhara region are distinctive. From their demeanor to their dress, they stand out in a crowd. The men are clad in short shorts, carry long sticks, and often have no shoes. Their strength and endurance is not assumed it is visible. The women and girls routinely wear pleated dresses, have extremely short hair (its just not practical to have long hair), wear no shoes, and are adorned with facial (primarily chin and neck), wrist, and ankle tattoos.
These shots capture some of the young geberay hard at work. Their work is endless. From sun-up to sundown they work to survive. Any excess is sold to purchase necessities that can’t be home grown. The young men in the photos (the walking haystacks) are carting loads of "chid" which is the shaft of the wheat and/or teff. The chid sells for about 30birr a bundle (roughly 3USD) and is eventually added to mud to be used as house construction material. The women, on the other hand are hauling kubet---or what I like to call "crap cakes" and "poop patties." Kubet is used as a fuel source, which as far as I’m concerned is a much better alternative than continuing to decimate the tree population. The contents of one basket sell for about 15birr (roughly 1.50USD). For both the men and women (I should probably say boys and girls as well), there is a lot of labor that goes into these two products and yet what they reap is minimal.
As an aside, I tend to take the Geberay folk by surprise. For many, I’m the first foreigner that they’ve ever seen. After our walk, Genet and I were sitting at a cafe along the route that many of these folks take to market. I thought I was rather hidden given that I was tucked into a corner, but I guess that was not the case. One man riding by on a horse at a pretty decent clip must have caught a fleeting glimpse of me. Instead of reining in his horse to take a better look, he just kept turning backward (while the horse kept moving forward) and nearly unseated himself. A truly laugh out loud moment!
