The lip plates are made of clay and the girls first slit their bottom lip separating the lower lip and jaw at sexual maturity (perhaps, age 10). It's really the same concept as piercing your ears. Start with a little hole and little earring and gradually increase the size. According to Henok, the Mursi use herbs and some tree material as an anaesthetic when slitting the lip.

Our first stop was to pick up an armed guard with his handy AK-47. You are not allowed to visit without one.

Regarding photography - don't even consider taking photos in the Lower Omo Region without paying for the privilege unless you want to have a go at "stick fighting" with one of the men. Also, they have machetes....spears....AK-47's on them at all times. You must pay but agree on an amount first. Every time you click the shutter it will run about 2 Birrs. Not terribly much and it is a living when tourists visit.... If you try to take a photo and don't pay...anywhere in South Ethiopia...they'll throw rocks at you. Keep that in mind. ...View image...

We pulled up to the Mursi village and were instantly surrounded by Mursi women and children screaming..."photo...photo...photo..." They grab you by the arms, yank your shirt, poked me in the boobs and rear end, practically stood on my feet with piercing screams of "photo...photo..." The women wearing clay plates in their lips ranging from small to humungous....boar (or wart hog) tusks adorning them..

It's easy to see why we gladly paid for the privilege of photographing these women...

...feathers...half naked...some painted, while the warriors just stood aside, equally decked out.

You had to make a decision who to photograph. After you chose, the armed guard would grab the "chosen one" and pull aside for the picture. The Mursi women also wanted to sell lip plates and I must confess...bought one. I can give you an about 100% guarantee that I am probably the only person within a three-mile radius of my home with a Mursi lip plate. Still clicking away. Warriors. Women. With lip plates. Without lip plates. They also make jewelry from aluminum and other metals.

And then there was scarification....another way to decorate your body. The women only scar themselves if they want to for "beauty" reasons. (It's not obligatory.) However, it's a different story with the men. They scar their arms to show they are warriors and are not allowed to scarify themselves until they have killed at least one foe. Just the thought of taking a stone, knife or razor blade to cut myself, rub ash into the bleeding wound and let it become infected enough to raise scar tissue (keloids) gives me the "heebie-jeebies." I thought ripping a big toe nail off was pretty bad...and was fixated on keeping it clean and not infected.

I was thrilled when another tourist car pulled up and distracted them away from me. Incredible to see but I hated the Mursi village with all the poking. It hurt! If you visit a Mursi village, or almost any other tribal village, go in the morning. They traditionally sit around and get drunk all afternoon and somehow I don't think they are pleasant drunks. They either buy liquor in the market or brew their own from sorghum and barley. And before anyone posts nasty comments on this site, I am not stereotyping. This is what was told to me by our guide. With hard lives like theirs, I'm certainly not throwing my stones. I too would sit around and drink all afternoon (and probably hit the bottle early in the morning).

Out of the village, dropped the guard off and went deeper into Mago Park to pay the visit fee. It costs 10 Birr per person to drive through Mago, 100 Birr for the vehicle, 150 Birr for guard and 150 Birr to enter the village. Perhaps $46 U.S. total. It would be almost impossible for a lone traveler to visit their area on their own. Mago is set at an altitude of less than 500 m above sea level and temperatures of 40 centigrade are common. Cute little dik-diks (the world's smallest deer) kept running across the roads... And would you believe...this was just the morning excursion?

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