A Hamar mother and her children at the entrance to their family home. The small doorway of a traditional homestead is raised two to three feet above ground level. Hanging from the outside of this one is a bunch of dried maize cobs.The Hamar of Southwest Ethiopia are semi-nomadic pastoralists whose whole way of life is based on the needs of their stock. They live in the Hamar Mountains and the semi-arid thorn scrub country adjacent to the seasonal lake Chew Bahir, the 'Salt Lake' (formerly known as Lake Stefanie').