Shela Village, Lamu

Just wanted to give a small taste of what Shela Village is like on the island of Lamu, off the coast of Kenya.

Most of the streets are really narrow. This one was nice because it had both the floral canopy and the water at the end. The village is a veritable maze of these little alleyways and lanes. Most of the time it seemed fairly empty to me, but at different times you could count on encountering people, like when school gets out. You can always rely on encountering a donkey, with or without human transport on it. Cars are not allowed on the island with two notable exceptions: the mayor's vehicle, and the ambulance vehicle.



Here you can see some of us walking along the sea wall of the village. This is at high tide. Lamu suffered some erosion with the Indian Ocean Tsunami and lost much of its protective sand bars and sand banks. This path wraps around the whole coast side of the village and continues on to Lamu town. The path does more or less disappear at high tide, so trips to Lamu town by foot had to be carefully considered, or at least a water taxi ride home considered.

Just a picture here of some of the village boys, who could usually be seen playing by the water. In general I got the impression the people there were very friendly despite whatever language barrier was in the way.

Just a final picture in the series here of the village mosque. The picture was taken in the middle of the day, when perhaps because of the sun, not many people were to be seen out and about.