#shimoni

For @wanderingnork who’s feeling the ruins at the mo!

This beauty is a 100 year old colonial administrative building in Shimoni, on the south coast of Kenya. It’s been rebuilt recently and run as a museum by the village council who use money from tourist trips like that to fund the local health centre, so I’m glad I got these pics in 2006 :)

Yep, I grew up here.

My friend walking up the stairs...brave fella.

This place doesn’t look so cool, I guess, it’s much more recent, but it was formative in my teenage years. My best friend Z found it in the dense forest about half a mile from my place and my brother and I, and Z and his sister S used to spend every day playing in there and amazingly not being bitten by snakes. Getting to it involved crashing through elephant grass, and it’s the inspiration for my book The Forest Hotel which WILL BE PUBLISHED soon, or as soon as my friend does the amazing artwork for the cover ^_^

I loved that place. There was a tree growing out the side of it, but it was too dark for photos. Sadly they tore it down and replaced it with a restaurant. I guess we were trespassing...eh, oops

Kenya’nın Shimoni köyü köleliğin izlerini hala taşıyor

NAİROBİ – Recep Canik/Bahattin Gönültaş Afrika’da yaklaşık 400 yıl boyunca devam eden ve milyonlarca kişinin hayatını karartan köle ticaretinin Doğu Afrika’daki toplama merkezlerinden biri olan Kenya‘daki Shimoni köyü, hala o dönemin derin izlerini taşıyor. Kenya’nın kıyı eyaleti Kwale’deki köy, adını bir dönem içinde kölelerin tutulduğu ve Swahili dilinde “delik, oyuk” anlamına gelen Shimoni…