Thursday Doors – School

At weekends, when the weather is changeable, I wander around the back lanes of Embu, observing life and photographing doors, sad person that I am. Here is an interesting set of photographs of D.E.B. Kamui School (“Motto: Effort is Success”).

The school authorities are very clear about their educational strategy. They can teach these skills working in rather decrepit classrooms. I like the image of the cooking pot held above the fire by teacher stones and the “digital” school painting with five digits.

Further on down the road, there was a shop with a black plastic awning over the barred and caged window. The shop is called “A Shade of Hope”. It reminds me of a radical bookshop run by Alan Milburn (who later became Health Secretary in the New Labour Government) in Newcastle called “Days of Hope”, which was so alternative that wags called it “Haze of Dope”. Nothing like that here in this shop. There is a door in the dark grey metal gate. The kiosk to the left looks like it has seen better days, but it is still in use at peak hours.

There are lots of car wash sites in Embu, which is understandable given that most of the back lanes and roads are not sealed. Boda-boda motorcycles get splattered with mud during their rides in the bush. This salubrious establishment offers to clean your carpets, as well as your cars. There is another advertising hoarding at the back of the yard offering “full pressure body wash”, featuring a scantily clad lady suggestively wielding a power hose. Not for a family blog post.

Out of town, I saw these handsome doors (gates) on sale at the side of the road. Contrast this with the rusty corrugated iron doors behind these boys whom I photographed in the county on a rainy Sunday afternoon.