Lamu

I am writing this on Lamu island just off the North East coast of Kenya. Lamu is an amazing place. There are almost no mechanised vehicles on the island. Goods are moved around on Donkeys and hand pushed trolleys. In the main town itself the streets are literally shoulder width wide! There are 8 schools on the island. Last year Lamu Academy asked Camara for computers so despite the challenging issues around just getting computers to the island we agreed. On the basis of that decision all 8 schools have requested computers and over 100 computers have now been delivered to the island. The final shipment arrives today. We are hoping to capture some video of the computers arriving by boat and then being delivered by donkey to the schools.
Lamu is a world heritage listed site and it raises the question for me about how much we should interfere with life here. Is sending computers a good idea? I put this question to the headmaster of one of the schools and he said that even though life is good in Lamu people die young and there is severe poverty on the island. He beleives that education is the way forward and that computers are an inevitable part of that.
You do see dreadful poverty here and yet the laid back life with beautiful simplicity is something I feel envious of. How do we balance what we deem as progress which often means leaving an older more established way of living and sustaining life? I think of my great friend John Moriarty who recently passed away all the time when struggling with this question. I am sure John would say that the simpler life is the better life!
The more time I spend in Africa the more I realise how much we have to learn from them.