Access to a Better Life - A Good Road, Please.

How far away from a main road does a village have to be to go from access to limited access, to no access?  That should be a Master's project for some well-meaning and interested graduate student.  What I mean by this is in some areas of rural Zambia there are tremendous issues resulting from a lack of access to resources, and this - of course - hampers the livelihoods of those in these communities; so how far from a town, a good road, a market does a rural village have to be to have greatly reduced access to a better life.

The road to Livingstone, Zambia.  It's tarred, smooth, and a thing of beauty.  The rest of Zambia's roads - even the primary roads - don't follow this tarmac's model.

Some of the resources that can allow rural Zambians to access a better life in rural Zambia are as follows: fertilizer for fields and gardens (this is one of the most important resources, because without it their favorite crop and food staple [corn] would yield considerably less), seeds (how else could you plant corn if you didn't have seeds), plows and other tools (forget tractors and cultivators - rural Zambians typically couldn't afford that, but they could afford a plow to be pulled by oxen or a new hoe blade from time to time), clothes (no one wants to be naked - typically), food (if you can't grow it yourself then you'll have to buy it), and a bunch of other things that have to come from the outside (radios, buckets, building supplies, etc.).

Directly off of most paved roads are these kinds of roads... secondary roads that aren't much more than two-tracks for miles and miles.  This is where accessibility diminishes within a few hundred feet.

But, the transportation system here in Zambia, specifically to rural areas, leaves a lot to be desired and roads are part of that issue.  In Michigan we have enormous issues with snow and ice destroying our roadways; yet Zambia faces issues resulting from monstrous rains, overloaded vehicles, poorly engineered surfaces and substrates, and a lack of general upkeep that sometimes borders on non-existent.

This road is just outside of my office.  During rain events the water rushes downhill carrying grasses, stones, soil, and the road with it.

When I was younger I used to want to be an engineer.  Mainly I wanted to build roads... roads all over!  I don't want to do that now, but being here occasionally takes me back to that time when I look at busted up roads and think, "Why didn't they put a culvert here." Or, "How come the road seems so thin... I bet it'll break apart in a year or two."  I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to roads, but it doesn't stop be from second guessing someone's work.

This road went from freshly graded to defunct within two rainstorms.  Now it features an ever growing gully and stands as impassable.

We're lucky in the United States to have the resources and, at times, public outrage to propel our government entities to fix our roads when they break down.  Moreover we're lucky to have a system in place that allows nearly unlimited access to anything we could possibly desire.  We've got stores that carry everything a small army could want to remain operational, a variety of vendors producing the same types of products so that we can have a variety to get choosy about, and all of this is made available to our collective purchasing powers in either a physical store or through online centers like Amazon.com. With the click of a button your order can come straight to your door.

The road outside of my old village in North-Western, Zambia.  It's a beautiful road, but with no traffic coming through access wasn't there.  Notice the two men walking down the center without a worry of a car coming at them.  I used to see people sleeping on this road regularly.

But, sometimes it isn't just a simple matter of a crappy road.  Throughout Zambia there are issues regarding available resources, and no Amazon.com to ease these pains.  In Southern Province it wouldn't be hard for a farmer to find plows or pumps for their farms.  In the country's North-Western or Northern Provinces finding these same items would be tedious.  So, people do what they do best... they get by.  Often this means having a slightly different method for making a living then their fellow countrymen in other parts of the country.  I notice this most when I consider where I used to live as compared to where I reside currently.  Here, livestock is a large part of a families livelihood and with that comes animal draft power for larger farms and even increased access to meat.  There, all farming was done through a strong back, stronger will, and a hand hoe.  Meat was an issue, labor continuously limited the amount of land to be cultivated, and in the end there are two systems that share common similarities but also differences all due to access to markets, resources, and the next place (wherever that may be).

Our truck in the midst of being stuck in mud.  Notice the women on the trail further ahead carrying their water and watching us.  They ended up dropping off their water, coming back, and pushing us out of the mud.

I suppose that, in the end, access to resources is like real estate all over the world - it relies on location, location, location.  Living nearer to the more populated areas brings typically better roads and more resources, but living in the bush allows for access to more land and more room to settle.

The road leading out of Windhoek, Namibia.  Namibia, like much of South Africa, had amazing roads that I could only dream of here in Zambia.  Roads are key to access and a betterment of livelihoods.