The Road to Chiili

We thought you might like to see the kind of roads we drove on to get to Chiili (pronounced Chee-lee) this weekend.

Remote is an appropriate word to describe Chiili. The village consists of a handful of tiny shops and a school that goes up to grade 8. It is only 5 kilometers from the southern edge of Kafue Game Park, one of the largest in Africa. Nyawa, the nearest town of any size, is 20 kilometers away. There are no motorized vehicles in Chiili, so the villagers must walk, ride a bike, or rely on the trucks that come in twice a week. One truck arrives on Sunday and leaves again on Monday; another comes in on Wednesday and leaves on Thursday.

Since the school only goes up to eighth grade, the students in the area must go to Zimba (70 kilometers) or Kalomo (120 kilometers) for boarding school in grades nine and up.

Roads like the one shown here are nearly impassable during the rainy season. We were told that the trucks do continue to come during the rainy season, but they often require an entire day just to get to Nyawa.