It is now possible for those with money and access to the right transport to get to almost anywhere in the world. Some places are still more accessible than others, however with the ability to negotiate and plan globally and locally, distant lands and remote places and people can now be reached.
In our own country we take travel very much for granted, we get into our cars, or hop on a train, or plane if we want someone else to take us there. We explore new places on a day out or holiday and travel then for fun. For the first time in my life I live in what could be described as a remote location! It is over a mile to the nearest shop, however I very rarely walk there.
In many parts of the world, the luxury of what I describe is beyond understanding. The day to day pressures of life, with no access to transport and little local provision in way of school, work, shop or hospital are all absorbing. Walking is about survival rather than pleasure.
In Malawi, and other remote parts of our world, mothers with sick children travel by foot and bike for up to four hours a day for months on end to attend treatment and feeding clinics. This determines their healthy survival. This weekend I give thanks for mothers all over the world who make sacrifices for their children.
Although, because of other commitments, I won't be seeing my mother tomorrow and she lives 60 miles away. I am very aware today that with a car if I needed to I can be with her in just over an hour.
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It's very easy to take for granted the shrinking of the world as travel and communications improve. We still remember having a friend's son from France to stay with us to improve his English. We had to book a call to his parents just outside Paris to report his safe arrival. That's less than 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteBut just because we can travel anywhere in the world, phone anywhere on our mobiles or hold Skype video calls, we shouldn't assume that life everywhere has caught up. We have a friend, a retired midwife, who has a charity for mothers and babies in Tibet where the infant mortality rate is twenty times that of the UK.