Good Road

Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania: Islands Of Isolati

In this episode, Earl and Craig are back with the BRCK team as they bring WiFi to several small, remote Islands in the Zanzibar Archipelago. After an overnight journey from Kenya on an ancient wooden sailboat the The Good Road and BRCK teams land on a sandy beach at dawn where they off-load their supplies (and motorcycles). They have arrived on Pemba Island. After setting up camp, they make for a lighthouse at the highest point on the island. The BRCK team is combining technology it has created to support a small weather station to be installed here. It is to provide local fishermen with hyper-local up to the minute weather information that most people take for granted. Craig and Earl talk to the lighthouse caretaker and he explains how weather information in any ocean-faring effort is critical for commerce and can even save lives. Next, they head off to an even smaller, more remote Island several hours sail from Pemba. Once there, BRCK sets up an internet access point for a community with no previous internet access. In addition, they provide the one local school with a BRCK developed ruggedized tablet education system. This has the potential to solve a myriad of problems often found in emerging economy classrooms and the children at the school take to it immediately. Before returning to Pemba, the BRCK and Good Road teams overcome a number of obstacles (one of which is a lack of generator fuel!) to connect a Title 1 school in Nashville to the school on Kakota via the internet. Youth from an underprivileged American school and a remote Tanzanian school get to connect to each other in a way not possible without technology. After returning to Pemba, the team enjoys one more sunset together while discussing the implications and importance of bringing the Internet to places like Pemba and Kakota.