yes they had to walk four hours as healthy young people, the elderly would sometimes take 8 hours to get to the closest medical center. the slope was so steep that they couldnt ride on the backs of horses, theyd have to get the horse to walk up the cliff face and hold onto its tail. theyd pack stuff on the horses back because itd be impossible to go up the cliff with luggage without a horse. it is also very dangerous to go up the cliff face because of falling rocks, which is common for cliffside villages throughout the region, but it was particularly bad here because there was a river blocking a lot of good entrypoints.

honestly the party guy for the village sounds awesome. he could have bailed on his birthplace upon travelling to a city to get an education, but instead he came back, got connected with the party, and argued their plight to the regional committee so well that it got national attention and now its on a sustainable development path. good guy