Aren't you impressed?!
As a Small Enterprise Development volunteer, I have a great deal of flexibility in terms of work partners. Personally, I am most interested in working with girls and women’s groups. This being said, a good portion of my time thus far has been spent working with women’s groups in and around Tamba.
I have been helping some women in my neighborhood get their group back together and organized, I’m assisting a fellow volunteer with creating linkages in the capitol to sell the jewelry her village’s women’s group makes, and I’m working with a USAID project called Wula Nafaa to help some women’s groups better market their baobab powder. Some of these groups are walking distance to my house, others are about 10k (a half hour bike ride), and the majority are 35k-40k from Tamba (an almost impossible bike ride in the current heat). The villages that are farthest away are those assigned to me by Wula Nafaa and are work I think I am really going to love. Unfortunately, taking a car back and forth will start to add up and Wula Nafaa has said they are unable to provide me with and/or pay for my transportation. They suggested I try to bike back and forth; an idea that I’m not opposed to, as long as it isn’t 125 degrees.
Until today it was over 100 degrees every day (the rains finally came! Alhumdilalay!) but I knew I’d need to start preparing for the future bike rides that are going to make me a BAD ASS (if I don’t mind saying so myself). Yesterday the opportunity finally came. I hadn’t been on my bike in about three weeks and I was planning to take a car to a town 35k from Tamba to interview some scholarship candidates at their middle school when I learned there are no cars to town in the morning. This left me with no option but to get on my trusty bike and wing it.
I’m happy to report, I SURVIVED! Barely…. Without any prior preparation, I biked all the way to the neighboring town (35k away) and lived to tell about it. Upon arrival, there were about 10 minutes where I wasn’t sure if I was dying of heat exhaustion but I’m alive! Today, I’m not even very sore. I’m not a biker and I successfully biked 35k! Surely, many of you are unimpressed, but I think I’m pretty damn cool.
When I got back to Tamba my mom yelled at me for not taking a car. Apparently, the road I’d taken has a lot of bandits. My dad asked if I knew karate and if I was planning on using it (he thinks I’m stupid/stubborn for always trying to do things on my own, but he also thinks he’s funny; clearly he has no idea what he’s talking about). Anyhow, the purpose of this entry was to let you all know I’ve successfully biked 35k for the first time (without dying or being attacked by bandits)!!! To think six months ago I was afraid to even get on my bike…..
OTHER EXCITING NEWS: The rains finally came last night!!! It has cooled down substantially and I’m praying it stays this way for awhile.
I have been helping some women in my neighborhood get their group back together and organized, I’m assisting a fellow volunteer with creating linkages in the capitol to sell the jewelry her village’s women’s group makes, and I’m working with a USAID project called Wula Nafaa to help some women’s groups better market their baobab powder. Some of these groups are walking distance to my house, others are about 10k (a half hour bike ride), and the majority are 35k-40k from Tamba (an almost impossible bike ride in the current heat). The villages that are farthest away are those assigned to me by Wula Nafaa and are work I think I am really going to love. Unfortunately, taking a car back and forth will start to add up and Wula Nafaa has said they are unable to provide me with and/or pay for my transportation. They suggested I try to bike back and forth; an idea that I’m not opposed to, as long as it isn’t 125 degrees.
Until today it was over 100 degrees every day (the rains finally came! Alhumdilalay!) but I knew I’d need to start preparing for the future bike rides that are going to make me a BAD ASS (if I don’t mind saying so myself). Yesterday the opportunity finally came. I hadn’t been on my bike in about three weeks and I was planning to take a car to a town 35k from Tamba to interview some scholarship candidates at their middle school when I learned there are no cars to town in the morning. This left me with no option but to get on my trusty bike and wing it.
I’m happy to report, I SURVIVED! Barely…. Without any prior preparation, I biked all the way to the neighboring town (35k away) and lived to tell about it. Upon arrival, there were about 10 minutes where I wasn’t sure if I was dying of heat exhaustion but I’m alive! Today, I’m not even very sore. I’m not a biker and I successfully biked 35k! Surely, many of you are unimpressed, but I think I’m pretty damn cool.
When I got back to Tamba my mom yelled at me for not taking a car. Apparently, the road I’d taken has a lot of bandits. My dad asked if I knew karate and if I was planning on using it (he thinks I’m stupid/stubborn for always trying to do things on my own, but he also thinks he’s funny; clearly he has no idea what he’s talking about). Anyhow, the purpose of this entry was to let you all know I’ve successfully biked 35k for the first time (without dying or being attacked by bandits)!!! To think six months ago I was afraid to even get on my bike…..
OTHER EXCITING NEWS: The rains finally came last night!!! It has cooled down substantially and I’m praying it stays this way for awhile.
posted by Ashleigh | 2:29 PM
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