Building Bikes in Zambia

To start out our work week in Zambia, we planned to visit the bike building facility and see how it all worked.  Then build our own bikes across town at the WBR office.  On our way to visit the WBR bike building warehouse, we stopped by the World Vision/RAPIDS distribution center in Lusaka.

Instead of me boring you with lots and lots of typing to tell you all about how World Vision/RAPIDS and WBR work together in Zambia, I will just give you the choice to read about it if you like, link here: WBR/World Vision/RAPIDS.

The distribution center we visited receives products like shoes, clothing, medical supplies, vitamins, toys and mosquito nets to distribute.  A lot of the product is received from companies that donate a specific product to be used like Hasbro donating toys or Crocs donating crocs.  When we were there, they had 25,000 pairs of crocs on the shelves ready to be distributed out.  Some of the other product that is donated is counterfeit merchandise that has been seized by U.S. customs and cannot be sold to anyone.

Examples of the product World Vision distributes around Zambia.

The World Vision/RAPIDS distribution center was large.25,000 crocs, ready to roll out to kids that need them.

We then visited the warehouse that World Bicycle Relief is using/sharing to manufacture the bicycles.  They share the warehouse with a company called Tata.  This is currently a disadvantage for WBR because their work conditions are not ideal.  They don’t have a lot of tools there, its dirty and there are tons of other brands of bikes piled up and laying around in the way.  The company they are sharing with has promised to improve conditions but has failed to follow through for about a year now.  WBR plans to move into their own warehouse where they will be able to control the conditions and provide a nice environment for their assembly teams.

WBR employs 2 teams of 10 assemblers.  They receive all the parts at the Tata warehouse and assemble the WBR bikes, pretty much from scratch.  Even building the wheels, which they told me is the most time consuming step in the process.  Between the two teams they build 500 bikes a week.

Alex and I learning about the assembly process.

The instructions and the do's and don't's are all nicely illustrated on the walls.WBR bike assembly is currently sharing warehouse space, as you can see but the Tata truck filled with Tata bikes and surrounded by WBR frames and wheel kits.

Lots of frames and wheel kits.Hubs, saddles, bike racks, and spokes are all in this photo.

Crates holding 500 hubs each showing their clearance stickers.

The temporary bike assembly area.

Building wheels.

On this day only one of the assembly teams was at the warehouse while the other team was waiting for us at the WBR offices across town.  There they would coach us through building some bikes on our own.

The Kelly cycling team at WBR headquaters in Lusaka.

Once at the WBR office, we first assembled 50 replenishment kits to be distributed to World Vision/RAPIDS caregivers.  The bags contained supplies that are used by caregivers to treat sick people when their visit their homes in villages.  Some of the things in the kits were bars of soap, clean washcloths, a flashlight, Vaseline, antibiotic cream, and cotton balls.

50 supply replenishment bags that would distributed to World Vision caregivers.

We would deliver these kits later in the week.

Then we got to build some bikes.  WBR made it pretty easy on us.  The wheels were already built, and not only did I have the pictorial manual for assembling the bike but I also had Benjamin(one of the assemblers), who coached me through building 2 bikes.

John Kelly getting ready to tackle bike assembly.

My bike building coach, Benjamin.

Working on these 55lb. monsters was a little bit different than carefully assembling a $5000 carbon race bike.  As a team(12 total people) we completed 12 bikes, which we would ride the following day.  Reid, Alex, Neil and I finished the day by testing our product and riding back to our hotel.  It was rush hour, actually it always seemed like rush hour in Lusaka, so it was an exhilarating 30min. ride back to the hotel.

Testing our new rides.

Gotta ride on the left side here in Zambia.

Zambia report, part 1. Mercy

I want to give detailed reports of some of the experiences we had and things we learned in Zambia. So this is the first one. In the next entry I will write about some WBR bike building and riding.

We traveled to the Lusaka suburbs to visit Mercy Ministries.  We arrived to over 100 students welcoming us with singing and chanting.  Mercy Ministries is a community created organization that is a school for orphans and underprivileged students, and they provide support for single mothers and senior citizen mothers.  The singing and thankfulness shown by all of the students was pretty overwhelming, none of us were expecting it.  One interesting thing also was that many of the students were wearing Arizona Cardinal super bowl champion tshirts.  As some of you may know, the NFL prints tshirts for both teams in a super bowl, and the tshirts with the losing team on them get donated, so this is one of the places they end up.

The kids sang in their own language and then Dorthy(who co-founded the school in 1985 along with her husband) would translate the words they were singing so that we understood.  We also had individual students read their poems to us and sing more songs.  After they finished their songs, Megan Heis (she is a representative of world vision who is traveling with us)  sang an Italian opera song to them.  It was the first time that they had heard anything like that, so at first they all started laughing.  But then by the time she had finished, they were all trying to sing in the same way.

My video recording skills here need some major work, but the sound is good, so watch it for the sound…

Mercy creates income-generating activities for the widows and grandmothers that they support at the school.  The U.S. embassy just gave them a grant to create a recycled glass jewelry making program.  We met an expert glass bead maker from Ghana who was there training the widows how to make beads using old bottles.  They break them, crush them, put them into molds, bake the molds in a kiln, then shape and polish them into beads used to make bracelets and necklaces to sell.

In addition to the beads, they make and sell bags, shirts and blankets.

This is where the students were waiting to greet us.

This 17yr. old student recieved his WBR bike 2 yrs ago. He has used it to commute to school up to 20km per day.

Bead making demonstration

The kiln for the glass beads. Made out of clay from an ant hill, saliva in the soil from the ants gives it a higher heat resistance.

Future beads.

These kids enjoy posing for the camera.

Waving bye to the bus.

The suburban streets of Lusaka.

africa update!

well, as it turns out, internet has been a bit of a challenge for scott over in Zambia.  they have been staying in Lusaka, the capitol, and had to pay for a very slow connection.  so scott, in his infinite patience, pretty much abandoned the updates…

i have talked to him several times, and while it is a sketchy connection, it seems that he is having an amazing time and is pretty overwhelmed by what he is seeing.  in a nutshell, and please excuse any faults in my memory/specifics:

the guys have been to the factory where the bikes are made, and actually each built up a bike, which they then rode out into the country.  they met up with aide workers, riding their WBR bikes, and together visited two separate families that the aide workers care for.  one family had 3 children between 2 and 9, with both parents HIV positive.

they visited a center  that helps single women and widows by providing small, income-generating jobs like making jewelry.  scott said that the women they talked to had basically been to hell and back before being offered the safety and support at the center.

they delivered bikes to a school and were overwhelmed with a traditional ceremony.  hundreds of kids, their parents, staff, and even the head of the entire school district came to meet them.  the kids sang, chanted, read poems, and performed a skit for the boys and the WBR staff.

overall, scott is really struck by how appreciative the people are.  they are constantly thanking him for coming to see the “real” Africa, and for listening to their stories.  he seems to be truly affected by his trip, and i’m sure the processing will last a long time.

now the guys have moved out of the capitol and into the country for some sightseeing.  they go on safari tomorrow!!!  and i think a trip to victoria falls…scott says it is amazing, but a bit haunting to be in such luxury after what he has just experienced.

scott will of course be able to tell us all more, but i wanted to let you all know what i can.  he and i thank all of the people who helped make this trip possible with your generous donations!

again, apologies for any mistakes in my memory and the overall lack of details.  scott returns monday and will be recounting his adventures here.

The trip to Zambia is here!

I have just arrived in Washington D.C. on my way to Zambia, I can’t believe the trip is already here.  I want to thank everyone who has donated money in support of World Bicycle Relief and my trip.  I would not be making this trip without your help.

My three Kelly Benefit Strategies teammates, Alex Candelario, Neil Shirley, Reid Mumford, and myself are heading out from Washington D.C. on Wednesday night.  We will be staying in Lusaka, Zambia and getting to experience the power that bicycles have on the people there.

During our trip we plan to send out some updates and video about our experiences.  You can look for updates on the Kelly Benefit Strategies team site, the blog, thezs.wordpress.com, and/or Velonews.com.  The links are listed below.  Talk to you soon from Lusaka, Zambia!

And, you can still donate to this great charity on behalf of our team, the link for the team donation site is here.

-Scott

The team site:  http://www.kbsprocycling.com/

My blog:  http://thezs.wordpress.com

The bike news site:  www.velonews.com