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1999 Report Archives
from David Peckham, Project Director
These are reports from the beginning of the project.
- January 19- Initial impressions, Accra, Ghana
- March 20- Working with Peace Corps and their bikes in Cote d’Ivoire
- June 8- Summary of the project’s beginnings
- August 15- Back home and preparing for bicycle project part two
- November 4- Getting ready and looking for mountain bikes
- December 19- more getting ready; Planning the loading of a
container of bikes
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1. January 19- Initial impressions, Accra, Ghana
After decades of stagnation and decline, things are looking up in
Ghana. In the capital new construction is evident in all income levels,
the currency is stable, there's a new phone system and shiny new
digitized gas station stations to feed a growing number of cars. Accra
is strangling in traffic, go-slows as they're called here. The World
Bank is trying to help out in typical fashion with wide highways and
overheads, but as we're slowly learning in the US, new roads only lead
to more driving. The edges of Accra are growing the fastest, as one man
explained, "because people want to get away from the traffic."
One of the first things I did upon arrival was to reassemble the two
bikes I'd brought from the states and start finding my way around
Accra. I found a thriving bike market where some twenty vendors had a
wide assortment of parts for sale. I also found all the general
mechanics tools, at very cheap prices. Patch kits with 24 patches were
just over a dollar, pumps were two dollars and an eight-piece set of
wrenches was three dollars. And I paid $50 in overweight charges to fly
much of that same
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Bicycling in Accra is not at all like where I come from in the USA. The
rules of the road here are essentially, 'the biggest vehicle has the
right of way', and it is assumed you will get out of the way. Drivers
are not inclined to give you any extra room in passing. The hordes of
taxis and min-buses frequently pass and then immediately stop in front
of me. Still, bikes are not rare; you might see a hundred an hour on a
busy street. Despite the dangers, I much prefer a bicycle to being
stuck in traffic, sweating profusely along with twenty other unhappy
passengers.
Francis Kwof-Kwao has waited ten years for this. His Bike Youth
Organization has just received a shipping container full of used bikes
from the USA. He and I were both disappointed to not see more mountain
bikes among the piles of ten-speeds and kid's bikes at his family's
home, but the steady stream of visitors were eager to buy, remarking
generally about the good quality and condition.
Francis says more people don't ride in Accra because it's too
dangerous. He has been working with the local government for more bike
accommodations and the city is responsive. They have new pedestrian
lights, are widening sidewalks, and have put bike lanes on some World
Bank funded highways. The problem is there's no enforcement to keep
cars from driving and parking in the bike lanes.
Bike Youth plans to give 20 bikes to the police department in Hohoe,
Francis' hometown, 3 hours from Accra. He wants me to train them in
bike repair. Bike Youth's Project Coordinator, Steward Ettor-Crisk is
lining up a schedule of bike trainings, including current mechanics,
youth, women's groups, and the general public. Bike Youth's mission is
"Promoting Bicycle Transportation and Rural Economic Development".
Steward was telling me that they are convinced that bikes, sometimes
with trailers, can play a significant role in moving produce to market
and main road. He says Africa can't afford cars. That sounds like what
I've been saying!
I've met and watched a number of local bike mechanics. They are all
heavily reliant on hammers, chisels, punches and nails. All those
specialized repairs requiring special tools are getting pounded. The
mechanics readily admit that sometimes the parts are destroyed in the
process. I want to provide these mechanics with the tools they need to
adequately repair the bikes they see. They include chain breakers, 13
mm wheel bearing (thin) wrenches, 14mm socket wrench and crank puller
for modern cranks, and 30-32-36-40 headset (thin) combo wrench. I was
able to find a 15mm wheel bearing wrench in the market.
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2. March 20- Working with Peace Corps and their bikes in Cote
d’Ivoire
I've been here for two months doing bicycle work for Peace Corps. About
three years ago Peace Corps in Washington decided to quit giving
motorcycles to volunteers, as they were the largest single cause of
death and serious injury in Peace Corps. Instead, volunteers would get
bicycles. With the motos gone, Washington rescinded the mandatory
one-week safety and maintenance training. They must’ve concluded that
anyone can ride a bike, since we all did as children, there's nothing
to it. The problem is that many people join the Peace Corps who haven't
ridden a bike since they learned how to drive. They don't know anything
about repairs, they took it to the repair shop, or Daddy. Peace Corps
Volunteers (PCVs) need their bikes to travel up to 100 miles per week
in the course of their work. And while there might be mechanics around,
they have neither tools, parts nor experience with American mountain
bikes. The irony of it all is that volunteers who can't use their
bicycles are underdeveloped. They use and abuse a technology they don't
understand and can't repair.
Since late January I've been training local staff in bike repair,
developing and teaching a bike curriculum for new PCVs, streamlining
parts and tools ordering procedures, and generally trying to raise the
status of this child's toy. PCVs say things like "we really need this",
and "it's about time."
I'm headed to the villages for a week of riding around, and seeing how
PCVs fare with their bikes and their neighbors in the village, then
I'll be back in Ghana by April 1, to work with Bike Youth.
I have been unable to get more tools from the states, so I'll be
limited in what I can show the mechanics. There is little point in
showing someone how to use a tool that they can't have. I now have four
bikes with which to ride with people on various excursions. I'm very
much looking forward to getting away from the city and its traffic, and
all its confusion and contradictions and comforts, for the simple
poverty of the village.
I spent a couple of weeks in a town of about 30,000, where I did the
bike training for the new PCVs. I stayed with an American friend, Ian,
who has a small two-bedroom house with combined kitchen/living room,
small wooden windows and very poor air circulation. We didn't have much
stuff. Ian never cooks there, its too easy to walk a half a block to the
lady who cooks fish on an open charcoal fire, or the man who has rice in
peanut sauce, or any of 100 other portable and fixed restaurants in
Akoupe, 40 cents to $1.50.
There's no running water in the house. The water frequently goes out,
so Ian keeps a 30-gallon barrel in the house for backup. Cold bucket
showers are fine, as the weather is usually too hot.
I hear from people in the US that there's fighting all over Africa.
Since you only hear the bad news, that is the picture you get. For the
vast majority of people here, everyday life goes on. There is no war
here, or in Ghana. There are incredibly kind and helpful people, people
who have nothing, yet they go to great lengths to help a stranger, just
because that's what people do.
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3. June 8- Summary of the project’s beginnings
I came up with the Village Bicycle Project as a way to introduce
mountain bikes to village Africa. I saw a tremendous untapped potential
for bikes to meet transport needs in the village. I knew I would need
partners in Africa to initiate and facilitate the project. So I teamed
up with two Ghanaian groups, Future in Our Hands near Accra, and Bike
Youth, 120 miles north in the 30,000-person town of Hohoe. Both groups
are, by virtue of their constituency, urban in nature. Both have ties
with area bike mechanics. Both were unable to help me find farmers to
work with hauling produce to market. Both groups wanted me to work with
mechanics and with the general public in teaching repairs.
In Hohoe, Bike Youth organized classes for the general public and kids.
The kids were wildly enthusiastic, 95% boys, mostly 10-14. They
showed up early, when they weren't supposed to, and fought over tools
and tasks. We had to turn kids away, and chase away hordes of curious
but distracting onlookers. When we ran out of things for them to
repair, they reassembled them anyway.
The adult classes were mostly disappointing. Several men who said they
would attend didn't. Notably, one who had been handpicked to become
resident mechanic failed to appear all week. He is among perhaps half a
dozen men in the immediate neighborhood who have no work and hang out
day after day, drinking when they can. Some have held decent jobs but
were let go for corruption, incompetence and/or drunkenness. It baffles
me that they refuse opportunities, handed to them like this one. One of
my simpler and more generous theories is brain damage - high numbers of
children suffer malnutrition and high fever from malaria, both of which
lead to brain damage and lack of motivation. This doesn't explain the
fact that you don't see shiftless women. Like I said, it's a simple
theory, but it does help me keep my temper.
The one serious adult student was Diana, an ambitious 20 year old who
seems eager to learn everything. She is an accounting student who is
also doing bookkeeping for Bike Youth.
Bike Youth gave about 20 bikes to the regional police force from the
container they received in January. The department now has police
patrolling on bikes, instead of on foot. If it works in Hohoe like it
does in the US, there could be many new bike patrols established in
Ghana. I spent a morning with them working mostly on efficient gearing
and derailleur maintenance.
I was apprehensive about trying to teach bike mechanics anything,
because I know so little about African repair methods and the bikes and
tools they work with. After seeing them sew up a blown inner tube,
replace a valve stem, and splice pieces of tubes, I wasn't sure I had
anything of value to share. And when I showed up at bike shops just to
watch I was frequently regarded with suspicion, which sometimes melted
away after a few minutes.
I decided that I actually could do something with mechanics - a
presentation of American tools and techniques. If anyone was interested
we could try to make the tools available through the host organizations,
at about 50% of cost. Why not free? Ownership and sustainability.
Donation money will go twice as far if the user pays half, we'll be
building potentially enduring supply networks, and learning something
about market values for these tools. Besides, people the world over
don't appreciate the value of something they get for free. If its free,
everyone wants one, or ten.
So I showed my tools to mechanics, with an accompanying price sheet.
They were most interested in chain breakers, but some other tools as
well. One mechanic who I worked with quite a bit in Hohoe was very
interested in three tools, but despaired at the prospect of coming up
with $13 to buy them at 35% of my cost. "I beg you to help me," he
said, so I gave in and let them go for $2.50. There, a benchmark.
A box of more tools, sent from the states was lost in customs. A sad
story. So I ended up selling all my tools, for ridiculously low prices.
I learned a lot about doing business in Africa, and about being on the
other side of bargaining.
So while I didn't get to experiment with mountain bikes hauling farm to
market produce, the project did accomplish a number of things;
1. Mechanical training; 50 kids, 15 adults, 15 cops, 8 bike mechanics
2. $1000 in tools, bikes, and parts distributed
3. Organizational assistance and support for two African bike advocacy
groups, including tools and four good mountain bikes
4. Networks built between suppliers and mechanics
5. A big climb on the learning curve; finding out where the needs are,
where the potential is, and gaining knowledge to use and share.
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4. August 15- Back home and preparing for bicycle project part two
After a month back at home, I miss Africa's street food, ubiquitous
tiny shops, exotic languages, easy (relatively) public transportation
and the open friendliness of the people. I don't miss the incessant
honking of horns, kamikaze drivers, plumes of smoky exhaust and open
sewers.
I'd like to share briefly some of the main points I learned during the
project:
1. There is a strong interest in mountain bikes and a weak
understanding of gearing, therefore I think they would be happy with
one-speeds that have wide tires, and upright handlebars.
2. There is a great need for specialized bike tools, while basic
mechanical tools are widely available in the cities.
3. Kids from ages 10-14 are wildly enthusiastic to learn bike repair.
4. The cost of labor is so low relative to parts and bikes, that
anything which needs fixing is better off fixed there than here.
5. There is a huge cultural gap between urban and rural people, and
Peace Corps Volunteers can be a valuable resource for organizing rural
people.
6. There is a strong interest in repair workshops in villages, where
even basic tools, grease and oil are scarce.
7. Giving things away does not promote efficiency, accountability, or
sustainability. The two Ghanaian bicycle advocate groups I worked with
were not efficiently managed, and were heavily dependent on western
donors for survival.
There are several reasons why I want to continue the project:
1. I learned so much about where the needs are, what can be
accomplished, and how to do it.
2. There is a lot of interest in Ghana for continuing my work.
3. I like it.
I’ve begun setting goals for Bicycle Project part two, [which aren’t
here because they were refined and clarified for the November report,
below.]
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5. November 4- Getting ready and looking for mountain bikes
Moscow, Idaho--We are gearing up for our continuing work in Ghana. The
upcoming trip will focus on materials delivery, (now that we understand
the needs), and network building.
Someone asked me recently how long it took to get over culture shock.
I'm still reeling over the disparities of wealth. In Ghana I saw people
making gravel by hand, pounding rocks with hammer and chisel, grateful
to have an income, earning perhaps a dollar a day. How many mouths did
they feed with that dollar?
Here in the US it is staggering what we throw away, what we have to
throw away because we can't afford the labor costs to have it repaired.
In Africa I spent several hours working with a man on his forty-year old
bike, a bike so twisted, bent and beat up I would have thrown it away
immediately here at home. Instead we greased, cleaned and adjusted as
best we could so he could get another five years use from it.
We are now looking for mountain bikes to send to Ghana. As mountain
bikes are the most efficient and in greatest demand in Ghana, we want
to focus initially on collecting them only.
The bikes collected here in Moscow will have to be trucked to Seattle
before they can be loaded into the shipping container. I think there is
a virtually unlimited supply of 10 speed racing bikes available in
Seattle to fill whatever space is left. Our goal is 80 mountain
bikes, we already have 10.
VBP addresses the huge poverty gap in our own small way. Your recycled
bikes find new lives in Africa, where over 99% of the population
cannot afford cars. The tools and repair training we provide increases
Africa's ability to prolong the lives of their bikes.
Our project goals for 2000 are based on the work of 1999. The seven
goals (fine tuned since August) include:
1. Used bikes from the USA- Recycling discarded but useable bikes,
diverting them from the American waste stream to a new useful life in
Africa. We will ship 350 bikes in a cargo container.
2. Bike repair training- Holding classes for young people in Ghana to
learn bike repair skills, with additional opportunities for them to
earn bikes and tools. A teacher training is included, to enable the
establishment of on-going repair classes.
3. Adequate tools- Providing $1000 worth of specialized bike tools for
mechanics and parts dealers. Important tools include chain breakers,
crank pullers, allen wrenches, freewheel sockets, and plastic tire
sticks. Many bike mechanics don't know that specialized tools exist,
and rely on hammer and chisel to remove and install parts. We will
also engage metal workers to produce tools locally.
4. Village owner-repair workshops- Helping village bike owners learn
and practice maintenance while repairing their own bikes. In remote
areas parts and even basic tools are scarce. VBP will tour remote
villages of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire by bicycle, holding workshops in
about 20 villages.
5. Police Bike Patrol Training- Providing follow-up training of the
Hohoe, Ghana, District Bike Police who received bikes and initial
training from Bike Youth and VBP in 1999. Bike patrols are enormously
successful in US and could serve as well or better in Africa.
6. Sustainability- Continuing work with Ghanaian non-profit bike
advocate groups Future In Our Hands and Bike Youth in joint programs,
assistance, and organizational development. Improving networks and
associations between mechanics, parts dealers, importers, investors,
bike owners, and local credit sources. Meet with education leaders to
initiate bike repair training in trade schools.
7. Pro-bike public policy- Bringing Ghanaian decision-makers together
with pro-bike transportation experts from the west to discuss improving
conditions for bicycling, including infrastructure, education,
enforcement, and economics. We are trying to raise sponsorship for
Ghana's Minister of Transport to attend the world bicycle conference,
Velo Mondial 2000 in Amsterdam in June. The experts may also meet with
leaders of neighboring countries to discuss the benefits of Ghana's
pro-bike policies.
Over the summer I was able to setup an office in my home, with a
donated computer. We've also located bike storage space, which now
holds 50 bikes, and room for many more, without actively collecting
them.
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6. December 19- more getting ready, Planning the loading of a container
of bikes
We will be sending about 375 bikes from Seattle to Ghana in
mid-February. We are teaming up with Bike Works, a group in Seattle to
collect the bikes and perform the formidable task of loading them into
the 40 foot shipping container the weekend of February 12 and 13. It
should take about 60 worker hours to do the loading.
In the last month or so nearly 30 mountain bikes have been donated by
Palouse area people. These, the cream of the crop, will have to be
trucked to Seattle. The call for bikes has been limited to mountain
bikes because of the transport problem to Seattle and because
narrow-tired, curly-bar road bikes should be readily available in
Seattle.
Bike Works has a shop in the low-income neighborhood of Rainier Valley.
They hold bike repair classes for kids, and provide graduates the
opportunity to earn-a-bike by fixing bikes. Over 150 neighborhood kids
participated in Bike Works' programs this year, including group
rides.
They currently have on hand about 75 bikes for Ghana, and have been
turning down most offers since early fall. Program Director Suzanne
Carlson is concerned that an all-out effort to round up used bikes
would bury Bike Works in bikes.
Finding a shipper in Seattle wasn't easy. Of eighteen or so shipping
companies in that trade-renowned city, not one goes to Africa. One
company rep told me they could get my load to Africa, adding without a
trace of irony, "its expensive to ship to Africa, because they are
poor." That's the problem with economies of scale, they perpetuate the
vicious circle of poverty.
Shipping companies said we'd have to block and brace the bikes inside
the container, to keep them from getting banged up by the swells of the
sea and frequent ship changes. I talked to someone who’d done this
before, and was told to cram every nook and cranny so tightly that
nothing could move, anywhere. That's where we put spare parts, tubes,
tires, and tools.
Presently about 100 of the bikes are spoken for in Africa. We are
planning a program to provide a farmers' co-op with about 25 bikes,
tools, parts and mechanical training in the Eastern Region, 20 bikes
each for the repair classes and Earn-a-Bike programs with kids in the
capital and in Hohoe where we worked last year. Another 25 will be
reserved for rural development workers, like health workers. Some of
these are counterparts working with Peace Corps Volunteers, who already
have bikes for traveling to worksites. Finally 10 bikes will be held to
upgrade and expand the Hohoe District Police force.
Village Bicycle Project strives to work within the market system. The
legacy of giving everything away fosters inefficiency and a free lunch
mentality as well as disrupting markets. When things are given away it
is difficult to know if the recipient understands or values the gift.
If tools are randomly given away we learn nothing about what mechanics
would be willing to pay on the open market for these tools. VBP learned
in 1999 that tools would be readily bought at 10% of cost. When
tools are valued enough to be paid for, it is far more likely that they
will be used regularly and productively.
VBP supports domestic markets as much as possible. We buy locally
whenever we can. We will buy cables, cable housing, standard metric
wrenches, pliers, vice grips, screwdrivers, and grease in Ghana. The
project also works with blacksmiths to make tools, which keeps all the
money in Ghana. This not only helps feed the workers and their
families, but supports the continuation of their businesses. We will
compensate people for handling and repairing our bikes at about four
times the minimum wage. In the unlikely event that bike sales actually
exceed shipping costs, `profits' will stay in Africa, buying basic
tools and parts to be distributed at a loss to bike owners and
mechanics especially in rural areas where tools are scarce.
The `charity' of the Village Bicycle Project thus aims to help people
within the African market and values structure, providing tools
(including bikes), materials at affordable cost, training and
employment. Your donations stretch our ability to reach and serve an
impoverished but productive sector of people.
We still need nearly $5000 to cover shipping, specialized tools,
preparations, subsistence and travel in Ghana. (I’m paying my own
airfare, shots and visas.)
Thanks to all who’ve helped bring us this far!
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