Hunt for cycles

With today as a holiday, we took this opportunity to go to the villages. It was a fascinating experience, as for the first time, we didn’t bring the bicycle with us, only the machine. This expedition proved more challenging than I would have expected, as the first village we went to, they didn’t have a bicycle available. So, they called a few friends, and they brought a bike without a stand. We unfortunately hadn’t brought a stand with us, so our machine would essentially be nonfunctional.

Despite this challenge, we decided we’d at least try to install it, and much to my disappointment, we found even more difficulties, such as stripped threads on the rear hub, which made it difficult to secure our machine on the bicycle. We installed it anyways, and using ourselves as the stand, we got it to work. I would have loved to leave the machine with them, as I, for the first time, actually witnessed the beating of corn with a stick. We would have left it with them, but we were unfortunately a day late as the tractor with the maize sheller had come just a day earlier. As villagers close to town, technology such as the tractor machine industrial sheller, was locally available.

However, in a village less than a kilometer away, they were all still beating corn with a stick. This time, we had to go on yet another hunt for a bike. And we faced the same issues. One bike was too big, and then the other bike was missing a stand. Again, we ourselves functioned as a stand, and the chairman loved it! He has already offered to arrange a meeting to show all the villagers our machine. The only downside was the bike that we found that worked belonged to the milkman. So, just after installing it, we had to remove it yet again to return the bike. The good news though is that the chairman was prepared to go find another bicycle so he could arrange a meeting to show the village. Unfortunately, he lacked the appropriate tools, so we left a few tools with him to ensure his future assembly of the machine.

So, I guess in the end, we learned that we must provide a stand, and if we want to really make an impression, we need to bring the bicycle, as temporary assembly is no easy task. For future village visits, we will plan accordingly.
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Jodie, Tanzania