Bike Limos and Rappers

One part of the project that I am helping involves the Coffee Bike. The coffee bike was created and designed by Mr. Ritchey, a man who was involved in the design of the mountain bike, and is highly sought after here in Rwanda. The purpose of this coffee bike program was to create a bike that could handle the mountainous and rugged terrain of Rwandan while still being able to support hundreds of pounds of coffee. The coffee farmers would use these coffee bikes to carry their coffee down the mountains to coffee washing station where they would sell their coffee. The idea is that if the coffee gets to the stations as quickly as possible from the time it is picked, the quality of the coffee is increased.

It is an interesting project, but what is more interesting is the locals’ response to the coffee bikes. They are highly sought after and are almost a symbol of status. These coffee bikes are like a Mercedes Benz to coffee farmers in Rwanda. They ride around on the coffee bikes as proudly as Americans would ride through town in an $80,000 convertible. They use the bikes to give rides to their friends, carry produce, and of course, to carry coffee beans. It is interesting to see how proud they are of the $200 bikes. The bikes are pretty long and are the limousines of Rwanda. Receiving a bike (they get them through a micro credit loan) is like winning a brand new car for them.

The link to a website about it is http://www.projectrwanda.org/

They also like Americans. People are always waving and giving Americans the thumbs up. I don’t know what Americans taught them this, but when you say American, the give you the thumbs up and say, “Cool!”
Sometimes they ask if you know various rappers like 50cent or JayZ. They know all the rappers.
When they find out that you are from Texas, they always say, “George Bush’s home!”

We went to another movie at the same little theater. This one was Harry Potter and it was in French. I have never been through so much touchier in my life. Harry Potter was bad enough; having to watch it in French was almost unbearable. This was my first Harry Potter movie to watch, and I pray that it was my last to ever see.

We are allowed to ride the coffee bikes around town because we have no other mode of transportation. It has been very nice. All the Rwandans watch in amazement as we ride by on our coffee bikes. I feel like a king on a bike chariot riding through town. All of the townspeople chant, “Mzungu! Mzungu!” This translates to “White man! White man!”

They like to state the obvious here in Rwanda, but even the obvious is amazing to them. The small children rub my skin to see if the white paint will come off. They are also amazed by the size of Americans. Most of the Rwandan’s are shorter than me, which is very short. Most of all, they are amazed with my red cheeks. This is the same in America, Europe, and Africa. People just don’t know what to make of my red cheeks.

One Rwandan asked me, “Who kicked you in the face?”

I didn’t want to bother with explaining my dermatological symptoms, so I simply answered, “A stupid Mzungu on a coffee bike in Texas named George Bush did this to me. And no, he is not a rapper. He just makes up words like one!”