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Sandy from the HopeFirst Foundation has just sent us this news:
“The stars really aligned on the delivery and the volunteers on this trip. The 225 Kona Africabikes got in exactly on time, the 4th, our contact was able to expedite the port process, and we got the bikes out on the 6th. We left for the countryside that day, with out last volunteer for that segment of the trip, Johannes Wolf, arriving that morning from Germany. I spent the day in the port, 7 hours, before riding up in the truck, 8 hours,with the largest load of bikes. Got into Median Wallum at 1am, with the second truck arriving at 5am, due to a poor head lamp on a poor road. Another truck went to the north bank to drop off the last 50bikes for out visit the next week.
The 5 bikes left were given to CEDAG, a Gambian NGO, for the use of their rural community development workers. The director of CEDAG, Morris Anyim, was instrumental in obtaining the duty waiver and documents to get the bikes out of the port.
Our volunteer that signed on quite late, Johannes, was amazing. He is a bike mechanic near Berlin and was an amazing teacher for the local folks. Along with Tim, our engineer that introduced the pedal powered grain mill, and Alpha Jallow, our driver/land rover mechanic, made quick work out of the first 170 bikes. They took lots of time to teach the girls and boys, as well as the local bike mechanics. They were very patient and willing to share their knowledge.
Barbara, Lori, Julie and Alison were amazing role models for the girls. Most of us had not assembled bikes before, so we were learning right along side the others. And getting pretty good at it, I must say. We all worked together to get the job done. The Boeing Company donated 250, 767 lanyards for the keys. A big hit with the students.
Our last volunteer, Matt, is a Delta Airline employee. He signed on very last minute, flew into Dakar, and made his way to Gambia with a friend of mine from Dakar. Matt helped us on the last week, as well as Johannes, both had a blast teaching the girls to ride and those two twenty somethings got along great so traveled together in Senegal after we completed the bikes.
What a great trip. Went off without a hitch. With perfect timing, great volunteers, and willing communities, we accomplished the mission that Kona Basic Needs and HopeFirst Foundation had set as a goal.
Still in jet lag, just got home monday, so up in the middle of the night.
More soon. Sandy”