Saturday, April 26th;
The 3rd in a series of very successful bicycle donations in Africa was held today in Windhoek, Namibia. Billed as "Chris Wille's bike donation", this event featured the donation of 68 bicycles to 3 separate, very deserving recipients, ranging from a refugee camp located in Namibia, which houses thousands of refuges from other countries, to a local tuberculosis aid society, to a youth at risk group. The donations were well received, and very much needed. speeches were made by representatives from the TDA, the recipient organizations, and myself. It is humbling to hear how something as simple as a bicycle can and does change people's lives for the better.
a huge thank you to family and friends who kindly made donations to the tune of $6800.00
The donation ceremony was made possible by the hard work of one Michael Linke, an amazing person who has done wonders for the distribution of bikes, the training of local people in each local area to service and repair the bikes, a outstanding bicycle ambulance building and distribution program and a host of other good things. Michael is the founder of BEN, Namibia.
BEN stands for bicycle empowerment network. Please Google BEN, and BEN, Namibia, for more info on the amazing projects this group has on the go.
Pictures of the donation will be posted as soon as they are available...
As for the Tour....We have just recently arrived in Windhoek, Namibia. This signals the end of the latest section, called the Elephant highway. A few lucky riders saw elephants along this section, but all the racers saw was horses, goats, sheep, cows, and lots and lots of Armoured crickets...I was lucky to ride well and stay relatively healthy (How healthy can one really be riding over 160 kilometers (one hundred miles) at high speed day after day?) , and placed second overall in this section. I also am very fortunate to retain 3rd place overall in the whole race, the best placing by a Canadian in quite some time...
Nights have been cold in the Kalahari, prompting riders to bundle up in the morning, something we have not had to do sine crossing the Sahara in Sudan. Luckily, the temperatures warm up quickly after the sun has been up for a while. This makes for very pleasant cycling temperatures after the initial morning chill. On a recent day when we had to cover 207 kilometres, riders were horrified to find ice on their saddles. Many began to seriously debate the global warming theory at that point...
One section (the diamond coast), about 2,000 kilometers, and less than 2 weeks separate us from our arrival in Cape town, and the end of our remarkable 4 month journey across the African Continent. Its' been great.....More stories and pictures to follow...
Chris Wille in Windhoek, Namibia.
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