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Catholic mission, checked into my room and quickly cleaned up. I went out for a stroll on
the main road to see if Erik had arrived in the town. As I walked, I met some Peace Corps
volunteers who had been in the country for a year but spoke almost no French or any local
language. I wondered how they managed to communicate with the locals.
Erik finally showed up in a car being driven by a priest from another parish. I
showedErikmyroomandhedecidedtoretrievehisthingsandjoinme.Wewalkedtogeth-
er to where his bike was and he explained why he was so late in arriving. The culprit this
timewashisrearwheelwhichwasseverelywarpedwithseveralbrokenspokes.Erikreally
regretted bringing a road bike with thin tires through Africa and wished he had brought a
mountain bike instead like I did. Thankfully, my bike proved strong again for I managed
my day without any mechanical problems.
Since Erikhadchristened mybike“One-Gear” whenIhadmyissuewiththechain,
I felt I had to reciprocate in light of his bike issues. I thought it would be appropriate for
me to christen his bike “Broken-Wheels”. He laughed at that. We went for dinner and un-
beknownst to Eric, I treated myself to an expensive meal as a birthday gift to myself.
Well…happy birthday to me!!! After attending the 6 a.m. mass, I returned to my
room and loaded my bike for departure. I woke up Erik to see what his plans were. He
wanted to stay back and fix his rim. So before I left, I helped him remove the free-wheel to
allowhimaccesstoreplacehisbrokenspokes.AfterIsettledthecostoftheroom,Ipushed
off at 7:45 a.m.
Theroadwasveryhillyforthefirst20kilometresbutthenittaperedoff.Imanaged
to do 80 kilometres by lunchtime and again, One-Gear responded extremely well. The ride
was happily uneventful. I stopped at a local shop and ate spaghetti and bread for lunch. As
I rested at my table, I took a couple of minutes to write in my journal:
“What a birthday! The sun was shining, puffy white clouds floated by. There
was such an explosion of sounds from the wildlife. The colour in the land-
scapeseemedtocomefromanartist'spalate.Icycledthroughacresandacres
of coffee plantations passing many high-tech factories showing the wealth of
investment in this country.” (Oct 17, 1992)
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