Welcome to Bike for Haiti By Erik and Abdiel

The idea of this trip began ten years ago on a family road trip. As the sights of the United States passed by me I dreamed of riding my bike across the country. I brought the matter up during our road trip. I remember saying something like “Next time lets do this by bike...” Of course at the time everyone thought I was crazy. Then five years ago on another road trip I discussed my dream with Abdiel, a friend of mine. He thought that a bike trip would be crazy, but also a great experience. Overtime the idea slowly started to develop and take hold.

While this bike trip will be a great learning experience for Abdiel and I we eventually decided to ride for a cause. We not only wanted this adventure to mean something to us, but to serve a purpose for others. This is why we have decided to ride for Partners in Health (PIH), and Haiti. As many of you know it has been about a year since the earthquake devastated Haiti displacing people out of their homes. Even more then a year later people are still living in tented communities. PIH is not only dedicated to continue to help those harmed by the quake, but has existed in Haiti for many years. As a co-founder of PIH, Dr. Paul Farmer has been revolutionizing how medicine is brought to those in need throughout Haiti. The mission statement for PIH states “When a person in Peru, or Siberia, or rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at our disposal to make them well... Whatever it takes. Just as we would do a member of our own family - or we ourselves were – ill.” This means that PIH is very adamant about helping those who fall ill upon their doorstep. (To learn more about what PIH is doing for Haiti visit PIH Stand for Haiti website)

Any donations are greatly appreciated. We hope the links to our blog will help better inform you about PIH and Haiti. A great book to read is “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. You can make a one time donation to our cause and give our ride purpose by going to our PIH Fundraiser Page or if you would like to donate an X amount of money per mile we ride that can be done by going to Pledge per Mile. Remember even the smallest contributions help.

* Your donation can: give a years worth of tuberculosis medication for one person that costs about $10-$20 dollars in poor countries such as Haiti. Antiretrovirals for HIV range from $70-$80 per year, per person. *All donations will go to PIH*

Friday, April 15, 2011

Bike Disaster (Day 13)

After the restless night with the Amish we woke up a little late. As we were packing up a guy drove by in a truck and told us “You all better hurry up! A storms a coming!” So we cooked some breakfast and packed up the tent. As soon as we packed the tent up it started to pour rain. We ended up scrambling to get our stuff together and before we got on our bikes we were already soaking wet. Once we started to ride the sun started to come out. We were still fighting a strong headwind. At one point an Amish cart even passed us. However Abdiel decided to draft the cart which help our progress for the next couple of miles. I kept my distance as other Amish watched while we passed by. Eventually the the cart turned left as we headed straight. Abdiel thanked the person driving the cart for the wind protection.

Not long after, the ride changed in an instance. We were heading down a hill when all of a sudden parts of Abdiel's bike went flying everywhere. At first I just though it was his fender, but it turned out the entire derailleur broke off and got caught in the wheel of his bike. The bike was virtually unridable. I fixed the bike so we could ride it as a single speed, but his wheel was also in bad condition. It was questionable whether we could ride the eight miles to the bike shop weighted down with a 70lb trailer. So we decided to try hitchhiking. Eventually we got a ride part way and then we found another all the way to the shop. We lucked out. The shop in Chardon, OH was small but the mechanic did his best to make Abdiel's bike ridable. That afternoon we decided to run some errands since we were in a bigger town. I shipped home 3lbs of gear I didn't need and Abdiel shipped home 10lbs. By the time we finished with the errands it was windy and starting to rain. So we decided to stay in a cheap motel for the night and start fresh again tomorrow.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)