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 29, 2011

Kansas (Day 29)

While Missouri has some beautiful countryside I was glad to be leaving. The five days we were in Missouri were some of the toughest days of the bike trip. It is not easy waking up to pouring rain, putting on wet cloths from the previous day, and then riding in the rain another seven hours. I hope that is the most rain we will experience from now on. This morning while we rode it was a dark and cold day. It only showered for a little which we were thankful for. It was so cold I was wearing the same clothing I wore when we were in upstate New York. The day was fairly depressing because it was such a dark day. For most of the ride I kept thinking about when I was in New York. I remember there I would tell myself it would be getting warmer as we headed south and the weather would improve... However, as I pedaled I thought of how wrong was about that. In fact I believe in Missouri we hit our furthest point south. The next a 700 miles we will be heading mostly west but go a little more north to.

As we road toward Kansas we could see the landscape changing. It went from rolling hills to a landscape that was more flat. As we keep riding I'm sure things will get flatter, and we will be able to see for miles. I don't believe Kansas will be an easy state to go through. As I talked with my dad about the weather it looks like we won't hit any severe weather like in Missouri. However, the wind looks like it may be bad at times. I'm sure over the next 500 miles we will get very tired of the wind.

Today I was very tired from my sleepless night. It took everything just to keep pedaling. The coolest thing that happened was when we stopped for some breakfast. There at the restaurant some people got talking with us and we started telling them about our stories, and why we were biking. They thought it was very cool and called the local paper to do a report on us. So while we got some breakfast we also got interviewed. It was great being able reflect on our past experiences and share how we were raising money for Partners in Health.
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