The Uganda Bike Project

Months of prayer, planning and a little more prayer found me in Uganda last month training bike mechanics in a joint venture between Dakota Wesleyan University and Esperance Education Institute (EEI). Our team of ten people was made up of six DWU students, one DWU faculty (Joel Allen), one Morningside College student (Joel's daughter Johanna) and one RN (who also happened to be the parent of one of the DWU students). We set off with several ministry objectives in mind, but the one that was undoubtedly mine was the bike project.

The goal was to work with four or five people to train them in basic bike maintenance in order to help them acquire the skills they would need in order to begin to do bicycle repair as a source of income. We relied on Adonai Ministries International (a ministry out of Bugiri run by Dr. Charles Oundo) to find local candidates for the program, primarily drawing on people serving as pastors. The training would be taking place at Adonai alongside a training for pastors that Joel was the primary instructor for, with me leading some sessions about discipleship and spiritual formation (more about that in another post).

For the bike project though, we wound up with four men as a part of the project, three of who were from Bugiri with one from Busia (about 45 km away). We had hoped to have at least one female member of the project as well as EEI has placed a particular emphasis on equipping and training women, but Dr. Oundo said that those who he had invited to take part had declined. He said the reluctance seemed to be primarily cultural surrounding traditional gender roles.

My preparation before the trip consisted primarily of fund raising with the goal of purchasing two bike tool kits and one bike repair stand to go along with the one repair stand and floor pump that had been donated by my friend (and Fusion member) Paula Platz from her late husband's collection. Paula's husband Bill was a great guy who I had met on a few occasions and who would love the fact that his tools were being used to help others this way.

We were able to purchase the tool kits and one bike stand with funds donated by EEI and Palace City Pedalers (our local bike club in Mitchell, SD). I had been assured that we would be able to purchase tools in Uganda, but I was a bit reluctant to leave that to chance since there were bike specific tools like cone wrenches, crank pullers and chain breakers that I was not as optimistic that we would be able to buy locally. I didn't doubt that we would be able to buy more general use tools (hammers, wrenches, screw drivers...) in-country and hoped that between what I brought and what would be easier to find locally that we would be in a good position to be able to accomplish what we had set out to do.

As we arrived in Entebbe and gradually made our way through Kampala and Jinja as we headed east toward Bugiri. With it being my first time in Uganda, I was soaking in everything, but I was especially attentive toward the bikes that I was seeing. Most of what we were seeing as we left Entebbe and passed through Kampala were basic mountain bikes, much like we would see in the US. As we passed through the heart of Kampala, we actually saw a group of roadies (riders of road bikes for those not familiar with the lingo) on bikes from Trek, Specialized, Bianchi and Merida (much like you'd find in the US...okay, maybe not Merida so much). Needless to say, I felt very much at home.

As we got farther away from the population centers though, the style of bike began to change from what was familiar to something out of the past. While probably 90% of the bikes in the population centers were very familiar to me, the ratio began to shift more and more toward cargo bikes. And not modern cargo bikes, but bikes that were designed 60 or more years ago that still used cotter pin cranks, very heavy steel frames, and a frame geometry that made handling the bike a bit more challenging.

Dr. Joel Allen on a local cargo bike

We saw these cargo bikes hauling people (it's actually a very common mode of local transportation), produce, benches and even (I kid you not) and axle off of a car. They were obviously the workhorses of bike utility and they were everywhere. By the time we reached Bugiri, the ratio had switched to 90% (ancient, outmoded) cargo bikes and 10% standard mountain bikes/basic commuter bikes. I began to wonder what exactly we would have to work with when we got started with the mechanics.

I anxiously awaited the first day of our training where I would not only be responsible for getting the bike project underway, but would also be leading some teaching sessions on discipleship and spiritual formation. The original idea that had been floated was to have me do just a few sessions of this with the 30 or so pastors that had been gathered while DWU student Amy Zeller did business training with the bike mechanics. I would have then worked the discipleship and spiritual formation topic into some of the time that I spent with the mechanics. It became pretty obvious early on that this wasn't going to be quite as workable in reality as the schedule had shifted somewhat. This wasn't completely unexpected, though it did change some of my approach with the mechanics. Instead of working the discipleship/spiritual formation conversations into our mechanics training, I simply invited the mechanics to join the rest of the pastors for the teaching sessions that I did.

This actually worked to our advantage in a few ways. First, it allowed for some flexibility to work with Amy on the business part of the conversation whenever she was available instead of forcing her to work within a schedule that we only barely had a say in ourselves. Second, it allowed the mechanics to actually get something out of the pastoral training since none of the guys spoke English very well and we only had a translator for the opening session of our bike workshop and the business training portions of the project. I think the language barrier would have made working these topics into conversation an impossibility for this trip, but could be incorporated in future efforts by ensuring that we would have a translator on hand.

Showing off some of the tools

We finally set about the first session of the bike project with the great benefit of having Betty Oundo (Charles' wife) translating. Betty has a degree in economics and was going to be instrumental in helping Amy figure out the best path forward from a business standpoint because of her understanding of how local culture and business practice would influence the shape that the project would need to take in order to be viable.

The first session was very much a "getting to know you" session where introductions were made and some basic expectations were stated. The four gentlemen that we were working with were Michael (from Busia) and Luka, Benard and James (all from Bugiri). Michael said he had a little bit of experience with bike maintenance (which turned out to be an understatement) and each of the others had learned a few basic fixes from friends. Michael also was a bit older (probably around 40, give or take) while the other three looked like they were within a few years of 20. I showed the guys the tools kits we had brought with and acknowledged that some would get very little use, but that others were hopefully going to prove to be go to items in their tool kit.

They, in turn, went through the parts of the bike with me, letting me know the local names for the parts such as "horns" (handlebars), "arms" (fork), "engine" (crankset),  and "wires" (spokes). Little did I know how much this basic introduction was going to expedite some of our sessions by helping us overcome some language barriers as the week went on.

Amy did a short session on business with Betty's translation and we had an opportunity to hear from the guys about what they hoped to get out of the training for the week. For some, the business skills were obviously a much needed piece of the puzzle, but mostly, they just wanted to get a better sense of how to fix bikes.

The one skill that came up though that would be a limitation to our training was welding. One of the reasons that these cargo bikes have held on so long in this area is the ability to find parts from old bikes and to keep piecing the things back together. Case in point was that both of the bikes that had been secured for us to work on needed to have weld work done on them. I considered us fortunate that we had both a local cargo bike and a more standard mountain bike to work with because a lot of the skills we planned to cover would apply for both bikes. What was less fortunate was that both bikes were in such poor repair that they pretty much needed to be completely overhauled. Normally this would not be such a big deal except that in order to fix a bike, you need to have parts to fix and both bikes were coming up short in that category.

This bike needed everything except a new seat and frame

The cargo bike they set us up with needed new brakes, pedals, at least four spokes in each wheel, tires, tubes and bearings all around. To make matters worse, the weld had broken where the right brake lever would attach to the handlebars (horns) of the bike which meant that even if we had the parts to fix it, we'd have to do some welding, which is not a skill I have.

The other bike was only marginally better, but at least it would give us a fighting chance to have one bike that was ridable by the end of the week. It needed a ton of work and an equal amount of parts, but at least our success wouldn't be completely contingent on our ability to weld. To be fair, one of the front brake posts was missing and would require a new post to be welded on, but at least we'd be able to run the rear brake and have a ridable bike, even without the front brake.

In hindsight, I think we might have been better served by purchasing two new bikes to work with so that we would be able to show how everything was really supposed to work instead of taking two bikes and trying to come up with solutions that would make them work just well enough, but this was the hand we were dealt and we were going to play it. I think Amy and I both left that first session feeling a little underprepared and wondering what the next few days would hold for us.

I knew that it would be a few days before we would be able to get Amy back with the mechanics due to other projects that she was involved in on the trip, so I dove into some basic repairs. We started with tubes and tires before moving on to hubs and headsets since those were things universal to both styles of bike. The guys picked up on these adjustments very well with me demonstrating how to do it properly, misadjusting it again, and letting them readjust. We did discover that the mountain bike that I was placing so much of my hope in had a cracked hub on the front wheel along with three or four missing spokes. We tried adjusting things as best we could, but it was never going to work exactly like it should.

Making matters more interesting was that the bike had originally had a multi-speed freewheel of some type on the rear wheel that had been replaced with a single speed freewheel. Necessity is the mother of invention in Uganda and you do what you need to do to keep your bike on the road, but this particular fix managed to create a whole new set of problems as whoever had put the single speed freewheel into place had obviously hammered it onto the hub, destroying the threads that we would have used to put a new five speed freewheel on the bike. Because the threads were shot, we had no choice but to replace the rear hub (along with the standard 3-4 broken spokes).

We also were going to need new brakes, a new chain, new freewheel, new shifters, new front and rear derailleurs and all of the cabling to actually make all of the new stuff work. So, in other words, about the only things that worked on this bike were the frame, handlebar and cranks. At least we were a step ahead of where we would have been with the cargo bike.

If your shop doesn't have chickens, it's not a real shop

Thankfully, Michael proved to be more than a little experienced with bikes. It turned out that he has actually been working on bikes to one degree or another for 25 years or so, so not only was he the one that spoke the best English (which was still pretty limited), but he also understood bikes the best. This actually proved to be a huge advantage in the absence of a translator as Michael and I could usually muddle through a question or an explanation well enough to understand each other simply because we both understood bikes. So anytime I needed parts, I would ask Michael how much he anticipated the parts costing and I would send him to the shop to pick them up. He was always very good about his estimations and provided receipts to verify what he had spent. The added plus was that because the muzungu (white person/aka me) wasn't with him, Michael was able to get a good price on the parts that we needed.

Michael also proved to be a good trainer for the other three mechanics as well since there was no language barrier and he knew quite a bit already. I actually let him do the sessions on wheel building since we needed to rebuild both wheels with new hubs and spokes paired to the original rims. I was able to add a little bit of technique to tensioning the spokes and truing the wheels, but Michael was showing himself to be someone that had the capacity to do training in the future without us having to wait to send someone else from the US.

Over the next few days we gradually rebuilt the wheels, put on new brakes (for the rear at least), added shifters and derailleurs, and adjusted anything else that we could to make sure that the bike was rideable. Thankfully, some of the new parts also allowed me to demonstrate how to properly adjust them and how to use some of the tools that we had brought with where a hammer and screwdriver would have been the only substitutes available to them. By the middle of Friday morning, we took our first ride on the bike and even though there were things that I would have loved to have done better (mostly because of the quality of the parts), it was at least safe enough for someone to ride without having to fear for their safety.

Amy and Betty doing some of the business training

Amy had been working hard since the first session to try to put together a business plan for the project, incorporating some of the things she had observed during our first week in Uganda. I was incredibly impressed with Amy's ability to take the principles that she knew and adapt them to the things that she was learning about the culture. She did as much as she possibly could to prepare in order to make sure that things were organized while still having enough flexibility to change things as she received feedback from the mechanics or from Betty. Amy put together a rough draft of the business plan, took feedback from the mechanics and Betty and by the end of the project, had a working document that the project members all agreed to that included monthly meetings with Betty who could provide some continuing ed on best business practices, as well as an understanding of how shared resources would factor in and how things could be developed on a personal level should the project prove to be successful for individual members. I could not have been happier with the work that Amy did and was reminded of just what a special community of students we have at DWU.

The only thing in the business plan and member agreement that I had a hard time getting on board with was the name of the project. I had hoped they would come up with something that represented the more missional focus of the project or be more bike specific to speak to the general intent to provide good, knowledgeable service for anyone that would seek out the services of one of the mechanics. Instead, they really wanted a name that would help them remember their trainer. They were rather insistent, so I reluctantly accepted when they named it the "Matt Bicycle Repair Project." I don't know too many other people that have a bike shop named after them in Uganda, but it definitely makes me feel responsible to make sure that it gets established and grows over time.

I have already had some conversation with Alisha Vincent (founder of EEI) about next steps and we are in agreement that a good next step would be to get the guys some welding experience. Whether that comes through us sending someone on a future trip or us funding someone like Michael to be able to travel to get the training needed, I think we are recognizing the need for this particular skill set to round out the knowledge that the mechanics would need to have in order to be successful.

My hope would be that if we were to send Michael, that he would be able to return to provide follow up training to the others. There is the continued need for additional equipment if we are hoping to teach the mechanics to weld and we will continue to evaluate the needs of the project and address them through continued business development or micro loans as appropriate.

Regardless of the path forward, I was so glad to get the chance to share some skills with the guys in the project and have already talked pretty openly about my next trip to Uganda. My hope is that we are able to establish this project in such a way that it does not become dependent on our ability to send me for further training, but that we will be able to establish more localized training with supplemental instruction from anyone that we are able to send that has skills in bike maintenance.

The full bike project crew (L-R- me, Amy, James, Luka, Benard, Michael, Betty)