In Matt's Words: Our First Sister Shop in Botswana, 2008

Jonmol Bicycle Services in Gaborone, Botswana, was the first Mike's Bikes Sister Shop. A fascinating read for anyone who is interested in what it takes to make something like this happen, here is a day-by-day account written by Mike's Bikes co-owner Matt that describes exactly how a container full of donated bikes becomes a community bike shop in a community where there are no, well, bike shops.

From challenges with simply finding the container, to transporting it to the shop location, to procuring building materials, to being swamped with customers before they were even open, to (yes, in classic Mike's Bikes style) epic hangovers, Ken and Matt's experience helping Bones establish Jonmol Bicycle Services was one of many challenges and many rewards.

Read all about it here.

Our First Foray Into Africa: Ghana 2007

It seems like so much has happened since Ken and Matt first got their feet wet in the world of Africa bicycle philanthropy. And indeed much has happened, but things all started with a trip to Ghana just two years ago.

Ken and Matt teamed up with the California Bicycle Coalition to provide an entire course of hands-on instruction and mentoring for individuals who wanted to start their own bike shops in Ghana. Like most of Africa, the bicycle is almost a nonexistent thing in that country, so giving individuals the ability to bring bicycles to their communities would literally mean giving the population access to bicycles on the whole.

It was a life changing experience for them both.

Click here to read Matt's account of their time in Ghana.

So, What's the Plan Anyway?

It's simple, really.

All we need to do is fly to Gaborone, Botswana (by way of New York and South Africa), meet up with Bones at his shop Jonmol Bicycle Services (the first Mike's Bikes African Sister Shop), find out what challenges he is having in providing bicycles to his community, solve them all, and help him prepare to receive the next container of 400 bicycles (generously donated by our customers) which is nearly ready to ship out from our warehouse in San Rafael, California. All in the space of about three days, give or take.

Then all we'll have left to do is fly to Windhoek, Namibia to meet up with our indispensable helper-on-the-ground Kami and pow-wow with the Bicycle Empowerment Network while we're there. The next day we'll drive 10 hours across the Kalahari Desert to the village of Divundu. There we will meet Erasmus and Ludwig, and hopefully the container of 466 donation bicycles that we shipped out two months prior, but which has encountered the bad luck of a cargo ship breakdown, and will, fingers crossed, be arriving in Divundu right about when we are. We'll then unload the container as it will be used as the space for Erasmus and Ludwig's Sister Shop. Oh, and we'll have to build and tune the bikes, teach Erasmus and Ludwig how to service bicycles and how to effectively run a bike shop top-to-bottom, and establish supply lines for consumables like tubes and chains. And we'll have a whole 9 days to do it, give or take.

What could possibly go wrong?

Headed to Hotter Climes. . .

This pile of donated bikes seemed to be enjoying their stay in the Mike's Bikes Warehouse in San Rafael. Shaken from their slumber, we loaded all 466 of them onto a container ship bound for Walvis Bay, Namibia. Their ultimate destination, the village of Divundu, where we will be headed next week, has been clocking days with ambient temps over 100 degrees this week. Hope these intrepid bicycles are ready for that kinda heat. More to the point, I hope we are too. . .

birdseye Originally uploaded by Mike's Bikes