Purchasing Bicycle

 

We went with Rodrick Kavuta to town to purchase a bicycle to be paid from donations from friends.   Rodrick who runs Mary Martha Orphan Care Centre with his wife, Martha, explained it was necessary for them to obtain another cycle because of the number of people with HIV in the area needing to go to Mzuzu to collect medicines.   Since they live in the bush, several kilometres away from Mzuzu city, it is far too expensive to travel by taxi; they just do not have the money.  Walking would also be too arduous, although some people may try.  By obtaining more bicycles at Mary Martha, people would only have a relatively short walk to borrow the bicycle then they would be able to cycle over the rough tracks and tarmac road to Mzuzu Centre.  May I tell you that it is still quite a journey over the undulating landscape in the heat and also during the rains.

 
Rodrick told us the Centre had received a brand new bicycle but it only lasted 3 months.  He was looking for a sturdy second hand bicycle.  Would you believe it when I tell you that it cost more money for a second hand cycle than a brand new one?  I think this is a reminder, that we always need to see the needs of people through their eyes and not ours.

 


 

The cycle shop was very interesting.  It’s within the hardware market which is being rebuilt; small wooden huts like the Christmas Markets we see in Europe.  We wandered through what was basically a building site.  There were workers sawing wood, people carrying planks of wood coming in all directions, men drilling with cables trailing over the ground and we were stepping over various tools and rubble on the ground.  The cycle shop sold many cycle parts and accessories – tyres, chains, brake blocks, horns, cycle helmets ect.  Outside the shop, behind us in the open space there was a large mound covered in a blue tarpaulin.  The shop worker pulled off the blue cover to reveal stacks of old cycles with ripped saddles, rusty wheels, deflated tyres and some with bent spokes.  Nevertheless, Rodrick instructed them to “make a good bicycle with a strong saddle”.  A basket for putting the medicines in was also purchased.  The cycle would be assembled and ready the following day for collection.

At Mary Martha Centre everyone was overjoyed to receive the sturdy cycle which reminded me on the ones you see around the cities in Holland.  It had an excellent saddle!