ben.mitchell's blog

This past Thursday, we attended a boda boda bicycle race to commemorate the late Vice President, Michael Wamalwa, who hails from Kitale. In total, there were nearly 70 participants.

With a $1,000 motorbike up for top prize (nearly a year’s salary for many) and ten new bicycles (about $70 each) for runners-up, the Kitale race team was well prepared.

I just wanted to take a quick minute to say thank you to my good friend, Owen Dodd, for joining Baisikeli Ugunduzi this past summer in Kitale. Owen was here working on a boda boda documentary (the first of its kind) and helping BU film a short movie for a fundraising campaign soon to be launched. We greatly appreciate all that he has done and look forward to the completion of the documentary. We all miss you here in Kitale – Karibu tena.

Testing is moving a little slower than hoped as we are trying various types of new materials. However, we are gaining great feedback and are closing in on the final solution. While waiting for shipments of new materials to test, we have begun working with our mechanic, Joseph, and welder, Kabole, to design and build a small, single-wheel, bicycle trailer. Made from scrap bike parts, the trailer easily attaches to the common Black Mamba bicycles (used for boda boda) and can carry some pretty sizeable loads.