Meeting with the Boda-Bodas

-



August 27th, 2007

I'm going to try and write some and then try to send some pictures, too. But a storm is coming this way and I may lose the electricity. We just returned from having our lunch meeting with the Boda drivers, the bicycle couriers. They were very organized and had an agenda written out and were very formal. It was great to finally meet them. We didn't have the bicycle ready to show because my mom has been driving us all around town meeting everyone of her friends.
Because of the generosity of our friends and Western we were able to buy lots of tools and parts for the guys. The boxes included wrenches, screwdrivers, tubes, chains, patch kits, spoke wrenches, multi-tools, and others. We also gave them a maintenance manual, grease, light oil, floor pumps, socket wrenches, pliers, adjustable wrenches, and others that I can't remember. They were so excited that they sent one on a motorbike to go in to town and came back with a news reporter from the radio station.

We organized the maintenance workshop and divided up the responsibilities. They are to be the instructors and I'm just providing the structure and funding for the event. I gave out some Western T shirts and then we got to work on the bicycles.

We took apart one of the Hero bicycles and did some of the basic maintenance on it. I became the student because they were experts at this. I know how to work on modern bikes, but not these. We changed tubes, repacked bearings, changed brake pads, lubed chains, and trued wheels.

My mother has a nice home that is brick with two bedrooms, an office, a living room and a kitchen. She has a dog named benji, two mother cats named Sweet Pea and Flash, and many tiny kittens. She also has a chicken coop with many hens, a rooster and lots of little chicks. I've take video of them and will show you when I get home.

We put up another video, this is the account that Mark setup since I was asleep when he was uploading videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/uganda2010

Everyone has been very friendly to us. And the children call out: Mzungu! How are you? Which is usually the only English that they know.


This photo shows our first presentation of the bike with the whole group of Boda-Boda at the main town sports field. They were excited to ride it and we had a great discussion about the Hero bicycle.

It's very dusty here and hot. I don't know what the temperature is but I think 80s and 90s. The dust bothers my eyes, so i need some eye drops. It cools down at night, so we've been sleeping well. Being on the equator means an even 12 hours of daylight and 12 of night time with a very quick transition in between (it seems).

We've been eating some traditional african food. goat, chicken, rice, beans, sweet potatoes, avocado, pineapple. We saw a pineapple plant today, and it's not what you'd expect. It grows up from the ground like a big flower plant. Who knew?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Furniture Design Exhibition Seattle - Western ID graduates 2022 - part 2

-
Image
Chair, ottoman, and side table of aluminum and wood by Keaton LoCicero. The industrial design class of Western Washington University 2022 exhibited their final chair design prototypes at HenryBuilt in Seattle, WA, USA. June 10.  A one night only exhibition. Keaton spent hours polishing the interior surfaces of the aluminum. sketch models by Keaton LoCicero Chair and side table by Wylie Jacoy. Rocking chair of aluminum and woven fabric by Adele Houston.  An aluminum vase by Adele Houston Chair and ottoman design by Lili Heim. Constructed of bent polycarbonate and aluminum. Chair, ottoman, and side table design by Asaki Nelson. Constructed of CNC plywood. process photos and artifacts. Display posters Chair design by Matthew Seeman. detail. Constructed of cast aluminum and wood. All photos by Jason Morris. Please attribute the designer if re-posting. Follow Western Industrial Design program on Instagram:  wwu id (@wwuid) • Instagram photos and videos Join our ID program:...
Read more

Furniture Design Exhibition - Western ID graduates 2022 - part 1

-
Image
  Chair and ottoman design by Kelsey Leppek 2022 The industrial design class of Western Washington University 2022 exhibited their final chair design prototypes at HenryBuilt in Seattle, WA, USA. June 10.  A one night only exhibition. This set was made with bent steel tubing and fabric cushions. It was a packed crowd at the first graduate exhibition for WWU ID since 2019. Side chair by Brianna Brown 2022. Bent plywood connection detail. Brianna Brown. Bent plywood chair by Rafer Stromme. The two plywood forms are connected with a cast aluminum form. Transformable furniture design by Trinity Montgomery 2022. By changing the orientation and tying the braided rope this piece converts to various forms. Arm chair and side table by Dylan Willis 2022. This chair is made from aluminum sheet, cushions, and bolted together. It can be disassembled and packaged flat. Lounge chair of bent steel and felt by Bo Baird 2022. Each piece of felt strip was hand cut and connected with brass fasten...
Read more

New Furniture Designs for Working from Home

-
Image
Shift Divider Screen by Kelsey Leppek and Norman Rockwell 2020 Nobody expected a global virus quarantine, but here we are, trying to adapt our living spaces for homeschooling, class sessions, office meetings, and focused work in addition to everything else that we do at home. We quickly realized that our home spaces and furniture were not designed for these new functions. This spring, the industrial design students of Western Washington University worked on designing new furniture solutions for working at home. And they did it while working from home themselves. The Problems They first investigated the problems that we are experiencing during lock-down: Sharing small spaces. Multiple people sharing the kitchen table to do work. Lack of privacy. Lack of square footage. Bad acoustics for video calls and meetings. Echos, noise, distractions. Online video conferences are notorious for poor audio. Bad lighting for video calls and meetings. Most people look hor...
Read more