The African Cyclist

Winners already!

It was with quite a bit of excitement with which Zakayo and Samwel undertook their first race up Alpe d’Huez.

Despite the rain and lack of experience, Zakayo and Samwel took first and second place comfortably.

They’re just getting started!

Viva la France!

Finally!

After 2 failures to obtain visas, once to France, and once to America, we finally got our visas to France. We’ll be heading there in August, and we’re climbing Alpe d”Huez. 

We’re incredibly relieved. A French expatriate couple, Matthieu and Marie Anne, generously offered to sponsor the visa, and the embassy people in Singapore were incredibly generous and patient with us. 

They didn’t have to, but in a small way, they believed in the project, and they went out of their way to help. The kindness of strangers is lovely.

Ethnic Cleansing

I’m sure you’ve been reading about Kenya. It’s very, very grim news.The centre of all the violence is right where the project is based, Eldoret. One tribe, the Kalenjin, are on a rampage and killing people of another tribe, the Kikuyu. Zakayo is a Kikuyu, and he and his family have been targeted. My manager, Isaac, is also a Kikuyu. They’ve been attacked by members the Kalenjin (not strangers but friends). 

I told Zakayo not to get involved. He and his family have sought shelter in a police station. A church there just got torched, killing 50 people. But if the killing continues, I doubt he’ll be content to stay in a police station, waiting to be killed. 

At the moment, I’m frantically trying to get news of my team. It’s a mixed bunch, with 2 Kikuyus and 2 Turkanas, and a Kikuyu manager. When all of this is over, I highly doubt if they’llbe able to live in Eldoret knowing the man serving them or driving them might have murdered a family member. I’m quite sure that when they fled their homes, the empty houses were looted. We’ve probably lost all the bikes. And the project will have to almost start from scratch again.

Right now, I’ll be happy if all of them and their families make it out alive. I’m sure that revenge is on some minds, and it might get worse before it gets better. Already there’s talk among the Kalenjin of bringing in AK47s from Uganda. There’s absolutely nothing I or anyone, can do now. We’ll have to wait for this to blow over. My immediate concerns are for the safety of the team and their families. 

If, and it’s a big IF, Zakayo can do the Empire State Building run-up, if I can somehow secure a passage for him to Singapore, and put his family in a secure place, it’s still something I believe can be apositive thing. Especially at this time. Right now, I have absolutely no idea if and how it can be done. 

- Nick

Vertical Marathons

Zakayo and Ariko are chilling at the top of the Swissotel. Well deservedly so.

Climbing staircases is the closest thing to climbing a mountain on a bike, so this is a slight detour. Zakayo won by half a minute ahead of the competition and broke the record! Ariko won third place.

The winner gets to go to New York for the Empire State Building run-up. It’s an invitation-only race, so this is a race he had to win.

Hopefully, the Swissotel will help us with the visa application. Zakayo’s going to win in New York in February. Then we’ll see if we can line up some bike races while we’re there.