Reality Check

This morning Sabrina skyped her mom from our accommodation in Kardjali, Bulgaria. It turns out that our videos make it look like all we are doing is dancing and having a wildly fun time here on the Rididng to Break the Cycle Tour '09. How are we combatting poverty? asked Sabrina's mom. Good question.

Firstly, I'd like to say that for me this trip has not been all fun and games. I've put up a lot of pictures and written some posts that may make it seem so, but mostly that's because the fun things are what the people want, aren't they? Hmm.

So I guess with this post I will enlighten you a little and delve into the more disorganized, stressful, and frustrating aspects of this tour (keep in mind this is only from one rider's perspective and only paints one part of the picture).

We ride without maps. This was a huge issue for me near the beginning of the tour, but has long since become something that we have all accepted and often make fun of. Sometimes when you are lost, the only thing to do is laugh about the fact that you might be lost because you don't have a map, but still you ride every day without a map. We ride with highway directions and sometimes names of towns we should be passing, and of course, a final address or street name. Among the most notable directions are "take the highway to [enter town name] and the host will meet you at the center in the early afternoon" and "Once you get to town, meet at the most obvious place (or the tallest building)". The best part about those days is that they managed to work out seamlessly. It is not always so easy. Upon arriving in a town we often just have to ask for directions until someone points us in the right direction... but it's generally better to ask 3 sets of people and go with where the majority points you.

We have no time. Really, this is the true bottleneck. Adding 8 hours to each day would quickly solve all our problems, right? Okay, but more seriously... When I get into camp at 6pm after a long and hard ride, I am sweaty, hungry and exhausted. This means I want to shower, eat, and sleep (not always in that order). However, there are always about a million other things to do and they are not always fun.

Some examples and logic of prioritization:

1. Internet. How many days has it been since you last emailed your mom?
2. Laundry. How many days has it been since you last washed your jersey? (The smell test almost always comes into play here)
3. Set up your tent. Is it raining? Is it dark? Do you need to dry out your tent from the thunderstorm last night?
4. Lock up your bike and unpack. Do you have to lug your stuff somewhere?
5. Eat dinner. How tired are you? How long before it's ready?
6. Write in your journal/read. Can you sneak away for a minute? Can you keep your eyes open?
7. Attend a meeting. Is it optional?
8. Shower. Degree of filth? How tired are you? Is there a line-up? Is the water ice cold?
9. Bike maintenance. Can you do it in the morning? If you don't fix it will your life be in danger the next ride day?
10. Host interaction. Are there enough other people talking to them/going with them where they want to take us (ex. the church in Stassfurt or the fire hall in Hoxter)?
12. One on one chats/Internal engagement. Can you gain from this interaction? How tired are you? How much can you contribute?
13. Personal/Quiet time. You never get this. Okay, you get it for a second here and there, but only if you're lucky... and sneaky.
14. CHORES! (this one deserves a bit more space because it helps illuminate the logistics of how this trip is made possible)

-Route and car load/unload
Look at the maps and make sure there is a route for the next day. Do we have an address? Are there route variations (bike path vs. highway) or ferries. Do we have to get somewhere by a certain time? Do we need internet for route info? Also involves loading the car in the morning, which is sometimes hindered by slow breakfasters and lunch makers, and unloading it when you get into camp.
-Dinner
The most time intensive chore group. Prepares and makes dinner for the entire group. Often takes many hours and involves complaints from people who are not full afterward. Sometimes there is an overwhelming amount of complaining which is not limited to dinner-related events. For the first half of the trip this chore included getting groceries (and sometimes still does), but now Phil the driver picks up groceries on the way to the accommodation spot.
-Dinner clean-up
Self explanatory but keep in mind that if dinner is at 9 or 10pm and you are exhausted and have to do 3 of the things listed above and just want to go to bed, then dirty dishes are not your friend. [insert complaint here]
-Wake-up and breakfast
The easiest (I think). Wake everybody up, prepare breakfast, and lay out lunch. Sometimes it means grabbing some bags of muesli and some cartons of milk, sometimes it means cutting up enough fruit for a giant fruit salad for 21. Lunch usually involves cutting veggies and rationing cheese and other such lunch fare.
-Host site clean-up
It wasn't the case for the first half of the trip, but now everybody pitches in with site clean-up. The deal is to get your stuff out as soon as possible and no breakfast until you're fully packed. Sometimes we make a big mess and it takes longer to get out of a place. The farther we spread, the more we have to clean.
-Thank you card
Gala makes lovely handmade cards for each of our hosts and we all sign them.

People get injured/sick. This can throw a HUGE wrench in the (what is the saying?). Hopefully we know about it before the ride starts so that we can put people in the car. However, it is a small car and when it's fully packed you can fit one person with panniers and bike comfortably and 2 small people will be squished and uncomfortable, but will at least still get where they need to go. If you get injured or sick on the road and you are not with sweep (they have the phone) then you will need to wait for sweep and hope they took the same route as you, somehow find a phone, borrow a phone, or find a gas station in the middle of nowhere that has wireless and use Sabrina's iphone to skype Daniel from Vienna and get him to send a text message to both phones and then email everyone who has a computer or checks their internet often (this both happened and worked). We have been very lucky and somehow everything has worked out... but there can be wondering, stressing, and tons of waiting around for the car to get all the way to the accommodation, unload and come back to get you. So yeah, if you're feeling queasy or really hurting, ride with sweep or take the car. Plus - know your limits on the road, ride safely, and take breaks when you need them. Communication is key!

This trip has been a crazy whirlwind and there is not nearly enough time to do all the things I want to do. There have been some really tough times and there have definitely been some tears of frustration, but I have learned much more from the hard times and I've also learned a lot from reflecting on how I've acted and reacted when things have gotten tough (and from how the group has reacted). There's been so little time to write, but I've been doing my best... and I'm nurturing some really awesome connections with some truly great people, so that has been wonderfully rewarding.
Oh, and I got to rock climb with a bunch of czechs in Vratsa on a Bulgarian mountainside, which was everything my heart has ever desired and more.
So yeah, this ridiculous social experiment has yielded much more personal growth than was initially intended for. I think the original view was for external engagement and lots of group discussion, but the style of the trip and the lack of organizational capability (we are biking long hard days through the middle of nowhere, sometimes with no accommodation) has made it really difficult to get big discussions going. It's been a lot more of the smaller groups or one on ones, but I feel like I've been making the best of it and I'm totally hungry to learn as much as I can and to keep the ball rolling once I'm back home, so that's kind of cool. And I'll be in Istanbul in 6 days, which is even cooler. The other night we had a really great group discussion about international development - how we define it, what it means to us, power structures between the developed and developing, progress and growth, environmental aspects, how/if we can affect change, our resposibility as a 'developed' country, etc. It was part of a string of really empowering and honest discussions and it was great to hear everyone's ideas and learn something from each and every single person on this trip. All in all, we are doing the best we can... and if it takes a little goofing off and dancing to make it a tad more manageable, then all I have to say is: Dance on.

Love,

Erin