Trinidad Bicycle Osmosis Project
Donation protected
**Update, Sept 15,2020: 400 bikes + household goods were loaded into the shipping container here in Florence last weekend and left on their journey across the ocean. Eta Oct 1st. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped out along the way!
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In the winter of 2019, I spent 6 wonderful weeks living and working at One Family Farm in La Lune, Moruga, Trinidad. I saw few bikes there, despite it being a walkable, bikeable area. Many people I talked to in the farming/fishing community said, "Yeah, I'd love to have a bike, there just aren't very many, and they're expensive." I said, "Well, I know a place where there's A LOT of bikes." Hence the Trinidad Bicycle Osmosis Project. My goal is to send a shipping container of 300-400 bikes. (more could fit, but I'm also shipping farm and household supplies) The bikes will be received and stored by a friend in St Mary's, about a half hour drive from La Lune. From there, they will be resold at very reasonable prices.
During my most recent trip to La Lune, Nov 2019 - Jan 2020, so many people asked me, "When are the bikes coming? What kind are they? How much are you selling them for?"
I had a bike and an old Pedal People trailer that I had shipped down ahead of time, and I made lots of friends giving kids rides. I had a really nice connection with one particular family, a blended family with around 10 kids. Sometimes I would go in the bush with them to harvest yam or work in the garden.
I was told some of the kids didn't go to school because they lacked money for passage. "I"ll trade for bikes too," I told them. "You can help fix someone else's bike in exchange for a bike. I'll have tools and parts and we can work together."
In addition to the bike and trailer, I had also shipped down a floor pump. It lived at Noriga's house and was used pretty much every day by neighborhood kids. It was the only floor pump I ever saw in town. Tools were another thing I almost never saw. If one person had a tool, others would ask to borrow it, and sometimes the trail would get hard to follow. The need for a good quality pump, and the need for tools which would be where you
wanted when you wanted, made me think of the permanently mounted pump and bike repair stand that we put by our house and the bike path in Northampton. I ran the idea by some leaders in the community in La Lune, and people liked the idea as much as I did, so I am also buying one of these to put by the village soccer field. It costs $1000, but I see it as a transportation infrastructure improvement. My thought is that when a certain number of bikes sell and are paid for, say 15 or 20, we'll consider the stand paid for and install it.
I'm planning on shipping bikes in April, weather permitting, and being there in May when they arrive. My goal is to set up a bike workshop space similar what I do at the Bike Lab in Northampton ( https://www.pedalpeople.coop/index.php?page=17), so people can maintain their bikes.
Donations of bicycles and bike tools are also welcome, and can be dropped off at 8 High St, Florence, or 12 Northern Ave, Northampton, MA, until April 9 of 2020. Thanks!!
the fine print:
To send a shipping container from the Port of Boston to the Port of Spain is minimum $2700. It costs another $1000 to get it from Western Mass into the port. Import fees and inland transportation and storage will be other costs, I'm guessing around $3000-4000. ( I also spent $888 to buy 65 bikes from the Springfield Police bike auction.) Customs duties in Trinidad will probably be at least $3000. My plan is that many of the bikes will be sold and I will be reimbursed for some of the shipping costs, though that might take a year. If there is money beyond the costs of shipping, duties, storage, local mechanics and local transport, and my travel/living costs while I'm doing this project, it would most likely be seed money to put towards a future shipment of bikes (or whatever bike-related project the community felt was a priority.)
Bikes Not Bombs, based in Boston, has been a key resource in helping with this project. Thanks especially to Carl Kurz for his advice and for welcoming me to help with shipping container loadings over the summer; and also to Stephen Bosco, for doing the Northampton bike drive and guiding me through how to get 300-400 bikes from 4 different locations into one shipping container.
If you are interested to learn more about One Family Farm, here are a couple of youtube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sqw6x93VLs (53 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jInMiijjUMk (4min)
I found people in La Lune to be incredibly welcoming of me as I walked down the road - inviting me in, feeding me, asking me when I was coming back, loving me. I didn't see a lot of cash in the economy; most people I saw got their food from the land, and had simple houses that worked fine in the Caribbean climate. There was piped-in running water 3 days a week, when we would fill all our tanks and barrels.
For local transportation, people would either walk or "travel", which meant flagging down a ride, usually from someone in the community with a car who drove taxi informally. If people had more bikes, they could more easily go to their farm fields, the store, their neighbors' houses, the government computer center in Marac. For the One Family Farmers, they have many farm fields spread out over a 3-km stretch, so bikes would be especially helpful for getting between fields and homes. Giselle, the co-farmer, says that if there were more bikes in the community, people could go for bike rides together.
I'm also looking for a tandem, so I can do taxi service, especially with women and girls who might not normally ride, whether it's b/c they don't know how, or b/c it's not the cultural norm. And, in the fall of 2019, I sent one bike and an old Pedal People trailer, so when I was there in November of 2019, I had a great time giving kids rides and getting pushed up hills. We also used it for hauling furniture, and farm produce. And Noriga's son Glendon, who is bedbound due to cerebral palsy.
If you have any questions, please contact me. I'm so excited about this project!
Thanks again,
Ruthy
====================================================
In the winter of 2019, I spent 6 wonderful weeks living and working at One Family Farm in La Lune, Moruga, Trinidad. I saw few bikes there, despite it being a walkable, bikeable area. Many people I talked to in the farming/fishing community said, "Yeah, I'd love to have a bike, there just aren't very many, and they're expensive." I said, "Well, I know a place where there's A LOT of bikes." Hence the Trinidad Bicycle Osmosis Project. My goal is to send a shipping container of 300-400 bikes. (more could fit, but I'm also shipping farm and household supplies) The bikes will be received and stored by a friend in St Mary's, about a half hour drive from La Lune. From there, they will be resold at very reasonable prices.
During my most recent trip to La Lune, Nov 2019 - Jan 2020, so many people asked me, "When are the bikes coming? What kind are they? How much are you selling them for?"
I had a bike and an old Pedal People trailer that I had shipped down ahead of time, and I made lots of friends giving kids rides. I had a really nice connection with one particular family, a blended family with around 10 kids. Sometimes I would go in the bush with them to harvest yam or work in the garden.
I was told some of the kids didn't go to school because they lacked money for passage. "I"ll trade for bikes too," I told them. "You can help fix someone else's bike in exchange for a bike. I'll have tools and parts and we can work together."
In addition to the bike and trailer, I had also shipped down a floor pump. It lived at Noriga's house and was used pretty much every day by neighborhood kids. It was the only floor pump I ever saw in town. Tools were another thing I almost never saw. If one person had a tool, others would ask to borrow it, and sometimes the trail would get hard to follow. The need for a good quality pump, and the need for tools which would be where you
wanted when you wanted, made me think of the permanently mounted pump and bike repair stand that we put by our house and the bike path in Northampton. I ran the idea by some leaders in the community in La Lune, and people liked the idea as much as I did, so I am also buying one of these to put by the village soccer field. It costs $1000, but I see it as a transportation infrastructure improvement. My thought is that when a certain number of bikes sell and are paid for, say 15 or 20, we'll consider the stand paid for and install it.
I'm planning on shipping bikes in April, weather permitting, and being there in May when they arrive. My goal is to set up a bike workshop space similar what I do at the Bike Lab in Northampton ( https://www.pedalpeople.coop/index.php?page=17), so people can maintain their bikes.
Donations of bicycles and bike tools are also welcome, and can be dropped off at 8 High St, Florence, or 12 Northern Ave, Northampton, MA, until April 9 of 2020. Thanks!!
the fine print:
To send a shipping container from the Port of Boston to the Port of Spain is minimum $2700. It costs another $1000 to get it from Western Mass into the port. Import fees and inland transportation and storage will be other costs, I'm guessing around $3000-4000. ( I also spent $888 to buy 65 bikes from the Springfield Police bike auction.) Customs duties in Trinidad will probably be at least $3000. My plan is that many of the bikes will be sold and I will be reimbursed for some of the shipping costs, though that might take a year. If there is money beyond the costs of shipping, duties, storage, local mechanics and local transport, and my travel/living costs while I'm doing this project, it would most likely be seed money to put towards a future shipment of bikes (or whatever bike-related project the community felt was a priority.)
Bikes Not Bombs, based in Boston, has been a key resource in helping with this project. Thanks especially to Carl Kurz for his advice and for welcoming me to help with shipping container loadings over the summer; and also to Stephen Bosco, for doing the Northampton bike drive and guiding me through how to get 300-400 bikes from 4 different locations into one shipping container.
If you are interested to learn more about One Family Farm, here are a couple of youtube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sqw6x93VLs (53 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jInMiijjUMk (4min)
I found people in La Lune to be incredibly welcoming of me as I walked down the road - inviting me in, feeding me, asking me when I was coming back, loving me. I didn't see a lot of cash in the economy; most people I saw got their food from the land, and had simple houses that worked fine in the Caribbean climate. There was piped-in running water 3 days a week, when we would fill all our tanks and barrels.
For local transportation, people would either walk or "travel", which meant flagging down a ride, usually from someone in the community with a car who drove taxi informally. If people had more bikes, they could more easily go to their farm fields, the store, their neighbors' houses, the government computer center in Marac. For the One Family Farmers, they have many farm fields spread out over a 3-km stretch, so bikes would be especially helpful for getting between fields and homes. Giselle, the co-farmer, says that if there were more bikes in the community, people could go for bike rides together.
I'm also looking for a tandem, so I can do taxi service, especially with women and girls who might not normally ride, whether it's b/c they don't know how, or b/c it's not the cultural norm. And, in the fall of 2019, I sent one bike and an old Pedal People trailer, so when I was there in November of 2019, I had a great time giving kids rides and getting pushed up hills. We also used it for hauling furniture, and farm produce. And Noriga's son Glendon, who is bedbound due to cerebral palsy.
If you have any questions, please contact me. I'm so excited about this project!
Thanks again,
Ruthy
Organizer
Ruthy Woodring
Organizer
Westhampton, MA
