Bad Ass Biker Bitch
May. 23rd, 2006 02:04 pmTuesday 1:41 pm
Sure we sweated and grunted yesterday morning, trying to pickaxe holes in tough, Congolese volcanic rock ground, but the afternoon made it all worthwhile.
Willi is I guess an accomplished motorcycle driver in Germany, and he'd told stories of renting some guy's boda boda bike in Uganda and tooling around town in it. Of course, in Kampala, the traffic is absolute ass and terrible, so it's a bit dangerous.
Here, in Goma however, the traffic is pretty minimal and the only real concern is the terrain. Soooo we talked to Jungla and he knew a guy in town who'd be willing to rent us his bike for 5 hours for $5. Quite a deal!
My dad was furious that Willi wore a helmet (Congolese law) and I didn't, but it felt wild to be zooming through town with my hair billowing behind me.
We zoomed into the Lebanese restaurant to have lunch and ran into Simon, so it was fun catching up and I do certainly feel like I have a bit of a community here and it's nice. I am absolutely feeling better today than I was feeling yesterday.
We weren't quite sure where to go but we circled around a bit and accelerated hardcore when the road was actually flat AND paved (a huge accomplishment here).
Showed Willi the lake and the MONUC compound, as well as down to Hotel Karibu where we had some tea/coffee (but not "coffee tea") and looked at the empty waterless pool. Alas.
All in all, just the freedom of the moto and being able to go places and being on the back of a bike that wasn't a shitty, poorly driven and slow boda boda was amazing.
I can see now why people love motorcycles too -- hehe. I'd totally get on the back of some guy's Harley although I'd probably skip the leather pants.
Anyway, we've got more marketing to do.
Pictures to come!
Sure we sweated and grunted yesterday morning, trying to pickaxe holes in tough, Congolese volcanic rock ground, but the afternoon made it all worthwhile.
Willi is I guess an accomplished motorcycle driver in Germany, and he'd told stories of renting some guy's boda boda bike in Uganda and tooling around town in it. Of course, in Kampala, the traffic is absolute ass and terrible, so it's a bit dangerous.
Here, in Goma however, the traffic is pretty minimal and the only real concern is the terrain. Soooo we talked to Jungla and he knew a guy in town who'd be willing to rent us his bike for 5 hours for $5. Quite a deal!
My dad was furious that Willi wore a helmet (Congolese law) and I didn't, but it felt wild to be zooming through town with my hair billowing behind me.
We zoomed into the Lebanese restaurant to have lunch and ran into Simon, so it was fun catching up and I do certainly feel like I have a bit of a community here and it's nice. I am absolutely feeling better today than I was feeling yesterday.
We weren't quite sure where to go but we circled around a bit and accelerated hardcore when the road was actually flat AND paved (a huge accomplishment here).
Showed Willi the lake and the MONUC compound, as well as down to Hotel Karibu where we had some tea/coffee (but not "coffee tea") and looked at the empty waterless pool. Alas.
All in all, just the freedom of the moto and being able to go places and being on the back of a bike that wasn't a shitty, poorly driven and slow boda boda was amazing.
I can see now why people love motorcycles too -- hehe. I'd totally get on the back of some guy's Harley although I'd probably skip the leather pants.
Anyway, we've got more marketing to do.
Pictures to come!