Less than a Month to Go

Our Bike Kenya 2012 team preparations intensify as we now count less than four weeks until we fly to Nairobi to begin our 600-mile ride through Kenya to raise funds to build a new school. Our anticipation and momentum is building!

Ride facts in review:
- Eight cyclists from North America
- One cyclist (a Bishop, no less!) from Kenya
- Two Kenyan support staff traveling with us
- Team members range from 20 to retirement age.
- A 600-mile route northwest of Nairobi
- 12 straight days of pedaling
- Each cyclist pays 100% of his/her expenses
- Goal: raise $40,000 for a new ICCM school
- Asking all who care/can to make a per-mile donation to build the school
- ICCM is International Child Care Ministries (www.childcareministries.org)
- VISA Mobilization Ministries facilitates our volunteer effort

RAIN, RAIN.  We are now more fully aware than previously that our team will likely experience rain--and perhaps significant amounts of it--during the course of our ride.  Kenya receives, on average, over 8 inches of rain in May! Wow! The only comforting reality beyond that is that the average temperature in May in Kenya is 84 degrees F (29 C).  So, we're packing rain gear and plastic fenders!

TRAINING DAILY.  Most of our team members are now training several hours a day in preparation for the effort in Kenya. Hours in the saddle now make it less of a strain once we start pedaling at least 5 hours a day for 12 straight days.

CLIMBS AND ELEVATION.  Our team is training on whatever hills we can find. Most of us live in the American Midwest, so there are not many opportunities for hard hills.  Another factor we are considering is the elevation of Nairobi and Nakuru.  Nairobi is just over 1 mile high (like Denver, Colorado). Nakuru, near the equator, is over 1.6 miles above sea level.  To what extent will the thinner air at these elevations impact our progress through hilly terrain?  We'll see.  We plan to take it very carefully.

SUPPORT FOR A SCHOOL.  We hope you will appreciate our volunteer "sweat equity" and make a donation to help build a new ICCM school in Kenya.  Can you give...
- 5 cents per mile ($30)?
- 10c per mile ($60)?
- 25c per mile ($150)?
- $1 per mile ($600)?
- More? Less?

THANK YOU! Thanks for whatever you can do. That's why we're riding.  Our goals is to raise--one donation at a time--$40,000 to make a solid Christian education possible where it has not been available.  Use the links on the right sidebar to make an online donation right now. Or send a check by post mail.  Whatever you can do is appreciated!

TUNE IN.  Keep coming back to our blog. Also, follow us on Twitter @BikeKenya2012 (www.twitter.com/bikekenya2012). We hope to have lots of photos and stories to share with you as we continue our preparation and then ride through this beautiful country!