We're biking across Canada!

Rob:
Hello and welcome to our blog for our bike trip across the worlds second largest country. There are four of us biking together, Brad, Steph, Meghan and myself, but this blog will primarily be for Meghan and I to tell our story. In this first post I'll explain why we're doing this, and how we're going to do it.

The idea came from being overseas and constantly being asked what Canada is like, and not really having a good answer. We're trying to gain an understanding of what it means to be Canadian by seeing the country, and meeting as many people as we can. It also agrees well with many things that we stand for, it's environmentally friendly, somewhat hippyish, and will have us enjoying the outdoors for almost 4 months.

We're leaving today for Victoria (except Meghan, who will join in Vancouver on the 15th) and we don't plan to return until September 1st, when we'll be picked up from St. John's. Our plan is to bike about 100km per day, which will leave us with about 30 extra non-biking days where we'll be able to hang out and get to know Canada. We've got our bikes all packed up with everything we need to fully support ourselves including cooking and camping! We've got a route mostly planned (see the link on the left) but we have enough freedom to make any last minute changes to follow our noses to any neat places.

Meghan and I have added some extra motivation that should help us make is across, as we're doing the trip to raise money for students in Kenya through the McMaster student run organization SEED (Students for Education Empowerment and Development). Both Meghan and I spent last summer in Africa, and each in our own way realized how important education is to ensure that developing countries can independently bring about their own desired change for the better. I met a number of people who were unable to afford the fees to write certain exams which were administered overseas, and thus had no credentials and could not get a decent job, even though they were very smart. I also met a number of rural families that could not afford to send their children to school because their help was needed on the farm, often due to illnesses of some of the family members. While Meghan was in Kenya she had the opportunity to visit the Humwend secondary school in Ukwala, which will be the specific cause for the money that we raise. For various reasons the 120 pupils at this school can not afford to continue to pay the school fees, and without help they will not be in school much longer. Although sending money to this cause is not a permanent solution to the problem of people being our of school in Africa, it is something that can be done now to make a positive difference for those 120 students, while we progress towards a real solution. The problem is very complex stemming from the Structural Adjustment forced by the World Bank, and currently from the limits that the World Bank places on a countries social spending. So we're doing what we can now, while we push the government to do what they can for long term change.

During the trip we're going to try to update the blog and the map below once a week, with some interesting pictures and stories. We'll also try to publish some videos whenever possible. Please keep checking the blog, and fire us feedback as we go!

I don't think any of us really know what to expect from this trip, or have any idea of how difficult it might be, but we're definitely determined to do it, and to enjoy it.