I <3 Bici!

Chicas de Todas en Bici...we're an unstoppable team!

I know it's been awhile since my last post, things have been pretty busy in the last week with my internship and class. I have the first weekend's worth of activities with Ciclopolis- Todas en Bici under my belt! Ah I love it...it's such a great organization! There are definitely some things that are a bit different and will take some getting used to (the methods of organizing and scheduling and what not), but as a whole it's amazing. I don't know of a city in the US that blocks of 30 km worth of city streets for 8 hours a day, once a week to promote biking!! And my sector of ciclopolis is promoting biking for Mujeres! (women) The Todas en Bici team is made up of 2 Ecuadorian girls (Anahi, Monica- both 22 I believe) and then Charlotte (my age from Macalester college) and me. Saturday I helped to teach (or more like learned!) one of the workshops we give for women. I say learn because this week we had a mechanic there, and I learned the correct way to change a flat tire. I'm glad I did! It was a bit hard to try and help in Spanish- but it was good practice. The women were all so great and eager to learn. They made it definitely worth while! They ranged in age from 15 to late 50's. Yesterday was their second to last lesson, and 8 out of the 10 are now able to ride quite well on their own. (They didn't know how at the beginning--but 7 lessons later!) For the second part of class I lead them on a ride around the huge park where we give lessons. It was fuun. I'm really excited to be a part of this organization--I hope to be able to make a difference in my short 3 months with them. The weekends are a bit exhausting...working 6:45-11:30 am saturday and 7-4:30 Sunday. Yikes! But it's worth it.

Who knows…maybe I’ll have to start a program of my own some day..

Always empowered, always inspired,

Natalie