Bike-a-thon done...Karen's Ride up next!

Well,  I had hoped to write BEFORE my trip to Malawi...but had not blogged on here in so long, I could not remember the address to sign in with....grrrr.

It's ok, though, because today was Educate Malawi's 5th Annual bike-a-thon and it was quite successful, I would say! 

We had some of our long standing riders and added a few new ones!  In addition, we had some new volunteers that we were grateful for, in addition to some of our long standing volunteers, also! 

After everything was packed up, and the riders and volunteers had all gone home, I was antsy and couldn't decide what to do with the rest of the day!  So, I decided to use that energy to get on my bike!  It was a great ride and really got me in the mood to begin training for my Big Ride in September!  This is my official announcement, if you will, of my plans for this year's ride.

Two years ago, I rode around most of New England, MA, CT, RI, NH, and VT.  Last year I rode from Kittery to Calais, ME and logged 446 miles in 8 days.  Not THE most impressive of rides in terms of number of miles, or my age...I am not recovering miraculously from any major illness or injury...BUT, I continue to ride, attempting to cover all 50 states eventually, in an attempt to raise money and awareness about the needs of the small African nation of Malawi, Africa. 

THIS year, I plan to ride 500 miles, again in 8 days, from NY, to PA to NJ....

I have not set a fundraising goal yet, so for now I plan to leave the 'thermometer' on the blog page until that time.  Likely, the goal will be at least the same as last year, if I don't decide to raise it....stay tuned!

The above photos show some of the result of this last trip to Malawi....Educate Malawi is raising funds for a teacher's house.  The teachers at this school, the Mphata school in Zomba, walk approximately 9 km to and from school each day in order to teach at this school.  They do this because they are committed to their job of teaching, but it is a great distance and puts a great strain on their ability to function to their best potential.  The school arranged this 'ceremony' to meet me and Mathew and Liz, who all represented Educate Malawi, and they expressed their deep gratitude for our willingness to do this.  They prepared readings, song and dance, speeches, prayer and skits to do this...we were all deeply moved and I thanked THEM for the opportunity to help.  We will start as soon as possible so hopefully we can get the first teacher, who will likely be the head teacher and his family, before the rainy season.

I hope to continue to update this blog in these months leading up to the ride.  Hopefully I will have some followers and can keep you interested, maybe entertained, and mostly informed!

Peace and Zikomo!!

Karen