"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000: A PeaceBike School Visit...Just Barely -- Lima, Peru

Tad here,

After having a great day yesterday, good eats, great new friends, and a clean bike, I was still without a school visit. I asked Alberto Sr. for suggestions and he told me that Beto Jr. would help me find some schools.

The first one we visited, which was only a few doors away from their home, had exams in progress and couldn`t do visits. The second one had the same reasons ready for me but I wasn't going to leave without a visit. I chained myself to the director's desk and started some protest chants...Just Give PeaceBike a Chance, and We ain't gonna' study no more caus' PeaceBike is knockin' at the door...etc.

Actually, that is straying into fantasy, but I did talk the good sub-director Sr. José Carlos Canales into a 5 minute presentation to a class. I soon realized, as I walked into the courtyard of this all-girls school that biking gringo men were rare sights in these parts. They were rowdy (and that is an understatement) but I decided to rise to the occasion and match their enthusiasm. This school was very lax and over half of the students were just wandering about and started to cluster around me. I wheeled PeaceForce One through to the class I was speaking to, gave a 5+1 minute PeaceBike-Pep talk and left our PeaceBike contacts. Then we took some pictures and Beto and I headed out. A third school was in exams too and couldn`t swing it and we were ready for a lunch break anyway!

Frank plans to add his notes to the website soon!

Peace(Bike),

TAD

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