When cyclists become VIPs at a local wedding

Today’s starting point was the Africa Rising Cycling Center, where we arrived yesterday. This isn’t only the heart of Rwanda’s cycling scene, but also a great spot to give our bikes the best possible care. Rafiki, one of the very first members of Team Rwanda, didn’t only take car of the bikes, he also assisted us on today’s extreme track.

And extreme it was, with very technical parts in between the lava rocks. Those who wanted however, could also opt for the moderate option. Both tracks had steep hills up and steep hills down, making it a challenging tour of 45km.

Strange but true, the cycling part wasn’t the highlight of the day. After a hot shower, a few of us decided to go for a walk. When they were just a few hundred meters away, some loud music attracted their attention. Curious as they were, they peeked inside the building and to their surprise they landed in the middle of a wedding! The bride and groom couldn’t believe their eyes and promptly emptied the first row of the ceremony for their special guests. Their keen eye immediately spotted that Herman is used to give a speech, and he was kindly invited behind the microphone. This is one of the moments you simply cannot predict upfront, but it clearly brings colour to Bike for Africa 2020.

Not everything today was unpredicted however. The design thinking team ended their first project at Kokka, a very small company producing and selling corn flour. All 8 employees joined our team for the design thinking to discover how they can improve their business. All together they looked into the customer needs and how to solve them. At the end of the day, the team from Kokka was surprised with a €7.000 cheque to really implement the solutions they came up with today. 

The day after tomorrow we have a second design thinking workshop on the planning, this time in a coffee plantation. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming days!