erin.

Imagine: you have just purchased a new wooden bed frame. In fact, it was custom made at a local woodworking shop, and you have arranged delivery. Now imagine that the delivery vehicle is a one-speed bicycle.

This is the reality here in Uganda. Tasks that would normally be accomplished by a car or truck in the US are completed with the aid of a simple bicycle. I have seen bicycles carrying larger loads (and, sometimes, more passengers– one time I saw a family of 4 ride by) than I could have ever imagined.

In Uganda, the word bicycle means a Hero. And by Hero, I am speaking of a brand that is a 70’s-style single-speed cruiser that has many quirks (on the one that I used during training, for example, the chain occasionally liked to leap off) but can serve any number of purposes in Uganda.

I am impressed by how useful this simple machine becomes in the Ugandan context. The most common use of the Hero is as a boda-boda. Boda-boda is the word used for a bicycle or motorcycle taxi of sorts. A group of boda-bodas of both varieties waits on pretty much every corner throughout every town, and the drivers enjoy making comments at passers-by while awaiting their next passenger. In the case of the bicycle boda-boda, the passenger sits behind the rider on the Hero’s rack, which is usually covered with a cushion to make the ride a bit more comfortable. This is a main mode of transportation for many people– children, adults, and their luggage all routinely ride on the back of boda-bodas to get from point A to point B.

The Hero only comes in one size, as far as I can tell. Still, this does not prevent very small children from running errands on a Hero. The problem of size is solved like this: Imagine a boy sticking his leg through the frame to ride the bicycle, balancing with one hand on the top bar of the frame and the other on one side of the handlebars. Each time that I see this feat of balance and strength I am amazed all over again.