The conditions are harsh, especially in the rainy season, which is just beginning. Because of the daily heavy rainfall, the otherwise very dusty road turns into a real muddy track and progress is very difficult. The mud is knee-deep in places. The track becomes very slippery due to the softening, comparable to black ice in our regions in winter. Not only does this cause problems for the drivers, the vehicles‘ technology also suffers. The mixture of sand and water settles on the drive chain, for example, and abrades the teeth of the drive sprockets little by little with every revolution – like sandpaper. The wear is correspondingly high.

So we continued our ‘shopping tour’ in a motorbike parts shop – and got all the parts even as originals. That’s not that easy, because many parts are cheaply copied and flood the market. Often even the packaging is counterfeited and then it is difficult to distinguish the durable original from the inferior copy.

The shop is run by an elderly couple who are very friendly and trustworthy. We told the owner about our projects and because he liked our commitment so much, he gave us a nice discount – his contribution to the development of his region, he says.