This week we started doing a variety of different activities things. I (Sabrina) have been working a lot with Freddie in the workshop. He showed me how to use all the power tools in the workshop. It was very nerve racking at first, and I wasn’t quite sure I should be using them. But Freddie was extremely patient and showed me how to use them all safely. I helped to cut different bike parts and sanded the edges and sawed different corners. He is working on making another bicimaquina that takes the corn off the cob, and he also wants to add a part that grinds the corn after it is separated. One of the tasks he had me do was take a bike tire and take all the spokes out so that we could take out a part in the center. Then I had to put the whole thing back together again. I never realized how complicated something like that could be. The spokes all go back and forth to different holes. Then once I secured them in place I had to tighten them all so that the wheel spun straight and even. That part was way trickier and more meticulous than I realized. When the tire was aligned we filled it up with concrete. This makes the bike easier to pedal.

Heather and Jee met with Catjia this week as well. She is from the US and has been working with a film crew in Cochabamba. They are doing a documentary on the Cochabamba Pedal Project. Heather and Jee have been working on fixing up the website as well as creating a fundraising page. Catjia is going to give us some material to add to the website and fundraising page. Catjia and her team have done lots of interviews with the Cochabamba Pedal Project crew and have a great understanding of their mission. They are going to create a trailer for the fundraising page as well.

One of the projects that CPP has in mind is to create a bicicafe. They want to set up a cafe where people can come and create their own juice using the bicimaquinas, bikers can fix their bikes and they want to have a big focus on organic and locally grown products. So Marlon spent a lot of the week looking over their business plan and translating it, so that we could include that information on the fundraising page.