Cycling for Change

Cycling for Change
Cambodia

Proceed straight down this road for guaranteed success:

1. Graduate from high school.
2. Go to college.
3. Get a job.
4. Wear a suit.
5. Make money.
6. Become an adult.

Is that the road I am supposed to follow? According to whom?

This is the path most people I know have chosen, and one which I have often been encouraged to follow. Yet, instinct has caused me to steer away from that path. You see, I really don’t like suits. I left my suits behind.

Nearly three years ago, I moved to Japan to break free of the over-worn, single-track path in order to roll my tires over less trodden ground. Making my own way without the pre-set trail markers has brought me to teaching English, to appreciating the Japanese arts of drumming and calligraphy, and to volunteering beyond borders. It has also brought me, and my bike, to the north of Japan in pursuit of education in its purest form; hands-on, get-dirty, see-the-results-and-learn-from-them type of stuff.

For a month last summer, I rode my bike from the northern island of Japan through the mainland with a group of seven riders. During the ride, called BEE Japan, we taught at schools and to community groups about the environment. This experience taught me to appreciate a teacher’s power to change the world by altering opinions and igniting ideas in eager children. The Japanese children we met were excited about our environmental lessons; responding with joyful smiles, endless questions, and appreciative letters.

The experience helped me to understand that my education is my most valuable possession. My education provided me different paths from which to choose, opened the door for many career opportunities, and gave me the ability to determine which path is best for me. I believe the path to a fulfilling life should incorporate two major steps.
1) Get a good education.
2) Be who you want to be.

While the steps may sound easy, I know they are not for many. The resources and infrastructure to obtain a good education are not within grasp for many children today. What about those children who are not as privileged as my Japanese students or I? Thus, I steer my bike in a new direction, off the fancy sidewalks, past the cement and technology, and into the countryside to a place where schools are hard to come by and an education impossible to guarantee. On my way, I found Cambodia. Of the thirty countries that I have visited, Cambodia struck a chord in my soul more than any other. So, this is where I will lock up my bike for the time being.

After my cycling trip through Japan, my ideas started rolling towards Cambodia and my next challenge. They gathered momentum and have been cruising along ever since. With the help of my friend Greta Arnquist, I began to develop a project called The PEPY Ride. Our project entitled “Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself” will bring much needed educational opportunities to the children of Cambodia. The original concept was to cycle through Cambodia for a month teaching about the environment and health. However, as our research delved deeper into the educational issues plaguing Cambodia, we soon realized that long-term educational opportunities are shockingly scarce in Cambodia due to a vast lack of resources and a horrifying recent history. In fact, more than 80% of children in rural areas receive no schooling at all. Armed with this new realization, our original goal of teaching for a month has developed into an aspiration to help bring both educational materials and infrastructure to Cambodia.

To achieve this grander goal, The PEPY Ride partnered with American Assistance for Cambodia, an NGO that has built over 250 schools in Cambodia since 1999. We have surpassed our first goal of $16,000 and are now working to raise $35,000 to build a rural school. Encouraged by our success, our goals are still broadening to include a satellite, garden, and a chef to make free school lunches.

We realize we cannot possibly visit every school during our month long ride, nor can we consistently pedal to all corners of the country to update the educational materials. Thus, we are working with the Future Light Orphanage in Phnom Penh, whose over 200 students often go on to become teachers at rural schools upon graduation. As we continue to raise funds, we will be able to bring environmental education training programs taught, by Cambodia’s environmental NGO Mlup Baitong, to the Future Light students and to provide teaching materials for those who move on to become educators in Cambodia.

I am trying my hardest to “delay the real world”, or to completely avoid it, by creating my own path and making my own settlements along the forest’s less traveled routes. My bike has brought me into the off-trail areas to which I have become attached, and the former signpost marking “The Road to Riches and Status” is barely visible from where I now stand.

I believe that the key to making the world a brighter place for our children is education. I think many of Cambodia’s environmental and health problems are surmountable with educational expansion being the final push needed to get the bike rolling along the path of improvements. Some people may look at my divergence from the “safe path” as indulgent or rash, but, as Frost said, that has made all the difference. I have found my path and I hope The PEPY Ride will continue to provide educational opportunities for children to prepare them to choose their own paths through life.

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