Buying a Bike

Hooray! I finally got a bike! It is a pretty nice bike for Mozambique.  However it was definitely a very different and interesting process.

1.      --I had to find a place to actually buy it.  Even though there are probably thousands of bikes on the road…there seem to be very few places to actually buy one.  I ended up going with one of my colleagues to an open area market and bought my bike from a vender on the street. 

2.   ---   I had to negotiate a good price for the bike.  I was pretty successful.

3.   ---   I bought the bike. Hooray!

4.    --Then a small group of guys took apart the entire bike, in front of my very eyes…just to then reassemble it.  I guess that is just what they do here.  I don’t really understand why.  But it might be just the Mozambiquan way.

5.     --- I had to pay extra for them to take apart and then reassemble it.  It was a little interesting to see how a bike is put together and it took them less than an hour 

6.      ---All the while made small talk with the various guys working on the bike.  They were cool.  And were certainly entertained by my Portuguese. 

7.      --I rode my bike home. 

The popular bike brand here is called “Hero”.  So I decided that I would call it MC after Mariah Carey…as who can’t think of “hero” without thinking of her classic 90s song by the same name.  If don’t know what I am talking about…you must you tube it or buy it on itues.  It is brilliant! Mariah truly at her best!