Wooden bicycles Congo

Goma, Congo, January 30 - It is unusual tool: wooden bike with large handles, two wooden wheels, a frame as pressing triangle and without pedal. There are no seats."Chikudu" Congolese seem to have come from the pages of a picture book for children. What you can see everywhere through unpaved roads, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.Uzima Bahati (18) was a child when he became its leader. He left school when he was about 12 years and has spent the past six years carrying large loads with this unusual means of transport."It has helped a lot in life, because it is work without a schedule," he said. "Once you make enough money, you can go home and buy food."It boasts so much "chikudun" him and spent five dollars - more than twice the average daily wage here - brown ink and brush.With great care, he wrote his phone number on this tool, along with the motto "Work is work," and "Do not talk much." The latter, he says, shows that he does not care what others think, even if they laugh.Other drivers "chikudus," greed Bahatit because his motorbike coloring, which, by Congolese standards, is a luxury."My friends laughed and said: You have money to spend in vain. The money that you spend on ink have been able to spend to buy something useful, "he says. "But no matter how they laughed, I do not feel bad."For the people here, "chikudu" symbolizes the great determination of the Congo, who each food, each bucket of water and each tile for the home should be transferred from one place to another."Chikudus" are carrying tools for maintenance which should not even big investment. People's dependence on them is evidence of the poverty of the people in this part of Congo, most of whom survive on less than two dollars a day.They fit wonderfully in Goma, a city of a million people in the scenic shores of Lake Kivu."Ordinary bicycles are useless. Them can not bear too much and break down all the time, "says Bahatit cousin, Cengi Byamungu, manufacturer" chikudu "s, which montoi car he Bahati boasts.In this section, we compare "chikudun" with an ordinary bike would be the same as to compare a 10-ton truck with "VW Beetle".