Message from @Grenade123
Discord ID: 506996423393411082
so instead we sold them for dirt cheap, but something that was still significant value to the locals
That is smart and something foreign aid rarely thinks of.
i sometimes don;t think foreign aid is meant to aid, so much as to make a dependency for leverage
federal funding for the states works that way
but anyway, so they would sell for something like 5 bucks, which is like a month's or a few month's wages
this had a bonus side effect: by making the locals care about their bikes, they wanted to maintain them, because its cheaper to replace most parts than whole bikes
so we'd also ship over bike parts, which started a bike repair industry
thats atleast better then invading a country right?
also since most of these countries have a culture of men working and women staying at home, we sent donated sewing machines so that the women would have an easier time making stuff at home that they could sell at the market once a week or a month, however often they could
Cottage industries, yay!
very small operation
our "loading docking" was old shipping pallets with a layer of plywood
the bikes were stored in a "warehouse" which is just 8 old truck trailers
they would back up a shipping container on a truck trailer, and just leave it parked in the sun
all this is outside
had a fan for the summer that would blow into the container, didn't really keep anything cool
you'd pack the bikes side to side, literally slamming the last one on each row down between the bikes and the container wall, because no amount of damage done there, amount to that done when the bikes settled during shipping.
better to lose one bike at the end because it was messed up slamming it down, then a whole row of bikes that were allowed to bend over and get crushed by the bikes above
you'd do a row of adult bikes, put down 1 sheet of plywood that mostly made it across the whole thing, then you would do a second row of adult bikes
then, depending on the amount of kids bikes we had and they needed, we'd either do a full row of kids bikes, or take some adult bikes and lay them flat (boy did that suck, trying to lift an adult bike by the side of it, with your arms fully extended, and while already having to stand up straight
once you got to kids bikes, you';d just lay down some cardboard, then just throw them up there and jam them in as much as possible
often times laying on your back on the cardboard, and using your feet to slide a bike along the room up over all the packed bikes and into a whole
on a hot summer day, if you didn't wear some kind of hat or bandana, you could easily get a first or even second degree burn from the roof
i miss it, shit was fun. owner is a family friend
how many bikes did you move per crate you think?
probably 380-480, depending on if it was a 40ft or 45 ft
usually around 400-420
if i remember
and whislt doing non profit work how can you sustain yourself
as in food home etc
i was still at home, working for him a couple times on the weekend
this was while in high school, but he is retired i think, and his wife is a math teacher. he does all kids of crazy shit, this is just one of the things
and he (David Schweidenback) has been all over. lived in south america for a time if i remember, living in one of the mountain ranges
awesome guy
soundspretty great actually
maybe one day in the not too distant future i'll be able to meet back up with them and have some capital to invest into them, at least help expand operations
we were still getting a decent amount of bikes for it being in the middle of the recession when i worked there, around 2010 or 11
oh shit, they spun off the sewing machine part (no pun intended)
@DefinitlyNotInsane - NL if you have time, here is an interview he did with a local news team about the start of it all and waht they do http://www.p4p.org/podcasts/podcastNicoleSmithInterviewsDaveSchweidenback20180328.mp3
this is the shit that should be on the news more often, not what dumb shit trump said