Ride for Hope CONTINUES!

The Ride for Hope had an abrupt ending on August 24th but we want to finish the ride in proper fashion. Catalyst Foundation is partnering with the Northfield (MN) Rotary to make the Annual Jesse James Bike Tour an opportunity to raise funds for the children of Kien Giang. Participants at the bike tour can also make an additional donation to Catalyst to support our work in Vietnam. We will have a table with information all day at the Tour.

For more information on the Tour please visit http://www.northfieldrotary.org/jjbike/jjflyer07-20.html

Thank you for your continued support!!!

Day 8 Arupt Ending

About 20 miles into the day’s ride I got a call from my wife about a series of storms that came through town packing high wind, rain, and baseball size hail. We suffered significant damage to our home and car so I decided to pull the plug on the ride and come home. I didn't feel right leaving her home alone to deal with this and take care of our kids.

Although the ride didn't end the way I wanted, we did cover over 500 miles in 3 states and raised a lot of money and awareness about the plight of these kids in need in Vietnam. We still have a lot of work to do so any help spreading the word is much appreciated.

I really appreciate all the support and good wishes from everyone. I specifically want to thank my sister for following me around in her car for a week and being my faithful sidekick. Since I wasn't able to complete my goal I was thinking about organizing a local one day ride near my home to complete the journey. If any of you are interested in helping me organize such an event or riding with me that would be great.

our backyard - filled with branches and hail

Day 7 Rest

Big wildfire ahead.

Even the guys in the Tour de France get to rest sometimes. After 6 days peddling over 500 miles in 95-105 degree heat we needed a rest. We drove to Miles City, MT to clean up (first shower in 3 days) and visit some relatives. Tomorrow we head for North Dakota!

Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen’s father left her when she was very young. She is living with her mother and step father, one older sister and 2 step sisters. When she has step father, her life has become more hardships, stress and suffering. She sells lottery tickets every day. If she can not sell all the tickets for that day, her step father will beat her and will not allow her to go back home until she sold the day’s quota. So some days she needs to go live at friend’s house.

The mother is sells fresh fruits and her step father is hired laborer on small fishing boat. Neither of her parents finished elementary school. They each earn about $1 per day but it is unstable.

Her mother wants to send her back to school but she can not do because their income just enough for their daily food. But her step father wants to send her step younger sister to school than her who also dropped out of school like her. Tuyen wishes that she would become a teacher. It seems that her simple wish is very difficult to be true because now, she has no time and money to study.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Tuyen please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today. One scholarship provides for her school expenses and food for her family.

Day 6 Helena to Harlowton MT

Today was another day of riding through VERY RURAL Montana. We climbed through the Big Bear Mountains including Baldy Mountain at over 9000 feet. I actually preferred climbing the mountain to peddling into the wind though the open prairie. The terrain changed frequently from dry dusty open spaces to tree covered mountains and back to open range. There is a lot of evidence of wildfires and we saw a very large fire outside of Billings, MT. After 8 hours of riding we set up camp at “Dead Man’s Basin”. Not much there except a small lake. My sister (and support driver) was terrified we would be eaten by cougars or bit by rattlesnakes but we all survived.

Starting at the bottom of the hill.

Climbing...
finally at the top!

Going downhill now!

At 9 o’clock in the morning, we visited the family of Dang My Xuan. She was still sleeping but she is not a lazy person, she had worked from 8 pm to 6 am in the morning at the garbage dump. She is 16 years old, a good student but because her father had left her, and her mother falling into debt over 3 years ago she had to drop out of school when she was in the 5th grade. Her father's family spend their waking hours verbally abusing her mother and her to make their life be more bitter and painful. She told us about her family life in tears.

The house is very small. Life is stressful for her. She loves study so much. She suffered when she had to stop studying. She tried to collect recycled material from garbage dump every day to help her mother to pay the debt and have money for food day to day. After 3 years struggling with bad situation and the debt, she is eager to go back to school. “I want to be a lawyer to protect my mother who is always being abused by others including my father and his family members.”

She and her brother share a bike. Many times she had to walk to school to let her brother uses the bike for his work. “I want to eat delicious food and wear beautiful clothes” the girl said. Xuan improves her knowledge by reading newspaper which she collect from the garbage dump.

Her wishes are very simple that her family will have better living conditions. She told us that she does not expect to have a rich family but a happy family. She wants all her siblings to be educated and have stable jobs. And mostly she wants to have a house in good environment out of the stinking garbage dump.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Xuan please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.

Day 5 Missoula to Helena MT

Start of Day 5

The first day of Montana. We spent the morning doing laundry and getting more supplies and rode all afternoon. We rode along the interstate 90 for most of the day. Nice wide shoulders with lots of room. The traffic wasn’t too bad. They put in speed limits in Montana since the last time I was here. That helps. We camped tonight at a beautiful reservoir outside of Helena, MT. We didn’t get there until after 10pm so I learned how to set up a tent in the dark. There were about 12 deer nearby and they didn’t seem to mind our presence at all.

our "hotel" for the night

our great view!

Thi Men is 12 years old, her father has died and her mother remarried and left her when she was very young. She has been living with her only brother and grandmother who has one arm paralyzed. They have never been to school. Men just has joined a private class where a retired teacher has tried to help the poor children know how to read and write. Men collects garbage every day to pay for her learning. She wishes that she could go to school to learn Vietnamese and play with her friends at the dump site.

Their "house" has a dirt floor with thatched roofs and walls but mostly made out of gargabe. The have to rent this "land" at the dump every month. Men and her family eat, drink and sleep with the millions of flies every day.

“To know about knowledge is better than being uneducated.” said the grandmother, but they do not make enough money to provide an education for her grandchildren. Their desperate situation creates limited time, no money and no choices for an education or vocation. Her older brother shared with us, “I have to work from 8 pm to 4 am. Then sleep until 9 am. From 9 am to 3 pm, I have to help my grandmother to dry the waste material such as plastic. And I sell it to the buyer. So I have only short time to take a test or study. Then I have to go back to my work at the garbage dump again. I have no time to learn another trade.”

They all have to work together to earn money just to survive day to day. He wants somebody to support his younger sister to go to school - to insure her of a better life in the future. She is a great source of his hope!

To help provide scholarships for girls like Men please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today. One scholarship provides for her school expenses and food for her family.

Day 4 Lewiston, ID to Missoula, MT

morning view

Today was a beautiful day of riding. We rode along the Snake River the entire way. Very flat roads with trees. I was so happy to see some shade for the first time in 4 days. Good thing too because it was well over 100 degrees today. I saw a thermometer that said 98 degrees in the shade. I was hydrated like King Neptune so I didn’t get dehydrated but man it was warm. Because it is so dry it does cool off quickly at night and that helps.

I spent some time looking at my maps of Montana and North Dakota and we are going to make some changes to the route. Today we are going to go to Helena. From there we will follow Highway 12 to Miles City Montana. We will then hook into I-94 through North Dakota. This will take us through Dickinson, Bismarck, and into Fargo.

big hill
I'm thirsty!

A family with five children- they are all illiterate. This is the family of little Hang. She is 11 years old. Her oldest brother is 12 years old and the two younger sisters are 10 and 8, and the youngest brother is 7. Her parents collect garbage and the children also help every day. Hang said she would like to go to school and collect garbage too.

A few years ago they had built a little shack with leaves and wooden poles in a part of garbage dump, now the garbage company has taken back that "land". They had to tear down their house and be "house keepers" in another house at the dump so that they have sone shelter. Imagine yourself living in a garbage dump - in someone else's "home" in the dump - a house literally made out of garbage from walls, roof to the floor.

Her parents know that education can help their children improve their living condition, but they can not provide for their children because they have a daily struggle just to find food. Her father has tuberculosis, one of her younger sister is also sick. They are in debt because now two people cannot work - of about 800,000 VND ( about $50). For many persons, $50 can be spent in one trip to the local store. But for Hang's family, it would be a treasure considering the family does not earn more than $ 1 a day. Hang lives in total misery - noone can go to the doctor, work or school.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Hang please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today. One scholarship provides for her school expenses and food for her family.

Day 3 Walla Walla to Lewiston

Better day today. It was still hot but less windy. We rode through the hilly wheat fields of Eastern Washington. Lots of open spaces with the occasional house. I went up this monster hill right before Lewiston (after 85 miles of riding) and then had a 4 mile descent into town. Lewiston and Clarkston form the border of Washington and Idaho. It is a college community along the Snake River and very pretty. Lewiston has a nice downtown that reminded me of Northfield. We camped next to the river and got up and going early the next morning.

climbing again...

alongside the Snake River.

When we arrived to visit this poor family at their little house without a gate, all the village people are curious and want to hear our conversation. Nguyen Thi Thuy’s house is close to her neighbors, we could not push them away as we had wanted while we interviewed her. We asked a little boy hold up another thatched wall so it wouldn't fall on us as we spoke. He teased her “She likes to get married." The little girl was very shy, she bends her head very low. Her face looks so sad.

Her parents always work far from home. Her father does some fishing work and can see his daughter only once every 2 months. The grandmother stays at home to take care of the girl. When Thuy goes to school she comes home feels very lonely. School is very far from her house, she needs to walk over 1 hour to go there. She was raped when she was 8 years old. The guy had attacked her when she was coming home from school - which makes she feel fear and does not want to go to school anymore.

The teasing from neighborhood children to Nguyen Thi Thuy was shocking...she is so young and in her mind it does not do anything to make her feel better about herself. She is very quiet and shy when we visited her. It is so hard for her to face and overcome the worst experience of her life. On one hand she really wants to go to school, on the other hand she’s afraid this incident will happen again on the road to school.

We want her to believe in her education and get her a bike!

To help provide scholarships for girls like Thuy please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.

Day 2 Skamania, WA

Start of Day 2

"We stayed in a beautiful camp site in an old growth forest by the Columbia River. I knew today was going to be warmer and it didn’t disappoint. The temps were near 100 degrees. I rode along the river through Eastern Washington in some of the most desolate area I have seen. No towns, gas stations, homes for miles. Just dry grass and lots of sun, heat and wind. I could only peddle about 10 miles per hour into a 30 mile per head wind so it was slow going. We made it 72 miles in 7.5 hours. I think I need to adjust my thinking and just go as far as I can as long as I can and then drive to the next rest stop. Tomorrow is supposed to be another scorcher as we leave Walla Walla."

It's hot..
...dry...
...and I'm tired!

Happy to this for the kids...please donate!

Trang Thi Thuy is Thanh’s neighbor. Now she is only six years old, but she had been raped when she was 4 years old by the same boy that raped Thanh too. Her parents are gone often looking for work; her father for days at a time, and her mother gone all day. Her siblings have to sell lottery tickets on the street. So Thuy is the only one to look after the house which is very small, dark and falling apart.

For a long time she didn't tell her parents what had happened to her. Her mom only saw the bruising when she was bathing her one day. Now the whole village knows her sad story.

Children in this family have less chance to go to school because the little girl shared, “My mother does not agree for my sisters and brothers to go to school because she has no money." Her parents have asked her siblings to sell lottery tickets to earn money for their daily living. When I asked her about her hobbies, she told me: “I like to go to school."

We want to help Thuy - we want to give a little hope to this family for a better future.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Thuy please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.