Hello bike commuters,
I wanted to inform you that I am now living in Lilongwe, Malawi and continuing my work with the Peace Corps. It is an exciting position and an exciting place to be in the world. I intend to write a series of posts about Lilongwe in regards to bicycle community and bike culture. My first article is meant to give you a sense of Lilongwe's layout and the bicycle community that has developed around it. Through this series, I hope to promote bicycle awareness in Lilongwe as well as relate the bicycle experience here to you, wherever you are located.
-Paul

The picture above is of the largest city in Malawi, Lilongwe. Despite the deceptive corn field foreground, Lilongwe is a city of 1 million people and every year it grows. Lilongwe's design initially began in the 1970s. The new Life President, Hastings Kamuzu Banda decided to move the capital from Zomba, an old colony city, to Lilongwe. Before he did, Lilongwe was a town of around 20,000 people in 1966. It was the perfect clean slate to build Malawi's new great capital.​ Roads and infrastructure could be designed to fit the needs of the soon-to-be booming city. That is to say designed with the automobile in mind and the bicycle in the rear view mirror.

Jay Kinsinger, founder of Sojourner Cyclery makes wooden bicycle frames. Each one is hand-crafted and custom-built to the unique body measurements of the rider. Thus all of Jay's bikes are a one-of-a-kind. The rediscovery of using wood for bicycles harkens back to the earliest days of cycling when many bike manufacturers selected it as their material of choice.    

Running a piano tuning service is unusual, but not completely out of the ordinary. Making the house calls by bicycle is truly unique. For the last four years, Lucas Lorang has done just that as part of his business Lorang Piano Service.  I recently met with him to understand this novel approach to earning a livelihood.

Earth Day - a movement that has powered a growing awareness for the environment around us and inspired numerous efforts to promote and sustain healthy environments. One local effort in Chicago is being led by Jonathan Scheffel a.k.a. Farmer Jon - a man who has made a business of hauling organic waste and food scraps by bicycle. Over the course of a month he pedals 500-600 miles and hauls 6000-7000 pounds of organic waste - all of it with a bicycle!  And the business is growing, powered by a consumer demand for sustainable products and services.