Thunder Bay Cycling Club, Ontario Canada

Hank Makkinga's Trip to Africa

Together with 24 other people from Thunder Bay, Winnipeg and the Toronto area we spent a good 3 weeks in Liberia, an extremly poor country on the west side of Africa. The purpose: to construct a multi-purpose building for the local "Life Water" team that is working there to drill wells in some small communities. This is so the children will not die anymore from drinking contaminated water from dirty streams and well holes, and to further prevent the adults from getting sick.

The local team is supported through donations raised in Thunder Bay and throughout Canada which enabled us to construct the walls of the building and put the roof on. Being a carpenter, it was very hard to work with the conditions and supplies there. (ie: very heavy and crooked lumber only availeble in 14' lengths; can't get the right nails; power is only in 220 volts on a small generator; the concrete blocks varied a lot in size; water had to be hauled by pail from a handpump; and... it is very very hot out after 9 am with humidity and temps always in the high 90's. We were only able to work until 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Living and working there makes you appreciate the many blessings we have here in North America... we have it so good here. People in construction who worked for us got paid $2.75US for a whole day of work, which is the going rate. A bottle of beer cost 85 cents, so the locals would never buy that. A loaf of bread cost $1.50, so most people are always hungry, so they eat rice instead. But even the rice has gone up a whole lot. In spite of that, most people are very kind. They laugh a lot and are willing to work to provide for their family.

After 3 weeks there a few of us flew across the continent (8 hours) to Kenya, which is right on the east coast. The temperature is very pleasant there. We drove in a small van for 6 hours to a resort in a national park called Keekorok. During the morning and again in the afternoon, we drove around and watched the animals, a fantastic experience. It's like driving through something in National Geographic magazine. There are whole herds of elephants, giraffes, wildebeest and lions that did not care if you drove up to them (within 15') and took their picture. It was a great time... something that I always wanted to do. I would recommend this to anyone who likes adventure.

If you would like more info, please call Hank Makkinga at 768-1752.

See more photos of Hank's trip