We went out and donated bicycles to kids today. a total of about 18, 000 bikes were given away all over Houston. Our group personally gave away about 4,000 bicycles. There was a core group of about 4 of us that were dedicated to adjusting all 4000 bikes to the kids sizes and doing minor repairs. It poured or the first 2 hours we were out there.

I am exhausted and bruised. I spent 6 straight hours on my feet bent over at a 90 degree angle wrenching, ratcheting, lifting, and fixing bikes. I was the only female with tools, and I swear to you I almost killed me some menfolk. The male volumteers would tell me HOW to do it. Would take the bikes away from me to do it. I I yelled for folks to come to me for adjustments, they'd walk to the Mister first if we were next to eachother. It was an INTERESTING social experiment. I had 8 yr old boys telling me how to do it. It was an exercise in patience, too. It was also pretty dangerous. They warned us that when we ran out of bikes, we would need to haul ass out of the neighborhood. Some of the other locations almost had riots.

I was pretty disenheartened when I realized some of the "volunteers" thought they deserved a bike, and basically stole one. It made me sick. I ddin't relize what was going on until too late. There were also kids that came through several times getting several bikes, and then selling them to the crowd.OVerall, I am so glad i did it. I hope my skills with a wrench made the people realize that a girl is just as handy. Hopefully my bruised hand will recoup nicely over christmas. The meat of my palm is one giant red bruise.

I really think they should have had water and food out there for us-- or else told us to bring a snack and plenty of water. I am so dehydrated and having horrible back spasms.