Cycling for Strength and Solidarity with African Grandmothers – is it For You?

April 4^th, 2018 Pondering: On Growing Old, Staying Strong and Learning to Care about the rest of the world

This is the time of year when Victoria Grandmothers For Africa are looking for new cyclists to take on the challenge of their annual 275 km Vancouver Island tour in September. Weekly training rides start in earnest April 16th. Here is the scoop from one of the grandmothers who is anticipating her third tour with the group this year:

I really loved my work and learned a lot about my profession and about young people during those 36 years. However, now two years into retirement, I am finally realizing how much I don’t know about the rest of the world, even about things that really matter – historical and current events that shape(d) my life. I’m writing this on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination and though I was 12 years old when it happened, I know very little about it or even really about him. I have read the famous part of his “I Have a Dream” speech and I love it, and despair, as I do about feminism, that we have not come as far in the last 50 years as almost all would have hoped and expected. But that’s it – very superficial knowledge indeed.

I love staying fit. I was a fairly serious runner for about 40 years of my life, but had to give up a few years ago due to knee injuries. After retirement, I moved to Victoria, an amazing part of the country in which to hike and cycle, and have thoroughly enjoyed doing both. The cycling group to which I was introduced, and of which I have become a passionate and active member, is the Victoria Grandmothers For Africa (VG4A). These women have taught me much about cycling, toughness in the face of life’s challenges, and about the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign waged by the Stephen Lewis Foundation supporting families and communities making a difference in the poorest and most AIDS-affected parts of Africa.

For my first two years, cycling was really my greatest enjoyment, although I did become involved in the VG4A in other significant ways as well. I love discovering Victoria, and having enough time in my life to exercise that I feel fitter and stronger. Our annual fund-raising cycle tour from Campbell River to Victoria is challenging, but just the right amount of challenge. We have 30 women, wide-ranging in age (55 – 75) and fitness levels, who get themselves ready for this September tour, starting in the spring with weekly rides that gradually become longer and hillier. We generally average about 18 kph, although several of our members can ride faster and occasionally take extra loops at a faster pace. Our weekly training rides culminate in back-to-back 90 km days in late August.

It is only recently that I have started to resonate with the Grandmothers’ statement that riding our bikes up big hills and over long distances allows us to feel a sense of solidarity with the hard-working African grandmothers (gogos). And that “we will not rest until they can rest”. It is likely because I have been learning more about and from African women and they are starting to seem more real. These gogos do not rest; women all over the world can relate. Much of their work is physical – gardening, walking, hauling water, preparing food. But much of it now is mental and emotional work. The grandmothers are networking with one another, finding ways to get things that are needed in their communities, organizing, advocating, and doing whatever it takes to get an education for their grandchildren. I think of them now when I’m cycling – struggling near the top of a hill, or if a ride starts to seem long and never-ending, or the wind is in my face, or the weather gets nasty. I think it helps them to know that there are grandmothers in Canada working hard on their behalf and cheerleading their efforts. It makes me feel motivated to continue. I am also motivated to read more and find out more about life in Africa. I resolve to be more purposeful in my ongoing learning about the rest of the world.

LEARN MORE:

Visit the group online at www.victoriagrandmothersforafrica.ca.

Learn more about Grandmothers to Grandmothers here: http://grandmotherscampaign.org/

Learn more about the Stephen Lewis Foundation here: https://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/

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