Free Ride!

    Ryan here. We have been in Pittsburgh for 1 month and 5 days!    Let me start with some updates.  Probably the biggest  is that Jenn has started her placement at Propel Homestead as an assistant Teacher for 7th and 8th grades.  She will hopefully be able to write about the experience in more detail, but it has been a little different for her.  One of the main reasons for this is simply because she was a full time teacher last year but now, inherent in her job title, is taking more of a backseat role in the classroom.  However, she will be the first to tell you how happy she is to have NO papers or homework to grade and NO lessons to plan.  Gotta give a shout out to teachers, it is much more than a full time job! Anyways, making that shift from teacher to assistant seems to be kind of an awkward one no matter how well you do it.

  
     In other news, Jenn and I started volunteering for a Co-op in the area called Free Ride! I have to be honest, though, this is not self-less volunteering.  We are in it for FREE BIKES!  This bike repair shop operates on the "Repair someone's bike and they will have a fixed bike for a day.....Teach a person to do bike repair and they will have a repaired bike for a lifetime" -policy.  They teach people to be their own bike mechanics and use damaged and discarded bikes from around Pittsburgh to refurbish, sell, and teach about bikes.
     The concept is this:  You come and volunteer for two hours and you can go to one class on bike repair for free (during volunteering we helped sort out old wheels and tires).  There are  six classes that I know of that focus on separate parts of the bike. When you have gone to at least two classes, you can pick out an unclaimed bike of your choice from the shop to repair.  The bike is then appraised ($20-150) and you can earn the bike by volunteering for the Co-op at $8/hour.  Once you have volunteered your hours, you get your bike and hopefully have the skills needed to repair your bike!

     We took a class on Hubs and Bearings last Sunday, and are looking to volunteer and take another class soon.  Here is what the shop looks like:

Bikes everywhere.....

One hot bike mechanic learning to clean the wheel hub. (I love this pic!)