Week #3

So you want to read more of this stuff?

Week #3 of the six week bike raffle started out slow as had the previous weeks.  However, on Friday raffle ticket sales picked up at one of the schools perhaps because it was the beginning of the month when families received their monthly social grants.  These are like welfare payments for people with dependent children and little or no income.  The grocery stores are swamped around these days.  It seems the kids also have access to some money at home.

Anyway at Mmakau Moemise on Friday we sold about 45 raffle tickets which is the record for any day so far.  It brought our total raffle sales to 120 tickets or R1250 which is enough to buy 1 and a quarter bikes.  It's still not very good but maybe it is improving.

As an enticement for kids to buy tickets, I have been giving kids who buy a raffle ticket that day the chance to take one of the raffled bikes for a spin around the school yard.  I have to tell the older boys in stern language "No tricks" after one of them tried to do a reverse wheelie and almost crashed the bike.  Once they test ride, they all come away smiling.  Here is one of the boys trying out one of the raffle bikes.

 

I made another visit to the high school and talked to the Deputy Principal.  She had agreed last week to look into why raffle tickets were not selling.  She told me that when I spoke to the morning assembly, a lot of the students did not understand my accent (What accent? I speak perfect English!)or what I was explaining.  So she went around to the classes and reiterated details about the project.  when we met she said she thought by the end of the next week they will have sold about 400 tickets.  Although I was disappointed with my public speaking skills, I was very happy to hear this news.  We will see if it happens.

The tally for raffle donations from friends and family is at about $1500 which equates to 15 bikes.  Add the two Peace Corps bikes, possibly 2 or 3 from raffle ticket sales, and 3 or 4 from Tsogo means we might have over 20 bikes in the raffle.  Now we need to see how many boy and girl bikes to buy based on the ratio of ticket sales then order the bikes from the shop.  Two more weeks of raffle ticket sales then the drawing on August 21st.

Stay tuned....Gary and Merideth

Raffle New #2

Dear Mmakau Bike Raffle Donors,

We have decided to stop donations to the Mmakau bike raffle sp please do not sent any more money to Paypal.  With the funds donated to date and two pending donations, we expect to be able to add over ten bikes to the raffle.  This part of the project has been a big success.  Thanks to all those who donated.

For those who were intending to donate but did not get to it yet, we appreciate that you would have contributed eventually.  For those of you who elected to pass, we understand that there are priorities.

Initially we had intended to have no limit for the donations but as we have progressed in the raffle we decided to cap these contributions.  The reason is that raffle ticket sales by village children and by Tsogo Secondary School students have been disappointing.  Of the 750 school children in Grades 3 to 7 eligible to buy tickets, only 76 have purchased tickets so far.  It takes 85 tickets to add one more bike to the raffle.  We have explained the raffle to all the kids and, although many say they are going to buy a ticket, few do.  We are perplexed by this lack of follow through which, quite honestly, is common here.

During the first week that the Tsogo class leaders agreed to sell tickets to be donated to needy village kids, they sold one ticket.  Tomorrow we will address the assembled Tsogo learners again in an attempt to interest them in this donation.  Whether or not these teenagers get behind the effort remains to be seen.

So the reason we are stopping donations is because we did not want this raffle to be entirely one sided.  As it is, the donated bikes will well outnumber those provided by raffle ticket sales.  We will continue on hoping things will improve on the local level.  Regardless, it will be a success because of friends and family who gave.  Thanks.

Gary and Merideth

Raffle News #1

 Mmakau Bike Raffle

 

If you are reading this you probably have some idea the purpose of the blog which is to let you follow the bike raffle here in Mmakau.  And you are probably one of those people who generously donated the let us buy more bikes for the raffle.



 

So far we have good news and bad news.  The good news is that from the various friends and family members we solicited for a donation to the raffle, we have received ten donations which will allow us to add nine bikes to the raffle. The majority of the donations have been enough for one bike which is great.

 

The bad news is that the raffle sales to the kids is going slow.  We have only sold 36 tickets during this first week.  In addition the bike shop owner told us that because these bikes are imported and the value of the rand has dropped since he gave his first price, the new bikes will cost $95 each.  It's still reasonable and we believe the shop owner is giving us a good deal because the bike, helmet, and lock if bought separately would cost probably $20 more than the price we are getting. 

 

Last week we took a taxi to Brits and purchased two 26-inch boys mountain bikes - one red and one blue.  Since it was Ramadan this month, the shop owner was unable to help us with transport to Mmakau so we are trying to figure out how to get the bikes here.  We might just ride them the 25 km. distance.  We will post pictures of the bikes as soon as we get them here.  We figured if the kids saw these shiny new bikes, they might be motivated to buy raffle tickets.

 

Finally, we met with the student leaders at Tsogo Secondary School and got them started with selling raffle tickets to their fellow students.  These tickets will be donated to deserving kids in the village who cannot afford a ticket themselves.  If Tsogo sells 200 or more tickets, we will raffle off to them Gary's blackberry.  If they go over 400 tickets, they will have our old digital camera included.  Incentives.  We will meet with them every Friday to see how they are progressing.

 

We will also try to update this raffle blog once a week during the upcoming five weeks when the raffle will end and a bunch of happy kids (11 so far) will be riding their new bikes.