Surviving the ride

MUSOMA, Tanzania (CNN) -- Lizzie Cameron is in Musoma, Tanzania working with the Musoma Engineering Project.

The Musoma Engineering Project is the only charity of its kind in the region and aims to provide teaching and support for local disabled children and teenagers.

With the project Lizzie will be helping the teachers teach skills like woodworking, leatherwork and dressmaking. Follow her experiences in her blogs and video diaries.

December 13, 2007
It's been three days since we completed our cycle and my legs have finally forgiven me. I don't think I realized how hard it was going to be.

On day two we cycled for 12 hours and covered over 100 kilometers, with the heat, at times, unbearable. The last stretch of the cycle was surprisingly hilly and I couldn't have managed had it not been for one of the boys pushing me up them.

The purpose of the cycle was to raise awareness of disabilities and to try and seek sponsorship for our new center. Charity events like this are very rare here -- in fact, Dennis mentioned the last one of its kind was the sponsored walk he organized in 2002 -- so people were really inquisitive to know what we were doing, and the response we received was brilliant.

We were on the TV and radio, and often crowds of people came to the side of the road to cheer us on. Throughout the journey we stopped off in small villages, where people had prepared food for us and organized our accommodation.

Starting our cycle at 6am every day gave me the opportunity to see Tanzanian life in a different light and see scenes I hadn't experienced before: men coming in from all night fishing trips; children, barefooted, hurrying off to school; women weeding for rice in the swamp farms by the lake shore.

On the final day of our cycle, World Disability Day itself, we arrived into Bweri, a village just outside Musoma. There we were joined by the local Member of Parliament, Vedustus Mathayo, and some physically disabled on tricycles to complete the race. Coca-Cola had organized a lorry to follow us with music and dancers. The vibe was amazing.

When we reached Musoma we started our sports day and celebrations. The whole event was finished off by a dance and dinner held by Hotel Matvilla for around 200 of the disabled. They provided food and drinks for everyone and organized a disco. Many hadn't celebrated anything like it before and it was great to see them have such a good time. E-mail to a friend