Great Aussie Rickshaw Ride 12th August

Relatively quiet day which was good as Wednesday was busy and we are
heading into Sydney with a busy programme before us.
Kariong Public School was the single event organized for the day. The
rickshaw was being pedalled from Gosford by an old friend of
Symbiosis, Anthony (Chun) Penn. This was pretty steep country and a
little bit of help to get up the hills was necessary. However, the
rickshaw arrived at the school in time for the programme, albeit
delayed because of the trouble experienced by the crew manning the
truck. They missed the road on which the school is situated and took
an unscheduled trip to the outskirts of Woy Woy!
The Kariong School staff were great and fitted the presentation into
another time slot. Again the kids, as in the other schools, were
fantastic. There was no talking, no misbehaviour, just a couple of
hundred kids with their attention riveted to the front. One of the
staff, Nancy, said that the combination of the dvd's, the real
rickshaws, a seamless presentation and the presence of two
Bangladeshis makes the programme just right. Following the
presentation, it was recess. That gave us a chance to ride the two
rickshaws around the parade ground watched by almost the whole school.
Hajrat and Khaleque have been constantly commenting that there are no
crowds in Australia. We came as close as possible to a Bangladesh
crowd with the kids gathered around the rickshaws!

Tonight the team treated Khaleque and Hajrat to a "real Aussie treat",
fish and chips! Tomorrow it is off to the "big smoke", Sydney. The two
rickshaws will be ridden over the Harbour Bridge, albeit on the
bikeway, but nevertheless it will be a simple bit of engineering
design in steel (the rickshaw) riding over a big bit of engineering
design in steel (the Harbour Bridge).