by Frannie Noble, Bike & Build Team Member

My six month stay in Mali, West Africa inspired me to bike across the United States.

A bit of an odd connection, I realize, but I wanted to discover the diversity and history of America before I ventured thousands of miles abroad again. As a government and history student at Connecticut College, I spent years reading and learning about the development of America and the history of the American West. As an American I felt connected to the history, and yet I still didn’t know the United States well.

In Mali I lived with a 15 member Bambara speaking, polygamist, soap opera addicted family across from the neighborhood morgue. I completed an internship with a children’s rights organization, fended off marriage proposals from passerbys, and fell in love with a little girl named Nana at the Bamako orphanage. My day-to-day life was challenging (I didn’t get too many morning runs in when the average temperature was over 100 degrees) but I loved it, and I wanted to find that same challenge and inspiration in the United States.

My friend and study abroad classmate Jenny — a rocking climbing, do-it-yourself, let’s go start a commune is Wyoming type of girl — cringed when I told her I was ready to drive cross country. “Why not bike?” she asked. “You won’t be polluting the air and you can give back along the way.” I was intrigued.

I returned from Mali physically weaker after some illness and a lack of gym time. I couldn’t conquer my regular running route, let alone the Rockies. Still, mentally, I prepared myself to take on the US. By December I was a member of the Providence to Seattle Bike & Build trip for 2008.

Bike & Build is a non-profit affordable housing organization that organizes summer biking trips for young adults ages 18 to 25 years. Simply put, changing the world is possible according to Bike & Build, and as cyclists cross the United States in six groups every summer they spread the word about affordable housing to thousands of people in hundreds of towns, and contribute to affordable housing builds as well. While affordable housing is a national issue, riders get to learn about and experience the various trends in the subject as they encounter different people and landscapes across the US.

I began jumping on a spin bike rather than a treadmill and when spring arrived I picked up my new road bike and began exploring Southeastern Connecticut. I loved the challenge of Connecticut’s rolling hills, and found flying down the other side of the climbs at 35 miles an hour far more enjoyable than running down them. Waiting through traffic in New London was something I had to get used to, but cruising by the ocean and exploring the region I had only known by car was worth it. Before the actual trip started I fell in love with a new sport.

Every biker on the trip has different inspiration. Some are avid cyclers looking for a different challenge and others, while passionte about the affordable housing cause, have never been on a road bike. I think of myself as somewhere in the middle, inspired by both the biking and the building, and with enough althletic experience that friends and family don’t think I’m totally crazy. Still, as I prepare to meet my fellow group members I’m not worried; much like my group in Mali, while we come from different backgrounds, we share a desire to physically and mentally challenge ourselves.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frannie Noble recently graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in government and history. Over the summer of 2008 she will traverse the U.S. from Providence to Seattle with Bike & Build, a non-profit organization that raises funds for affordable housing. To donate to the Bike & Build effort, visit BikeandBuild.org. To learn more about Frannie, visit her blog Boston to Bamako : Boston to Seattle.