Often the floors of workshops in developing countries are simply bare earth. A three legged table is easier to balance and requires less steel. A three legged table never rocks back and forth because all three legs are always planted. If it's large enough, it can be just as stable as a four legged table.

At our Kisumu, Kenya workshop, we use our own Big Boda load-carrying bicycles to do our project work. Above, George hauls three complete Big Boda frames back from the papyrus weavers. Worldbike's entire budget for the Big Boda trial market couldn't buy us one Land Cruiser even if we wanted one.

We often get emails from people in the early phases of planning a bicycle distribution project in a developing country. If you're one of them you've probably chosen or are finalizing your choice of a project location. Whether or not you are planning to use Worldbike technologies in your project, you need to know how to craft your project in way that's consistent with the conditions in the location where you will be working.

The list below shows the top four location-specific factors you must understand when considering a project location.

To do a project in Kenya (or anywhere else), if you get work done through the informal economy (which represents the majority of economic transactions) you need cash. In Kenya we set up a workshop in the Juacali district. This whole sector of the economy is cash based. If we had wanted to pay our guys with a check they would have run into expensive check cashing fees. But how do you anticipate the amount of cash you'll need for a 6-month or a 12-month project? And how do you properly account for the use of this cash so that you can show your project's books to a donor or board member?

A lot of people get intimidated by the prospect of bringing bicycles on the plane with them to a foreign country. But if you've already paid for a ticket, you might as well maximize that investment by bringing as many useful tools and resources for your project.