Mechanics at work

our dear mechanics wanted to make sure everything works fine on the road... so they disassemblied half the engine... fortunately they also new how to put it together. Huh.

Rooftop terrace

Some poor quality pics... well, we need to send Szabi to a photo shooting training :) However, we just wanted to see how our new umbrella looks. Cool. Especially down South in 42 degrees...

Sound machine

We installed the big party speakers as you can see on the following pics. Just connected a small cheap MP3 player on the other end but that was enough to scare the workers there with some hard rock. It's mean :)

New workshop - luxury!

Thanks to team #8 of Budapest-Bamako 2008, we moved our bus into a veeeery spacious workshop where we can make the final repairs and do the stickering work.

Checking this and that

Gyula, one of our drivers is a veteran bus driver and mechanic. He knows every little thing on this vehicle. He had some ideas what to check just in case... Soma (in blue), our mechanic will be his right hand man. They're fixing the gears (?) on these pics.

Making extraordinary flags

Szabolcs is executing a great idea - let's paint the dull white surface of the fridges... Hungarian and Mali are born. Friendship on board.

After car (bus) wash

Nice and shiny... the team takes a look at the bus which is just out of the car wash.

Seating

As you see the living area develops nicely as well. They positioned the seats in a way to have a comfortable seating even for the taller passengers. You can push the back pretty far. Every passenger will have a table in front of his seat - the tables are already there they just need to fix them.
On the third photo Szabolcs is testing the driver's seat. Not that he can drive a bus but we want to make sure we give every possible comfort to our divers :)

The bus is ready to kick off for the 8000 km journey

Follow up with all the alternations made on the bus on our website!

Charity activities

"Bus number 7" takes charity work as priority. We help the work and everyday life of the elementary school of Kalabankoro that operates in the suburbs of Bamako in real humility. We also sponsor the football team of the school. "Bus number 7" does not run through Africa like the participants of the Dakar rally - after reaching the continent, we stop every day in a village and distribute sports equipments to the children.

„For us, it's incomprehensible how much a simple ball can mean to a child in Africa. This year one night some local kids came up to us in Bamako and explained that they were collecting donations for their football team. We gave them some money and promised them if they came over to our hotel next morning, we gave them a ball. Next morning at 8 o'clock about 20 kids were waiting for us patiently. We gave them our ball... I've never seen so happy faces." - recollects Attila.

The organizers of the project have already visited the school during the B2B 2007 and were impressed by the strength of will and ambition that motived the headmaster, the teachers of the school and also the parents despite the extremely poor conditions. Within our own limits we contributed to the charity work and donations of the school last year as well. We participated the celebration organized by the children, parents and teachers for the participants of the Budapest-Bamako and handed over clothes, school equipment and other useful things to the school representatives.

Rousing us to action this year as well, charity work is our emphasized goal for 2008. We'd like to attract attention to the wonderful people and countries of West Africa, and to the fact that anyone can support those in a need with simple means.