Day 6 Helena to Harlowton MT

Today was another day of riding through VERY RURAL Montana. We climbed through the Big Bear Mountains including Baldy Mountain at over 9000 feet. I actually preferred climbing the mountain to peddling into the wind though the open prairie. The terrain changed frequently from dry dusty open spaces to tree covered mountains and back to open range. There is a lot of evidence of wildfires and we saw a very large fire outside of Billings, MT. After 8 hours of riding we set up camp at “Dead Man’s Basin”. Not much there except a small lake. My sister (and support driver) was terrified we would be eaten by cougars or bit by rattlesnakes but we all survived.

Starting at the bottom of the hill.

Climbing...
finally at the top!

Going downhill now!

At 9 o’clock in the morning, we visited the family of Dang My Xuan. She was still sleeping but she is not a lazy person, she had worked from 8 pm to 6 am in the morning at the garbage dump. She is 16 years old, a good student but because her father had left her, and her mother falling into debt over 3 years ago she had to drop out of school when she was in the 5th grade. Her father's family spend their waking hours verbally abusing her mother and her to make their life be more bitter and painful. She told us about her family life in tears.

The house is very small. Life is stressful for her. She loves study so much. She suffered when she had to stop studying. She tried to collect recycled material from garbage dump every day to help her mother to pay the debt and have money for food day to day. After 3 years struggling with bad situation and the debt, she is eager to go back to school. “I want to be a lawyer to protect my mother who is always being abused by others including my father and his family members.”

She and her brother share a bike. Many times she had to walk to school to let her brother uses the bike for his work. “I want to eat delicious food and wear beautiful clothes” the girl said. Xuan improves her knowledge by reading newspaper which she collect from the garbage dump.

Her wishes are very simple that her family will have better living conditions. She told us that she does not expect to have a rich family but a happy family. She wants all her siblings to be educated and have stable jobs. And mostly she wants to have a house in good environment out of the stinking garbage dump.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Xuan please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.