The road to Zambia is long. It is about challenges and overcoming obstacles, about new vistas and new points of view, challenging the world of every day and embracing new perspectives; in order to do so, I first need to scrutinise my own motivation and opinions.

I always questioned the sense of aid work. I was very skeptical, critical, even cynical over its outcomes and intends. I looked down on the girls and guys ‘doing good’: three months of Inca trail combined with 2 weeks helping out in a Peruvian prison. How could that ever count as doing something for the greater good?! Is it not actually about a guilty conscience, paying it off with a minimum of effort?! I was wrong, I just realised . Doing something – no matter what, how small or minimal – is still doing good. The intend to do good is what matters; the fact that you aim to have an impact for the better on someone else’s life is all that counts.

Me cycling in Zambia is not going to save the world. Quite the contrary; I could better give those euros just to a girl over there; it may pay for her complete education. But does it matter that I choose to award the intended efforts to raise money with a holiday, paid for by me? No. The only thing that matters is that I actually want to do something, that I aim to raise money for this project and help as many as I can – by doing it in a sustainable way for me. If I can just only influence one girl’s life by doing this, then this journey is a success. And I intend to experience this success without a guilty conscience.