[ti:Ghana Bamboo Bikes Gain Worldwide Attention] [ar:Jonathan Evans] [al:Technology Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report. [00:05.50]Bicycle frames are usually made out of materials [00:16.30]like carbon fiber, steel or aluminum. [00:20.24]But in rural Ghana, [00:22.43]a businessman has developed another way [00:25.67]to make bicycles from a natural product -- bamboo. [00:31.09]Bamboo does not get much respect in Ghana. [00:35.88]Farmers think of bamboo as an unwanted plant [00:40.80]that needs to be cleared from their land. [00:43.74]Construction workers use it to support buildings [00:48.07]while they are being built. [00:49.96]But Kwabena Danso thinks bamboo is much more valuable. [00:56.23]He operates a business called Booomers International. [01:01.22]His company makes bicycle frames out of bamboo. [01:06.01]The wooden bike parts are sent [01:09.69]from Mr. Danso's village to other countries, [01:13.17]including Germany, the Netherlands and Australia. [01:17.90]Kwabena Danso says bamboo can help a country [01:23.12]like Ghana in many ways. [01:25.51]He says he wants to, in his words, [01:29.30]"get the people to know [01:31.25]that there's a great advantage to bamboo." [01:34.84]Young men from nearby villages [01:38.12]come to work at Booomers International. [01:41.21]They sand, glue and connect the bamboo frames. [01:46.43]The company makes about 50 of the bicycle frames each month. [01:52.37]The bamboo is grown locally. [01:55.95]The glue to hold the parts together [01:59.23]is made of flour from the cassava plant. [02:02.97]Mr. Danso says Booomers International provides [02:07.70]good jobs to young men like Abdul Razak. [02:11.49]He serves as a foreman or supervisor for the company. [02:16.31]Mr. Razak says that without this job, [02:20.94]he would still be living at home with his parents. [02:24.63]He adds that the job helps him a lot. [02:28.95]Kwabena Danso has sold [02:31.69]only a few of his bamboo bicycle frames within Ghana. [02:36.58]Walter Kudzodzi is one of his customers. [02:40.66]He bought a bicycle earlier this year. [02:43.94]Mr. Kudzodzi says his bike [02:47.03]gets a lot of attention [02:48.93]when he rides around his neighborhood. [02:51.87]"For example on Saturday, [02:53.62]I rode about five kilometers around my neighborhood [02:57.75]and everywhere I went, [02:59.29]people were just looking at me. [03:01.23]And once and a while you hear the exclamation, [03:04.33]ˇ®Hey, it's made out of bamboo, hey, [03:06.66]that's the bamboo bicycle,' [03:07.95]yeah know, and anytime I stopped [03:10.34]to take a breather, [03:11.38]people come close to me and say, [03:13.52]ˇ®Wow, we heard about this, [03:15.72]but this is the first time we've seen it. [03:17.17]Is it functional?' Does it work? I say yeah, try it." [03:21.50]Mr. Danso's business has received lots of orders [03:26.22]for his bicycles. [03:27.62]He says Booomers is ready for expansion. [03:32.35]He hopes to have more of his bamboo frames [03:36.59]not just in foreign countries, [03:39.02]but also on the roads of Ghana. [03:42.11]And that's the VOA Learning English Technology Report. [03:47.14]For more technology stories, go to our website 51voa.com. [03:54.91]I'm Jonathan Evans.