My name is JaBig (born: Jean-Aimé Bigirimana in Rwanda in 1979) and I am a Canadian DJ who is riding around the United States of America between since February 2022 to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief, a six-month 16 000 km (10 000 miles) journey to help children in rural Africa get an education by being provided with a life-changing bicycle to get them to school.

- Full details on the ride and World Bicycle Relief: https://give.worldbicyclerelief.org/jabig (link is external)

- Global Cycling Network (GCN) interview: https://youtu.be/hozOkq44krk?t=573 (link is external)

“In developing countries, millions of people walk for miles each day just to survive. On foot, individuals race against the sun to complete everyday tasks. Distance is a barrier to attending school, receiving healthcare, and delivering goods to market.

World Bicycle Relief delivers specially designed, locally assembled, rugged bicycles for people in need. We’ve developed an efficient, innovative, and scalable model to empower students, health workers, and entrepreneurs in rural developing regions with life-changing mobility.”

Adventuring is not new to me.

- In 2017, I finished crossing Canada on a fixed gear bike to break a Guinness World Records for the longest journey by bicycle in a single country, an 15-month, 18 000 km (11 000 miles) epic ride in mostly Winter that took me all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

MEC, Canada’s largest outdoor gear retailer made a multi-award winning short documentary about my epic cross-country ride called ESCAPE that was screened in over 20 countries at 100+ fringe film festivals.

Watch the 8-minute documentary here: https://www.mec.ca/Escape (link is external)

It would have been IMPOSSIBLE to cycle across Canada’s extremely brutal Winters in temperatures as freezing as -40 C (-40F) self-supported and with limited resources if it were not for the generous hospitality of the 114 homes that opened up their doors to me.

70% of my hosts were met through Warm Showers (the rest was from fans or contacts from friends or previous Warm Showers hosts) and I have made so many friends that some of them have come to visit in Montréal and some will be joining me in portions of my bicycle journey around the world to ride along!

- The ride across Canada was a personal escape but the journey across the world is a realisation of a dream of a lifetime and a personal mission to make the world a better place by eradicating poverty through education.

So when I turned 40 on August 25th 2019, I started a 100 000 km (62 000 miles), 5-year round-the-world ride to realise a dream of a lifetime and to raise money for World Bicycle Relief which took me to New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Germany before COVID-19, the pandemic halted the charity expedition and the Canadian embassy strongly urged me to return home which I did.

https://opencycle.com/updates/beats-by-bikes-world-journey (link is external)

https://www.cyclefit.co.uk/journal/jabig-round-the-world-cycle-100-countries-100-000-miles (link is external)

https://www.sram.com/fr/life/stories/jabigs-biggest-ride-yet (link is external)

- Back in Canada and completely dejected from having put my world tour ride on a hiatus with no apparent restart date, I decided to cycle across Canada again but this time in the middle of a pandemic in August 2020 to raise more funds for World Bicycle Relief which needed them urgent to provide bicycles to health-care workers in rural Africa so that they could reach more patients on a daily basis.

As most of the country was under lockdown and not passable, I rode from Vancouver (Pacific Ocean) to the border of Québec-New Brunswick, a 6000 km Summer ride that was completed just in time before the second wave of the pandemic.

GCN, cycling’s biggest media outlet did a little recap on my charity ride across Canada that you can view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhNNlc58LA&t=384s (link is external)

It goes without saying that I avoid crowds and situations that could me catch COVID-19. As a matter of fact, I feel safer when I am on the road in the middle of nowhere than in major cities.

I am an easy going guest, don’t require much and I am chatty or reserved depending on your mood. As a public person, it goes without saying that I get a lot of scrutiny and you can ask Google about me to find out everything that you need to know about me :-)

I look forward to meeting you all and I thank you in advance for your hospitality and most importantly for your fellowship!

Je parle français.

(Social media profiles: www.facebook.com/JaBig (link is external) & www.facebook.com/mrJaBig (link is external), www.instagram.com/JaBig (link is external) and www.youtube.com/JaBig (link is external))

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am reaching out to the Couchsurfing community for accommodation as I pass through your city or town as I ride around continental United States of America to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief and to explore and experience this country that neighbours mine.

Interests

Music, Bicycles, Chocolate and of course Travel (exploring new places and meeting new people!

• chocolate
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• communications

Music, Movies, and Books

Too many to list. It depends on my mood at the moment.

Jules Vernes' "Around The World in 80 Days" that I read when I was ten is probably the book that inspired me to pursue an adult life full of travels.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Gotten the guts to at long last decide to cross Canada by bicycle coast to coast to coast in the middle of winter as a personal life-defining challenge.
(currently riding through Newfoundland headed to the Atlantic Ocean

Teach, Learn, Share

DJ, YouTube, social media, cycling

What I Can Share with Hosts

My adventures, music and good stories

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, England, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Rwanda, South Africa, Switzerland, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Arab Emirates, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, Canada, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa