In the past, our parents would often recount their mile-long commute to school, which involved walking

uphill both ways and taking in the rain and snow. However, when it comes to peda-powered school transportation, this man has raised the bar.

Mamadou Safayou Barry rode a bike from his home in Conakry, Guinea, to five different nations and all throughout

West Africa and the Sahara Desert,
covering 2,500 kilometers, all in the hopes of getting admitted into an Egyptian institution.

The husband and father of one traveled through some of the most bandit-infested regions on Earth, including sections of Burkina Faso and Niger, as well as Benin, southern Mali, Togo, and Chad.

He was twice in Burkina Faso and once in Togo, where he was arrested without reason or accusation.

It was in Chad that he encountered good fortune almost four months after leaving his family. After

reading about his efforts in the local press, a local philanthropist arranged for the man to be flown to Cairo.

Once he arrived, the esteemed Al-Azhar University extended a full scholarship to study engineering and subsequently Islamic studies.

In addition, Hollywood A-lister Will Smith unexpectedly congratulated Barry after learning of his successful journey.

Smith found learned about Barry’s ride through a September BBC broadcast. He gave the Guinean a new bicycle and a laptop for his studies by video-calling him in Cairo.

‘When I saw him, I was confused in my head, because I had seen that man before,’ Barry told the BBC from Cairo.

‘Then it dawns on me—Will Smith! Whoa… I viewed his flicks in the past. I was sitting in front of Will Smith in a chair.