I am living two years in a National Geographic episode.  I recently decided to make the trip to Newala by bike because it's only about 35 k away and I'd been dying for some kind of work out.  Well, I almost died from the workout because it's all uphill, but the ride back was AMAZING!  I decided not to leave until the late afternoon when it was a little cooler, and as I was riding I got to watch this storm roll across the sky and ride right into it.  It was the live version of the "African Rains" episode where they show the sky change from sunny and cloudless to dark grey/blue with lightning lighting up the sky in the distance in fast forward.  So awesome. And I got home minutes before it started pouring. 

I also recently had a memorable birthday celebration.  My birthday was on a Thursday and I hadn't planned on doing anything until the weekend when a bunch of volunteers were coming to Newala to celebrate, but Brijesh, my friend here in Mahuta, called and invited me for dinner late that afternoon.  When I got there all the lights were out so I figured there was no electricity, but he told me to close my eyes and he lead me to the other room where, when he said I could open them, I saw tons of balloons and a cake that looked as if he had dropped it and put the chunks back into the shape of the circle it was baked in.  He lit a candle, sang Happy Birthday, and handed me a knife (which i didn't need) to cut the first slice.  He was so proud of himself and excited to have pulled off his surprise!  It was cute, and a very nice surprise at that.  The cake tasted much better than it looked, and was followed by some equally delicious Indian food for dinner.  He's a good friend to have here in Mahuta.

Later that weekend, 7 of us got together at Jen's in Newala and used mine and Mike's birthday as an excuse to hand out together.  A good time was had by all, especially when we ate the "Bucket 'O Chocolate" birthday cake Tanzanian style, right out of the bucket.  Josh, a fellow coffee lover brought me a kilo of some good coffee, which we made the next morning for breakfast.  You may be wondering where I got a coffee maker...well, we don't have one. But we found that toilet paper works well if no coffee filters are available. 

I am now in Dar with Jen and Thais to visit a bunch of NGOs and invite them to participate in the Newala World AIDS Day we are planning.  As usual, there were a few bumps in the road along the way.  This time a chunk was missing, literally.  We sent out letters to 15 organizations about a month ago to let them know we were going to be in Dar and hoping to set up appointments.  Thinking we had sent the letters in plenty of time, we were surprised not to have received a single email response when we got here and checked.  Turns out the mail between Dar and everywhere in the Deep South has been a little backed up due to the horrific road conditions.  The Deep South is kind of a big loop, with the four corners being Mtwara, Newala, Masasi and Lindi.  The road between Mtwara and Newala (which I live on) is not paved and with the rains right now, is more of a river than a road, so buses haven't been passing there in a while now.  The road from Mtwara to Lindi and then Lindi to Masasi is paved, but there is about a 25 foot gap about 30 mintes out of Masasi that has caved in.  So, the way to travel now, and the way we arrived here, was to take a bus from Newala to Masasi, then jump on another bus from Masasi to the hole in the road, get off the bus and cross the river (hopefully it hasn't rained too much and the current isn't too strong) and climb on another bus that will take you from the hole in the road to Lindi or Mtwara.  Needless to say, our letters have yet to arrive in Dar, but hopefully our mailboxes will be full in a month or so when the rains are gone!   We were able to meet with 7 NGOs and our little event is shaping up nicely!  I'll write more about it as our progress continues.  Hope everyone is doing well back home!  Until next time....and it might be another month and a half...