No News? No News.

"Hujambo?" a neighbour asks as I return from work. I reply, "Sijambo." Translation: No news? No news. Indeed, such was April. Not much to report on this end. We went to Tanga for a retreat at the beginning of the month where we met up with the two volunteers from Moshi. They then came down to celebrate the Easter holiday with us in Dar where we got our fix of fishbowl and other fun-for-the-whole-family games. At midnight on the 26th we witnessed for the first time any type of outward celebration for a national holiday as we believe we heard fireworks exploding somewhere in the distance to celebrate Union Day - the day when Tanganyika and Zanzibar became one. A quiet month.

Some of you may have heard via NPR or the CBC of some explosions that went off the other day in Dar. A poorly disposed bomb at a local military armoury detonated and set off a chain reaction of several other bombs. While many people were injured and a few people died in the blasts, out here in Mabibo we were safe, as we are about 20 km from the military complex. Please keep those affected by the explosions in your thoughts and prayers.

We continue on well here. We are in the midst of the big rains, which has brought smiles to the faces of farmers and herders and those friendly folks who work down at TANESCO, the national power company, who have gotten in the habit of cutting our power.

Stay well, my friends.