First of all - I am also extremely sad to have heard about Jack Layton's passing this morning. It is so sad that [many] Canadian youth finally found a leader that they want to support, and he is no longer with us.

I now must apologize for not updating my blog more frequently. I am so pleased and honoured to have so many people following me, but I've somehow lost my drive to write. I think it has something to do with Dar es Salaam and Tanzania now feeling like my home… it seems silly and somewhat tedious to me to write about things that are just part of my normal life even though when I take a step back and look at things objectively, I realize that every day and experience here is completely different from anything from Canada. If any of you are worried about my safety when I don't update frequently - please don't be (that means you Grandma!!). No news is good news.

Well looking back to my last post - much has happened. I will attempt to recap efficiently.

I went to the Ludacris concert and it was absolutely crazy and so so fun! There were about 30 000 people in and around the venue, and Luda didn't come on until 3am.

I went on a 3 day safari (journey) to a small village called Utete to check on R&S clubs there and see if they need support from us. It was really amazing. I drove through wilderness full of primates, and a million mangroves. I also went to extremely remote places where all of the children (and many adults) have never seen a white person before. When proud elders were guiding me their village areas, there was often a tiptoeing trail of curious children behind us who would run away in fear every time I turned around. This trip was also a chilling wake up call from my life living in a city of 4 million, as I saw many children with bulging bellies and limbs made of nothing but skin and bones - textbook signs of kwashiorkor malnutrition. We were very pleased to find many active R&S clubs and some very outstanding children who are just completely in awe of nature and extremely proud to tell you about their projects.

I have initiated a new R&S club at a school, and had volunteer student leaders to Jane's house for some fellowship.

We've begun holding weekly meetings at Jane's with high school R&S leaders every other Saturday, which is a fun time for students to get together to laugh and discuss their thoughts.

I've started planning bigger lessons for the HIV/AIDS support group for children that I attend on Saturday mornings and they've all been a great hit!

I sang at a house concert, I've been giving piano lessons, and I now frequently conduct our little choir.

I'm planning a peace day event for R&S clubs and have been devoting 90% of my energy from Mon-Fri 9-5 on this for the past few weeks.

My friend from Holland's parents are here in Tz for 3 weeks, and they decided to get married after being together for 20 years! So I attended their beautiful little ceremony yesterday - it was absolutely gorgeous.

I've made many new Tanzanian friends, and it's really great to be surrounded by people that I love all the time. My Swahili is getting better pole pole (slowly), and I really just feel at home.

And this is only scratching the surface of my last 3 weeks. Every day is so full, and I'm just absolutely loving my life! I can't believe that 3 months have almost passed already. I will try to update more often so that I can tell some stories instead of quickly listing off events that I can remember.

I'll end with a quick funny story:

I went to the beach on Saturday with 2 friends after volunteering at the Dar Dar HIV/Aids clinic. We took a ferry to this island that has a lot of beaches, and then a Bijaji (tuk tuk) to the beach. When we reached the beach, we took the Bijaji driver's phone number so that we could call him to get back to the ferry in case we were stranded - his name was Emmanuel. I was swimming alone to cool off, when a man about 30 feet away from me yelled "Amy, Amy!" - the girl that I live with and that I'm with 95% of the time is named Amy, so I just turned around and responded "Yes?". Then the man said "It's Emmanuel - remember me?". We meet so many people everyday, and I couldn't see the man's face, so I figured it must have been the Bijaji driver, and so I responded "Bijaji?". He didn't reply, and so I just swam to shore and figured his English wasn't very good. About 2 hours later, my friend's colleague whom I'd met at her birthday party came over to our beach hut - his name is Emmanuel and I'd met him the week before and had a rather long conversation with him. I am still pretty embarrassed about our ocean encounter - but I think that our dialogue is hilarious, especially since my name is not Amy. And believe me, these kinds of encounters happen to me everyday. Life is funny.

Love to you all!