Nick Zolas, the Lewiston man who started Supplies for Africa, is now riding his bicycle around Malawi, Africa, where the countryside is beautiful.

“I reached Mzuzu, the halfway point of the trip, and I’m exhausted,” Zolas wrote in an e-mail Friday. So far his adventure has been amazing, he reported. He’s biking from village to village, meeting with schools’ headmasters, explaining how he wants to help them get school supplies. So far, he’s signed up 20 schools.

Supplies for Africa collects and delivers school supplies such as pens and notebooks to African schools, which often do not have either.

Zolas has created a bit of a stir as he rides through villages, describing himself as “part rock-star, part circus-show. Children bolt out of their houses and run to the road waving, screaming, Mzungu!’ (white person)” and laugh at him. Adults also laugh as he rides by.

Africans regard a white person riding a bicycle as hilarious, he said.

The low parts of his trip include him getting the flu, eating the same food (chicken with rice, pineapple) every day, and losing weight. Zolas was thin before he left.

Seeing such unimaginable poverty is sad, he said. The worst is seeing street children who have lost both parents and have no relatives.

– Bonnie Washuk
Soule invited to leave Democratic forum

Lewiston’s perennial mayoral candidate Charles Soule got kicked off a local Democratic Party Internet forum.

“He was promoting Republican candidates,” said Rachel Rodrigue, moderator of the Lewiston Democrats Yahoo! group Internet forum. Rodrigue said Lewiston Democrats created the group to remind each other about upcoming meetings.

“But he began putting up editorials and long pieces,” Rodrigue said. “We told him again and again, that’s not what this was for.”

Then, he began promoting Republican Chandler Woodcock in his bid to unseat Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

“He can promote whoever he wants, but not on a Democratic committee news group,” Rodrigue said. She and other members removed him from their list last week. He can no longer receive notices from members nor post directly to the board.

Soule responded by contacting local media, area Republicans and threatening to contact a lawyer.

“We mainly use the board to schedule meetings, but he never attended one meeting,” Rodrigue said.

Soule has a long history of politics in Lewiston. He’s run unsuccessfully for the mayor’s job five times.

– Scott Taylor

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