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Recent Posts

Arusha

By Jacob
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On Friday, Carmen, the girls, and I left for Arusha. We have some meetings with MAF regarding our future move to Arusha and scheduling. The boys are staying in Dar Es Salaam with Dinah. We plan to return to Dar Keshokutwa (the day after tomorrow) which will be Monday. We would appreciate prayer for the meetings on Monday with MAF. There are many things such as flight testing, Tanzania pilot certification, and our move which need to be discussed. Since Carmen and I have been carrying the girls with us wherever we have gone, they have been quite a hit. The Tanzanian women really love to hold them and are always asking if they can get selfies with them. They have been a great way to make friends and start conversations. The girls in the previous picture gave her back apologising because they got lipstick on her head. No, this is not Kilimanjaro, though Kili is nearby. It is Mount Meru at 14,692 feet (4,562m). It is a dormant volcano with its last eruption,...
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That Day

By Jacob
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6:30 Monday morning last week I awoke, fresh and ready to conquer the day. Since Dinah was in South Africa to renew her visa, I have the day off from language classes. I have a daunting 'To Do' list to begin hacking away at. Some of these, such as emails and taxes, had been put off for far too long. Optimistic that I could check off a fair amount, I go about getting ready for the day and then heading out to the SIL office. 8:10 Settling down into my chair I let out a sigh, "Ahhhh, finally. Aircon and some quite all to myself." Just perfect. Well, First things first. My desktop had taken the appearance of a delicious steak covered in flies and I can hardly even tell what picture lays underneath. Much better. Next, taxes or email? Email wins out. Besides, I have been procrastinating on getting taxes together for so long that I might as well continue.   8:55 And thus proceeds the morning…until I receive a call from Carmen that she is planning on going...
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Freaks of Nature

By Jacob
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A picture is worth a thousand words. Jason, this is only the beginning. Frozen fruit popsicles for the first time. You see the baby gate on the left? Ya, someone left it open. They are supposed to be on the other side... At least they are cute about it The other night Carmen and I were on a night stroll when we heard something shuffling around in the bushes. Upon discovering the source of the noise to be a kurunguyeye (hedgehog) I attempted to reach my arm into the thorn bush to take a snapshot with my phone. This little guy, however, was not very photogenic or helpful.  Now, I will take a moment to say that hedgehogs are one of Carmen's favourite animals. In fact, at one point while living in Texas she was in the process of obtaining one as a pet until we were informed of the no-pet policy in our apartment. Bummer. Anyway, as you may imagine, we were both filled with tingly feelings of wonder at the beauty of cute and cu...
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A Testament to Prayer

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On November 20th, only a few weeks ago, what began as a joyful welcoming of child into the world quickly turned into a terrible nightmare. One of which we would find ourselves caught in middle of. Helping a Friend My friend, Bernadetta was due and as a midwife, I regularly visited her for checkups and to help her with labour education. Unfortunately she knew very little as there are no checkups during the last 4-6 weeks of pregnancy and there are no childbirth education classes. Historically, giving birth to a child is the number one cause of death of women in Tanzania. As such, there is also a lot fear surrounding child birth.  It was 11:30pm when I received a call from Bernadetta's husband. Her water had broken and I had agreed to drive them to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital it was determined she would likely need a cesarean but they agreed to start with a pitocin induction. It was getting late (or early) and not being allowed to be with her I returned h...
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