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Recent Posts

Haydom

By Jacob
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Tuesday last week I flew out with another MAF pilot, Kirstein, to Haydom. Our schedule was full with flights out to even more remote villages, and we would not return back to Arusha until Friday. On one of the afternoons we needed to haul to the maximum capacity of the aircraft, and so I was left on the ground.  As I waited to catch a few pictures of Kirstein taking off to the villages, these two girls kept begging me to take a picture of them so they could see themselves. They were quite pleased, and a little shy, when I showed them my camera screen. After he was off, I began my hike to the large hill beside the town of Haydom. Having grown up in the mountains of Idaho, I miss the tranquility and peace of being in the wild. Being away from busy city life gives me time to think and process. I began to contemplate how different Tanzania is from the world I grew up in. For instance, it took me multiple visits to the Haydom airstrip before noticing the ridicu...
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57 Hours Later - We made it!

By Jacob
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Over two days later with a total of fifty-seven hours of travel - we finally made it to Pennsylvania! Below is a condensed version of our trip on video.
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It's a Geyman Thing

By Jacob
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While growing up with my bothers and my older sister, I can recollect many instances of taking on the cold with no regard. Such as hiking in the mountains through deep snow in sandals or breaking a hole in the ice in order to land in it on the way down the zip line... You know, contacting freezing water hurts a lot more after a 30 foot drop than it normally does.  Perhaps some would regard this as abnormal behaviour, or maybe just a great definition of stupidity. But I like to think of it differently. It was just another way to have great fun! Sometimes this behaviour resulted in ghastly consequences, such as when  Isaac ran barefoot through deep snow all the way to the barn and subsequently added a pitchfork to the length of his foot's anatomy. But overall, we all survived and came through with some great memories. Memories forged in ice. I just barely got out of the way with my camera.  This reminds me of a tradition I had growing up....
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A Long Week

By Jacob
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I am lying here on the bed next to Carmen, Esther, and Tivoli. The day has started and it is getting hot outside. Fortunately, there is a breeze and we do not have a power outage so the fan can keep running. It seems we get our daily (or more) power outage which lasts anywhere from a few minutes to five hours. I don't think you realize how nice it is to have consistent, reliable power until you just don't. The boys are outside somewhere, and Dinah is cleaning the house. The sound of construction and the occasional horn or loud music overwhelms the sounds of bustling Dar Es Salaam. Earlier this week on Sunday afternoon we moved across the city to a two bedroom apartment making our commute to language training a leisurely five-minute walk. Since then, we have found a fridge, borrowed two couches, and bought mattresses to sleep on and mosquito nets. We are quickly learning our way around the city! Jason contracted a fever, stomach ache, and runny stool on Monday. Thou...
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