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Recent Posts

Meet Our Girls

By Jacob
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Welcome to the world Esther Tianna Joy and Tivoli Moriah Rain! May God give us the strength and wisdom to raise you to love the Creator, God, who has brought you into this world.  Yes! I got my two little princesses! I am so proud of her. Five hours of incredible pain and eight months of carrying the girls through a move across the States and two weeks in Tanzania. I am so blessed by her. Right now I am so grateful for two healthy daughters and wife. God is so good! Born at 36 weeks Esther: Wt - 5 lbs 2 oz, born 8:02am Tivoli: Wt - 5 lbs 6 oz, born 8:20am  We were so grateful that my mom could be there to help out.  The boys were super excited to meet their new sisters...though before long they were more interested in the grapes brought to Carmen for lunch and all the light switches. Going through the pictures, Carmen and I are having lengthy debates as to who is who. I am convinced that Esther is on the left an...
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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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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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Sunshine & Rain

By Jacob
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The Tanzanian Aviation Authority granted a temporary, one month validation of my US license. Last week I was able to fly my first medical safari without another pilot along. Below is a short video of the highlights. We drove to the Northern coast in Pangani and spent three days over Christmas soaking up sun, sand, and water with Carmen's paarents! It was beautiful, relaxing, and fun. Double baby wearing... its how we roll :) It was the babies first time at the beach. Tivi LOVED every minute of it all and laughed constantly at the waves, went swimming, and threw lots of sand.  Esther on the other hand wanted nothing to do with any of it. Consequently she spent nearly the whole time on someone's lap, in the hammock or any other location she could get  away from the sand! The most popular place OUT of the sun. In the early mornings and late evenings hundreds of little crabs came out of their holes to run along the shore. ...
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