Weight: 6950 grams (15.3 lbs)

Length: 68 centimeters (26.7 inches)

Head Circumfrence: 44 centimeters (17.3 inches)

First, Monkey enjoys riding up and down the driveway.

Enough tricycle, now it's time for the dump truck - ladybug combo!

Monkey is given a front row seat to the upcoming action.

Hi Mom! Aren't dump trucks the best?!

So many leaves, so little time.

It takes a lot of leaves to fill up a dump truck!

The time has come to travel to a new leaf-picking spot.

Mom, stop taking my picture! Can't you see I have work to do?!

Wow! This is pretty comfy!All this excitement has worn Elijah out.Oh look! More leaves to pick!Now I must circle the house repeatedly!

~ Look closely.... What's missing? ~

Take a good close look at those two treadmills. What's missing? Need a hint? Remember that this is Africa... Still can't figure it out? That's okay - I missed it the first time too. The power goes out all the time here, just like in Nairobi. Sometimes it's just a brief blip and sometimes it's out long enough for the school to turn on their generator. To protect expensive equipment, there's a time-delay surge protector on the wall there behind the treadmill. We have those on our refrigerator, washing machine, and so on to protect the equipment from surges and spikes when the power is restored. It usually delays anywhere from 15 seconds to 5 minutes after power stabilizes before powering up whatever is connected to it.

Now, if you happen to be jogging on a treadmill at a reasonable clip, 15 minutes into your run and the power goes out what do you suppose happens? Yup, that treadmill stops cold. It's a little bit disconcerting. That happened to me the Monday I arrived at language school. I didn't fall off when the track stopped but I did run into the control panel. And you have no way of knowing how long it'll be before you can resume your run, so I moved over to the cycling equipment which does NOT plug into the wall.

What do you suppose I did on Tuesday? You guessed it. I figured there was no way I'd be so unlucky twice in a row and I would really pay close attention so just in case the power did blip again I wouldn't come down on the console. Well, about 10 minutes into a run I got distracted daydreaming and sure enough the power blipped. Crash - into the console I went. Back on to the stationary bike.

I haven't tried again. And the power hasn't blipped again during my workouts for the rest of these two weeks. Figures. So let that be a lesson for you - if you have a treadmill, don't just protect the equipment with a time-delay circuit. Protect the runner too by putting a UPS on that thing!

-Shauen

~ The main campus of MS-TCDC from the reception desk ~

After a bit of research we decided on MS-TCDC, a school of Danish origin that focuses on training in development studies as well as language learning and a variety of other topics, located near Arusha, Tanzania. I've just arrived here for an intensive intermediate Swahili course. The facility is phenomenal, with well-manicured lawns, fresh and clean rooms with excellent daily housekeeping services, exceptionally good food, campus-wide wireless, a basketball court, tennis court, volleyball court, and a gym full of exercise equipment! My family is remaining in Nairobi while I'm here for two weeks and I already have the college feel, with a detailed schedule, a cafeteria, and over 100 students currently on the campus for ~ My dorm-style room with desk, lamp, and private bath ~ a variety of courses, seminars, and functions. It's a pretty cool feeling although it's going to be very hard to be away from my family.

Every day I'll live according to the following schedule:

7:30am - wake up
8:00am - breakfast
8:30am - morning class
10:00am - morning tea
10:30am - late morning class
12:30pm - lunch
12:45pm - nap
2:00pm - afternoon class
4:30pm - exercise (skipping afternoon tea)
5:00pm - study, keep up with urgent email
7:00pm - dinner
8:30pm - study 'till bedtime

~ The tables in the dining facility are set for lunch and dinner ~ The tea-time thing is very common for schools in East Africa and it's a nice break although having those extra cups of milky tea with ginger and masala spices and at least one spoonful of sugar do tend to add quite a few extra calories without you even noticing! I'll be skipping the afternoon tea and heading straight for the gym. To keep me focused I'm really trying to take a nap in the afternoon too - just like my boys do back at home!

We have 8 students in our class and they'll break us into two groups for the duration of the course, switching teachers after the first week. Pray for me!

-Shauen

Josiah & Elijah (wearing his last new outfit from Grandma)

My Mom was able to visit over Christmas and was here when Elijah was born. She brought with her clothes for both boys, especially a lot of 3-6 month clothes for Elijah because we didn't have very many. She of course washed everything before bringing it. As Elijah has slowly grown out of his 0-3 month outfits, I have been pulling out these new clothes from my Mom. As I dress Elijah in his new outfit, I can't help but smell him. He smells wonderfully of baby and home. I have been rationing these outfits, trying to make them last, but today I finally dressed him in the last one. I smelled him as much as I could, knowing that after this day, I would no longer have that smell of home. I don't cry now, maybe because I was able to see my Mom so recently or maybe because I know we will be going home on our home service in about 5 months, or maybe I am too busy chasing around my two boys to have time to cry! Thank you Mom, for always taking the time to wash the clothes you bring/send to us - it means more to me than you'll ever know!

-Krista

This month we received our quarterly "American Citizen Services Newsletter" from the US Embassy in Kenya. Here's what our Embassy can do for us (pasted from the newsletter):

What Can Our American Citizen Services Unit Do For You? We Assist With the Following:

BIRTHS: We can issue a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, which functions as an American birth certificate.

ARRESTS: We can visit you if you are arrested,  provide you with a list of lawyers, contact your family members or friends (with your permission), describe the trial process, and check on your welfare throughout your imprisonment.

MEDICAL EMERGENCIES:  We can help coordinate air evacuation, provide a list of hospitals or doctors, contact your family and friends (with your permission), and visit you in the hospital.  In some cases, we can help  arrange a loan for emergency medical care.

SENDING MONEY:  We can help your family  members or friends send emergency funds to you.

EMERGENCY RETURN TO THE U.S.: We can help Americans in distress find ways to return to the U.S.

DEATH:  We can notify the next of kin, help the family negotiate the disposition or possible repatriation of remains and personal effects, and assist with death certificates.

FEDERAL BENEFITS: We can act as liaison for your Social Security and Veteran Affairs benefits.

TAXES: We share information about filing U.S. taxes.

SELECTIVE SERVICES: We can help you enroll.

VOTING: We can help you with absentee voting.

NOTARY SERVICES:  We can provide notary services including notarization of affidavits.

PASSPORTS: We can process your application for passport renewal, add pages to your passport, or report and replace a stolen or lost passport.

TRAVELING AND LIVING IN KENYA:  We maintain information about Kenya at www.travel.state.gov  regarding safety, security,  Kenyan visa requirements and more.

CRISES:  We assist citizens during incidents of terrorism, civil unrest, or natural disasters.

Other Sources of Assistance

KENYAN VISAS: Only Kenya can allow you to enter the country. Contact Kenyan Immigration directly at +254 (0)2 222022 or dis.immigration@go.ke.

AMERICAN VISAS: E-mail our visa units at VisitorVisaNairobi@State.gov or ImmigrationVisaNarobi@State.gov

BUSINESS DISPUTES:  We can provide a list of Kenyan lawyers that may be able to help.

LOCAL SERVICES: We can give you a list of Kenyan hospitals, attorneys, and security firms. Please check the internet for your other service needs, such as banking and loan information, shipping, and document translation.

PAYMENT FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT: With your permission we can contact your friends and family to request their assistance.  

AUTHENTICATIONS: Please contact us about fraudulently obtained or forged U.S. Passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.  For other document authentications, please contact the authority that issued them.

SCHOOLS OR BUSINESSES IN THE U.S.: The best source for information often comes from the institution    itself.  Please check their website as well as reputable rating institutions like the Better Business Bureau or U.S. News and World Reports.

FINGERPRINTS:  For fingerprinting related to petitions that are filed locally, please contact USCIS directly at USCIS.public@dhs.gov, or at +254 (0)20-363-6111.  For other U.S. Government fingerprinting matters, please  contact the U.S. Agency requesting them.  You can also have your fingerprints taken at any Kenyan police station.

RENEW OR REPLACE A DRIVER’S LISCENSE: Please contact the issuing authority directly. 

That's not too bad. I appreciate it and I've made use of several of these services for our family over the years. Thanks, Uncle Sam!

-Shauen

Krista made me a decaf caramel chocolate latte from scratch! That, of course, starts with making caramel from sugar and vanilla beans (in their pod, mind you). Then she has to make the chocolate sauce from cocoa powder and sugar. Then she whipped the cream. Then she added a decaf Starbucks Via (thank you, supporters from St. Andrew's-Cape Girardeau who bring us Starbucks). It was amazing. And I'm not disappointed in the least that she didn't make the decaf coffee from scratch too - I'm sure she could if she had to.

Yay Krista! Yay birthday weekend! What is she working on in the kitchen now? I'll keep you updated as the culinary masterpieces are presented.

-Shauen

Husband: I'm home from the store.

Wife (unpacking): Where's the butter? Did you forget the butter?

Husband: Um... They, uh, they didn't have any.

Wife: Seriously? You forgot the butter!?!? I was going to bake!

Husband: *sigh*

'Course, in Nairobi, it plays out completely different.

Husband: I'm home from the store.

Wife (unpacking): Where's the butter? Did you forget the butter?

Husband: They didn't have any.

Wife: *sigh* I'll find a substitute.

Last year Kenya was out of ketchup. For three months. Not that ketchup is an essential, mind you. But finding empty shelves happens remarkably often. It's like a super-efficient just-in-time supply chain except that it's often not-quite-in-time. The more remarkable thing, I guess, is that we do have access to ketchup or butter most of the time - not all of our co-workers across Africa have such privileges.  The consequences will stick with us for years to come - it's hard to resist keeping 5 bottles of ketchup in the larder. Just in case, you know?

-Shauen

search terms that brought people to thetrumps.org

Thank you for using a search engine to find us. You may not realize it, but like most websites, our website logs "referrers" and search terms which is very useful for allowing us to see how people find us and get to our site. For example, a bunch of people get to our site by typing my name into Google - that makes sense, right? So, dear visitor, while you're most welcome, I'm sorry to be the one to inform you that this website won't tell you anything about Donald Trump's sons' hunting vacation in Africa. If you wonder how you got here after you searched for "photos of the trumps vacation to afraca" it's probably because there are Trumps in Africa, we do have photos, we do go on vacation from time to time, and frankly we've been here a lot longer than those other ones. But we're not the Trumps you're looking for. While you're here, though, look around a bit and make yourself at home. We've even got lots of pictures of us with animals when we were on vacation. But they're all nice and alive-like. Sorry. Oh, and you misspelled "Africa." As for you, other guy searching on "shauen the," it's eating me up what you were going to type before you accidentally hit enter: shauen the brave? shauen the really good husband and father? shauen the fierce? shauen the missionary to afraca? Maybe it's better we don't know. I might have had to make fun of your search too.

-Shauen