These are letters from Terri Hahn;


Bom dia
 Well, it's been 5 days that wev'e been here. The first couple of days were a little overwhelming. I'm sure any of you that have been to a 3rd world country  can attest to that. I was thinking "Can I do this for a month?!" But now I can see that the time will probably go by quickly. There is plenty to do so we will be busy the entire time. We have gone into town twice with John. I don't think I will do it without him. The language barrier and dishonesty are deterents for me. Kedesh is about 12 miles out of town. It is like being in a subdivision but not like ours. People live in shacks or simple brick homes on a parcel of land. It's like glorified camping. John's house (Kedesh) is very basic. He has running water but it's like outside hoses. There are toilets but you have to fill a bucket of water from a hose to flush it. The shower is a small concrete room (no door) that we have to hang a hose in. There is no hot water. He does have electricity. We are staying in the house on the leased property. John gave us his room and double bed and (more importantly) mosquito netting. We share our room with a cat , a dog, 2 geckos and in the roof is a rat and a genet. John, Jojo, Paul, Cas and Elizabeth are staying on the new property in the mud house that is being built. They just got the roof on the area the girls sleep in about 2 days ago. The new property is just across the road.
 I wake every morning to the sounds of roosters crowing, goats bleating and Portuguese. Most nights we have heard the witch doctors' drumming. They were going all afternoon and night yesterday. John said that they were initiating a new witch doctor which encompasses possession. I'm glad that the One who lives in me is greater than the one they worship. John showed us two voodoo mounds. They are areas (usually placed on giant ant mounds) that the witch doctor places his voodoo curses on. There were many symbolic items that John explained to us. One of the curses was on a specific person, that they would die from something they ate. We took a picture of it.
 We had a game of baseball with the boys yesterday. It was a lot of fun. The boys really enjoyed it.
 Jojo and Paul have been helping on the new property with building the mud house. Cas, Elizabeth and I are transplanting trees from the old to the new property. There are coconut, mango, and banana trees along with other non fruit bearing trees.
 The locals are not shy at all about staring at us. The neighbor kids come right up to the house and look in the windows. You can't keep anything near a window because someone will reach right in and steal it. There are no glass in the windows and the screens are torn because animals and people just come through them.
  John lives at the socio-economic level of the people here. He is one of the few missionaries that do. He wants the boys that live here to know how to live within their culture. They eat powdered cassava roots for breakfast. You make it like oatmeal but it has a very tart flavor plus some gravel-great roughage! Lunch and dinner always consist of rice and some sauce (usually with tomatoes, peppers and potatoes). We had beans with coconuts in the sauce yesterday and also goat meat. It was too tough for me. When in town we have eaten in a Chinese restaurant and a place called Biques- a place on the beach owned by a friend of John's(Ross).  
 Dave might be going deep sea fishing with Ross on Tuesday. We are trying to set up a diving trip and a safari.  
 Many people could be a millionaires here. Fact is a dinner at a restaurant could cost a million or a trip into town costs 20,000. There money equivalency is $1 (US) =26,5000 (MT) or 265 (MTN). MTN is the new currency that is being initiated by the government but most people still deal in MT. It blew me away when I heard that a bottle of water was 40,000MT. Calculating that in my mind killed a few brain cells.
  The boys that live here are wonderful. They are sweet, polite and gorgeous. Sorry Melissa- no girls.
There are 11 younger boys (under 15) and 2-3 older. The older ones are mainly boys that have been with John before and stayed or returned to help him.
  There are two teams here besides us. All are from Minnesota. One team is 2 brothers and the other team is 2 brothers and a friend. The 3 guys will leave on Monday and the other 2 will leave around the 8th. I heard there is a 2-3 girls from England that should arrive in 2 weeks.
 Paul is doing great at learning the language. He's a natural. He is willing to muddle through. Dave and Jojo are doing fair. I am struggling. I use the limited Spanish that fits otherwise I smile alot. I've tried sign language but I just get funny looks (That one's for you Sami).
 I will close for now. There is so much to tell but that can be for a later date.
Love, Terri


Bom Dia,
  Como esta? Esta bem, obrigada!
Things are going well here. Our group is staying healthy and all limbs are intact (so far). Sorry Ann, Paul has gone native- no shoes. He figures that his feet are dirty all the time anyway. In fact it’s hard to remain clean for very long. The house is very open, no panes in the windows , the floors and walls are all concrete. And we are walking on dirt roads constantly. The ground is very sandy here so it gets in everything.  
  The boys here continue to amaze me. They all have a good work ethic. John writes a chore list everyday and they read it and get right to it. The following are some of their chores: let the goats out and herd them (keeping an eye on them all the time to make sure that they don’t eat the wrong plants), let the chickens out of the pen, sweep, prepare and cook the meals, clean up after meals, help build the mud houses, weld, drill, make bricks, do laundry, along with going to school and doing homework. We have been paying a couple of the boys to do our laundry. They wash it in a concrete tub with a concrete washboard then hang it outside on lines. There are no clothes pins so the wind sometimes blows some of the clothing to the ground. We’ve had some great free time with them also. They play baseball, soccer, watch movies on the computer/DVD player, and dance. When they play baseball, many of the neighbors come and watch because they have never seen the game before.
I have never heard any of them complain or argue with John. They are all respectful.        Julay is one of the boys that both Dave and I have fallen in love with. He is about 12 years old, funny, smart, industrious. He could go very far with his life if given the opportunity. Another little one I’d love to take home is Joao pequino. He is so cute!
  The goats and chickens are free range and the dogs eat  leftovers –usually rice. The fish eat the algae that’s produced by the goat dung. The cat eats the mice and rats. And the mice and rats eat  ????
  The transportation here is called a “shapa”. It is a van with 5 benches in it, including the driver’s bench. They squeeze in 20-30 people in it. You always hope for a window seat. It costs 5000 MT or 20 cents to ride. When coming back from town, you have to be quick to get in the shapa (which is difficult when there is a group of us) because there are 10-30 other people vying for the same van. You have to watch your valuables closely when you are getting smashed in between people. We lost out on 3 vans the other eve because there were too many people trying to get on. When we got out of town, the driver and doorman (person who collects the money) got into an argument and kicked us all out. We had a long walk back on a very dark road. A very kind man picked us up in his small  pickup truck. We were sitting in the back with 3 other men.
 It gets dark here about 6 pm but it’s still warm so kids are outside playing for  awhile. It’s strange to have a lot of neighbor kids looking in the windows and watching everything we do. Most of the people stop and stare at us when we are out and about.
  The girls and I have transplanted about 30 plants and trees so far. It’s made more difficult by the fact the pump has not been working for the well on the new property so we have to fill containers at the house and carry them over there. We have to water all the new plants and the floundering plants daily. The guys have the first mud house done. It has 3 rooms. They will be starting on the 2nd house Friday. A couple of  young men that used to live with John are making bricks and building the permanent brick structures. John and the boys have to be moved to the new property by September.    
Hopefully we will be getting the box of medical supplies that was confiscated at the airport. John had to talk to government officials, then to the medical people and then count and report every item in the box to the local pharmaceutical company. They wanted to be absolutely sure we weren’t going to cause competition with them…go figure!
Till next time. Adieus.
                         Terri



Since It´s been awhile since I wrote the last letter so here are some updates. I have been getting quite a medical education from John. He knows all the treatments for the tropical conditions here. Yesterday we spent quite a while digging out “Metakenya” worms and their egg sacs out of one of the boy´s feet. We counted about 13 out of  Andre´s feet and 2 out of Campira´s. Andre´s feet looked like hamburger when we were done. You get it from walking through still water.
Ciao,
Terri  


Bom Noite.  We’ve had a little excitement around here lately.  A cobra had been spotted on the new property.  When John burned out the area to draw the snake out, we saw that there were two of them.  Over a two day period we tracked them down and killed them.  Side note:  they look to have been Egyptian Cobra’s which carry ten times the amount of venom that it takes to kill a human.  On top of that, these snakes had been habitating within twenty yards of where our group and the orphans had been working.  We thank God for protecting us, or we would have been sent home in long wooden boxes.  There have been two other sitings of cobras, however under John’s instruction, NO ONE is to pursue the snakes without his supervision.  (NOTE:  Ann; Paul is currently obeying and displaying a good example of the rules to the younger boys.  Although, he did turn native quite quickly at the spotting of the first snake.  He went gung-ho in beating it to death.  
Also, last Tuesday at almost midnight, John woke us up to inform us that there was a drunk female witch doctor at the back door.  She was convinced her parents lived here.  The men tried to escort her back to her house, but just down the street, she started yelling and cursing that they were going to sell her.  So, she ran off to a shack near by where they serve beer.  That was enough excitement for one evening.
On a less exciting note, Cas* and I have transplanted 89 trees and shrubs on the new property.  (Elizabeth had helped with the first 74!)  It is quite a chore watering all of them everyday.  Fortunately as I have mentioned, we have the hose to reach the majority of them.  
Dave has been getting approached almost daily by the orphan boys to remove metikenya worm sacks from different places on their feet. He has been nicknamed Dr. Dave.
PRAISE GOD!  The medical box of supplies was finally released to us.  It only took 17 days!  The humorous thing is that a letter was written from the department of health specifically to the airport officials stating that the airports unnecessary detainment of simple supplies being donated to CHILDREN and ORPHANS will no longer be tolerated.  However the official that was responsible for holding up the supplies told John that the letter was “actually” written to John saying that any future package needed to have proof of purchase, when in reality, the letter was more of a chastisement to the official for being so ridiculous!!
To give you a bit of an insight into the daily grind at Kedesh, and Africa in general, the food used to cook our meals is hand delivered by a man drawn cart, not horse mind you, MAN.  Wood is delivered in the same manor.  The bamboo that John orders to construct the mud huts is delivered by bicycle.  (We have pictures to give you a better visual of the latter.)  
As most of you know, Elizabeth has departed our company and should be home as of the 10th.  We miss her already (Cas* especially!  The boys have one less girl to tickle.)  
We have about one week left of work and plenty to do.  We shall end this email now for fear we won’t have any stories to share upon our return.
Cheers,
Terri and Crew.


Hola,
   This letter may be a little longer than usual because a lot has happened. Last Sunday evening we were talked into planning a scuba trip so we put it together quickly. After working Monday and John, Jojo and Paul killing yet another cobra (found in the area that Cas and I were working!), we went into Beira to spend the night. We stayed at Casa Reom which is the ministry house where John started. I didn’t get any sleep. The beds were very uncomfortable, the pillows felt like they were made of cement, the air was hot and stale, and you could hear every noise from anywhere in the building (including the rats and mosquitoes). We “awoke” at 3:30 am to catch the “bus”. It’s really more of an  old crowded RV with lots of seats. We rode for 200 km (about 120 miles) on bone jarring and dusty roads. It took 10 hours. There are no real bathroom stops. It’s more like camping- find the nearest bush when the driver stops for a breather. Quite an experience!  Dave sat up front by the driver and got along wonderfully with him. Neither knew each other’s language well but they muddled through it. We arrived in Vilanculo. A beautiful, primitive resort town.  The owners of the resort part of it are white South Africans and Zimbabweans. Their saying is “Maybe next year the tourists will come!” WE went out on a boat on Wed. It was another bone jarring experience. The waves were very choppy. Cas, Paul and I were dropped off to snorkel around a reef on a desert island. Jojo and Dave went to another reef to dive. When they returned at lunch, Cas went out diving with them for their 2nd dive. I didn’t do very well. When snorkeling into the current, I hyperventilated so I stayed shallow for a while. I joined Paul on the other side of the reef and snorkeled back around with him. Saw a lot of the fish from the “Nemo” movie. We decided not to go out on the boat again, so we explored the town on Thurs. We met some very nice natives. Dave made some friends. I’ll leave those stories for later. Also remind me to tell you about our “guardian” dogs, the stone lion and the beach. He is a Senna and Portugese speaker. We stayed in a bamboo hut next to the beach on Thurs. night. The ride back was a little more comfortable on the way back for me because I sat in the front seat. Also we were not inundated with the massive amounts of dust. It amazed me how many children from the bush walk along the road by themselves. Some looked to be going to school. A couple of them were walking as early as 5 am. They had to walk for miles. I also saw a couple a boys (looked about 5-6 years old) carrying babies on their backs. There also were lot of men and women with loads of goods on their heads.  The police did pull us over but let us go when the cobrador(doorman/porter) bought one of them a soda. Strange way to run things but I was glad.
   The witch doctor was at it again last night. I was thankful that the drums stopped about midnight.
  John informed us that they killed 3 more cobras on Wed. and another one on Friday. Did I mention that I can’t wait to get back to where I don’t have to worry about poisonous snakes in my backyard?!
 We will be going to Pastor Gango’s church on Sunday. He is the pastor that works for John. He is a sweet man. Doesn’t speak any English though. John warned us that the service is very long. On Sunday eve we are going to celebrate Christmas. John lets the boys invite a few friends and he invites the widows to have dinner here. The boys give simple gifts to the widows. Cas, Jojo, Paul and John went in on buying some cases of Coca Cola for the boys as their gift. Dave and I will pick up something like a bag of hard candies and other food for the meal. I love it that they enjoy the simple things in life.
    The boy, Carlito, that visited us in Utah 5 years ago, stopped by today to visit today. He is quite a handsome young man now.
   On Monday Cas and I are hoping to go tour the hospital and the deaf center. Then Tues. we will join the insane world of airports in heightened security mode.
Till next time. Ciao
  Terri

This is my last letter from Africa. We will be leaving tomorrow morning.  WE went to Gango´s church yesterday. IT was interesting and enjoyable. There is a lot of spontaneous singing. I wish our churches were more like  that. We had to stand up and each give a "Presentation" and Paul gave a sermon. Gango used Dave and I in his sermon of how wives should "clap" for their husbands- praise them and encourage them. He had been over to the house when Dave was playing the guitar and I clapped for him after. The one thing I noted , but wasn´t sure if it meant anything, was they would close the door and shutters everytime we prayed. John said that this was to shut the evil spirits out. It´s amazing that even within a Christian body of believers they hold onto superstitions. Actually, after thinking about it, that is even in the American churches. We went to Gango´s house later and they gave us Mahil(?). It is a drink made from cornmeal, sugar and water. Sometimes they add a fruit to it. It was tasty. They call it the "Christian beer". If you let it sit a couple of days, it ferments and makes a very strong alcoholic drink so the Christians make sure they drink it fresh. We celebrated Christmas last night. It was a lot of fun. The boys invited friends and the widows came. We had a big meal and gifts were given to the widows by the boys and then the boys were given gifts. Also there was loud music and a little dancing.

   We will have stops in Barcelona & Ireland. But we will have a day layover in NYC. I´m sure we will use that time to try to acclimate. Then we will have a stop over in Georgia before we head home.

   Looking forward to seeing you all again.

Terri