Tuesday, December 30, 2003 Salaama....(greeting in Makua) Well, hello from Nampula, Mozambique! We left Lisbon on December 12, and got to Maputo (capital of MZ) on the 14th and all the team's luggage was lost (24 bags!). We stayed over a night there, and some of our suitcases arrived the next day. Little by little it arrived, some couples stayed behind waiting for theirs while we went on ahead to Nampula on Sunday night. Rusty's guitar arrived just in time for us to check it in and hop on the plane. So, we arrived here, settled in our house (with Jeremy, Martha, and Luke Smith), and we are trying to feel normal. We bought a little Christmas tree, and we sweated out Christmas. We have been busy ever since we landed it seems. We've been working on getting our work permit applications turned in and setting up new bank accounts, meeting with church leaders, you name it, and we're in the process of doing it. We did however take a short break on Christmas Day to sit on the porch and eat some turkey legs. We were dreaming of a white Christmas but it turned out to be 110 degrees that day so better hopes for next year. Maybe it will go down to 100! The money here is crazy- exchange rate is 1 dollar to 24,000 medicais. So, we are enjoying being millionaires for the first time! It is hard to figure out at the grocery stores and the market, but we are getting used to it. It is so funny to ask like the price of green peppers, and they say 4 cost 10,000- we have to think, and realize that it is only really about 40 cents. We just wish they would knock off some zeros! So it is confusing, and spending 1 million of anything seems wild. There are about 5 stores we have to go to in order to get all the grocery stuff we need- one place even had Miracle Whip! We couldn't even get that in Portugal. And all the stores have Tabasco sauce, that makes Rusty really happy. It is just so random the things that are here. We can find pretty much everything we want here. That was a really nice surprise. So, we are liking it so far, but we do have to go to all the stores- it's not like Wal-Mart! It took us 3 hours today to go shopping. We have one car that a missionary is letting the team use while he is on furlough, so we have to organize everything in advance. We are looking into buying our own cars pretty soon. So, that is our life now. God has been good to us, and we can tell that there are many people praying for us as we are jumping through the hoops a little easier than we had expected. Next week we leave for our time of Survey, in which we'll split up into small groups to survey 6 areas in Northern Mozambique to finally choose our place to settle down and build our mud mansions. We'll be looking for places to buy land, seeking to get the approval of the local authorities, and trying to locate a place where we feel the most needed. Please pray for our team during this time, that our decision making will be smooth and peaceful. Thank you for all your prayers and e-mails during this time in our life. We really value this communication with so many of you. We are able to check and send email about once a week which we are very thankful for, but this makes our inboxes fuller each time. So we request that when you send us email messages to hold off on sending us pictures, forwarded mail, or e-cards that sometimes put us over our limit and prevent messages from coming to us. We would love to receive pictures, but we will alert you if and when we are able to check email more often. Thanks for your understanding. Please be in prayer for: 1. The Makua people 2. Our health 3. Our work permits to come through 4. Our Marriage 5. Team Relationships 6. The decision about where to live The peace of the Lord, Rusty and Ann If anyone is interested in sending actual snail mail, here is an address through another missionary here: (we plan on getting a P.O. box soon, but here is this in the meantime) Rusty and Ann Caldwell c/o Shawn and Sarah Gardner C.P. 688 Nampula Nampula, Mozambique Africa We hope you have a happy new year!