Lights, Camera, Blackout...

So last Wednesday was our Spring Concert. Mrs. Rachel Hollie has worked SO hard to prepare our students for this performance. Each class from K - 11 did at least 1 song. The middle school and high school did instrumental and vocal performances. We managed to get the auditorium at the University here for a venue. Kh and Jeremy (Rachel's husband) went over and cleaned the place that morning. After lunch we packed up about 8 students and all the instruments and headed over to set up. Since I have a break in the afternoon, I joined the set-up crew and had quite a blast. After school, all the students headed over to the University with special tickets and car tags. We truly thought that we'd thought about everything. That is until 3:35 when all the lights went out.

The little man in charge of the auditorium came up to Rachel and said, "Well that's it, no more city power." (Actually he didn't speak English, Rachel had a student translate.) "Do you want me to turn on the generator?" he asked. "If so, it will be extra money for the fuel." WHAT??? Anyway, as it turned out, their generator was left over from the Russian era, and was really not good for anything with or without fuel. So, Caleb once again used his gifts. He was planning to run to the local power station and ask what happened and then run back to the school to get our little generator that would at least start and keep the lights on. While talking to the guys at the power station, he noticed the phone number for the Minister of Power and Water posted on one of the little doors. Since the guys were not being that helpful, he just called the Minister himself, and asked him to tell the power station guys to turn the thing back on. Sure enough, that was all it took. A few minutes later, we again had power and it lasted throughout the performance. It was so much fun to see the kids from all over the world doing music from all over the world. I'll try to get some pictures soon.