Monday

Last Monday was bit eventful here in our estate. About 2pm, the kids and Mimi were napping and Nathan, Papa, and I were reading. We heard this loud crash and immediately we all jumped up and ran upstairs to check on everyone sleeping. They were all sound asleep so we ran back downstairs and outside to check on Zipporah. She was fine, too, but also wondering what was going on. Then we noticed our neighbors out in the street walking around to see that everyone was okay. We opened our gate and headed out into the street. The following picture shows what we found.

This transformer is located just at the end of our street. We're not sure how many houses it sends power to, but we think it was about half of our estate that was without power. The poles the transformer was on seemed to have rotted and just couldn't hold it anymore and so it fell over and exploded. There was some sort of liquid pouring out of it and the power lines where just hanging in the air. Dad was very helpful in warning everyone to stay out of the way of the power lines until the power company got the power turned off. Several people called the power company and they got here pretty quickly considering where we live. We think they accessed the situation and then left to get supplies and things together to fix it. We were afraid they wouldn't be back until Tuesday, but they came that evening and worked until about 3am. They got new poles in the ground and everything fixed to attach a new transformer to. Once the got the power turned off, Nathan and Papa headed to Nakumatt to buy some kerosene lamps (we figured the power was going to be out for a while).

This is the pole that the power lines are attached to on the other end. You can see the poles leaning. They came out of the ground when the transformer fell and the power lines pulled on them. The power company did put them back in the ground.

This is after they got the transformer cleaned up and were getting everything ready for the new transformer.

We were able to borrow a generator from some fellow missionaries so we didn't lose everything in our fridge and freezer. They finally got it all working Tuesday night so we could watch the inauguration of President Obama. We joked that that's what they were working so hard for. We heard from a guy in the hangar that they only work at night because they get paid triple time. But they did work on Tuesday afternoon until they got it fixed Tuesday night. Praise the Lord it didn't take them long to get it fixed!

Monday night we went to visit our friends Chris and Lindy Thompson that run the Livingstone Guest House in Karen. Frank and Dottie Shealy from Baptist Home Baptist Church in N. Wilkesboro, NC were also here on a mission trip so we got to visit with them, too. They were here last year when we were doing our homestay and came to get us for a visit on several occasions. The guest house is out of the city and a great place to relax and get some fresh air. We had a great time visiting with them and had a wonderful dinner! Thanks Chris and Lindy!

They have an awesome yard and have planted a garden. John saw the scarecrow and took off! :)