Power Problems

So, I'm now teaching music and LOVING IT!!!! So much more than art! My voice is wearing out after spending all day everyday singing but it'll get used to it.
We have no power a lot recently so I haven't been able to check my email for a while. This country and Kenya are in such bad drought that food aid is being shipped in much more now in the south plus the power source is hydro-electric but with no water there is no power. We started last week with our 2 days of power rationing, then this week the whole country was informed that no one would have power from 7am to 7pm everyday! For us that also means no water as our pumps are electric!!! It's impossible!!
The other thing about Tanzania is that times don't really mean much so the power doesn't usually come back on at 7pm... it may return as late as midnight or not at all!
Therefore, checking email has become very difficult. Sorry for the lack of info from this end but I will try!
The children are responding so well to the music it's unbelievable. Gemma would like to extend the African music in the school rather than only teach western songs but finding music resources here is impossible, I have more African music back home!!!
The small orphanage I first visited has to steal water to survive, the children traipse off in the dark to collect it each night unless Paul (volunteer here at St Judes) drives a load out. Paul can't really get there that often so he is thinking of raising money to dig a borewater hole at the orphanage. He needs about $6000 US so I'm thinking of contributing. If anyone would like to help me then let me know.
I visited the house of one of my favourite boys, Barnaba today and met his family. They are much, much poorer than I expected and yet so lovely. He had invited me last week and asked me to sleep over (this is common for volunteers), I agreed and he was so excited! Then today he came to ask to talk in private and told me that they hadn't been able to afford to buy enough food to feed if I was to stay. He still desperately wanted me to stay over but was embarassed that he couldn't feed me. He asked if I could bring my own food. I asked if I could bring enough for everyone and we could cook together another day as I needed than to go shopping. He was so upset that I wanted to change the day so I relented and said that I would visit but not stay for dinner or sleep over. This was ok as long as I promised to sleep over another day. So, Janet (my old roommate and one of the library teachers here) and I both went to visit bearing gifts of chips, biscuits, chocolates, a bag of sugar and concentrated juice. They had never experienced concentrated juice or potato chips before and they were so excited and grateful. The whole family spoke no English so Barnaba was our interpreter and he did a marvelous job.
I have seen a couple of houses of the students so I was a bit shocked that they had so little. 2 thin foam mattresses for 7 of them and not much else. It was a fantastic experience and we left on a high even though they had so little.