Joint Carol Festival

The weekend of November 25 - 27 was one wet, ugly weekend. The power went off on Friday afternoon and we were on partial generator power for Friday night. It rained ... all night! The generator, which is located right outside our bedroom window, was turned off at 10:30 P.M. Around 3 in the morning the power was restored, briefly! We got up to cold showers, no power and more rain! After an early lunch we boarded the school bus to Coonoor for the Joint Carol Festival. The bus did not quite make it out of Ooty before breaking down. We sat in the bus on the side of the road while we waited for another bus to pick us up for the balance of the journey. We arrived at St. Joseph's just as the Festival was starting. We had to walk across the football field, which was about 2 cm deep in water, to the auditorium, in the p o u r i n g rain! There were 8 schools in the festival which was MC'ed by 2 students from St. Joe's. The last group was the staff of St. Joseph's singing several carols. The ladies were very colorful in their sari's. Following the festival we had tea in the lower level of the building before we had to make our way back across the campus to wait for our bus. Due to the bus breakdown we had to wait over one hour for another bus to pick us up. The rain clouds had sunk to a new low! We could scarcely see in front of us. Finally the bus did arrive and we had to walk down the driveway to the bus. The bus was unable to make it up the driveway due to a tree which had fallen across the road and knocked down some of the power lines. By the time we got on the bus we were damp, wet, soaked - it all depended on who was holding the umbrella! It rained all night, again! The power was by generator until 10:00 P.M. Sunday night! Still no hat water for showers. On Sunday afternoon a bus load of girls was sent over to Lushington for their showers! They had full generator power but also ran out of hot water! It's been a long time since we have seen any sign of the sun. this morning the sky is clear and blue. Hopefully it will stay that way for most of the day. During the week there were interviews with the Standard 12 students as the term reports were shared. Most students were not surprised by their results. There were a few tears! We are now in count down until the Christmas break and are going to the Christmas Fair this morning.