gearing up

About this picture: this is about as big as our living room is, the carpet is a BIG MISTAKE (but it's going to take a lot more desert dust and volcanic ash being ground into it and a few more weeks to convince the husband {who doesn't clean} of that, and those speakers put out some serious sound!

testing the speakers that hook up to the laptop and projector

We found the box with the speakers in it! Also found the box with the projector and all the ministry DVDs  (thanks Dave and Emmanuel!). They all made it safely. Nothing was lifted. Very thankful. Prayer works. We could have a movie ministry and nothing else, just spend all our time travelling around showing the JESUS film and creation videos, with all that was donated. Sweet stuff.

I told the kids that their Science this year would be to test drive all the videos in that box. I'm sure my boy will be a big help in setting up all the equipment once we get it all untangled and figured out. He's good that way with technology. He tried to explain to us about the adapter and the TV and why it needed to be on Low; and later: "well, you didn't listen to me..." (um, that would be Tony that didn't listen)... the TV blew up and big wisps of gray smoke poured out of the top. One or two people burst into tears (not me). Who needs a TV anyway? We're here to do missions, not waste our lives away watching TV.

(FYI: We hear it can be fixed. The 120V motor blew out on the 220V here, just needs to be replaced and wound with higher tension copper wiring... or something like that? Embobinado. I guess, in the end, it'll be good to be able to show videos when people come over?)

This week we have been learning all about electricity. Converting Amps to Watts by multiplying by Volts etc., etc., etc. Well, Boy was right. Those adapters should be set on Low. They just don't work for high wattage appliances - not because they're not made for up to 1600 watts on the High setting, but because they just can't handle 220 volts, apparently.

So, back to the speakers... we were giddy happy to be able to test the speakers out on the laptop. Dave had given a little training session (sorry, can't link to that post, internet cutting out on me - it's back in Sept '11 somewhere), but it was just three days before the container came, so we had to seal that box up right away and haven't seen it for two months. I didn't know if I would remember how to work all the cables, and was praying I wouldn't blow the speakers out since we needed to use an converter to plug them in.

But (happy sigh), we did it! Those speakers make it sound like the movies! The kids watched "Creature That Defy Evolution" Part I, and begged me to let them watch Part II pleeeease.

Fun times. Step by step.