Normally, an absence of more than 6 months might be called a sabbatical...don't I wish! Many excuses for not posting in 10 months, but none I will mention right now. If you are just DYING to know, I could be convinced to entertain your question, but otherwise, I'll just move on.
What's this MESS? Just the beginning of ALPHA's band instrument repair shop. For now it is mobile...meaning the little tool box comes and goes from home to school all the time.
Since school let out in mid December, my "vacation" project has been to do a custom-made course in band instrument repair. Starting with 5-6 flutes to practice on, I took apart the first instrument with my heart in my throat and trembling hands. My VERY gracious teacher, who lives in Kansas, has given me instruction and tips (via e-mail) every step of the way. Oh, the questions I manage to come up with! I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I have been able to do and, so far, haven't managed to destroy anything beyond repair. The motivation behind all of this is to cut costs and diminish downtime when an instrument is not playable (for whatever reason). If we manage to refurbish an instrument ourselves, the school will be able to save $250 + per instrument in repair bills. Our closest repairman is 3 1/2 hours away; the turn-around time is simply way too long. A student often times has been without his/her instrument for several weeks.
But there is more. Our budding repair shop is being made possible in a unique way. Sondra Koehn, a life-long friend of Ken's, and then mine since Bible college, passed away this last year after her battle with ALS. The family has designated a part of the memorial funds to help us get set up with tools and supplies. Sondra's love for music will live on in a special way by helping ALPHA kids get a start in playing in band.
What to do when a student gets his trumpet mouthpiece stuck? Never fear, Bobcat is here! Before this dude came our way, we had to send the instrument to the repair shop in Fortaleza over 3 hours away to do a job that could be done in 5 minutes if we had only had the right tool!
Some of the supplies for repadding flutes...
Old pads removed
New pads installed and even new bumpers for the "feet"
Polished, cleaned, adjusted and ready to go!
Kids arrived just after 3pm on Friday afternoon and stayed on through Saturday morning, leaving just before lunch.
Relaxing a bit before ANOTHER practice. 
The GROUP!
