A Shocking experience!

I wish I had pictures for the "shocking" experience at our house last Friday night, but it was dark, late, and wet. We were about to have a family home evening with the Sister Missionaries and the Montezuma family at our home, including enchilada dinner and a video. While waiting for the Sisters to arrive, I heard a yelp outside, and went to see that the Missionaries were standing outside our gate, looking very scared. One of the Sisters, Sister Vroom, had tried to open the gate, and had gotten an strong electric shock when she touched it, Being wet and standing in the rain did not help. The other Sister missionary, Sister Herrete, was waving her arms and saying "don't touch the fence!". I took her umbrella, which fortunately was plastic, and opened the gate, all the while with sparks jumping from the gate. She was ok, but really shook up, to say the least. I looked about the fence, the wires from the power pole above, and could not see anything. Plus, I had been going out the gate all day earlier with no such problems. It was about 7:30 pm. A couple of the boys of the Montezuma family had a great time with their machete, touching the fence and seeing the blue sparks jump on the blade! We called the electric company, telling them it was an emergency, as I had seminary students coming the next morning, and that we couldn't get out, nor anyone come in. I couldn't believe it when they got here by 9 pm. Unfortunately, a frog had touched the gate, and was stiff on the fence, electrocuted it seemed. I tried to kick it off, but it was frozen on the electric fence. The worker saw that and backed off, not wanting to touch the gate. Well, they went to the electric box, which is a cement box surrounding a metal liner in front of the house, not at all protected from the elements. Apparently, some tape had been used to hold a couple of wires together, and the rain had soften the tape over time and had fallen off that evening. The wires touched the metal liner, the liner was touching the gate, and the gate was electrified from the power pole!! Luckily, Sister Vroom was not hurt, but the frog wasn't as lucky. Thank heavens that Sister Vroom was not hurt, but also had the shock that probably protected our seminary students, or me, the next morning, as I would have never known. By the way, after the fence was back to normal, the seemingly electrocuted frog moved off the fence and jumped over to the corner of the yard. I am sure that he must have been thinking "Whew, what a night!"

Diiner after the shocking experience. Sister Vroom is the American with the big smile. She looks just fine, and we are glad. The other is Sister Herrete, little Albert at the end, Moises, Mariella, and Isodoro. Their Dad was supposed to come, but was late from work, and decided to stay home and rest. We enjoyed Lynda's enchiladas, refried beans, corn, and quesadillas. The Montezuma kids had never had enchiladas, and the Sister missionaries were very happy! Great job, Hermana Presley!