October 30, 1999

We had a carnival this weekend. It was quite an event. The money raised this year went to a national elementary school in the valley. The high school students put it together with help from the rest of the community. There was a big variety of things - a dunk tank, sponge throw (only 1 kid hit me with a wet sponge during my 15 minute time under fire), gladiators, face painting (I got a rainbow on my cheek), caricatures, a ferris wheel powered by people pushing it, an 8 hole minigolf course (it even had a spinning windmill and a waterfall), a dressup picture booth, an auction with donated things, a maze, lazer tag, a petting zoo, pony rides, ETC, ETC, ETC, and tons of food of all kinds. Quite a day. Next year I'd like to clown at it, but I thought it would be good to see what it was like this year before I volunteered, and of course it will be more difficult without my clowning things here.

I harvested some more tapioc out of my garden this week. My Bible study groups was having a potluck so I thought that chips would be a nice unique thing that I could contribute, but I didn't count on how huge it was going to be. The owners of the house had planted some at least a year and a half ago when they were here and the people who rented the house before us didn't deal with it, so it had grown to enormous size. I dug up just part of one plant and there were roots that were 2-3 feet long! It was enough to fry tapioc chips for my bible study of about 10 women, a huge root that I donated to the STEP literacy course participants, 3 chips for each of the kids in my second grade class, and enough to feed the whole primary school staff the next day - and there is still some left over that is going rotten!

Tomorrow I am playing cello for church. The group sounds really good - 3 violins and 2 cellos with a piano and someone leading singing. We're doing hymns out of the hymnal, but some of them have nice optional choral endings that add something special. I'm sure people will really enjoy it.