SUCCESS

1st Cross Country meet was yesterday and the kids did AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So our plane arrived an hour early... I was at home eating lunch and got a knock on my door that the plane would be here (to Kong) in 10 minutes. Soooo I had ten minutes to get my stuff, gather my runners, and get to the airport... O, and eat lunch. BUT we made it :)

The 5 girls and I took the first plane out while the 5 boys and our male teacher took the 2nd plane. I was co-pilot and even flew the plane! The girls were screaming (rightly so, I couldn't keep the plane level and I was scared to death myself). I only flew a couple minutes and asked the pilot to take back over ;) The girls then started asking for roller coaster ride. This is when the pilot goes straight up then straight down and back and forth. YIKES! I WAS SCARED... it REALLY does feel like a roller coaster! LUCKILY we made it to Akula about an hour after we took off. I was RELIEVED!
Once the boys arrived, we had plenty of time before the race (I felt like Coach Roberts at Marian... we were the first team to arrive and had plenty of time to 'relax' which is REALLY hard to do before a first meet!) Anyway, we took a small 1 minute walk to the store and then all of the teams walked the course at 4.


As soon as we finished walking, the junior high boys ran.

I don't think any of them had raced before so I had NO IDEA what to expect... so when I saw the first place runner was from KONGIGANAK I was thrilled- another JH boy came in 3rd! I had two more who were close behind :)

Next race was the Junior High Girls.

I had 5 girls racing out of 11. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 7th, places went to KONGIGANAK! Again- can't tell you how proud I was of them-- they all felt REALLY SICK after the race too.

(The kids started picking berries once they felt better after running... suddenly they were starving!)
Our last runner was a High School male- and he ran his first race ever too!

He finished in 5th out of eleven :) All the kids did such a great job and from what I have heard other students and villagers are really excited about the results.
After the races we had dinner in the gym (eggrolls with salsa.. not soy sauce, rice and pears... YUUuummmm.

Luckily I made the best friend at new teacher inservice and he lives in a neighboring village to Akula. He brought over some salmon, stuffing, lima beans and tomatoes for a few of the coaches. 2 of the other coaches were also 1st year teachers I had met at inservice and had no idea they would be coaching so it was a lot of fun to get to see them! They will both be at the meet next weekend as well :)

On our return flight today... apparently there was a mix up and the pilot thought we were going to Newtok... we weren't.

(boys about to take off)

(girls about to take off)
We flew for about and hour and 15 minutes (beautiful flight) and made it back to Kong.

Moose, Garnet, Rachel, Megan, Midnight, and Lacy were all on the runway to greet us- nice homecoming.

(Back in Kong)
So here I am now--- posting all of this and waiting around. Apparently I may get to go fishing this afternoon- and if not fishing then berry picking. I'll be posting again soon! Happy Labor Day Weekend!