GO WOLVERINES!

We had out 2nd/LAST meet this weekend at Toksook Bay! It was BEAUTIFUL there! I brought ten kids again (4 girls and 6 boys). They were such a great group to travel with. We left Kong at about 3:30 and arrived to Nelson Island at 4:30.

A 4-wheeler picked us up at the Toksook runway and brought us to the school.

After settling into the classrooms our first stop was the store- most important stop for the kids! We went to two stores first and after dinner went to one store AGAIN

We also took a walk along the coast- gorgeous is all I can say- the pictures show it all...




The kids played basketball in the gym until THEY decided they were tired (I know, amazing right- I didn't even have to make them go to bed!) We got up this morning, had a pancake breakfast, walked the course and then the kids ran.


Toksook Bay has hills/mini mountains where as Kong is FLAT. I tried to condition the kids for hills by running stairs every day. The Junior High Course was only 1.5 miles... it went up a hill and then back down. My top JH male came in 4th and female in 2nd! There was much more competition here this weekend and considering the difficult course- they did pretty well. (I was NOT HAPPY to see some of my girls WALKING however....)
The Highschool kids had to run a 5K on THE MOST DIFFICULT COURSE I have ever seen!!!! We walked the course this morning and it was ridiculous. You begin by walking up the JH course... then continuing on a 'barely there' path through the tundra. This path went down a hill then up a 'mountain'.

Once you got to the top of that 'mountain' you went down a hill...

and continued up another 'mountain'. At the top was a BEAUTIFUL view and the kids ran along a ridge for a few minutes...

...then down a HUGE HILL on the tundra- SO FUN!

There were parts of this course that went straight down ravines (without a path... it was like running down the side of a cliff) with water at the bottom. The course constantly went up and down... so exhausting just walking/jogging it with the kids. I really worried about my HS runner for this course because of its difficulty but he finished in 3rd place!!!!! (so close to getting second!) I was so excited for a great end of the season. They were a great group to coach.

Our group was scheduled to have the first flight out but we were the last to leave. Because we were flying with two smaller planes and there was fog, we almost didn't get to leave.

Since the Kong airport is closed for construction on Sundays... that would mean I'd be with ten kids in a different village until Monday. Luckily- the fog lifted and I am back! :O)
Garnet watched Moose while I was gone- he still has worms :( I have a few guesses as to how he got these worms: 1).He eats dirt... a lot. If we go outside he comes in with a mouthful of dirt. 2). He ate the dead goose head that was sitting outside my house for a few days (the kids set it there after I asked them not to... imagine that...) 3). He drinks nasty muddy water when we go on walks. His meds should be here any day.

Life in Alaska quote of the day:
Rachel: "I have a rotten moose in my trash can"
Me: "MOOSE, get out of there!"
Rachel: "No, really, it is dead moose meat"

Random Thoughts

So I can’t believe I am almost finished with 4 weeks of teaching- they have gone by fast! I think I am adjusting to the way of life out here rather well- things don’t seem so different anymore when they happen therefore I forget to tell you all things which you may be interested in hearing. I will TRY to think of those things now...

-Today the aide of one of my intensive needs students was sick and couldn’t come in. We COULD NOT find a sub for her so I got to be the sub. Long day- enough said. Love the kids- but still a long day... I need to start bringing in treats for all of my aides!
-So while I was subbing today I went to lunch with my student and starting thinking about differences between school and here. Now there are SO MANY differences but for right now I can only name a few.
1- the kids eat in the gym- there are about 8 tables set up I believe. When they are finished eating they play in the gym for a little bit before class (their ‘recess’) We don’t have playgrounds here because, well, you would just sink into the ground. There is a ‘basketball court’ outside of the school but it is made completely of boardwalk boards and there are big holes in it which kids can easily get hurt on.
2- Kids are obsessed with guns here... but it is normal. In the lower 48 we don’t talk about/draw/pretend to have a gun. In Kong- my students are constantly pretending to be shooting something. When I gave my boys blocks today- one made a gun and the other an airplane. I can’t even tell you the number of times I walk through the hall and see a student ‘aiming’ at something.
3- My number one excuse for a student missing cross country practice is- HUNTING
4- When people come in from out of town- they stay in the classrooms. My room is the popular room because it has a ‘bed/changing table’ in it. I have visitors in my room from today (Wednesday) through Monday.
5- Any teachers out there will understand this.... at the end of the day you are ready to just go home and have your students go home. HERE... your door will be knocked on endlessly with students ‘wanting to visit’... every day of the week. I am sure this means they want to play with Moose more than visit me though.

---I am sure there are many more differences but I can not think of what to compare. I will take any suggestions...


**I recently heard from another teacher that the only flu virus in Alaska currently is Swine Flu. I have also heard various rumors about people in my village and in Bethel with Swine Flu..... any one else hear anything about this?

~And now I need to leave you with a FUNNY story! I mentioned that on Sunday Rachel, Garnet, Midnight, Moose and I went on a long walk to the graveyard and back. What I forgot to mention was the highlight of the trip... sorta. As we were walking on the boardwalk.... we go over a long elevated (bridge) section of the boardwalk which goes over a large creek/little river. I was in the front of the group and noticed a large board was missing. It was about the width of my foot... pretty big. I stopped and said “O wow someone could fall through this!” just as the others were approaching. Unfortunately I was not paying attention (imagine that) and Moose walked right up beside me and fell straight down. Actually... not exactly straight down- he tried holding on with his front paws... they slipped and he his the board that fell on his way down. He landed in this tall grass on the tundra below and was soaked!

The grass was taller than him- he tried hopping around and then just started crying. I felt SO BAD for him but still managed to take a couple of pictures. LUCKILY one of the students had been following us on his bike and ran into the wet tundra to save Moose’s life!

I hope you enjoyed that story at Moose’s expense...~

Moose still hasn’t made many friends- except Rachel’s cat. They LOVE to play together! He has however been watching the other dogs and learned to growl and bark- lovely. He doesn’t do it much but I am worried about what is to come.


OH FYI! So I THINK a teaching position is opening here in Kong in January for a maternity leave sub. It will be 12 weeks long- let me know if you are interested!

Great Weekend BUT not a fan of today...

Today is INSERVICE DAY!!! Since I am the only special ed. teacher- I got to sit alone in a room alllll day from 8:00-4:30 in front of a TV. We do VTC conferences/trainings- so basically people in the district office can give training or an inservice in front of a camera which goes out to all of the villages. It wasn't all that bad because I was given snacks throughout the day- so I am happy :)
I was NOT HAPPY however at lunch! I went to Rachel's and took Moose out for a potty break. Long story short- he has worms- and I cried- a little. Gagged too.
Now for better news- I had Rachel, Garnet, Margaret, and Jean (the 2 secretaries) over for dinner last night. We had SKYLINE CHILI 3 Ways & 4 Ways!!!! GO CINCINNATI!!!! They all liked it surprisingly- unless they just didn't want to make me feel bad.

We also went on a LLllooonnggg walk to the graveyard that I am always taking pictures of from a distance.



One of my students walked with us on the way back- he had fun with Moose.

I FORGOT to mention over the weekend that I ate Moose!!! (not my dog). When I was at the meet on Friday, the teachers were invited to someone's house who had hunted a Moose. Everyone shares here so they cut off a slab of Moose meat and brought it home. Sadly I wasn't there so I didn't get any- but on Saturday night Rachel donated the meat then Garnet & Megan cooked it :O) It was delicious- NO LIE! I would eat it again.

(Garnet cutting up the Moose)

I am attaching the link to Garnet's blog- thought you may be interested in reading her's... although she NEEDS to UPDATE IT! http://mayoadventures.blogspot.com/

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!

1st Cross Country Meet!!!!

We leave today at 2:00 for our first Cross Country Meet. Every Friday the kids get out at 1:00 (lucky kids!) so we will wait in the gym until our planes arrive. I am taking 10 kids (9 Junior High and only 1 Highschool runner) as well as a male chaperone... the Kindergarten teacher. We have 2 little planes picking us up and the runnning starts at 5 (I hope the weather is ok and doesn't delay us!!!)!
Yesterday I was telling the kids what to pack and I mentioned to bring shorts (they ALWAYS run in jeans for practice... talk about uncomfortable.... and they tend to wear crocs for running too...) ANYWHO when I said to bring shorts for the race they all started giggling. I FORGOT that shorts to them are underwear. Whoops. So we got a good laugh out of that :)
Anyway- I need to get going- I'll update you on how the meet went, tomorrow!!

2 Weeks Down

View of the tundra while berry picking)


Sorry I haven't blogged in so long!!! It has been a busy week! 2 weeks of teaching down :) Just FYI the cod and geese tasted decent. We cut off the heads and tails of the cod, fried them and ate the skin and meat. As for the geese... we sorta forgot the geese were in the oven. After pouring barbeque on the meat, it wasn't too bad... I would be willing to try it again. Margaret, the school secretary, joined us for dinner. She tried what we made but she also put the cod heads and tails in a pan with water and boiled it for a soup (She typically cooks by boiling everything).
On Friday night Margaret invited us over for Duck Soup. Rachel, Garnet and I walked over to the newer housing section where she lives and along the way I discovered something new about Kongiganak!!!!! YOU CAN SEE MOUNTAINS!!! Rachel and Garnet thought I was an idiot for now knowing this but I really had no idea. They are off in the distance but still really exciting for me! At school on Friday Margaret told me that she had cut the ducks up and had every part ready to cook. Not going to lie, I was freaked out and figured I wouldn't be eating much. When I took a look in the pot at dinner I saw some meat, yellow broth, and a lot of little white things. I freaked out a tad bit and said "O... are those ALLLL the guts?!" (I was totally grossed out and remembered that Margaret typically eats every part of the animal). Turns out, it was just rice! (Margaret was too nice and left the guts out). After dinner Margaret and I went out berry picking until 10:45!! I picked a gallon of berries- Margaret watches where the birds go on the tundra and then tries to head in the same area to find berries.

The sunset was BEAUTIFUL that night as well!

Saturday I slept until 12:40! It felt AMAZING! Garnet, Rachel and I went to the store and each bought a pop and candy bar. My first Dr. Pepper since I have been in Kong- so exciting :) There was also a Throw Party on Saturday to celebrate a wedding. Mary Lou- one of the Kong teachers- was one of the 2 people throwing things because her daughter got married.


(MaryLou is on the right)
Saturday evening I had Rachel, Garnet and Megan over for steak dinner with mashed potatoes and salad. I also made the cake my mom sent me- DELICIOUS! It is now Sunday and we have finished the cake- whoops.
Today I slept in until noon again :) Spent about 3 hours making bread- turned out a little better this time. Rachel, Garnet and I dumped our honey buckets... I take that back, Garnet dumped Rachel's for her because the first time she tried dumping the wind picked up and blew all over her and she got sick- DISGUSTING. Well my experience today wasn't much better... as I was dumping I suddenly felt a mist on my face. I tell myself it was water but I am pretty sure I know what it was :< From now on I will buy Garnet a pop and candy bar in exchange for dumping my honey bucket.


(Garnet pulling the honey buckets and dumping one..... ewwwww)

MOOSE AND I


(Moose is trying really hard to make friends... so far his BFF is Rachel's cat- Peter)