Snowshoeing

Friday after school I took a few of the kids out snowshoeing. We went out a few miles, made a fire, roasted the usual suspects of hot dogs and s'mores and stayed out until 8 (it's not getting dark until 10).

Wolverine

We out and checked the traps today. As usual we weren't catching anything until we got to the last one and discovered that we had caught a wolverine ... Todd at first thought we caught someone's dog but the teeth and claws gave it away.

On the drive back, we headed across the lake where Kimmy & I finally got to explore this one island. It's known in the community as "Ms S's Island" as twenty years ago she got stranded on it and set it ablaze to attract attention for rescue. The snow started once we landed and currently we have another three inches on the ground.

Little Kids Drive Hondas

This is something that is more than common here: little kids driving hondas. My nieces & nephews I know will be jealous but here there is no helmet laws or age restrictions for that matter. Oh the times.

Driving across the lake

Native Games

This is the one leg high kick jump. You jump and land with the foot that tries to hit the ball. The female record is 77inches...that's 6 feet.

Go Mobiles!

When all else fails, have 'em make mobiles

A Mountain Man

Kimmy & I were invited to go ice fishing today with one of the locals. The drive took us up Iliamna Lake, through a stretch of land, past a few ponds up to the mouth of the Copper River. After an hour, a honda drove up with a load of wood being hauled. The driver was a man named Randy who, was, by all definitions, a mountain man. He lived alone on Pike Lake with his 186 pound Newfoundland and offered up his ice grips, some jerkey and threw out some memorable lines such as, "sometimes it's harder to stay alive then to die"

The drive back on Iliamna we came into views of mountains we can't see from the village. Our drive, distance wise, was as if we went from La Conner to Oak Harbor.


We never caught anything but returned a little bit frozen and caught sight of one of the "littles" leaving church.

Kickin' off the boots

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Last night Billy and a few friends threw a dance for the kids in the village. Being that there's no women my age in the village, I found myself dancing with coworker Ed's sister-in-law.

Classroom Antics

Nothing quite compares to the interactions in the classroom:

Out on the Ice

My housemate has had her best friend and son up from Texas. Today we took them out to check the traps, nothing was caught but for Preston (who is autistic) it marked the highlight to his trip.

I drove one Honda and Preston clung on sittting behind me as we went through the forests, up and down hills and finally charging back on Iliamna itself. When we came back - I got a bit of frostbite on the tip of my nose.

Just to make things even more interesting is that the disticts tech specialist is a former coworker of mine from the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. He's been here for the last week upgrading software and finishing leftovers.

Birthday

My birthday was celebrated in grand fashion. There was the usual phonecall from my mother recounting how I was birthed (it's the typical affair) but what made the day more fun was that in Kokhanok there are two other guys who share my birthday.


My state mentor was in to observe me teach and I had the kids make "Greek Shields" since we're studying mythology. They truly got into it. They went on to make swords, spears and the plan is to "attack" one of the other classrooms by the end of the year.

Each class and student found time during the day to wish me a happy birthday. Some students did so even in Yu'pik

After school the call went out that a potluck would be given for the "birthday boys". Consisting of smoked salmon, macaroni salad, cake, moose ribs, BBQ chicken, and juice mixes it was a pleasant forerunner to the meal that my mentor made complete with hard to find tomatos.

Carnival

I'm sorry about the delay in returning to this blog but I've been a little busy. The first thing that occurred was the yearly Carnival here in Kokhanok. Our population goes from 120 to well over 500 people. There's dogsledding, basketball games, target shooting, bingo, ice golf, raffles, banquets and bands playing every night until 2am. Curiously, a lot of kids are born nine months later.

The video is from the banquet which closes the three day event. The elders are asked to go first and just when they assemble themselves they do a prayer in Russian which leads everyone else to rise.