End of the Trail

Well kids, folks, family and curious internet watchers from Pedro (amazing what a tracker will show), this is the end of the trail.

My flight to Seattle is already boarding, people have their cell phones out and again I am feeling amazingly out of place. Todd, Kimmy and I hung out for a bit and tried to not talk about the truth that was upon us: that we were heading home and soon to not know when we were returning.

All's well that ends well.

Game Day

Game Day is the day just before the last day. We got the school into groups and held various races, activities and general "team builders". My group, the blue team, won in the end giving us an early out.



All year I've been trying to get one elder on video yelling - she's pretty noticable and memorable - but today I not only caught her yelling but at me. I'm not sure if she wanted me to go back or if I cheated on one race. I know I grunted back at her but keep in mind this is the woman who wrestled me flat on my butt a month ago.

Don't ever open your window at night...

...kids will show up:

Along the Shore

Today was the last real day of classes as next week we are having "village clean-up day" and "game day" before having the end of the year picnic on Wednesday. As strange as this thought is, I will be home this time next week.

I took my students down to the shore to finish working on their sketches and haikus and again I was amazed by their thoughtfulness to the topic and their humor which is poured out. On the trail, they would wander off to go looking for berries (cranberries are still ripe after being in a deep freeze all winter).

making sense of it all

I attended the first graduation of students I taught yesterday. It's not, by any stretch of the imagination, unemotional. We had two graduates who cried along with the entire village. Granted back home, it's emotional too but here everyone raised that kid, everyone has looked after or fed that kid. Now, they're moving on. I was moved when mentioned in the speeches and when I recieved a rose; it's the part of teaching they never teach you.

forget grammar...

Cinco de Mayo

We had school on Saturday to make up for having Thursday off and as such we threw a Cinco de Mayo party. A big thanks needs to go out to Mr. Garret Lee for having the wisdom to mail up a pinata in the dead of winter. The kids had a blast busting it open. Some of the kids didn't know there would be candy inside of it - so hoorah for cultural exchanges.

Aileen is off the road

Nothing better than giving the wheel to a two year old:

The Companion Bear

School was closed today on account of the septic system being backed up. It did cause a lot of "they were so full of it" or "I knew that place was full of _____" within the district that I'm pretty sure every site has come up with their own creative response.

I woke up early to hand off the store deposit to the district reading specialist and soon decided to head out to the cabins mentioned in the fall. I took along Eds dog, Bear, and the two of us wandered out. The lakes are free of ice and the ground has thawed out making quite a muddy mess and I found myself doing a double take to make sure I was in the right place as I have known it only covered in snow.

I managed to get my first farmer tan of the year and counted seven Mallard ducks as well as a few swans.

Basketball at 11pm

The schools toliets got backed up tonight and as such, school is canceled tomorrow. We are going to have Saturday school but who's counting?

Here I am packing up stuff trying to figure out if i really want to drive through the Black Hills of South Dakota when I see the following:

Out to Draw

Taking advantage of the surroundings and the fact that we are closing in on the last day, I took my students on a "drawing expedition". I'm planning on having them make a few haikus and a descriptive paper on the day but now I'm thinking sometimes it may be nice to not and simply get out and enjoy what's around.