Catch Up

A whirlwind of events have happened since I posted over a month ago. I will do my best to catch you up on life in the bush during October and the first half of November.

Volleyball season has been going pretty well. The middle school volleyball season has just come to an end, so from now on; practices will be just the varsity players. There are currently 9 girls on my varsity team ranging from seniors to an 8^th grader. We have only played 3 weekends so far, but have been successful. The first two weekends, we were undefeated and the third weekend my team took 2^nd place in a tournament without me. The past two weekends we have been unable to travel to different planned tournaments due to lack of funding and bad weather. It has been nice to stay home and get caught up on school work I missed while I was gone, but I am definitely looking forward to going to a tournament this weekend, and I think my girls are too! Hopefully the weather cooperates for us :) The team picture below is missing a few players, but that’s what happens when you live in the bush and have to fly to all of your games…not enough seats on some of the planes.

School has been busy! I have been busy spending most of my free time lesson planning, or decorating my classroom. My students have been doing well lately. They are a great group of kids still. It has been fun to see some of my sixth graders involved in sports (volleyball and wrestling) and I’ve enjoyed getting to see them and interact with them outside of the classroom.

At the end of October, my grandma passed away. Thanks to many, many people, I was able to make it to Minnesota for the funeral. So many wonderful people pitched in to research and schedule flights, cover my volleyball practices and games, and give me rides to and from different airports. I am so very grateful to have spent just those few days with my family in order to celebrate my grandma’s life. She left a beautiful legacy not only for her children, but her grandchildren as well.

When I got back from Minnesota, I hit the ground running with getting back in my classroom, continuing my courses, and my coaching duties. The whole rest of that week, I felt like I was barely keeping up, but thanks to some supernatural strength and energy that could only come from God, I was able to finish out the week and start on plans for the following week. Now, having been home for two weekends without volleyball, I feel like I am finally catching up a little bit…not completely, but a little. One step at a time.

Also, over the past week, Robin, has been staying with us. It has been such a blessing to have her here, as I’m pretty sure she has been doing all of the cooking and cleaning in our house. I came home for lunch all last week to a delicious meal, and then home from practices to yet another amazing meal. We’ve been busy experiencing life in the bush with processing caribou this week. Though it was a LOT of work, it is totally worth it to have the red meat in the fridge, and it is quite delicious!

Sorry for the delay in posting Hopefully I will be more on top of things as the year progresses!

6 Day Week & Volleyball Season

It’s been a couple weeks since my first post, but things have been a little crazy here! This past week, we had a six-day week of school. Yes, six-day week of school. We had school yesterday, on Saturday. It was our last Saturday to make up (for now), so we are officially all caught up! It was actually a fun day as we planned a little culture day for our students. Each class rotated around to each of the elementary classrooms for about 50 minute time periods. 

I decided to host some Hispanic festivities. Basically, I put together a little PowerPoint about the Hispanic culture. I showed them where Mexico is compared to Alaska and then focused mostly on birthday traditions. We talked about what the kids here do for birthdays, what people do in the lower 48, and what traditions they have in Mexico. I also spent a few evenings making piñatas for the kids to smash in just minutes. It was a blast! The kids really seemed to enjoy it and they even learned a few words/phrases in Spanish. 

            Along with being a six-day week, volleyball started this week! For those of you who did not already know, I am the newest varsity volleyball coach at Chief Ivan Blunka School! GO EAGLES!! :) The first week went pretty well with “tryouts” and a little conditioning, but I’m hoping this week will go better as our varsity and middle school teams will be separated. I am really excited about this season and the opportunities that I’ll have as a coach. Our first game is scheduled for October 25^th at home, but after that we will be doing lots of traveling to other villages! :) As volleyball coach, comes the duty of fundraising for team travel expenses and such. Unfortunately, this means I am in charge of bingo tonight...Though this weekend hasn’t been much of a weekend; I’m excited for this next week of school and practice!

            I apologize for the delay in a new post, but this season of volleyball will just get crazier as games come and travel ensues. So, please don’t expect too many updates. I shall do my best to keep you informed though.

Before the Hispanic Festivities began

One of my sixth graders who cracked open the piñata

These adorable kindergarteners were so excited hit the piñata :)

Life

Thursday will mark 2 months of living in New Stuyahok, Alaska!

I am so blessed to be able to live here in this community! I am loving life in the bush and enjoying teaching the beautiful children here as well.

Loving life here doesn’t mean it’s easy, carefree, or stress-free. But that’s the beauty of this place. The stress I feel is relieved when I bring those burdens to my Heavenly Father. Daily, I have to remind myself that I am not in this alone, and daily He reminds me of this as well. I am also blessed to have an amazing group of coworkers and administrators who are walking beside me every step of the way and helping to “ease the burden” a bit as well. I’m not sure I would have survived the first few weeks of school without them, so thank you!

This weekend was a weekend of many firsts! I had my first day of Saturday School, made and ate my first akutaq with some students, visited Old Stuyahok and a few other sites along the way where we saw lots of eagles, a couple bears, and a porcupine. (Check out the pictures below if you are interested in seeing the trip to Old Stuyahok!)

It has been a long week with six days of school as a teacher, and another day of school today as a student. That makes a full seven days of school! Tomorrow I’ll be back at it again as a teacher! I am so excited to see what other adventures await me this year!

I’m not sure how often I will be able to update this blog as the volleyball season is quickly approaching and life is starting to get busier and busier, but I will do my best to keep you in the loop. 

My students

A beautiful day for a boat ride

Old Stuyahok

The porcupine