OMG, My Throat Hurts...

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, and it has been steadily getting worse all day. I need to get through social studies, and then I am kicking off the math class to my co-chair. I still have parent-teacher conferences, my AKT2 phone conference, and my class tonight to get through. I will try to keep talking to a minnimum...

Damn Electricity...

It keeps going out, every night or every morning. It has been while we were asleep the last two nights in a row. That by itself doesn't make that much difference, but the alarm clock keeps geting screwed up. My other half, for whom the clock was purchased last year, knows how to operate it, and just punches the button to make it stop flashing. Then we are faced with the question of what time it actually is and when we have to get up. It makes a difference every morning, but especially this one, because we need to be precisely on time for our staff meeting this morning. We will be discussing the all important protocol for the all important SBA test administration next week. To make a long story short, I am up, and it is 5:56 am. I wanted a little more sleep this morning. Instead, I think that I will make coffee.

The solution is for me to learn how to reset the clock, and maybe even to get a clock with a battery backup. But it would be nice if the damn electricity didn't go out every night...

OK, Then...

The dishes are done, as is my homework. Planning for the lesson that I am going to do tomorrow on Buddhism will have to wait until the morning prep session. I have a pretty good idea where I want to go with it, anyway, thanks to some helpful thoughts from Betty. Time to go nighty-night, because tomorrow is a long day.

Feeling Better (Kinda)...

My cold is still here, but it is not so bad-I can live with it. Betty, my mentor, left this afternoon, and we had our first day of parent-teacher conferences. My students are picking up the pace and seem to be doing better. I am hoping that we can still make some significant progress by the end of the year. The testing Holy Week is next week, and the Orthodox Holy Week (the real thing) is this week. I have two more days of classes this week, because we have Good Friday off.

I am hopeful for the future, and am beginning to have a better vision for what I hope to accomplish next year. One of the things that I am doing is taking a college class on data collection and use. My plan is to have a better handle on what needs my kids have at the end of this school year and the beginning of the next, so that I can tailor my classes to their needs better. This year has been mostly about survival. I want next year to be about moving forward to be better for my kids.

Under The Weather (A Little)...

My cold from last week decided that it missed me, so it came back (a little bit)...not awful, just crappy. I don't think that it will kill me. The little tykes were really wound up today-one decided to throw a paper clip at my head for some reason. Weird.

Betty, my state mentor, is here, so we got to have a nice chat, which lasted until 7:30 or so, and the laundry got done. All in all, not a bad day for a Monday. Now, I need to take this cold to bed and kill it.

Too Much To Do, Too Many Technical Issues...

Long and busy weekend, and the tech guys were busy screwing up the internet pretty much all weekend. Off more than it was on. I have school all day and a class from 4:30 to 6:30. Maybe I will get to post more this evening....

6:30!!!

On my day off...this is why I fail to understand fishing as a "recreational" activity. The lure (!) of getting up EARLIER than you do when you have a day off is exactly....? So here we are, it's Saturday, which should be a sleep-in day, and we are up awaiting coffee, EARLIER than we do on a work day. The answer to this is "we have to." The District Office awaits me at 8:00 am, for a day of multicultural enrichment activities, which is to say, Yup'ik stuff. When I think about it for a minute, it strikes me as pretty monocultural, actually. Not to worry. It's usually good and valuable stuff, and I always enjoy it, and I think that it's all pretty handy to know. I just wonder about the nomenclature.

One of the interesting things about today will be the drive up the river. We have Joe's truck, because he borrowed our snowmachine to go to a funeral in Chefornak. There is apparently not a truck trail to Chefornak because of its location. So we get to drive his truck on the river. All of this will have to start happening pretty soon. I hope to post some photos from Cama-i tomorrow...

Yay Friday!

Yummy cake and yummy pizza-birthday fun! Today was kind of fun all around. We had an assembly for the art show and so that our little Tundra Tappers could strut their stuff. During a lull in the proceedings, I managed to get the crowd to sing "Happy Birthday" to Chelsea. They followed up with the same song in Yup'ik. PD was pretty painless this afternoon and then the day was over. Hooray for the weekend! I already worked on lesson plans for next week. I have a new (or returning) student, so I have to think a little about how to work her in to the rotation. Then there is that reflection paper for Monday night's class, but I figure I will deal with that on Sunday.

Tomorrow, we get to do multicultural stuff in Bethel and go to Cama-i. There is a Taiko group from Anchorage that I would like to see, but they are not scheduled to come on until 11:00 pm. I think that it could be a long day. I also think that it will be fun.

Now it's off for bed. Tomorrow, we get to drive a truck up the river!

Socializing in Bethel...

Off to the Emerald City tonight for dinner and shopping for groceries. We went to Shogun, where the owners are a very nice young couple who I believe came here from California. Our friends Eric and Sara went, and our pal Christina from across the river at Oscarville joined us as well.

Lots of fun conversation was had at dinner, and we then headed down the street to Swanson's, which is very handy for folks on snowmachines coming off of the river, because it is very close to the river. Eric took off to the cultural center to get veggies from Full Circle Farms, which delivers some very nice organic fruits and veggies out here. In order to follow him and get to the gas station where we were to meet, we had to go back down to the river. Because Eric took off with the sled, I rode on the back, carrying three gallons of ice cream in a box. Kind of a fun challenge. On the way, we saw our friend Erin and her wonder dog, Macy, strolling along the river with a friend of hers. We stopped, and conversation ensued. Finally, we had to get rolling, and headed along to the gas station. Many of the same folks will be coming over to this side of the river tomorrow night for some of Eric's very yummy pizza and more b-day celebrations.

You just really do never know who you are going to run into out here, or where you will run into them. The big Cama-i dance festival is in Bethel this weekend, as am I for the last new teacher inservice of the year. I suspect that I will see many, many familiar faces in the next 48 hours.

Next week is the big prep week before the big test week. We have four days and two days where we will let out early for parent-teacher conferences. Next week is also holy week, and I understand that Easter is a very important holiday around here. Test week follows, and then I go to Anchorage for two days of leadership training for the union. The week after that is culture week. Once that is over, we do not have a whole lot of school year left. The end draws nigh. It is interesting to read some of the comments that are being left over on the AKT2 site about our first year's teaching experience. Lots of different viewpoints. Mine has been kind of sour lately. I need to get a little more positive. Many folks tell me that the lack of a spring break is especially tough on first year folks. I guess I will have a better idea about that next year.

Heat Wave-Spring Is Here...

Thirty-nine degrees, and it's Thursday night! We are planning a big break out for Bethel and date night. Tomorrow is Chelsea's birthday, and I am taking her out for some tasty snacks tonight. I just got the word that Sara is done with her TV class, so it must be time to go. Sorry about the lack of postings lately, but I have been in a bit of a funk lately, and probably would not have been very much fun to read. More later, when we return.

Crabby Monday

I'm not going into it, because it just sounds whiny and bitchy, which is how I feel. Tomorrow is Tuesday, and I will leave it at that.

Busy days...

A nice, but active Sunday. I did some catching up with friends and family, which took up a big chunk of the morning. Then the Three Riders of The Apocalypse streamed up the river to Bethel to pick up the returning members of our State Championship Hawks. That whole process took a while, but it was a beautiful day filled with sunshine. Once we picked up the victors and placed them astride or in sleds, we headed back down for a triumphant reception at the school. We will be having a potluck Monday night at the school. I expect a fairly robust turnout.

We spent some relaxing time afterwards just standing out in the sunshine talking to the coaches, Eric and Adam, and exchanging stories about what had gone on since they left on Tuesday. Then we went off to one of the player's houses with a birthday cake delivery. Lesson planning and dinner and dishes rounded out the day.

Tomorrow, we will make an attempt to get things back to some semblance of normal. I am skeptical about how that will work. We will attempt nonetheless. Excitement abounds in Napaskiak tonight.

Champions!

I have been kind of busy since the post on Thursday. I finally drove the snowmachine! Well, I had driven it before, but not since I got up here this year. Much (not really) comment had been occurring about the fact that my charming Tundra Vixen was the driver all of the time. Anyway, I took the reins Thursday night, and I am told that I did just fine. Dinner at VIP followed. Because I was there on District business, my dinner was on the tab, so to speak. The always fabulous Mary Noes had set me up with a place to stay, so I didn't have to drive up in the dark on Friday morning. Thanks, Mary!



The Napaskiak Hawks saga also continued Thursday night, with the team playing its first game ot the tournament. Our fellas were victorious, which set up a Friday night tilt with Akiak, from up the Kuskokwim River from us. During the day on Friday, I was introduced to native crafts, including skin sewing and carving. We had roughly three-hour plus sessions of each. I had had no experience in either, so my efforts were kind of slow. I did enjoy myself, however, very much, and found myself almost hypnotized by the processes, especially the carving.



Friday night was pizza and basketball night, both NCAA and Alaska 1A high school. Our Hawks beat Akiak by twenty points to win their way into the State Championship game.



Saturday dawned to snow in Bethel. It had warmed quite a bit lately, so snow was kind of a change. The morning saw me at the basket weaving table. Again, I worked slowly, but found myself in a trance-like state of concentration after a little while. The afternoon featured beading, and, of course, the main event of the day, the Alaska State 1A Boys Basketball Championship Game. Sara Rearden, one of our elementary teachers, is the fiance of our coach, Eric Jung. Her mom and dad, Nita and Mike, were coordinators for the crafts session. They all made sure that the radio was in the room and turned on for the big game.

To keep it short, they did it. The kids from little Napaskiak won the championship. It was the first championship in the history of the Lower Kuskokwim School District. It was historic. And we are going to Bethel tomorrow to pick up our students and bring them home in triumph to their tiny village on the banks of the mighty river. I think that the next couple of days are going to be very interesting.

By the way, I have a bunch of projects that I enjoyed very much that I still have to finish. Well, the bead necklaces are done. It was a really cool weekend for a couple of reasons, and I have some things that I can work on for culture week when it comes up in April. By the way, there are nine more weeks left until summer vacation. Life gets sweeter by the week. I told an old friend of mine today that I love it up here, and that I should have done this years ago. Both true statements...

Update

I managed to get another three hours of sleep between 4:00 am and 7:00 am when the alarm clock went off. The flooding did not get any worse. Good for that. I talked to my boss this morning to tell him that the pump is still running in the house next door. He believes, and I am inclined to agree, that the owners did not refill the stove with oil (how we heat), and that the pipes froze and burst. There has been a noticeable draft coming under the floor in the past several days, which would be consistent with that theory. Neither of us is quite sure how many gallons of water were still in the tank. It must be empty, because the flooding into our side of the duplex had stopped by morning. The pump, however, is still running. It would have to run out of cooling water, at least in theory, and burn out and seize up at some point, but it had not done so as of 8:00 am, when I left the house. Weird. The boss recalled after he sent the keys over that he had had the locks changed, which meant that we would not be able to get in the door by definition. Ha ha. None of us are that sharp at 3:00 am.

It is almost deserted here this morning. Many of the staff and students have gone off to Anchorage for the game tonight. There are five students in the junior high. I am kind of glad, because we can work one-on-one with students today, and because I am tired and inclined to be snappish this morning.

For any of you folks that read this and wish to see the Napaskiak Hawks play tonight, you can see the games streamed online at bssd.org. My buddy Craig Sherwood, who teaches at Savoonga, is broadcasting the games. I am told that there will be some play-by-play commentary. I do not know whether that will be the case for the Napaskiak-Kivalina game, which will start at 8:30 pm Alaska time, or 12:30 am for you night owls in the Eastern Time Zone. Enjoy if you decide to check it out. I may be going to Bethel tonight, because the arts retreat starts at 8:15 am tomorrow. I am still looking for a place to stay at this time. I may be going up by snowmachine in the morning. We shall see.

Blub

It's now 3:20 am. The pump in the unoccupied side of the duplex next door has been running for something in the nature of two hours now. The water is seeping through the wall, and the "master" key won't work in the lock to allow us to get in and turn the damn thing off. The first seepage was in the bathroom, and there are towels on the floor in there. I have looked on the kitchen side. The redeeming feature would seem to be the fact that the floors in here aren't flat. The water is pooling on the far side of the house. The tanks hold a hundred gallons of water, and the pump hasn't seized, which means that there is still water running through them. The real questions in my mind are twofold: how much damage will there be, and where will we live for the next nine weeks if this place is seriously damaged. In the meantime, the most important central fact is that there is no one responsible to take charge of things. No one to call. No one else to come out and unlock the door and shut the damn thing off. The locks have apparently been changed since the former occupant moved out, because of the problem with the water, which no one was apparently able to fix. The housing in this village is not owned by the school, but by a seperate entity. That outfit is so screwed (yes, I am thinking of a different word here) up that there is literally no one to get out here to get into the house and pull the plug on the pump. So it will run until it runs out or burns up. And we will have to cope with the mess. And that is the wonder of living out here. It is not all the wonders of nature.

We woke up to the running pump when the knock from the unhappy kid came at the door at 1:30, and the dogs started barking furiously. Not the first of that kind, and probably not the last. In the meantime, I just took Buddha out and the police came by looking for a wandering snowmachine (stolen, perhaps?).

So here's the question: do we just go back to bed and see if the whole house is floating when the alarm goes off in three and a quarter hours? Or shall we just call the whole night's sleep thing a failure and a mistake from the start? I have gotten two good solid hours of sleep-that should be enough to keep me going for the rest of the day. Choices-that's the important thing. Ya need to have choices in this life...

Sorry About the Repitition

I noticed that this last post is kind of like the one just before it. I just keep occasionally getting gob-smacked by the beauty of the sky out here. I wish that I could share it with my friends. We just stepped out on to the front porch to check on a ruckus, and there is just a sliver of moon beginning to set in the twilight west. Amazing. I am excited about the summer and seeing family and friends, but summer might be fun here, too.

Sunshine and Plenty of It!

The daylight here is just gettin' wacky. It is currently 9:42 and it is still light in the west. I know that we have had the daylight saving shift, but we continue to lengthen the day at over a half an hour per week clip. On top of that, we have had a string of gloriously sunny days, and the temp has finally climbed above zero. It feels awfully nice.

One more day of school for me tomorrow-then it's off to art camp! I hope it will be fun, although I am still nervous about making an ass of myself in front of people.

The boys play tomorrow night in the state tournament in Anchorage, and Oakland University plays against Pitt on Friday morning in the NCAA tournament. GO Hawks and Grizzlies!

OOOGA BOOGA...

Apropos of nothing, really...yesterday seemed like a slugfest all day long. Lots of referrals, cranky kid generally...yes, I still like most of them. We will get through it. It was the Tuesday after a long weekend. I got much of my grading out of the way in the morning. I am still waiting on a couple of the gang to see where they will finish up in their Phases (our way of monitoring progress in reading, writing, and math). I even had to change a couple of grades because a couple of kids knocked out a bunch of stuff. They still seem to be in the mood to move and get things done, and I am in the mood to accommodate them. For whatever reason, yesterday seemed to be malaise day among the student population generally. It was not limited to the junior high kids.

It was a beautiful day, however. The temperature had climbed to 18 degrees, which feels warm like springtime when it has been mostly below zero for a couple of weeks. It was also sunny and clear, which continues to be remarkable to me. I am used to Michigan winters, which feature much more cloudiness and murk generally than is the case out here. It has been really sunny for most of the winter. That makes it much easier to deal with, in my opinion. We now also have visible light for more than thirteen hours each day. With the daylight saving time change, it doesn't get dark until nearly ten o'clock. The combination of the two factors made it an ideal evening for a dog walk with Sara Rearden and the two big mutts. I suspect with the increasing daylight, all of us will be staying up later at night. By May, we will probably be ready for a two-month long nap...

Blah II...

Need to get my attitude out. Woke up at 5 am for unknown reasons, just feeling freaked out. Maybe a bad dream that I didn't remember. Had absolutely no handle on it whatsoever. Sat up for an hour, went back to bed, sort of drowsed for half an hour, and gave up on it entirely. I'm glad that I showered and shaved before going to bed. Maybe I will start the day by getting something done. That usually helps my mood.

Not Much Going On...

This post is for those people who worry if I do not post. Not much happened today. We had an inservice. We graded writing papers. We did the laundry and the dishes. I put a new profile picture on my Facebook page and finished lesson plans. I looked at airfares for the trip home, and they are still confusing. I am not sure which is more important, reading the book for my Wednesday night class, or putting the laundry away before I go to bed.

Tomorrow is a student day. They will probably be excited this week because the basketball team will be leaving tomorrow for the state tournament. I am excited because I am going to the art retreat on Friday and Saturday. That means that I need to get my grades done, and some more submissions made to AKT2. I also have a three-hour class Wednesday night. No time for screwing off now.

Having said that, I am not too worried about any of it. It will just be a busy week, one closer to the end of my first year of teaching. So much learned, so much to learn. The challenge is to keep it all in perspective. I will try.

A Good Steam...

...and long overdue. I had not been in for one in several weeks, due to conflicting schedules and confusion. I wasn't in a heroic mood, so there will be no heroic tales. It did, however, feel good. Really good. Father Victor, our other resident priest in the village, was there. He was very interested in my tattoos. Joe offered by way of response that he liked to cook alligators. For those not in the know, I have a large alligator tatooed on my right leg. Pretty funny. I won't tell the story about the guy that asked Joe why he didn't have a thermometer in the hot room.

It's now Sunday, there is a pure blue sky out the window, it is a balmy -18, and I hear that muffins are in the offing. About time that those damn muffin pans got used. (They are always in the way!) We will need to do some lesson planning, and I need to file a bunch of papers and tests that my kids have done. The rest of the day is open as far as I can tell. Tomorrow is an inservice day, and I am leaving for the art retreat on either Thursday evening or Friday morning. It may depend on the NCAA brackets. My school is in the tournament, and I would like to watch the game if I get a chance to do so.

There are now less than ten weeks to go in the school year. At least two will be taken up with testing and culture week. I am actually getting closer to getting through my first year. For a long time, I looked at it from a survival point of view. Now, I am thinking about what kind of group we will have next year, and how I would change things up from the way that I am currently doing it. There will be a new math curriculum in place in the fall, and new reading texts are in the offing for junior high. I start some new training of my own this week, and I need to get set up to take at least one of the courses that I need to maintain my license. It will be a busy and exciting time. I didn't think I would make it through the year at one time. Now, I am looking toward the future. Funny how time slips away...

Mostly The Dishes...

I decided not to go to the district office, because I get to spend the next two Saturdays in Bethel. It turns out that the reading meeting is going to be a whole lot longer than we understood it to be. So, I have been focusing, successfully, on getting the big pile of dishes here cleaned up. Yay-it needed to be done. I have also paid bills. The fun never ends. Of course, bill paying is a whole lot easier than it used to be. A nap is beginning to sound pretty good right now. We will see what the rest of the day brings. Ten weeks until our last day of work.

12:05 a.m. Saturday...

It's the weekend! The first relatively uncomplicated one in quite a few...I thought...but then there is this thing at the district office...and another next weekend, and another on the weekend after that. Not to mention a sink full of dishes, and filing to be done. Hmmmm. Time to prioritize. SO....it's off to the basketball game! There was a scrimmage between this year's team and some of the players from years past. It was fun, and nice to see some of the kids that I know that have graduated and have returned for spring break.

Afterwards, conversation started up, which apparently meant that pizza was necessary, and that spread to a bull session on the classroom floor until almost midnight. This is how we spend our time here. Yes, we're all a little crazy, but I am increasingly convinced that I wouldn't have it any other way.

We had PD today, which does not stand for Penile Dysfunction, regardless of what you may think. I think that everyone is kind of burned out on the stuff at this point. I spent most of the time working in my classroom, correcting a few tests, and getting my filing ready for tomorrow. The kids in my classroom maintained their pace, working on tests and doing papers. I don't know how it goes from here on, but I am not complaining at all right now. It was a nice day at the end of a nice week, for the most part.

Monday is yet another inservice day. Grading papers. All day. We even get a coach. Yippee. Meanwhile, it's time to enjoy the weekend!

Whew...

Busy, busy day-they all have been lately, but that is a good thing as far as I can see. We went Betheling tonight, and I was really cold on the back of the snogo. I should have driven like I was going to, but we were going to Shogun, another of our favorite places, for dinner, with a couple more of the Tundra Vixens, and I don't know the way that well. Earl and Krissy were there just ahead of us, and they were giving me static about driving the damn snowmachine.

I have been perfectly content to be a passenger all winter, but the comfort time is over. I am in Bethel on Friday and Saturday next for the art retreat, and I am probably not going to stay there. I have to go the following Saturday for a new teacher inservice, and I will have to get myself there and back. Looks like my days of being chaufffered are about over. Oh, well. We still need to go to the grocery store this weekend. Guess I'll drive.

It's ten weeks to go after this week. Time is flying away from me so quickly that it is stunning. We will be back in Michigan, and big things are going to happen this summer. I'm kind of excited. BTW, Sara Rearden says that I will get big respect from her mom for going to this art retreat. I hope so. I would like her respect. She seems like a neat person. She was the person who sewed my hat, and she is an amazing craftswoman. I really want a pair of mittens from her now. There is a Saturday market next weekend, although she won't be showing, I suppose. Maybe I'll just buy them from her direct.

More Tundra Tea...

Back to Earl and Krissy's house, mostly to get a question answered, but then to visit. Still not used to the idea of dropping in unnanounced at 9pm on a work night, but my culture is way different, and perhaps a little more uptight about that kind of thing. I did get a couple more cups of tundra tea out of the trip, which is always fine by me.

The girls are cooking (literally) up some kind of scheme for making Easter bread, which sounds pretty yummy to me. I await the results with anticipation.

I have apparently been chosen to represent the school at an upcoming art retreat. I thought that it might be a good idea to pick up a bit of a craft, especially with culture week coming up in the not too distant future. So I have decided to subject my not-so-great hand-eye coordination to what I hope will be the tender mercies of our Miss Rearden's mother. I hope that I know what I am getting myself into....On the positive side, it seems to me that I could do with something to keep me busy on the long winter nights, and perhaps I will find something that interests me. Should be fun.

The art retreat will make next week a very short one. Monday is yet another inservice day, although this time we get to spend the WHOLE DAY grading papers from the district-wide writing exercise. Oboy...because the art retreat starts on Friday, that makes it a three day week for me with students. That Saturday is a work day for us, but we are allowed to use the art retreat to count toward the requirement. That means that this weekend, I will want to get caught up on some of my classroom work and do sub plans for Friday. I wanted to do some filing anyway, and I need to catch up on some of the writing work that has backlogged for the kids. They have been very busy lately, and I need to catch up with them.

Things are looking up lately, and I am starting to get excited about going home to Michigan for the summer. In the future, I could probably be persuaded to spend more of the summer here, but this is my first year away, and I would like to get back to see friends and family. Besides, there are a bunch of weddings and graduation open houses that we need to hit.

I feel lucky to be able to split my time between two places that I have come to love. Northern Michigan has been a love for many years, and the thought of having my whole summer to enjoy it without interruption makes me giddy. As for Napaskiak, I could spend many happy years here, if I am so fortunate. The future is fascinating to consider.

Picking Up Steam...

The children have awakened, and they want to take tests. In our system for reading, writing, and math, students move through a series of phases, which are variously numbered. Each phase contains a series of indicators which must be passes, usually by means of passing a test. Perhaps because they sense the end of the year approaching, they are very insistent that they want to take indicator tests right now. For the most part, they have actually been ready to take them, and I have some students who appear to realize that they are behind grade level in some subjects and seem to want to do something about that. All that I have to keep in mind is some sort of way in which to channel and direct the energy. It is keeping my brain busy, but in a good way.

Monday!

Well, it's just another day of the week, but it's one that an awful lot of us focus on and obsess about. Having said that, it's over pretty quickly, even on Mondays like this one, which was far from the worst, but was nothing great, either. Our children behaved very much like they generally behave after a long weekend, which is not so fantastic. I must admit in the interests of fairness that many of them seemed to be very motivated to take tests and the like, and some of them did pretty well. It's just that they weren't especially pleasant to anyone about it.

Over and done. The laundry was finished by a decent hour, and that is always good news. Now we are just sitting around the old hacienda, having a little dinner, and thinking about an early bedtime. The weekend was busy.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, which means that Wednesday can't be far behind. Another week, rocketing into the record books. Funny how they seem to go by so quickly now, when they used to drag on.

Three-peat...

Well, I have been exposed to the madness that is the Coastal Conference tournament, and I am a believer...I already tried to give some sense of the wildness that was the game Friday night, but I do believe that it paled in comparison to the championship game last night.

We got to Bethel Regional High School, the site of the tournament, about three hours before the game itself started. We stopped on the way to pick up a couple of pizzas that had been ordered before we left for Bethel. We had a sled full of kids on the back of the snowmachine. The group tumbled out of the sled and into the hallway, into a place in the line that had already formed for the championship game, pizzas in tow.

There we sat for the next couple of hours, visiting with PKA fans, sipping pop, and eating pizza. Tailgating, Napaskiak style! About an hour before the game began, the line started to move. The gym had been cleared from the previous games, and it was time to get seated. We found some places in a sea of Hawks fans, saved a couple of spots for the folks from Fairbanks, and waited....

Until the uproar began...the announcer named all of the players on the teams, the handshakes went all around, and the tip-off took place.

The first half did not start off well for our Hawks. They eventually found themselves in a 14-point hole. Our coach called a time out, talked to his starters, and they came out in a 3-2 zone for their next defensive set. It seemed to confuse the other team, which was beginning to look invincible for a while. One turnover, one stop, another, and another. Slowly, the team began to pull itself out of the hole into which it had fallen.

At the end of the first half, things looked much better. The score was closer, and the guys from Tunt were looking a little more human than they had for a while. As the third quarter wore on into the fourth, the outcome sawed back and forth, but always with the Hawks trailing. Then, finally, the moment when PKA took the lead...down the stretch, first Napas, then Tunt...

And the last, few, blessed seconds when it was clear that our boys would repeat as champs for the third straight year...the final horn sounded, and the players were hugging each other, and the fans were singing, cheering, and clapping. The players climbed into the stands to sing the school fight song with the crowd, many of them in tears. It was an amazing thing to be a part of. I certainly was glad to be there.

We stuck around afterward for the girls final and the award ceremony, and finally made our way through the frigid night back down the Kuskokwim. The boys will be here for this week, and we will have an assembly to celebrate their accomplishment tomorrow. Then, next Tuesday, they will leave for Anchorage and the state tournament. We will wish them all the best, and thank them for a very exciting weekend in March.

Your 2010 Coastal Conference Tournament Champion...

NAPASKIAK HAWKS!!!! More to follow tomorrow, 'cause it's late tonight...

Back From Basketball...

Big semi-final game today in Bethel, featuring the Napaskiak Hawks and the hated (sort of) Kwethluk Kings. Big rivalry...BIG rivalry. It certainly matched the passion that one could expect to find anywhere else that the game of basketball is played. It had drama, villains, heroes, and turns of fortune. It had a building full of delirious fans of both teams. And finally, it had a winner.

The Hawks are going to the tournament finals for the third year in a row! They hung on to beat Kwethluk by four points, and we were all drained and hoarse. Most of us anyway. Some of us are much louder than others. The boys will play the team from Tuntutuliak tomorrow for the championship and a trip to the state tournament. It was a long day into evening and tomrrow promises more of the same. The game is not until 6:15, and I hear that we will be in line waiting for admission for a long time. We plan to get there about three hours in advance. For those of you so inclined, there will be no tailgating, due to the weather and the unique nature of our jobs.

The weather on the river was funky this morning, with lots of blowing snow making it hard to see, and harder to keep track of the landmarks, but our intrepid Tundra Vixen got all of us there and back without incident. A good day all around.

Now, the septic tank has been pumped, which means that I again have water pressure, and the ability to wash the dishes, which is what I was beginning to do ten hours ago when it went out. Then it will be time for some rest before tomorrow's excitement.

Sleeping In Is Fun!

Ohhh, nice...we slept in until 9 am this morning...ah, rest! Sounds goofy coming from someone who has been sleeping for huge chunks of time for the past several days, doesn't it?? It's just the way it is...so restful not to have any obligations for a little while...then comes the knock on the door, the frantically barking dogs-it's one of the Eielson kids-we had told them to come to the school at 10 am for breakfast. Reality intrudes...my darling has presented me with a new sinkful of dishes, wondering innocently..."isn't it my job?"...ahhhh, life in the Bush. It feels good to be part of it again. For all of the difficult challenges, being sick removes me from the flow of life around here, and that feels very isolated. I probably do complain about things too much, but I still want to be a part of all of the things that vex me. Go figure.

Damn, I'm Tired And The Last Load Of Laundry Needs To Come Home...

Pretty much says it all. One week with some lost time due to illness and things are starting to back up already. It is amazing how fragile the balance of order and disorder can be. I have caught up on the dish backlog, and I plan on sleeping in tomorrow. It is my first real chance in a while. We have the day off! We will go to feed the Eielson kids, and we are all going up to Bethel for the big game, but that is later.

I do need to spend some quality time in the classroom and get some more submissions off to AKT2. They have caught up with me a little and I need to restore the imbalance.

The munchkins were, needless to say, a little distracted today, with the excitement of the first game of the tournament starting the day. It was not broadcast or televised on our closed-circuit set up, but we were able to keep up nonetheless due to the miracle of Skype and our imported guest rooters from Fairbanks. I hope that they are enjoying themselves. Five of our high-schoolers will be going off there at the end of the month.

Anyway, it looks to be a fun weekend, especially if I can shake the rest of this thing that I caught. Wish me luck!

Back In the Fracas

I climbed out of the sick bed-it was boring there anyways...back in fussin and fightin with the jr high-some of 'em are hangin in there, and some of them are falling by the wayside...everybody is more than a little nuts with excitement over the district basketball tournament going on up in Bethel. The boys won their first round game, against a higher-seeded opponent, which means that the traditional Napaskiak-Kwethluk rivalry will be renewed. I am told that I have not heard loud until I go to a PKA-KWT game. Fear not, I shall report...

I Hate Being a Cliche, But...

So, the dreaded first-year teacher syndrome has struck again. Some sort of respiratory virus has apparently been flying around out here. It is not the flu. If it is what I caught, and it sounds as if the symptoms are similar, it has proven to be especially difficult for infants. I am not going into a description, but two nights in a row of fever and chills convinced me to spend the greater part of the past 24 hours sleeping.

I have lost track of the number of colds that I have had this year, but I would put the number at around five. There have been two bouts of GI unpleasantness, one of which put me in the hospital. Enough, already. I had managed to go for several months without catching anything, but have had three illnesses since we got back after Christmas.

I hope that this will be the end of that nonsense. There are lots of activities going around this week, and it frankly sucks to be on the sideline. Contracts have been handed out for next year, and I have one in my possession. Now I have a few things to think about. Everyone is invited to offer their opinions: do I come back, or not? Maybe I should put it up to a vote amongst my students...

Now It Makes Sense...

The ugh thing played itself out as the day went on...fever, chills, and body aches. Nasty, too. Got up once to go to the bathroom, and almost fell over from uncontrollable shaking and shivering. The fever seems to have broken this morning, but I would just as soon be in bed right now. We will see how the day goes. I catch everything that goes around here, or damn close to it. I hear that is the way it goes the first year. At least it's a short week.

UGH...

Monday...more to report as it happens...