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...