October Happenings

How did we get to the end of October already?  We have been keeping ourselves pretty busy with work, classes, and volleyball this month.  I've also gotten quite a bit done in the wedding department as far as signing contracts and sending out deposits :)  I'm getting a lot more into wedding planning lately- it helps keep me connected to the lower 48 and I love talking about it with my bridesmaid Becky, who is also getting married just one month after Lucas and I.  Our engagement is a what I would consider a bit on the long side (a year and a half), but I am now loving the extra planning time.  My sister Erin has been a HUGE help with everything.  She really knows her stuff!  And I like that I get to be someone's fiancé for this long, too :)  How lucky are we that we get this experience- working in the same school, patrolling the hallways together during passing times, eating lunch together everyday, coaching the volleyball team together...how many people get to do that with their fiancés? :)

This weekend we flew (yes, we travel by plane for all away athletic events) to Newhalen, AK for a volleyball tournament.  We left Thursday at noon and got back around 3 on Saturday.  We have a mixed team of 3 guys and 3 girls that came with us.  If any player becomes ineligible due to grades- we don't have a team!  Three of our players are first-time volleyball players, but they played SO well this weekend.  We won 3 out of our 5 matches, losing the first two basically due to jitters!  We lost our first match in 3 games, our second match we lost the first two games, game back the second two to win, but then lost the fifth game to lose the match.  After that, our kids did great- winning the final three matches to get 3rd place in the tournament.  I'm ready for a re-match with our first two opponents.  If our kids can keep their grades up, we may have the chance to play at least one of these teams again!

It was quite the treat getting out of the village this weekend.  I was most excited about the store in Newhalen.  It put our little Manokotak general store to shame.  We bought porkchops, a few steaks, grapefruit, tomatoes, soy milk (non-expired dairy is not really an option in Manokotak), cream cheese, canned pumpkin, and I finally got my caramel apple! :) We easily dropped way more money that we should have, but when you live in bush Alaska, any food comes at a great price.  Pumpkin cheesecake bars out of the oven last night were totally worth it!

One thing we missed while we were away was parent teacher conferences.  While most teachers I know don't get too excited about these, in the past I have really loved getting to talk to parents.  I sure learn a lot about why my kids are the way the are (good or bad)!  Lucas and I both left sheets outside of our classrooms for parents to sign if they "wanted us to contact them about their child's success in our classroom."  Lucas had ZERO parents sign, and I had only two! This after first quarter ended and I had over 20 kids fail my social studies classes.  I could rant about this, but to give you an idea about what Native American kids are facing these days I recommend this ABC News special Lucas and I caught last weekend:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/hidden-america-focuses-tribal-children-14741987

This program focused on the Lakota people, but the Yupik natives of Alaska face similar hardships: poverty, hunger, fetal alcohol syndrome, loss of their culture, domestic abuse, a forced western education system on their children, alcoholism, and unemployment.  With some of my students, I would not even guess that these are some things they experience on a daily basis.  They have great attitudes, work hard, and are nice kids.  With other students- I need to constantly remind myself that they are facing battles that I cannot even imagine.

On a lighter note, we have made a purchase that we are VERY excited about.  Bring on the snow!
http://cdnmedia.endeavorsuite.com/images/catalogs/2334/products/detail/36d91e9a-a900-4e3c-8f9c-8b6334a4072b.jpg  Once the river freezes, we can travel to Dillingham on the weekends to eat at restaurants, shop at a real grocery store, and have a latte at the coffee shop!

Here are a few pictures from the last month.  No we don't have a puppy!  A student brought hers over for us(me) to play with :)