“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” -Mae West

 (Military health class results in each kid getting scrub caps)

Today is my final day in White Mountain. It’s been a long but easy week. Originally, I was having some major allergy issues causing my eyes to swell up. Luckily, the military people who are here have several nurse practitioners and doctors with them. One wrote me a prescription for Claritin, which basically meant handing me free pills with my name on them. It’s really helped though.

The worst part about the trip has been my sore body. See, the military people who have been occupying the gym got bored several nights ago and decided to start up some volleyball. While passing the gym, one Army woman came out and asked me to play. You know I can’t resist a good volleyball match. We were the only two girls that first night and we split between the teams. After it became apparent that I had played before, the guys decided I was their secret weapon and named me The Laser. I then became target of the opposing team. I haven’t played volleyball in a long while and my body certainly felt it the following day. It didn’t help that I didn’t pack tennis shoes so I was playing in my bare feet. Talk about blisters and bruises. My feet were pretty sore. BUT  knowing that the boredom of another night reading was worse than the pain of playing volleyball, I decided to play the next night too. This time, more military had showed up at the school and we had six on six going. It was a blast and a great killer of time. Sadly, my arms and legs are badly bruised. I don’t think I have ever played with such muscular people. My arms are practically green from my elbow down. I guess I can’t complain. A few other ladies came up to me and showed me their arms. They said their bruises were from MY serves! Lol. I have to admit, it was pretty fun watching the muscular men cringe every time they had to return a serve of mine. Ha!

As you can see, volleyball was a nice surprise that kept me entertained. Meeting some new people was nice too! Another thing that I have been doing is helping with the village youth basketball league. Originally, the coach didn’t want to let me into his practice. Being that the practice was in the school gym (the school being my home here) I didn’t give him much choice. His response was to assign me what he openly calls his “problem children.” Wow. I can’t imagine having an adult openly label me as a problem. Anyways, the “problem” kids are overweight, special needs kids and he didn’t much care what I did with them so long as they were not bothering him. One was rolling on the floor saying he didn’t want to play. He even tried to run away with the bag of basketballs. I can’t teach a kid who doesn’t want to play in the first place so I turned my attention to Percy. Percy doesn’t speak much. He reacts to everything slowly. When you talk with him, there is a delay in his response, for example. The coach doesn’t like that he refuses to wear a practice jersey. I don’t blame him. The jerseys are tiny kids’ sizes and this is a Big Boy. I don’t think they would fit him. Who cares anyway?

I worked with him on shooting for a bit. His ADHD kicks in sometimes and he needs reminders to stay on task. Otherwise, he is a good kid. The coach started a scrimmage between the blue and white team, Percy being on the blue team.  Percy was told he had to sit out because according to the coach he didn’t know the defense (a 2-3 zone). The coach had never bothered to teach him. I sat down beside Percy and explained to him that he was going to be subbed in for the middle back row. I told him that he had to stand tall and not let anyone shoot “in his house.”  He thought that was funny and the line “Not in MY house!” became a frequent joke between us.

I couldn’t help but grin as Percy was subbed in and played the best defense on the floor. Not only that, but he found his boost of confidence and became the leading scorer. Watching him steal the ball from the coach’s favorite player was pretty fun to see, and it happened frequently.  All Percy needed was direction and encouragement. He just needed someone to tell him that he could do it.

Meanwhile, the coach thought I had magical powers. He invited me back every practice to work with all the kids. Last night was open practice. The entire community came to watch the kids do drills and then scrimmage. The coach asked me to be there and help keep the “problem kids” in line, being that they would surely act out in front of their parents. I agreed.

The stands were full of parents and community members who had nothing better to do. Even the military people were there. I started off helping the “problem kids” stay on task. Some of them needed it but they were trying very hard. Not even these kids wanted to embarrass themselves in front of the parents and elders. When the scrimmage started , this time the coach made Percy a started. He started off shy for the first minute and during a break I walked over to him and said. “Percy, you gotta protect your house.” He giggled and said, “Not in MYYY House!!” then the community watched as Percy came to life. What a fun experience. It was great working with the other kids too. So many of them lack real skills right now, layups, dribbling without picking up the ball, etc. I worked with a few and feel that I was able to teach them something. I hope anyways.

Today, as I said, is my last day here. Right after school we will be taken by snow machine to the dirt runway again. The Era plane will pick us up and we will be taken to Nome where we’ll have four hours to kill before our next flight. I heard there is a nice pizza place there. Maybe we’ll head there for dinner. After the wait, we leave for Anchorage. The Nome and Anchorage flights were very bumpy on the way in, almost scary. I’m a little nervous but Emily and Liz will be waiting at a hotel in Anchorage where I'll over night it before flying to Juneau tomorrow morning.

Overall, this has been a great experience. I’m so happy I did it and although I don’t plan on teaching in the “bush,” I feel that I could do it if I really wanted too. Right now, I’m anxious to get back to my own bed! It may seem weird but I’m so excited to be to sleep in a bed again! 

 (Two girls crash my "bed" after basketball)

“Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit.”

It’s been an interesting past week. Let me start with the job fair. I went into the Anchorage job fair not expecting much. I knew that I wanted a position on the east coast and was simply hoping to land some interviews simply to get some experience at the interviewing process. I started out at the job fair completely overwhelmed. There were so many people and school districts. It was very competitive. Luckily, my roommate jumped right in and forced me to jump in with her. At lunch time I had not had a single interview. My peers had interviews from the beginning. Of course, I was frustrated by this but it didn’t take long after lunch to get some interviews going. The interviews went too! I was surprised to hear the interviewers compliment me after each interview. I feel that this school has really prepared me for this process. I ended up being offered two jobs, Point Hope and Savoonga Alaska. Just last night I received and email offering me a spot in St. Michaels. I feel blessed that the schools are interested in me but these are very remote and…not located in the lower 48.

Sunday, after two days of the job fair, I left Anchorage and landed in Nome, Alaska. This was just a small stop on the way to White Mountain. WM is located about 3 degrees below the Arctic Circle and has about 200 people, Inupiaq (Eskimo), Yupik, and Athabascan. I’m sleeping in the school for the week and observing the life style here.

It was a great first day in White Mountain.  I was picked up from the dirt road that the plane landed on by snow machines (snowgoes as they call them here). Those of us arriving hopped on the sleds and enjoyed the ride into own. We settled in quickly at the school and even attended church Sunday evening. The people here are very nice.

Yesterday I observed several small classrooms and then ventured out into the village. Some fishermen brought back four seals to share with the elders and villagers. This is common. They often bring back their catch, take what they want, and leave the rest on the shoreline, by the water. Then everyone in the community can pick off what they want and take it home. That was cool to see. Our white culture is so self-centered compared to villages like this one. The ground is still very much covered in about 4 feet deep, compacted snow. When we arrived back at the school several kids and families were enjoying the snow, sledding and snowmachining. Another student hit up the village store and brought back a bag of jelly, an orange, peanut butter, and a frozen cheeseburger for 50 bucks. I’m glad I brought my own food along!

This morning I hiked up the local mountain that the town is named for…White Mountain. I reached the top just as the sun was rising. It was gorgeous. The principal said that foxes were running wild on the mountain about 5 minutes prior to me heading up there. I’m sad I missed it but the view was amazing. You can see for miles and miles. There is nothing around but the tiny village and miles of snow, mountains and trees.

Overall, the trip is going well. It’s hard not to get bored after all the kids and teachers leave for the evening. Sports are what keep this town active but the gym is being occupied by visiting military. It’s off limits in the evening to everyone but the military. So, I’ve been spending time on the slowwww internet and reading books until I fall asleep. The sun is currently rising at about 6:30 am and setting completely at about 11:30 pm or after. Not long before this village is lit up 24/7.