Potlatch Dance 2

Potlatch Dance 4

Totem Pole

What we've been up to. . .

It’s been a while since we’ve had time to blog about our experiences here. We have been hard at work. Jason is certified in scuba again, heading up the yearbook/photo club, and running detention after school. I have finally started a conflict management program at the elementary school (which I’m really excited about), been busy giving the SAT and other tests, and I’m going to be running the student government at the high school. I’m also getting ready for my trip to Anchorage on Monday for the Alaska School Counseling Conference.

Life’s been busy! But we are still really enjoying it here. Even at the most stressful times it’s neat to think that we are helping form the next generation of this little community. It seems when you are working in a larger area, like Portland/Milwaukie, you forget about that. One of our 81 high school students will be the next mayor, or police officer, or own the grocery store here. It’s a really neat feeling that neither one of us has really felt working for a larger district.

This last week we got our first bit of snowfall in the mountains. It's really going to be beautiful when the mountains are all covered in snow. It was also parent/teacher conferences. About 40% of our student population showed up with their families. One of the parents brought Jason and I a deer leg as a thank you. Their son had been out hunting and killed it earlier in the week. We took it home and packaged it up into a couple different food saver bags. We cooked one package in the crock pot with some cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix, oh boy was it tasty! What a treat it was too, now that we eat fish for almost every meal!

I don’t want to forget to tell you all about last weekend too! Friday night was the kick off to Native American Heritage Month. The school worked together with the community to put on a presentation in the Long House. This was really neat because from what we’ve heard some Native American communities do not allow visitors in their Long House. It is reserved for special ceremonies. This community however, is very welcoming and went out of their way to make sure that teachers would come and join in on the celebration. It was really fun watching presentations by the elementary school students singing and counting in their native language, watching dance groups preforming, and they served home made fried bread (which is DELICIOUS). Jason and I even joined in on some of the couple dances – which if you know us . . . we are not dancers! But it was a lot of fun to sing and dance, and celebrate with the community. We are looking forward to many more opportunities like this one.

This year is going by so fast. First quarter is over. I leave for Anchorage on Monday. The following week is Thanksgiving and my birthday. The next week Jason leaves for Fairbanks for a mapping seminar and then he goes to Juneau for a lego robotics competition (he’s been helping out with the lego robotics team here too), then we’ll only have 2 weeks until we head home for the holidays! We are really having a great time, but are also really looking forward to coming home and spending time with all of you! We’ll be home before you know it!

Miss & Love You All!