Lean on Me.

I haven't been as diligent as I hoped I would be about posting but I'm going to try fill you in on everything that has happened....so this could get pretty long. 

I have almost officially finished the first half year of my first year teaching! Holy Wow, the things that I have learned the past few months. Let me tell you, it wasn't anything that they taught us about in school. I've dealt with a lot of situations that I don't think that I would have experienced if I wasn't in a rural community.

I've laughed. I've cried. I've learned. I've taught.

Christmas break is coming up and while I'm looking forward to going home to see family and friends...I know that I'll definitely miss this place. I'll miss all my kinder kiddos. I'll miss the highschoolers. I'll miss my coworkers. I'll miss Chevak. My life here has become chaos but I can't imagine anything else.


Here is what has happened in Chevak the past few weeks...


-Mary and I had THREE Thanksgivings. How blessed are we? We went over to one of coworkers house in the afternoon, went to one of the locals (who has become a dear friend) for dinner, and on Friday we cooked our own and had some of the highschoolers over. It was a time for us to give thanks for what we already have and for what is to come. 


-4 employees officially left last week. Who needs them? 


-I've realized how much my kiddos (both young and old) rely on me. It is something that I'm learning slowly. I've built up a lot of relationships here with the kids in the school and now many of them depend on me for certain things. 


-The Christmas program is next week (oh boy) It'll be very entertaining for me to see my kiddos up there singing for the community. We've put in a lot of practice the past few weeks so I know that they'll do awesome. Hey, now I know a song in Cup'ik. 


-Last week my juniors sponsored a CBA tournament (community basketball). It started on Thursday and went till the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. I don't think I slept more than 10 hours last weekend. Friday night was chaotic. A fight happened on the court. I didn't know what to do...basically my jaw dropped and I was just hoping that it would stop. Luckily there were people there that knew what to do so I wasn't alone. However, it was the first fight that has happened in the history of CBA games...why do those things have to happen when I'm in charge?

-Tuesday night we had a pretty intense blizzard. A man tried to snowmachine back to Hooper Bay from Chevak and got lost. They sent out search and rescue the next morning to search for the man. We got word that they had found him but that he had passed away. I was told that he was related to many of the students at the school...it ended up being the uncle to one of my friends here. It was very sad to see how affected he was especially when he wasn't expecting it. He went to Hooper Bay for the funeral but I know that it is rough for him right now. 


-Wednesday night I made (well assisted) in making fry bread for the first time. Some of the highschoolers came over and taught me how to make it. It was a lot of fun. I'll post pictures when I get home. I plan on making it over Christmas break! : )


The next post that I do with be pictures. I need to transfer the pictures over and then I can post and you can SEE what's been going on! : ) 


Please keep in your prayers my kiddos. There is a lot going on in some of their lives and I'm just praying for the best for them!