It's my fourth year teaching out in a remote village in Alaska. I've come to count my blessings each day, to laugh at my mistakes, and to live my life to the fullest!
Last week we had cultural heritage week at our school. My kiddos got to participate in many different activities that included: NYO, Sledding, Beading, Elder Talks and a day trip. Every night after school starting on Wednesday the kids (3rd-12th) yuraq (Eskimo Dancing) for the community. I still haven't uploaded those pictures/videos yet but I will do that shortly. Below are some of the pictures from the day trip that we took on Wednesday!
The kids were all super excited (in the beginning) to go sliding. They used their snowpants to sled down. Some of my kiddos even found blackberries (SPRING HAS ARRIVED)
They all rolled down the hill in a race. Made for some dizzy kiddos
This little girl would run down the hill to where I was and slide into my legs. She was attempting to knock me over. Others kids joined in and they succeeded in knocking me over twice.
More kids joining the cause to knock me over.
Cultural Heritage week was a LOT of fun! It was great to hear the elders tell stories of when they were younger and to see how much they respected the kids and teachers here at the school. I even learned how to bead...while I am no expert, I did finish one bracelet for a friend. It'll take more practice but I have time!
Last Monday we started Tie-Dying T-Shirts in our class. It was to get us ready for Cultural Heritage week and to have something cool for them to take home. I've actually did this project with my mom's class and her friends class many times so I was excited to do it with my kiddos. Here are the pictures from our project. I only got half of the classes "final outcome" since the other class was with my partner teacher.
I did two students at a time. THANKFULLY I had my morning helper to help me with the first half of the class! I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. He even made his own t-shirt and was really excited to wear his shirt around school last week (it was touching!)
This is something that they were VERY unfamiliar with. They needed a lot of encouragement and help making sure their entire shirts were covered so there was no white showing.
My friend making his shirt!
The FINAL product! Unfortunately the green that most of the kids used (because they wanted to use Miss. Tardiff's favorite color) didn't show up.
ALL the students wore their shirts last Wednesday (and the rest of the week) for the start off of Cultural Heritage week. The activities started off with a school wide assembly (k-12) and the students received a lot of comments about their shirts! Some of the older kids wanted to make some too! This is something we'll have to do next year too!
A few weeks ago Chevak hosted an Invitational tournament for NYO (Native Youth Olympics). In highschool I had briefly heard of these events but never actually experienced them for myself. After watching many of these events I noticed not only their skill level but also their determination! Here are some photos from the event!
This weekend many of them traveled to Russian Mission to compete at the Regional tournament! Good Luck Comets!! : )
These pictures are from a while ago but I'm just getting them put on my computer.
Over the weekend we got completely buried in our house! Because the snow was so high I had to shovel it into tubs, and dump the tubs in our shower. It really didn't matter how often we shoveled, it would just fill back up. Luckily we got the help from some highschoolers and they got us dug out!
Our window when we woke up in the morning!
The front door...
Tub after Tub of snow to the shower...
Our Shower got really full of snow and it took FOREVER for it to melt!
Amber trying to melt it down.
Yay! Bjay and Guy to the rescue!
It took them a LONG time to dig us out but we were very thankful for them both!! : )
Life is all about making decisions. Some decisions are easy to make while some decisions are extremely hard to make, leading to second-guessing and questioning the decision once it has in deed been made.
In March, I had a decision that I needed to make. Whether I was going to come back to Chevak for another year. I knew that I was going to be faced with this decision sooner or later, so I started thinking about it at the beginning of the year.
It would have been very easy for me to say, “Yes, I can definitely do another year here.” But I didn’t want to be stuck with the second-guessing feelings that would have been associated with a quick decision. While I was definitely leaning towards making that quick decision, I wanted to make sure that I was making the right decision.
I was thankful that I had to two friends that I was able to talk to about this decision and a family that was going to support me regardless of the decision that I made. So, I talked to my friends about my options, they suggested that I were to seriously sit down and consider the pros and cons of staying here.
There were many points for both sides, I have missed my family this whole year, and I missed the simple pleasures of being able to go to the movies or go to a restaurant, I knew that I eventually want to get a job closer to home, but was it time to start that journey? I loved all the kids that I got to know and teach this year, I could have the opportunity to move up with my kiddos to first grade, I would be able to watch my junior class graduate, I wouldn’t be another person that would walk away, and both lists could go on.
So, when contracts came out I made the quick decision and signed it. I was still torn with what to do (I guess that sometimes it only makes sense to make things difficult for ourselves). Basically, I knew that since I signed it, I was going to be “stuck” with this decision.
Ever since then, there have been certain instances where I have been shown that I made the right decision. I’m excited that I’ll be here for another year. It looks like I’ll get to move up to first grade with my kiddos, I’ll get to see my junior class graduate, I’ll get to make an impact for another year.
I’ve also made some other decisions recently:
·I am going to be going back to school. I want to get a Master’s in counseling.
·I am going to become more involved with the culture here in Chevak.
·I am going to make my own Kuspuk.
Sometimes decisions are the hardest thing in the world, but it’s good to know that whatever decision is made the Lord is leading the path! : )
