Saturday

A couple of the Alakanuk boys were surprised to see a bear in the cafeteria. It had a bulletproof case, so I doubt it had much of a chance to eat them for lunch.

Yesterday, eight Natural Helpers and I were picked up in a chartered Caravan. We flew to St. Mary's, fueled up, and headed to Russian Mission. From flat tundra to tree-covered hills, our plane bumped along roughly over the Yukon. As our pilot took a few hard turns into "bear country" (they call it that for its abundance of bears, wolves, and moose), I laughed as the boys pretended to slide up against the windows or hang out of their seats. A modified version of the classic roadtrip game, Corners. The pilot pulled one last hard corner right before the runway into Russian Mission and my window was parallel with the brown dirt for quite some time. We arrived in good spirits and got settled into the school.

Our team split up into two rooms-- boys in the library and girls with me in the HeadStart room. The daylight lasts many hours, but the Natural Helpers are awake many more. Some didn't go to bed until 5 a.m. and others (including me) were waking up from showering girls and a crying baby by that time.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but they had about the largest cups I've ever seen... I don't know if I can drink that much.

This day has included breakfast, clean-up, games, basketball tournament, break-out sessions on multiple topics, lunch, a survey, meetings, obstacle course, supper, more basketball games, a prank on the seniors, clean-up, and the list goes on and on. As a sponsor, I wasn't required to participate in much, so the majority of my time has been spent in the office helping making a Prom Queen crown, checking in with the kiddos, walking them to the store, and encouraging them to participate rather than texting. It is amazing how 120 students can be in one place, yet be texting about 600 more people.

This was the first church built by the Russian Missionaries in 1850.

Tonight at the awards ceremony we honored two people from Natural Helpers from Scammon Bay who passed away this year. Their sponsor died giving birth this year. The group seemed to hold it together as they accepted the tribute. However, the next tribute also went to Scammon Bay. They had a young member die because he stepped in front of a bullet to save his mom's life. Many of the students hadn't seen the videos of the last fall retreat, so watching a movie with clips of his charisma and loving personality were extremely hard as that raw emotion rushed back to unhealed hearts.

(It is 4:40 a.m. and students are still running around the school. Music is bumping, the loud beats are vibrating through my body, as the Natural Helpers are either sitting on the bleachers or staying far away from the empty gym dance floor. Although there are many students here, a non-decorated gym and lots of students who weren't able to get formal wear doesn't equal much of a prom. They are occupying the wee hours of the morning to wrestle, listen to music in their rooms, play tag, make new friends, etc. I'm okay with them having this unique opportunity to get to know each other and build connections between villages, so I've been making the most out of it.)

A few of the female sponsors and I decided to make the staff room the "Laugh Room". Some people thought there was laughing gas leaking from the vents in there. Two days in a row people wandered in there to grab some snacks and commented, "We want whatever it is you have!" We watched a video online yesterday about the 5 ways a Native Woman laughs. They had watched it before, but I found out later they were watching me as I laughed. One said, "That's funny. You don't laugh like a kass'aq, you laugh like a native!" I guess I just like to move while I laugh, slapping my knee, leaning, and pointing. (Maybe that is one thing I've picked up without noticing...) My voice is hoarse from having too much fun.

If you do take the time to watch this, I want to note that we've decided there should be more traits. Number 6: The stomp. Number 7: The "wind-down" The more native women in the room while watching it, the better. Good, good times!

Down by the river there is lots of mud and erosion

Earlier today I had a chance to grab my camera and go down through the village to the airport with Russian's Instructional Leader Jason, his son, as well as the district's Directory of Technology and my friend Joshua Jerome. The sun was shining through the clouds, the snow is mostly puddles, and these guys dared to try some steep, icy trails!

The real excitement begins.

I was lucky to be able to go on this quick little excursion away from the school while our male chaperone took a turn of watching the kids during a basketball tournament. And thank you to a pretty generous IL for allowing me to ride a four-wheeler on a nice day outdoors to see some of the beautiful Russian Mission.

4:52AM now and most students are still rampant. My girls are coming in the room now, so I'll pop in the earplugs and hope we can all get a little sleep.