It is warming up nicely here in Saint Michael. We are all feeling the sweet breeze of spring sweep over the tundra, which is more and more a slushy mess and less and less piles and clumps of snow. This week the temperature has jumped up to 44 degrees. Each day when I walk to school in full, glorious daylight wearing sunglasses, I take note that the ocean ice is inching its way closer to the shore. This is the best time of year to see seals hauled out on the ice, black specks in the distance. I want to walk out on the ice and and sneak up on one for a picture but they are pretty savvy of big, moving objects on the ice, typically a person looking for dinner to freeze or dry for their family and the seal oil to use in aguduct (eskimo ice cream). I asked Elias, one of our maintenance men, for some advise on the challenge and he said I should cover myself with a white garbage bag, find a sled to lay on, and scoot my way forward however far on the ice. When he had been in high school he managed to get within 10 ft of one he said. Sounds like an awful lot of patience to me. I would like to try though. In all my free time this week maybe I’ll round up the tools to make it a reality :0)
Last weekend I met Justin Steve and some other fun-loving troops out on the ice on the south side of town for some ice fishing. Unlike the tropical temperatures from the past few days, a brisk breeze nipped at cold, wet fingers holding onto jig sticks. The sunshine and blue sky were misleading. I found the crew lined up at a crack in the ice, hook dropped in a few shallow feet below the surface, an impressive pile of tom cod frozen stiff at the base of their feet. I was the smart one who thought to bring some yard gloves. These became a shared commodity, passed from one set of chilled hands to the next. A thin layer of ice crept its way up the fishing lines during our time out on the water.
We were excited to be out, and frankly I was excited the kids were being so successful. Every year Justin and I go out “munucking” — in the fall and spring– and we have never had any luck. They had big plans for who the fish would go to. Many of them had decided to give a small bagful to a grandmother or grandfather. I would guess between the lot of them, about 40-50 tom cod were claimed.
Here is a majority of the group: Ryleigh, Pretty (Chelsea), Alby (Albert), Mikey, Justin, and Keyshawn.
I was encouraging Albert to kiss this lucky fish and carry on my family tradition, but he engaged it in a staring contest instead.
Two weekends ago I was chosen to be a chaperon for a student broadcast team (6 students from 3 different villages in our district) in Anchorage at Native Youth Olympics (NYO). This has ranked its way into one of my favorite experiences.
The student broadcast program in and of itself is a genius student driven force. The purpose is to provide live streaming for families and friends of the athletes as the compete at the regional and state level. It is extremely expensive to travel around this state, or even within our district, and this offers families a chance to support their kids from home. The students involved with the broadcast team, in addition to managing the video cameras, also interview participants to the event. I would like to bring elements of a broadcast team back to St. Mike and my classroom.
The part of the experience that really pumped me up was watching some of these amazing athletes break records doing incredible events. (This is where I should recap a history of NYO and the correlation of these skills to Eskimo culture and tradition. For now I will only include the impressive pictures and leave your imagination to wonder.)
Alaskan High Kick
This is one of our students from Unalakleet.
The athlete starts from a sitting position with one foot held by the opposite hand and then propels their body up. They must hit the suspended ball with their foot and land steady on the same foot.
Amazing.
One Hand Reach
While maintaining control of his body, the athlete must balance on one hand (elbow wedged into the stomach, hip area serving as a fulcrum) and with the other hand reach above his head and touch the suspended ball. Once contact has been made the athlete can retract her hand, but must keep all limbs from touching the floor until the judge has approved that she kept control of the move. (They had to hold it for a certain number of seconds after contact.) In this picture Bernard Clark broke a world record for this event, reaching 69 inches.
One Foot High Kick
For this event the athlete jumps off both feet, kicks the ball with one foot and then must land with that same foot (again maintaining balance until the judge is certain they have control). It is wicked tricky! This kid captured the love of the audience making a jump almost twice his height.
Alice Strike is another record holder and breaker from this years NYO competition. For this event she tied her last year record of 91 inches. Earlier in the week she made a new record in the Two Foot High Kick.
Wrist Carry
This event takes a team effort. Two team members carry the stick between them while running around the limits of the gym. The third teammate holds his/her body off the floor, carrying their weight on their wrist curved over the stick.
Another event that impressed me is the Seal Hop, unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures to help explain this skill. Basically the athlete starts in push-up position (arms extended for girls and elbows locked at the side for boys) and they hop across the floor maintaining that position, pushing themselves forward with their feet on the hop. It is fun! Give it a try.
This year’s Iditarod winner, John Baker, was one of the speakers to kick off this year’s competition in Anchorage for NYO. The message he gave to the athletes was that you don’t come in first in life overnight. It takes hard work and a lot of failing along the way. This year he pulled into Nome after: 8 Days 18 Hours 46 Minutes 39 Seconds of being on the trail with his team, coming from Anchorage, a little over 1,100 miles southeast.
Hmm, well I only meant to write a short little blurb about the weather and how great it feels to have summer at our fingertips. Today, we had 6 students graduate for 2011. It was a great ceremony. Four more days in school and then off for the summer. I’m looking forward to reuniting with friends in Washington, Oregon, and California. I’m looking forward to playing outside. I am looking forward to horseback riding in Montana and hiking through Glacier Park and Yellowstone. I am excited to go to church and to see my parents on both ends of the summer in beautiful Valdez, Alaska.