I know it’s been awhile since my last post. Not a lot has happened though. So, I’ll try to make it as interesting as possible.
Rick got his moose this year. We spent almost 5 hours one night cutting it up. Good thing the sun wasn’t going down until after 10pm at that point. We still didn’t finish until almost midnight though. As is part of village life, Rick gave both me and the other teacher quite a bit of meat. The three of us all ended up with a rubbermaid tote FULL of moose meat! Yum! If you’ve never had moose, it’s pretty darn tasty. It’s not as gamey tasting as deer or elk, and it’s less fatty than beef.
I picked up an after-school job. I’m working for an after-school tutoring program called Alaska Learning Labs. I’m focusing my program on grades 2 through 6, although they do have a program that can be run at upper grade levels. Because of sports and such, after-school programs don’t tend to work out so well for the older kids. Anyway, the program focuses on reading, writing, and math. It’s geared towards our state standards as well. I’m running the program 4 days a week, for 90 minutes each afternoon, and I can have up to 11 kids in the program. I get paid $30/hour, plus an additional 22% for prep time. Not too bad!
The group that funds Alaska Learning Labs paid for me to go to Anchorage for a 2-day training in the middle of October. It was sheer luck that while I was there, my good friend Tadpole, who teaches in Alukanuk (another village in Alaska along the Yukon River), was also there waiting to have her baby! After I was done with training both days, she picked me up from my hotel and we went shopping and to dinner. We went on a Wal-Mart run the first night and had some tasty mexican food. The next day, she took me to the mall for a pedicure, then helped me finish up my shopping, and we went to Subway and to get pizza! Yum! I miss city food (but it doesn’t miss me, unfortunately...just makes me sick...haha)!
On the last Friday in October, we had our Halloween Carnival at the school. We have small games and such for the elementary and younger kids in the village to come play. Their parents buy tickets, and they can win small prizes (vampire teeth, pencils, small activity books, etc.) All of the proceeds from the tickets that we sell go to Math-a-thon, which I believe is a St. Judes fundraiser. The High School Seniors also made popcorn balls and caramel apples to sell to try to raise more money for their senior trip. After we came close to running out of prizes, we close the carnival, and we had a “Haunted Library” that some of the high schoolers put on.
A bunch of people ask me about Halloween and if kids trick-or-treat. Yes, they do. And their parents or sisters or aunties sometimes trick-or-treat right along side the kids. A bunch of kids asked me “Sandra, why didn’t you go trick-or-treating?” Umm...because you kids wanted me to give you candy! Silly kids!
Back to the Senior Class I suppose. They have been raising money since last year to go on a senior trip. They have a tiered goal. If they raise a little bit of money, we’ll head to Anchorage. If they raise a whole lot of money, we’ll get to go to Hawaii. And if they raise somewhere in the middle, we’re Colorado bound! They’ve been doing things such as cake walks, spaghetti dinners, selling goods, sports camps and tournaments. Right now, they have an iPod nano that they are selling raffle tickets for. If they keep up the good work, they’ll raise lots of money. The next step for them is going to be getting donation letters out to businesses.
I guess the last thing I have for now is voting. It took me all of 30 seconds to vote this year. Signed the paper, got my ballot, filled it out, placed my ballot in a cardboard box. And left. Easiest vote I’ve EVER made. The big deal in Alaska right now is that our Senate vote is going to have to be recounted again and again and again. One of the major republican candidates (and longtime Senator) lost the primary, much to many people’s dismay. She ended up becoming a write-in candidate. You thought your political commercials were vicious back home? Oh man...try adding a third candidate to the ballot! A write-in, at that! Holey! I’ve NEVER been so glad for election season to be over as I have this year! Anyway, now the new AK Senator probably won’t be decided until Thanksgiving, at the earliest.
Oh, this is actually the last thing: We’ve got a decent layer of snow now. Maybe an inch or so? Fall finally hit the lower-48. Winter hit Alaska. It’s getting chilly out there! Makes getting out of bed and walking to work harder and harder!
