Sports in Alaska are so very different from what I was used to in Oregon. Each contest requires a flight for the team, sleeping on floors and several nights away from home. All the students get together for a few days of community service, competition and creative outlets of many sorts. In the middle of February, we had our basketball tournament. Well, we tried to have a couple of competitions but it didn't really work out that way. The first one was cancelled due to weather. Because of that cancellation and a delay, I got to go as a chaperone to the district tournament in Kokhanok (Cock-a-knock). Not having been there before, I was pretty excited to go!
Another flight, over water, past some mountains and getting to see some beautiful ice was amazing. You'll see that as the water freezes it creates some beautiful patterns. Many of which I try to capture but I'm sure just don't do it justice! We also get to see some mountains as we fly that are just pretty amazing because we don't have them very close in Egegik. Out the plane window, past the wings, you'll see a little hill that looks like a someone decided to push a pencil up from under the ground.
Once in Kokhanok, we get our belongings settled into the classrooms and the gym for the nights ahead. I was smart this time and brought one of the foam pieces off my bed and folded it up underneath me! Best sleep I've gotten on a trip this year! We had the usual group meals, basketball games and I spent a lot of time at the scoreboard this time! Every game except for one, I was the scorekeeper. I must say, one of the games with the hometown crowd was pretty intense!
This trip included the token walk with Jerik from Chignik Lake. This time there was no Dorothy slipping and falling. Just a nice little walk to the store to check out what they had there. Talks about anything that came up and plans for the future while walking in the middle of Alaska. Things that I'll never forget and was happy to experience. Thanks Jerik for lending the ear all those times!
This time the kids got to learn how to make fish camp stoves. I had never seen one before and I quite enjoyed the experience. I was amazed at how good some of the kids were in making them. They of course said they had made them before and knew just what to do. (Go girls!) Snip, snip, snip of the tin snips and they were done in no time flat! I've included a picture of the final product in use, a great little piece of camping and survival gear that could be very useful in the future! Thank you to Kokhanok and their staff for being such great hosts and to Colter for the dance! Oh, and speaking of the dance...someone from Perryville has a blackmail picture of me dancing....I think it's the Macarena.
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| Kokhanok Runway, just before "The flight" |
