February

Okay, time for our monthly post. When did this become a monthly post? When I took over apparently, but I'll try to pick up the pace. We have been so busy since we've returned, and it's hard to believe that February is winding down. The winter has been a roller coaster, -20 degrees one day, barely freezing the next. As far as we know, we still haven't converted over to Yukon River water yet, not to mention the water has stayed on. We still try to keep our dishes and laundry done just in case.

Last week, I almost had to fly to Akiak, a village near Bethel on the Kuskokwim River. The high school boys basketball coach had to go to Anchorage, and I agreed to fill in if he didn't make it back in time. We ended up having some of the worst weather we've had all winter, which kept me from going to the home of the Half-breeds. The Akiak Half-breeds. Apparently some people have suggested that they change the name, but the folks in Akiak say, "Why? We are half-breeds." I sorta wish I could've gone there. I would have loved to buy a sweatshirt to go with this one.

A few weeks back, my middle school basketball players and I flew to Kotlik for our first tournament. I'm coaching two teams, middle school boys and girls. It's my first time coaching, and it's been quite an experience. In rural Alaska, single games do not happen. To make travel worthwhile, the district plans weekend tournaments in which several schools' teams are flown to a village to play. The parents who can make it snowmachine in for hours from other villages. All the teams play each other, and they get several games in. We sleep on classroom floors in sleeping bags, eat in the school cafeteria, and walk to the local AC store for snacks.

Kotlik is on the coast almost due north of Mountain. It's officially the furthest north I've ever been on the planet. The landscape is super flat and icy. It contrasts with Russian Mission, the village furthest upriver on the Yukon with mountains and spruce trees. After landing at the airstrip, my team and I got a ride to the school. I hopped on the back of the two-person snowmachine, and all my players piled into the sled with their gear. For all the harsh weather we can experience in Mountain, it's usually even worse on the coast. It must have been -30 the weekend we were there. I would have taken more pictures, but I could not take my gloves off, and my camera froze.

We played 5 games in Kotlik. There were 6 teams competing, Kotlik, Alakanuk, Pilot Station, Stebbins, Emmonak, and us. The Mountain boys went 0-2 and the girls went 1-2, but they did beat Stebbins 51-10. Games went until midnight Friday and Saturday night. On Sunday, only a couple teams were able to fly out of Kotlik due to weather. Luckily, we were one of them. That's another fun part about traveling in rural Alaska. You never know when you will be stuck some place on weather hold, and getting stuck in a village for an extra day or two is pretty common. Needless to say, I was glad to get home. It was a marathon, and I took Monday off to recuperate. This Friday we had home games in Mountain, which were very exciting. Janna took a bunch of pics, and I will post those very soon. The whole village comes to support the kids during these events. I reffed some elementary games a few weeks ago. The Mountain team came back against Pilot Station. The game ended in a tie. I couldn't believe how loud the crowd was in that little gym. It was a lot of fun, and Mountain ended up winning in OT.

Now that we have our satellite dish working we get KTLA, and I was watching it at lunch the other day. The weatherman predicted a "cold" high temp of 59 in LA. Here if it's above 10 degrees it's generally described as warm. I've been showing my kids pictures of North Idaho and Rathdrum, which is basically as big as Bethel, the hub for the entire South-West Alaska region, and Era Airlines. They can't believe it doesn't have an airport. I try to tell my kids that they need to take driver's ed when they get older. They just give me a funny look and say, why? And then they tell me I should get a snowmachine.

Janna and I spent a few days in Anchorage with Sandra earlier this month. We karaoked at Asia Gardens and watched the Superbowl at Chili's. We hit all the stores and shipped several totes again, including two totes of freeze as checked luggage. Sandra showed us the secret door at the post office where you don't need to wait in line (minimum 10 items). Besides shipping things and storing water, the totes came in handy as drums for the Christmas Pageant. Here's the picture I promised to post of the first performance by the Mountain Village Bucket Band. The picture of the sundogs was taken by Sandra on Christmas Day, and it's definitely worthy of our blog. I'll be posting again very soon to talk about this weekend's home games. Thank you to Auntie Di and Uncle Dennis for the goodies and the magazines! We hope you survive those brutal winter temp's in SoCal. Don't worry, spring is right around the corner.