03-20-2011

Once again I’m explaining to parents how their child is performing in the classroom.  It’s report card time.  And again, it’s an exercise in self-examining my abilities as a teacher.  Every time I write about some difficulty a student had last quarter, I wonder if it could have been avoided if I had done something sooner about it.  Probably.  Every time I write about some achievement a student attained, I wonder if they would have made that progress without me, on their own.  Probably.   In my first year I’m hoping I just don’t stunt their growth.  I don’t allow them to drink coffee in class just in case.

This weekend was the village’s annual potlatch.  This is a native celebration where people gather to eat, dance, and exchange gifts.  This has also been a time when families display their wealth.  Villages will invite a nearby village to come to the potlatch; in our case it was Scammon Bay.  Scammon Bay is about 50 miles from here, so they converged upon us in snowmobiles.  Without doing an official count, I do believe we may have doubled our population this weekend.

The potlatch is held in the tribal community hall.  In a village of less than 200 people, the tribal hall isn’t that big.  So Friday night it was full.  There were seats for most of the adult people. Apparently the kids are encouraged to enter and exit the hall as many times as they can.  Maybe there is a cultural contest with that, but man, that door stayed open more than it was shut.  Which wasn’t a bad thing since it was about 100 degrees in there.  This was my first social outing in a long time and I was a bit rusty on how I was supposed to carry myself.  Plus, this is a different culture, so I was unsure if I should remove my hat when I entered the hall (I didn’t), if there were certain places I shouldn’t sit (first come/first serve), or if pants were optional (nope, required).  If you want to know more about how a potlatch is carried out, Google it. 

A couple of my students had their first dance at the potlatch.  Their families passed out gifts to the guests and the kids were dressed up in their mukluks, a headdress, and feather fans for their dance.  It’s a pretty neat celebration and I know the community put in a lot of time practicing for the past few weeks.  They would practice dancing from 7-11pm each night, which meant there were a lot of tired kids the past few weeks at school.

Our weather has broken from the past few weeks.  We’ve had nice weather, getting to zero at night and in the upper teens for the daytime. No clouds or winds, so it was pleasant for walking to and from school.  This weekend, it has warmed up to the low 30’s, with the arrival of wind and clouds.  We’ve had a few inches of new snow, but it’s been blowing around, so who knows where it is.  The awful news is that the weather affects my ability to receive my Dish Network signal.  Since the NCAA Tournament is the only thing in full bloom up here, I was looking forward to watching some games this weekend.  Nope.  Plus it affects the internet here too, so I have sloooow speeds.  I have troubles even getting email at these speeds, so it is difficult to get scores. 

Two more weeks until Monica shows up.  Being a bachelor was much more fun when beer and pizza was available for purchase.  Being a bachelor up here just means I’m the only one to do laundry.   I have learned that the word “clean” is relative.  As the only one doing the laundry in my house, I get to determine how clean a shirt is.  My rule is as long as I don’t wear it two days in a row, it’s clean.  Maybe Monica will change my reference, but for now I’m holding fast to that.  I won’t go into my new position on personal hygiene.  It is rather personal.