The Village that I Love

View of the Yukon

I think it is officially beginning to feel like winter here. The river is freezing over quite nicely. The temperatures hover right around 32 (for now). The sun doesn't rise until close to 10 am or later. Yup, feels like winter is coming on.





I was afraid I wouldn't have anything really interesting to write about this week, but then I realized my birthday and parent-teacher conferences were both this week along with the village Halloween Carnival at the school.  It was a very fun week with lots of successful events, I would say.

Our packed gym

Parent-Teacher conferences: In an earlier blog, I told you that expectations are different for parents here than they are in the lower 48. School is not seen as important here and therefore parents don't necessarily NEED to come to things like parent-teacher conferences. Normally, half or less of the student's parents show up. For my very first parent-teacher conferences, eight of my ten students had a parent show up to discuss their students progress! I was amazed, astonished, and stoked that so many came out. I even had one suggesting ways they could help their child improve at home! It was amazing and I was so happy with the results. Since the beginning of the semester I have believed that I have the best group of students in the school, and because so many of their parents showed up, I was able to brag to almost all of their parents about how great their students are. As a first year teacher to have so much success, that was definitely a self-esteem booster as well.

box full of birthday goodies!

Birthday: I loved getting packages from home for my birthday. They were awesome. It was also really neat to celebrate my birthday in such a small place. Literally everyone knew I was turning twenty-three. Every single kid came up to me at school and told me happy birthday. It made the day even a little bit more special because so many people cared. Not only that, but all of the teachers become like a second family out here. Our bush family celebrated my birthday with cake and a movie. It was just a little simple get together at a teacher's house. But to me, it was perfect. We couldn't go out to the mall, or to a restaurant, or do anything you may have done living with the normal conveniences of civilizational surroundings, but we had each other and it made my birthday the most perfect day this year.

Escaping the Haunted House at the back

Halloween Carnival: Last night was the Halloween Carnival held at the school. They had booths for games set up all around the gym, a prize room for winners, and even a haunted house in the hallways of the school. When things like that are open to the community, everyone in the village comes out to celebrate. The gym was PACKED with people! There was no entry fee, just a sweet little ticket booth selling tickets to win prizes with. I worked the free throw shot. Students would pay two tickets to get four shots on the free throw line. If they made a shot, they won a prize ticket. I picked this event because basketball is a big deal here. I figured a lot of the students would enjoy this game. I was right. Especially one of the seventh graders who isn't in my class. He kept coming back over and over again. He wasn't bad, either. Several times he made all four shots. I was impressed.

Pond frozen over

It has been a great week, but it isn't quite over. Today we are celebrating a two year old's birthday. Then, next week is Halloween. That is a big deal around here. I would appreciate prayers for next week because Wednesday and Thursday will be pretty crazy days because of Halloween. I am excited to celebrate my first holiday with these people in this village that I love so very much.