Breaking Records

Here she is doing a Wrist Carry-
holding onto the bar only with her wrist,
she holds herself up as the boys on
either end run around the court.

This week was a week of breaking records, and it isn't even over yet!! I've had a blast and I'm sure the students that I've been spending my time with have, too. The best way to explain this is to just list the records that have been broken:

To perform a Toe Kick, you have to barely
land on the stick, kick it backwards with just
your toes and then continue jumping forward.

1) I was asked to be a chaperone for the students going for NYO to another village (you will remember from a previous post that NYO is Native Youth Olympics, a group of activities used to keep native people in shape during the long, cold winters that has now become a competition similar to the olympics).

This is a successful Toe Kick

2) I hustled to finish my DRA testing this week-- Totally school related and a lot of people wouldn't really care, but I don't think anyone has finished testing all their students in two days like I did; it just has to be some sort of record!

This is the record breaking one foot high kick!

3) Flying to our closest neighboring village seems silly. In fact, our flight was only five minutes long. You barely got used to it before you were landing!

Another of my favorite events, the One Arm Reach!
Students balance on one hand,
hold their foot with the other and kick the opposite
 foot up into the air to kick a ball on a string.

4) Never had I seen so many kids from so many different villages. There were high school students from at least twelve different schools. Our school had a pretty small group of ten students compared to the other larger groups, so you can imagine how many students there were. The coolest part was watching all of them interact. They have been competing against each other for so long that it was just natural that they knew each other and could read each other so well!

This is the Indian Stick Pull (both hold onto a stick and try to pull it out
 of the other's hand), I didn't get any pictures of the Eskimo Stick Pull

5) This year a district record was broken in my favorite event- The One Foot High Kick. The student jumped and kicked a ball with one foot and came back down landing on the same foot he kicked with. The ball was 104 inches above the ground! That is nearly nine feet high! It is always an impressive event to watch.

and last but not least, 6) I witnessed for the very first time the seal hop, Indian Stick Pull, and Toe Kick. These events were very interesting and took quite a bit of skill to master.

Here are our boys doing the Seal Hop, literally hopping on
their wrists and toes only all the way down the court

Though none of the students from our school placed high enough to go to state, they tried there hardest, did their best, and no one could ask for any more from them.

As for me, I met a few people from different villages that I hadn't met before. We shared a room with Kotlik girls and the chaperone for those girls and I sat down at lunch and she told me her story about how God has transformed her life. It was so inspiring. I may have grown up in a Christian home, but I still struggle through life with certain things. Now, during certain parts of my life, I can think of her and know that the Lord has a plan for all of our lives.

The week isn't over yet. I will return to my classroom tomorrow and try to restore mayhem, unpack my bag and pack another overnight bag that I will use while I chaperone for one of the other teacher's kids over the weekend. Talk about tuckered out!! Let's hope next week is a little bit less running around and a little more sleep!!