September

I went on a long hike a few weeks ago, knowing the warm(ish) weather would soon be nothing more than a distant memory for the next 9 months. I was in a giddy, adventurous mood, so I frolicked on, hopping streams and meandering through the mud. About three miles out, however, I came across a stream too wide to cross (about 100 feet long). I decided to keep walking until it narrowed enough to jump over, but it eventually spit into a fork, and I had to make a decision: go back to the village or swim across. You guessed it! I crossed it. Knowing full well that I had a quiz to make for the next day’s literature class, I cautiously (yes, it’s a new concept to me) waded out into the water, got stuck in the mud, and fell down, having to swim across in the freezing, salty mud water. Once I made it to the other side, but the wind was unceasing and as I was drenched and freezing, and the village was three miles away, I made the wise decision to return to Newtok and found another route that kept me having to swim. It was a great day, I got my quiz made, and no harm was done!

I went to women’s night for the fist time in a long time the other night. Emily wanted to try it out, so I said I’d go with her. I’ve been pretty active, but this was the first time I actually played a sport with only one working eye, and it was a bit frustrating not being able to see a defender coming on to me. I did alright, but I need to practice turning my head more.

One Friday as we were waiting to travel to Nightmute on Nelson Island for cross country, Grant came and told us the trip was off - confused because the weather was so nice, we asked why - he said he was sworn to secrecy as to why, but there was a manhunt going on, and we were on lockdown as well as the entire Island. We learned later that a man shot and killed his 2 year old son in the village of Tununak, and they found the man in his father’s house. They found the little boy’s body out by the coast of the Bering Sea. Crazy horrible.

We wound up making up the trip the following week, and the morning of the race, it started snowing! Me and Kevin went to the store and bought a pack of hot chocolate to enjoy while the kids ran. No one was prepared for it to snow, and we weren’t dressed properly. We climbed steep hills, walked down rocky paths, and traveled a good 2 miles just to watch the race, and we were outside over 2 hours with nothing but a sweatshirt to guard us from the cold. I got a stone bruise in my foot and couldn’t put pressure on it for a few days after that, but it’s getting better.

When we got home from Nightmute our new refrigerator finally arrived! Our old one was barely cool, so we don’t have to worry about food going bad anymore.