After a productive 3rd week of practice, the Kwethluk Kings Mixed 6 volleyball team traveled to their first games in Aniak, AK. You can see where Aniak (green B marker) is in comparison to Kwethluk (green A marker) on the map below.
The 7 players and 4 adults flew out of Kwethluk at about 4:30pm on Friday. The eleven of us fit into two 6-seaters for the 45 minute flight to Aniak.
I snapped a few photos on the way.
Loading up the first of our two planes.
Above you can see the girls were all smiles as we started out. Unfortunately the 45 minute flight was a little bumpy and none of us felt well when we arrived.
Below, you can see some of the landscape we saw on the way. On the left are mountains that you can see from Kwethluk, not sure what they are called. The picture on the right is of a huge lake(Whitefish lake I think) we flew over shortly before we landed in Aniak. You can see that ice is forming on the edges of the lake. The great thing about bush planes is that they fly low enough for you to see the ripples on the water.
The scenery in Aniak is much different from Kwethluk. It is surrounded by mountains and they have many many more large trees. You can see the village in the picture below.
Shortly after we arrived in Aniak, their volleyball coach picked us up from the airport. Aniak is in a different school district than Kwethluk. They are in the Kuspuk district. There were two other teams that played in the tournament, Tuluksak and Akiachak. Those schools are both in the Yupiit school district. We were the last team to arrive in Aniak, and as soon as we had eaten supper provided by the school we suited up for our first volleyball match!
The gym in Aniak (and school in general) is much newer and bigger than ours. You can also see that the Aniak high school mascot is the Halfbreeds. I didn't believe my volleyball players at first when they mentioned that to me last week, so I decided to google it. Here is an article that I found: Aniak Halfbreeds
Our first match was against Aniak, which we lost in 2 games(we played best out of 3). Garret(my co-coach) and I could tell that the kids were nervous for their first game, but saw some glimpses of success throughout the match. We played Tuluksak right after that and the kids tried again to shake the nerves of their first games. Unfortunately, we didn't play to our potential and lost to Tuluksak in two games. The tournament was double elimination, so we were done the first night with games. Although the kids seemed a little frustrated(as were the coaches) we felt that it was a good beginning to the season and gave us a list of things to improve upon. :)
After the last match of the night, the kids played some basketball and volleyball in the gym. The night became much more exciting when the Akiachak coach came and told us that the Northern Lights were out that night! It was incredibly cold outside, but the view was worth standing in the frigid temperatures. Seeing the green lights dance across the sky was an unforgettable moment and allowed me some time to reflect on all that I have been able to experience in these short two months since I've been in Alaska.
I tried to take pictures and video of the Northern Lights, but it didn't turn out so I found some pictures of them online. Here is a link to some pictures of the lights from that night from other towns in Alaska.
We woke up Saturday to a clear sunny day and planned to watch volleyball rather than play because we had been eliminated from the tournament. However, the one team we hadn't played yet wanted to play after they won the championship, so our kids suited up for one more match. Our third match started off a little shaky, but by the end of the 2nd game(which we ended up losing) the kids had gotten over all their nerves. After our last match, we packed up to fly home. Our plane left at 1pm and we enjoyed our less turbulent ride home to Kwethluk.
The ride home was much nicer and some of the kids even slept!
Here are a couple of pictures of the scenery on the way home.
We arrived in Kwethluk around 1:45 and were shuttled from the airport to the school. After an exciting weekend of firsts, I was exhausted and went home to take a nap and watched a couple movies last night.
Today is another chilly, but beautiful day in Kwethluk and I hope to get my lessons and grading done so I can head home for the night and relax with Raisin. He has been up at the school with me patiently waiting (and napping) while I work.
Hope you all have had a great weekend and are ready for Monday! :)
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