Potlatch

Waqaa,
It is getting close to Potlatch time here in Stebbins and the kids have been practicing their dances every night. When they dance at Potlatch they will wear very traditional clothing. In this picture she is wearing a qaspuk, belt and head dress all hand made. They have tons of beading on them and take a lot of time to prepare. They will also wear boots and gloves. Our Potlatch starts on Friday and will go for about 3 days. The people from Kotlik will come and participate in ours and then people from Stebbins will go to theirs later. We are all looking forward to Potlatch.
The weather here has been fluctuating a lot lately. It is negative 9 this morning but a couple of days ago we had a freak high of 32 degrees. I am not kidding when I say that everyone complained about being hot. We only wore light jackets as we walked to school and we had the windows open all day. It is crazy how easily we adapted to cold weather. :0)
Jesse had a home basketball game last night against Pilot Station. They will play again today at 4pm. Jesse's boys pulled out the win 58-57 last night. He has 6 players now and most of them are playing somewhat injured, or for one, without his glasses because they are broken beyond repair. That makes things tough. Anyway, they are playing really well as a team and have responded really well to his coaching. They are running plays and you can barely recognise the gym ball in them that they all loved so much. Even without his top player they are really playing well.
The Iditarod will be starting soon and we have 5 days off during that time. The trail actually runs through about 6 of the villages in our district. Unfortunately ours is not one of them. We thought about going to Nome to experience it, but even in November when I tried to get rooms, I couldn't find any. I guess we will have to plan better for next year.
We hope you are all well,
Hugs!