Barrow Friday

Today was like a vacation day. We woke up nice and late at 8. It's
still very dark then. We had an amazing breakfast of eggs and biscuits
and gravy. We played a bit of morning volleyball with only our socks
on. We had a jumbalaya and rice lunch that I really couldn't eat after
gorging at breakfast. At lunch were some native elders that we got to
sit next to. Then we went back to the gym and really focused on our 6-2
offense. I wasn't seeing how it was translating into points but the
girls convinced me. They said they had an off practice yesterday
morning and didn't play hard. That'll change.

Right now, I am typing this in the gym at 3:15 pm. This really is an
amazing gym, with a track up around the outside, 10 basketball nets,
and a really good and well-marked volleyball court. This is the home of
the Barrow Whalers. They still do a lot of whaling around here and the
season apparently just closed down. The mayor, I've been told, helped
bring in the biggest whale this season. Their school symbol is a
drawing of a kayak of eskimos paddling toward a whale. It's a neat
heritage to be a part of, with such a sense of community. All along the
walls here in the school are motivational posters in Inupiat language
with an English translation. I really want to learn it a little bit,
especially the basic sounds of some of the new letters. They use the
(enye) thing that goes over the N in some Spanish words. They also
appear to use a single a N symbol with a curved right side and I would
think that stands for the "ing" sound, but I'm not sure. And U does not
necessarily have to follow a Q here either. I really want to understand
it.