A Little Bit of Disappointment and a Whole Lot of Fun

Well, today has been one of disappointments and rebounds (literally). We were supposed to have a jr high basketball tournament in the village this weekend. Three other teams were going to be flying in for it. Our jr high teams are made up of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders; boys and girls play on ONE team. Most schools wouldn't have enough kids to play if you divided them. Also, our high school girls' team was supposed to go to Scammon Bay for a game. Now, I have a friend who coaches one of the teams that was supposed to come in for the tournament. I was SO excited that she was going to be in the village. It is a treat for someone to come to see you out here in the middle of nowhere.
Well, around 10:00 the weather started going downhill FAST. The girls were supposed to leave for Scammon Bay at 11:00, and teams were supposed to start showing up in Kipnuk around 1:00. By 11:00, our girls were on the infamous "weather hold" and other teams were holding in their respective villages. The weather continued to get increasingly worse. At 2:30 or so, the girls' flight to Scammon Bay was cancelled and teams started calling Kipnuk to say they weren't coming. The jr high coach and the girls coach decided that the two teams should scrimmage.
Here's where the fun starts.....
I was getting ready to go home around 4:00 when one of the girls, Melody Chuckwuk, said, "Deborah, are you going to come cheer for me?" Now, I ask you, how could I say no? I said I would and took my snow boots back off, put my indoor shoes back on, and headed to the gym.
When we have basketball at the school, EVERYONE gets drafted to help. I have done the scoreboards, kept the books, (both things I had NEVER done before), taken money, you name it. Well, the coach said, "Here, do scoreboard." Sure, I thought. Why not. So, I set the clock for 6 minutes. Now, our jr high team has about twelve or thirteen kids, and our girls team has eight. At the end of the 6 minutes, they took a one minute break and went again. The jr high put a whole new team in and the same girls kept playing. Six minutes of scrimmage, one minute break. This went on for SIX periods and the coaches and the kids kept saying, "One more!" The kids played like this for TWO HOURS of almost non-stop, hard-core playing. Remember, the girls only had three subs. So, by the time, they were about an hour and a half into the practice, the girls had been playing almost the whole time and the jr high had swapped in and out. It was like watching the Keystone Cops play basketball. They were rolling on the floor after the ball, letting it go between their legs, everything you could imagine. And every time the buzzer would sound that the six minutes were up, everyone would say "AGAIN, AGAIN!" Even the girls, who I am sure at this point were about to die, were saying they should go again. At one point, someone was passing the ball, and one of the girls said, "Not me! Not me!" I laughed and laughed and laughed.
What made it even funnier was the fact that, even though this was a SCRIMMAGE, there were probably about 75 people (more than 10% of the village) there watching it. There's not a lot to do here, so when some sort of basketball thing is going on, people come out in droves. Basketball is like life here. The whole village can't get enough of it. So, each time there was a good shot or something funny happened, there was this huge reaction from the "crowd." It was like we were at the NBA finals, and this was only a practice.
So, to make a long story longer, my friend didn't come, the jr high tournament was cancelled, the girls will try to leave for Scammon Bay tomorrow, and I am trying not to get blown away.
Until we meet again.
Debbie