Trip 3 - Day 19

I woke up rested and refreshed. Perhaps my best night of sleep so far. I was ready to go and so I went. I went to check on the recorder I loaned out, but she wasn't working today so I won't be able to see her until Sunday at the earliest I guess. I hope her and her mother have done more than 30 minutes of recording, that would make me soo, soo happy. I then went to check on some other elders but couldn't find anyone and no one has called back yet. But I'm not comfortable calling again or going over until Sunday-Monday I think, maybe that's silly, I don't know the right way really, but this feels polite at least.

I also talked to the teacher about staying with him for a few weeks and he was like the school needs a background check and two letters from previous landlords and fingerprints in order to stay at a teacher's house for less than a month. So yea.

Anyways onto the fun part of the day... After reading and using the internet, I got locked out so skipping dinner I went to the first Eskimo dance since I've been here. It was a memorial truly, but no one said anything about me being there so perhaps I became a little less of an outsider. I got to see all of the elders there and a few I haven't been able to talk to yet. But I didn't really talk to anyone, I just watched and observed tradition. They handed out Eskimo Ice cream half way through which was delicious but meatier than I remember it being. A couple of young girls danced for the first time which requires adherence to lots of tradition. And I got to be seen, and got to watch and hear some awesome dancing, singing, and drumming. On my way back a guy a bit younger than me who has been watching me for about a week now, finally caught up to me and introduced himself and offered to hang out...so interesting, but perhaps I'll get to go out more and do things! Or maybe the community is slowly beginning to accept my presence. I got home around 1am and lucky the door was unlocked as my host had also just gotten home from the high school volleyball tournament being hosted here this weekend (high school sports but instead of crossing the city to go compete you cross the tundra). So I quickly did dinner and then went to bed. And that was my Friday. I'd say it was a good close to the third week of this trip. Eskimo dancing is always fun to watch!

Piurra!