Pinewood Derby

This weekend Twin Hills hosted the Southwest Region School District Pinewood Derby. Because the smaller sites do not have sports teams, our kids get to have a pinewood derby. My kids were too young to participate but they had fun watching and cheering for our older students.

Ekwok and Aleknagik arrived in Twin Hills Friday afternoon. They spent the day making head dresses and practicing their Yupik dances for the night. They boys' head dresses had beaver fur on them and girls' head dresses had beaver fur and wolf fur. The color of the band on the head dress depended on the village they were from. Twin Hills students had a red band, Ekwok a black band, and Aleknagik a blue band. The students performed a couple of dances while Jess and Martha played the drums. Click here to watch a video of the kids dance about making akutaq

After they performed we had a pot luck dinner. I was so excited they made potato and egg salad! It was delicious! I also had berry akutaq (eskimo ice cream) and atsiuraq (eskimo pudding). I tried the herring eggs which had seaweed on them. They were very salty and fishy tasting but not that bad. They popped like bubble wrap in your mouth when you chewed. I actually kind of liked them but I don't know how many I could eat. There was green akutaq too which Jess said is really good. I put a little on my plate but couldn't bring myself to try it. I haven't tried sulunaq yet either which is salted or pickled salmon…not quite sure exactly.

 Herring Eggs

 atsiuraq

 sulunaq

 green akutaq

crow berry akutaq

On Saturday the kids raced their cars. It was my first pinewood derby and it was a lot of fun. A girl from Ekwok got first place but Twin Hills took second and third with Tommy coming in second and Ciara in third. We had a spaghetti lunch after and then all of the students got planes back to their villages.

My Alaska Family :)