Friends    ----

The main activity this past week was the Arctic Winter Games.  We have volunteered for that since September.  We volunteered most days during the games - that was fine except that we were unable to watch many of the events.  But we did watch some.

The athletes came from nine different areas.  The flags from left are Yamal (area of Russia), Nunavut (split off of Northwest Territories in Canada), Northwest Territories, Alberta North, Fairbanks Arctic Winter Games 2014 flag, Arctic Winter Games, US, Alaska, Greenland, Nunavik-Quebec, Sapmi (northern Scandinavia), and Yukon.

The sports were cross-country skiing, figure skating, snow shoeing, wrestling, badminton, basketball, curling, dene games, dog mushing, gymnastics, hockey, indoor soccer, speed skating, snowboarding, table tennis, and volleyball.  Dene games and arctic games include knuckle hop, ear pull, finger pull, one-foot kick, two-foot kick, one hand swat (pictures in previous blog), and hand games.  These usually had some application to their subsistence living in generations past.  These are mostly what we wanted to see because they are new to us.  We got to some but not nearly all of these.

These are hand games.  One team (one on each side of judges) had a small object like a rock which they passed around from person to person.  The other side was supposed to keep track of the object to know who had it at all times.  Purpose was to increase the powers of observation - very important for hunting.

This is the finger pull.  Opponents hook each other's right middle finger and pull for all they are worth.  Some contestants sprained their fingers in this.  Purpose is to strengthen middle fingers for hooking gills of fish and pulling them out of gill net or fish trap.  

Snow shoe races.  This was about a half mile race.  Contestants went around a track twice.

One lap done for these girls and one to go.

 This is the one-foot high kick.  In the first picture she has barely missed the ball going up but as her foot comes down she hits it.  She must land on the same foot she kicked the ball with and maintain her balance. She set the Arctic winter games record and the world record.  The judge, left, must stand on a ladder to get a good look.  She was probably about 5 feet 6 inches tall and kicked the ball at 7 feet 10 inches!  Standing on the floor she could not reach up and touch the ball.  (I had a good movie of this but it did not transfer into the blog.)

This little girl was the crowd favorite.  She did well for being a foot or more shorter than the other contestants.  It is easy to see how small she is compared to the others next to her.  We guess she was 8 years old.  She could kick the ball when it was higher than her head, but of course that was only about shoulder high for the others.  There were two classes of competitors.  Probably 18 years and younger and any age.  The one above was in the open competition.

We also watch speed skating for a while.  The parents of one contestant from Northwest Territories were next to us in the stands.  A bunch of parents got together and chartered a jet to come to Fairbanks for the games.

Most of the time we volunteered.  Here is Elva at the door to the auditorium while the hand games were going.  She was counting spectators going into the door behind her and making sure they had tickets.

Good care was taken for the volunteers.  Here is one volunteer lounge - water, a few snacks, and a chance to rest.

More than just Arctic Winter Games were last week.  There was another dog sled race.  This was called a sprint.  They only went about 25 miles!  Of course that is much shorter than the 1000 mile races.  The race went on the river right across the road from our apartment.

Here is a dog that was not racing for some reason.  The dogs are not the Alaska huskies or malamutes, they look more like mutts.  Those breeds are too heavy to be fast, they are better for pulling heavy loads.  The ones used for racing are, of course especially bred for speed and endurance.  They are not mutts, just look like mutts

There was also a parka parade.  The only qualification was that the parkas had to be made by hand.  

There was also a fur auction.  There is a store here that sells hides and furs.  These were not going nearly as high as the prices at the store.  I don't know if these were not as good or if the store has their prices too high.  At the store a wolf hide might be $1000, depending on the color.  At the auction they were about half that, and many did not sell because the bids were too low.  A little ermine sold for $15.  A couple old timers standing next to me said, "Hmph, when we were doing this those little things would have been more like 15 cents!"

This picture is especially for my brothers.  If I remember correctly, the old gym (before January 1960) in Cheraw had a clock like this one.  This was in the main gym in one high school in Fairbanks.  They also had a much newer clock.

Last week was very busy.  Perhaps we can rest this week.

May God bless each of you.

Larry and Elva

God is love