Basketball

Akula Schools is hosting the basketball games for our neck of the tundra this weekend. Three villages came in yesterday and played ball until 10:30 last night. Then we all played again this morning. Now we're all tired and want to go home -- more on that down below.

Akula won both games yesterday and even went into overtime. It was exciting and I didn't get any technicals! Then this morning we got romped..... so sad.

Now, everyone has had lunch, the bags are packed,the rooms are cleaned and no airplanes are flying. Sooo.... two of the teams are stuck in Akula. Which also means that our high school team is stuck somewhere. One team used snowgoes to get here so they are gone and of course, my team just walked home. Now we're trying to figure out what to serve for supper. And find someone to cook it.

District rules require travelers to bring bedding and clothing even if you don't plan to spend the night. And that's the same if you fly or snowgo. You must go prepared to stay overnight because the weather can change so quickly. During winter everyone must wear heavy insulated boot and snowpants. You cannot fly without them. You must be prepared for a crash. If you snowgo you are supposed to carry weapons. If it is below -35F you cannot travel.

So.... we wait.

It is 36F and raining now. We need snow and cold! Who would have believed I'd be begging for that!!

The Christmas Saga

School was out on December 21. That was Friday and by Sunday morning all the staff were out of the village. Except the Ward Family. We opted to stay in Akula over the holidays. Since we were getting three weeks, we decided to take the middle week and fly to Anchorage. We're back in Akula and this is our story.

The first weekend we all just slept. Something about being tired from school! Then Christmas Eve we borrowed the school's snow-go and went over to Akiuk -- that's the other half of Kasigluk (across the river and about 1 1/2 miles down the Johnson River.) The Mister and I rode on the snow-go and the two kids got the sled behind. We went down through "town" and out on to the river. Trucks passed us by. Kids on snow-goes passed us by. It was like a super highway -- right on the river! We were having a ball! We got to the Moravian Church and watched the Christmas program. Then they did the gift exchange. We came home and had dinner about 9:00 that night. It was -12 for that trip.

On the 27th it snowed and the wind did blow. No planes were out at all. On the 28th Yute Air picked us up and off to Anchorage we went. Ooops.... not yet.... We missed the morning flight on Alaska Air so we sat at the airport for half a day. Yay! Finally arrived in Anchorage.

We were renting a car but when the Mister checked in they offered him a Ford 150 --- guess what he picked! By lifting one leg and hopping as close as possible to the truck and having the Mister grab my hand from the other side --- I, too, could ride up high with the rest of the family!

Fifteen minutes later we're on our way downtown. Oh, a car is stopped. Oh, look there are 2 cross-country skiers crossing the street. Oh, what was that? Yep. We'd been rear-ended. Not a mark on the truck but the poor guy's car is a mess. And guess what? When you rent, you HAVE to have a police report. Two hours later we were checking into the hotel. Later that night we actually had to change rooms because the tv didn't work.

Saturday we shopped and drove south to Whittier. We went to Portage Glacier --- which wasn't there. And then, we drove through a tunnel (2 1/2 miles!) to see Whittier. This is a port that a lot of cruise ships sail into and then they bus passengers into Achorage. The tunnel was extremely interesting and the mountains were ----- spectacular.

On Sunday we drove to about 80 south of Denali -- the BIG mountain. We got a late start and darkness caught us too soon. We did get to see our first and second moose.

We spent our week mainly shopping and learning our way around Anchorage. On Thursday we drove down to Seward. It was a beautiful drive and we went to the Marine Aquarium / Research Center. Had it almost to ourselves.

We got back to Kasigluk on Saturday night. No running water. No sewer drainage. It's been as low as -19 since then and today the windchill is -30. The school maintenance man has been working to get heat to the pipes. We have water and sewer at the school but it sure is a pain to get dressed for the arctic just to go pee. Oh, and last night the sewer backed up and it's all over bathroom. And the phone hasn't worked since Thanksgiving.

Well, Happy New Year to all. We really do like it here. We are happy and safe and usually warm. We are making friends slowly but surely. We are on our way to surviving our first Eskimo winter! Come see us!

Where did October go?

At the end of this week we will have completed 1/3 of the school year. We are into the third week of the second quarter. How can we be looking at Thanksgiving!?!

We are all doing well. We've adjusted to the schedule and we're figuring out the phase grading system.

We had a Native Youth Olympics meet (NYO) here in Akula last weekend. About 150 kids came and competed. There are almost 10 different skills and they are ALL very impressive.

I spent Friday night watching the two-toed kick. The competitor may walk or run a few steps but then must kick with both feet together a ball that is hanging at a specified height. Then they must land feet together. The winner kicked 90 - something inches. That's way over their heads!

Well, Joe's here to walk me over to the grocery store. They have been out of eggs and now we're almost out. I hope some came in today.

We really are here

I know..... some of you out there are thinking , "uhmmmmm hummmm.... I knew she wouldn't write." Well, let me tell you ..... it's been a little crazy in the Ward household for the last month. Things we never dreamed about have happened and the big things we had planned on.... fell through. BUT, we are in Alaska and we think most of our stuff is here, too.

I am teaching K, 1, 2, and 3 grades. My youngest is 5 and my oldest is 12 1/2. We start school with breakfast at 8 and class at 8:30. Joe teaches 3,4, and 5 grades. Kindergarten gets out at 2, 1-2 out at 2:30 and my third graders leave my classroom at 3:00. When all my kids leave me they go to computers for 30 minutes. Joe's kids have Mountain Math from 3-4 and then computers until 4:30.

All of our kids are considered to be ELL. First language is Yup'ik. Yup'ik is NOTHING like English. Hannah has already received her Yup'ik name from her teacher. It was her mother's name. It starts with a Q and that's as far as I get. I still cannot say it even though my high school choir kids have tried to teach me. They have a good laugh when I try. Oh, I tried some handbell jokes on them ----- fell flat. It was sooo sad that even though they can speak English and read English but inuendo just doesn't make it. Makes me wonder how much they enjoy television. It's all in English.

I have choir for high school from 3-4. We have some handbells but hope to receive more this next week. They just pass materials around from school to school depending on whether they have a teacher that can use them. If anyone is reading this and has handbell music (easy) or easy piano music (esp. Christmas) arrangements and wouldn't mind sending them. We would really be grateful.

The days have gotten shorter here. We can tell. It is dark when we come to school at 7:30. It is dark before 11:00 at night, too. Neither of those statements were true 3 weeks ago.

We ordered meat last week from Bethel. We had bought food before we came up (see previous post) from SpanSalesAlaska. Then we bought food at Sam's and Wal-Mart and brought it with us on the airplane in coolers from Anchorage. Last week we ran out of meat so we called Bethel (our hub) After 3 calls we had ordered chicken, hamburger, roast, potatoes and apple. Oh, and bacon. YUM! Anyway, we now have $12 chickens + shipping in our freezers. Shipping for 28 miles was $40. Total cost $270.30. Ouch. And they had no lettuce. Haven't had a salad in a month. Don't know why we bought Ranch Dressing.

Okay, enough for now. Please write. We miss everyone. We talk about you ALL all the time.

Seven pages will cost $1705.24

Grocery shopping. I despise going to the store. The mister does our shopping. He follows the list very well, thank you. However, the Alaska shopping list fell to me. How does one plan for four people to eat for three to four months at a time? Well, we're working on that one.

We have struggled for months with making out menus, planning every morsel and then we also thought about just buying by going down the aisles. I've looked at a couple of online grocery places and compared and such. We finally decided on Spansalesalaska.com. I even made "purchases" just to see how much it was going to cost. I would put things in the cart but then skip out. It gave me a sense of what to expect. Today we made it all the way to the checkout. I cannot begin to say how many hours I've put into this project. For me personally, it was a huge event. And apparently my stomach knew it. For the last week or so I have just plain hurt. I finally pushed the button today and now I don't hurt. Stress.

So how much do groceries cost in Alaska? Today I got seven pages for $1705.24. That does not include meat or dairy. Here's a little taste of what we got:

C&H sugar #25 $29.89
Dr. Pepper 24/12 oz cans $19.99
Chef Boyardee Pizza Mix 12/16.6 oz $42.31
Flavorite Mushroom pieces 24/4 oz $26.31
Tide Mt. Spring 4/87 oz $55.93
Cottonelle Bath Tissue 8/12 roll $58.30
Prego Sauce 12/28 oz $49.78
Pinto Beans 12/1 lb $20.31
Carnation Milk (dry) 12/25.6oz $105.70

Basically, we've discovered that if you'll pay for it, you can get it. Most of our groceries will be bought by the caseload. We will still have to hit WalMart for items we would only need 1 or 2 of -- such as jelly --- I can't imagine buying a case of jam! We can buy and check out at the Bush Counter and they will package it up and mail it for us from WalMart.

So... this is taken care of. It's a relief. We can relax and enjoy our day or 2 in Anchorage. Maybe next year we'll try the guerilla shopping experience with all the other incoming teachers to Alaska.

MmmHmmm.... Yep, that'll 'bout do it

Oh, my.... Our house is nearly empty. The Boy's room is full of tubs. Each of us has 3 tubs. One to ship now, two to take as luggage. The Girl's room is empty, painted and cleaned. She has an air mattress and that's it. Closets are cleaned out. Cabinets are getting there.
Then the whole south end of the living room has boxes and tubs for storage. It will all be gone by July 5. That's when we're moving to Wilburton.

Wait.... there are about twenty tubs in the middle of the living room. All addressed to us. In Kasigluk! I really didn't think we would have so much STUFF. How can we need this much stuff? It's amazing how you can stuff garbage bags and suck the air out them. You can really pack a lot in when you do that. But the game tub is full. Even when we took every item out of the boxes and put all the pieces into a zip-lock baggie. The Mister says we'll have to spend one whole evening just figuring out what goes with what game.

Actually, those twenty tubs are going to the post office tomorrow. At $45 - $50 a tub, it will run us about $1000 to ship our "can't live without this goodie" tubs to Akula. I'll let you know how we do. We will ship media rate. Someone at church today said they knew someone who sent their belongings "priority mail." WOW. That would be terribly expensive!

I have butterflies in my stomach. And my legs. And my arms. My head is a little on the light side. We're on the countdown. 41 days until we fly out from DFW airport.

It disappeared before my very eyes!

A lot is happening in our lives right now and yet it seems likes it is moving in slow motion. We had the big sale. Just about everything is gone. In just 24 short hours we sold nearly everything we had. The stuff that is left will be put in storage or the trash. It's amazing what your house can hold! It's also amazing what those gray tubs from Wal-Mart ($4), and seemed so humongous two months ago, can NOT hold today. We've filled up about 8 of them and no clothes have been packed as of yet.

So what are we taking? Well, bed sheets and comforters. Also, kitchen pots and pans and utensils. One tub is full of games. We took all the pieces and put them into zip lock baggies. We took all the boards and stacked them together. The Mister says that we'll have one big game just trying to figure out what goes with what! We have to take bathroom stuff - towells, wash cloths. And then there are some things like our living room clock we want to take just to make it seem more like home for us. All the furniture and large appliances are provided.

Some things we will wait on until we get to Anchorage. Like a set of dishes. It's cheaper to ship from Wal-Mart there than it is here. Each 50# tub will cost around $45 dollars from Oklahoma. In Anchorage, it will be more like $12.

For anyone who is REALLY interested in reading about where we're going and such, I found a blog written by a PA who is living in Bethel -- our district hub. The writing is terrific and it provides a great insight of the culture in which we will soon find ourselves. It is www.tundramedicinedreams.blogspot.com . Go back and read the archives. They are full of information.