Fire, 15 Years and a New Snow Go

Two weeks ago we had a fire in the village. The home burned completely. We stood on the deck at school and watched it burn. That's what you do when you live in the village. Finally, someone called a neighboring village and they brought a submersible pump, cut a whole in the ice through the pond behind the house and pumped some water on to the fire. The family of 5 lost everything. That house will cost about $250,000 to rebuild. That's what my house cost 5 years ago and it was put together by the shop class so there wasn't so much paid out for labor. Everything will have to be shipped in by barge next summer when the river thaws.

Yesterday was our fifteenth anniversary. We sure have done a lot and gone a lot in our 15 years! Poteau, Louisville, Poplar Grove, Henderson, Holdenville (3 houses there) and now Kasigluk. I never would have imagined..... The Mr. gave me a necklace and bracelet made here in Alaska from jade and walrus ivory. They are beautiful.

The snow go (can't decide how that should be spelled!) arrived last Friday night about midnight. The Mr. had to go to Bethel and drive it out here. We bought it in August from a Physician's Assistant there in Bethel --- check out her blog for more info about where we live. She has a GREAT blog: TundraMedicianDreams.blogspot.com

Anyway, the Mr. couldn't bring it out here until the rivers froze. Well.... they are plenty frozen now. Last night's temp was -17 and so was the windchill. It's much colder this November than it was last year.

The natives call a snowmobile a snow go. Ours is a Polaris and it's dark red. It a touring model with an extra long seat. It rides great. Saturday when the Mr. took me out I was hanging on for dear life but now I just ride. We are going to Bethel tomorrow for groceries. 28 miles and we figure it will take us at least 2 hours to get there and 2 to get back. I hope it warms up some...

Native Dress - Kuspuq

This is Teacher Vivivan and Teacher Georgia. I caught them visiting in the gym during Eskimo Dance one Friday. Every week the kids get to practice dancing and everyone is encouraged to wear their kuspuq. They are like hoodies but are made of cotton and have the sleeves, big pocket and the hem are decorated with matching rickrack. Sometimes they are waistlength and sometimes they have a ruffle and are longer, almost like a dress. The design of the shirt and the way the rickrack is put on will let onlookers know where you come from. Different regions use different patterns. I have 2 and I love to wear mine. I hope to bring back material back after Christmas for another.

Georgia is from Oklahoma... in fact, she's the one who got us hooked up with this school district in Alaska. Did you know that Lower Kuskokwim School District is as large as the state of West Virginia? We have about 20 villages in our district and Bethel is our hub. Bethel has about 5000 people..... with about 2.5 grocery stores..... our village has about 600 people and we have a small store. Walmart is 428 miles away.

Robotics, Basketball & Sirens

This is what our family spends time doing nowadays. The Mr. is the coach for our robotics team at school. It is open to fourth through eighth graders so the Boy is on the team but the Girl opted not to join. The kids spent the first part of October playing with the Legos and getting the board ready. They also played around with the robot and the computer. They will have to learn how to program the computer and connect the robot to it. The team has to plan out how they will have the robot accomplish its tasks on the playing board. PLUS, they have to research and make a presentation on the year's theme. This year's theme is "climate." They're supposed to do a project on how climate presents a problem in our community and what would be a possible solution. Needless to say, enthusiasm was much higher before the research started! The meet is set for Bethel on Dec. 5 - 6.

Basketball practice begins on Monday after Thanksgiving. The Mr. is going to coach and I'll be team mom. My job will be to tutor kids who want to play ball but are ineligible. They will be able to work-out (exercise) with the team but when practice with the ball starts each day --- they will go to tutoring. This will be new to them and I'm sure some of them will be very unhappy this year. Eligibility is dependent on attendance and grades. Don't come to school = you don't play ball, or go to movie-night, or whatever.

Which somehow makes me think..... Have I told you about the siren? Every night the VPO (village police officers) runs their siren to signal curfew. Weeknights right now close down at 9:00. Weekends are 10:00. In the summer it will be 11:00. Kids wander the village until these times and sometimes even later. During Slavik (Russian Orthodox religious celebration) kids and adults will be out all night, even though the siren will go off. Anyway, we love the siren at our house. The playground is right outside our front door and kitchen window. Some nights it's a real relief when everyone goes home.

Out on the Tundra

I took these pictures back in September. We borrowed the school four-wheeler and trailer and went out to Fox Lake. We picked berries and went sight-seeing. The rest of the family had been out there last year but it was my first time. It was very interesting walking on the tundra. The ground was VERY spongy - sort of like the moonwalk at the fair. You really can bounce. And the colors were gorgeous. These pictures don't show it but when you're out there and looking down at the ground, it's amazing how many different plants there are and each one is a different color. So... our fall here is much different than Oklahoma. No trees but still a lot of color if you know how to find it.

We got the snow-go on Friday night. Joe hitched a ride into Bethel with a couple of teachers from a nearby village. We are 28 miles northwest of Bethel. The trip on a snow-go is almost 2 hours. He said the trip there was pretty rough and it wasn't much better on the way back. Closer into Bethel they ran into overflow --- where the tidewater pushes up through the ice. And, he said they actually saw open holes in the ice on the river at one place. Auggghhh! Anyway, we had to work at school on Saturday but when we finished ----- we were out and playing on the snow-go! It's great. Now we are so bound into the village. At least we can visit other villages and go to their stores. Yay! It costs about $240 to charter a flight into Bethel. Now we can for a lot less.

Family

Grandma and PaPa came to visit us last month. They flew to the village and stayed with the grandkids while we were in Anchorage for J's hand surgery. Grandma got to substitute for me that week. I was so glad she was here and able and willing to help out. My students really enjoyed having them here. We talk about D and C a lot now in class.

The bottom picture is from the summer. Those are the grandkids. Two in Oklahoma, one in Missouri and two in Alaska. That will keep the grandparents busy in retirement---- just traveling!

He's My Helper

The boy is my really good helper. Many times he will dry while I wash the dishes. Here he is helping out all by himself. Last night he was all lovie-dovie with me on the couch. He's a special boy.

Akutaq

This picture is from earlier this fall during berry picking season. These are basically blueberries from the tundra. The kids picked them one day and we made Eskimo Ice Cream (Akutaq) the next. You mix crisco, sugar and berries and in this instance fruit cocktail to make it go farther. Sometimes they will add white fish to it. You mix by hand --- no spoon --- whipping it until it is creamy. Then you add the berries. Everyone enjoyed it.