My Yup'ik Namesake

I was named by Clem Joseph after his mother Itegmikalria. I was given her name in August of 2010 when I first moved to the village. In the Yupik way, he is now my son and I am an "elder's elder" so some people in the village call me Auntie or Grandma. Clem told me it means a precious gift from God. I'm pretty sure Jana also means that same thing. He has also told the students that I was called to the village for a reason to teach and also learn from others. I believe that, too. I'm proud to carry her name.

Freezing Our Eyes Off

I apologize for not updating my blog for a month now! There has been an issue with uploading pictures still. I have continued taking pictures, and will make one large catching up post as soon as I get it figured out. Until then, please enjoy my friend, Holly's documenting skills on our trip to Emmonak to go get groceries at a large new AC store. 

When I go into this store, I feel like I have walked back into a different world. However, while I push my shopping cart around, I glance down at my fur hat, goggles, face mask, goggles, and Skidoo keys and remember I'm still out in the bush. Also, the fact that prices are twice as high, and they don't even have the option for bags (only boxes) give away that despite the large fancy grocery store, we still are quite far away from any city.

Holly's recent blog post- "Frozen Eyeballs"

Frozen Eyeballs is an appropriate name because there was so much precipitation in the air, our goggles fogged up quickly and we ended up driving the majority of the 9 miles with our goggles off. I'm still breaking in my new machine and I like to travel at varying speeds so I took the back behind Sammy and Nathaniel and Holly. Right before we got back to Alakanuk, I crossed behind Sammy as she hit a pile of powder and as it hit my face my left eyelashes got stuck together. A frozen, mittened hand is not the best device to try pull my cheek down and I probably had a shut eye for about 30 seconds before I finally got it unstuck.