At the dock, Josh and Clark play around with one of the million sheets of ice. The edge of the Yukon is full of built of ice as the middle of the river forges on. Loud cracks and tinkles sound through the air as the Yukon persuades the ice to move. As the purple sky said goodbye to the warm summer air, we decided to take advantage and have a box-burning bonfire.
At Alakanuk, I am the sponsor for Natural Helpers. A group of students, grades 8-12, who are meant to be leaders and helpers for other students and community members. Our main focus is suicide prevention, counseling for victims of bullying, and many other topics pertaining to mental and physical safety. It has been a definite struggle to show them what leadership skills even are, but I hope that I can guide them to develop their skills, foster better friendships, and have a positive impact on many hurting people in the community.
We rode in a van with all of the windows intact and a heater-- a couple miles to St. Mary's. We actually got it up to 60! Our roads in Alakanuk have potholes the size of bath tubs. What's this? A hill? Hills in the background? A ROAD SIGN? I forgot what those looked like.
We were pretty excited about the white ground at St. Mary's! Alakanuk was brown for quite some time before gaining that clean layer of white.
We walked to the local store for some goodies. And they have a dairy aisle. Sour Cream and a whole GALLON of REAL milk!
The Natural Helpers retreat opened my eyes to the raw hurt that spreads to everyone in the villages. Suicide has been an epidemic which plagues villages. Hooper Bay has had about nine suicides this year. After almost an entire weekend of ice-breaker activities and sessions, all of us (about 85 people) sat in a circle around a candle on the gym floor. Students, sponsors, and chaperones shared stories of how they were affected by either someone who had committed suicide or how they had seriously thought about attempting it themselves. As the hour hand passed three hours, tears fell down my still face. (These quotes are not exact, but it will give you more of an idea of what I heard.)
The "deck" is where students spend most of their recess time. It's beginning to look a lot different as the temperature drops and the snow has started falling.
This is the school's parking lot and the boardwalk that leads to teacher housing.
This is our Yupik Wall as the students learn their colors and days of the week. My personal style of how I like my classroom is a little different than others'. My walls are usually more bare than I've noticed other teachers like their walls. However, I just would rather let the students know why something is going up on our wall and have it be a ceremonial placement. This way students know where to refer to the display and are able to utilize it.
Little smiling faces usually create the day's little graces!
At our store, our fake food is as delicious as we pretend it to be. This happened to be during Spirit Week on Quspaq Day. I borrowed the traditional shirt from an aide in my classroom. Many of the Yupik classified staff commented, "Oo! I like your Quspaq! Who made it for you?" I felt honored and pleased. Yet, I would just tell them it wasn't mine and I was just borrowing it from Helen. They would say, "Oh, wow. It looks so nice on you!"
The studious pupils work on an assignment, and so does Agnes! She only had school to about an 8th grade level and likes to continue her education in our classroom along with the other students.
This is the local annex store which carries overflow food from the Native Store across town. They sometimes sell things like cake mixes or brownie mixes for half price. At any store up here it is important to check how far out of date things are and inspect damaged boxes carefully to decide if it's worth it because all sales are final. (This reminds me of my canadian bacon I've been eating. It has an expiration date of April 2010. My friends recently commented about me actually eating it.)
This is the Catholic church which sits right next to the local annex store and the Tribal Council building.
Below is the Tribal Council building--used for Eskimo Dances, Voting, and Bingo.
In Alakanuk, some of the staff waits for the community to unlock the T.C. for a potluck. The community never showed, because there was some lack of communication in the whole process. After standing in the rain, we ended up going back to the school and eating in the gym as a staff. We did load up and go back to the T.C. for a quick meeting with a poor turnout and I went home to go to sleep by 7:40pm.
Below, Clark and Rebecca pose next to the vast Yukon at sunset. A walk with friends on a night like this is always a relaxing way to spend the evening. Theresa and Haley were there, too, just not pictured!
God is an incredible artist! No matter where we are on this earth, we are surrounded by his beauty.
We stopped by the AUK airport on the way back home.
On a nice sunny day, I was asked to go for a “boat ride.” With excitement, I went home after a day of teaching and quickly threw on my coat, borrowed Theresa’s boots, and grabbed a couple granola bars and some money. I was going with our school secretary’s family—her son is in my class. Although I hadn’t asked where we were going, I figured we might be traveling up the river to Emmonak, a village about 9 miles away (which has a better store with groceries and a restaurant).
As I walked to their house and followed them to the boat, I still had no idea what to expect. The day was beautiful, laughter and giddiness was in the air, and we waited anxiously as the boat maneuvered through the water to get ready to head out to the mouth of the Yukon. As we waited to get the boat filled up on gas, their daughter Dylani and I played with some stray rocks that were on the plywood floor of their motorboat.
Before I knew it we were headed toward the Bering Sea and Jadon was grabbing his spear. I finally realized the plan was to go hunt for Mukluk! I was impressed to see the skill of my 4th grader as he held a spear to catch a Mukluk. After the seal popped his head above the surface of the water a few times and Jadon had no luck, some people announced Mukluk in a different area on the VHF (which reminds me of a CB radio, but runs off of different wavelengths.)
While the boat closed in on a group of other boats, I started to learn how the Yupik culture views seal hunting. It is not a competitive sport, but they work together as a team to surround and catch the Mukluk. The females and kids also have their own spears and try their hand at catching Mukluk. If one person spots Mukluk, they all start their motors and speed towards it. The closest person throws their spears. Everyone waits patiently and is good humored while the exciting hunt continues.
We hunted until a few people speared the Mukluk we had been chasing for hours. They putted in close so I could see them pulling the bleeding seal up on the boat. I forget the order of how they share the seal, but they split up who gets the skin, the meat, etc. After saying goodbye and gliding off into the sunset amidst the glassy Bering Sea, we zipped around enjoying the last bit of sunshine for the day and looking for more Mukluk.
On our way into the Alakanuk Slough, we spotted a Mukluk and a Nayiq. My students chose group names at the start of the year and the groups were the Mukluks, the Nayiqs, and the dolphins. The day I went seal hunting, I was able to connect the Yupik name to the actual seal. Mukluks have wider necks and are larger seals. Nayiqs are smaller with thinner necks and more pointed noses. It’s strange to not really know the English names for the seals. The Mukluks are called bearded seals, but I forget the other English names for seals. And I can’t spell the third common type of seal around here.
One memorable moment was Dylani throwing her spear at a seal in the slough. Her spear went the distance, but was a little ways to the left of where the seal had popped up. Her family laughed about it a little bit and we retrieved the spear. After about 6 hours of being around this smiley giggly 8-year old, I was surprised to see her mood change so drastically. The line of her mouth was as flat as her once-sparkling eyes. I quietly said to her, “Hey, that wasn’t too bad.” Her little mouth spurted, “Yes it was!” I let her know that she did a really good job. And if we never made mistakes, how could we learn to get better? Her reply made me think. “Ya, but I’ve been throwing a spear since I was 3!” I couldn't imagine how Dylani felt and it revealed a new perspective of growing up as a girl in Alakanuk. At 8 years old, I didn't even know seal hunting existed!
My day out on the water with the Ayunerak family was the most exciting day since I moved. It was a great feeling to be out with the community rather than cooped up in teacher housing. I was honored to be invited on such a fun hunting trip!
