First day of school

The first day of school is here and gone just as quickly as I would have imagined it. I also helped out with a cross country meeting and then attended an online college course for two hours. I know I am blessed to have the same students, more awareness at the start of this school year, and the strength to still support new teachers. Today was a good day.

Life up here is so busy, you forget to eat sometimes. (Hence, at 9:30 PM a scarfed untoasted bagel, cold green beans, apple sauce, etc. I didn't even have the patience to heat it up.) Now for the important key to put all these prepared plans in action again-- sleep. Good night and thank you all for your support!

Prepping the Class

You'd think that with a gimpy foot, I'd try to limit the amount of changes I'd like in the classroom before the start of the school year, but no. I tried to conquer the world on crutches. Then I realized that since I wasn't getting the help I needed and my foot wasn't supposed to throb and feel pierced with pain, I should wait until a few weeks into the school year to give my classroom an extreme makeover.

Getting a class ready with a boot-cast, makes you realize a few things.

1. Trips across the room for any small task amount to approximately 200x/day
2. Office chairs easily double as a knee scooter to run to the bathroom or the cafeteria
3. Bush Alaska has never heard of the ADA (do you know how large the cracks are in the boardwalks or how many stairs a person has to go up and down in a day?)

 I wrote this on Rachel's birthday. Happy birthday, my love!

 Marilyn and Alice came in to help me for a while one of the days in my classroom. Thank you!

 It is always gets messier before it gets cleaner.

 This year I wrote their English and then their Yupik names on their nametags.

 I'm excited for a new school year to start tomorrow and to reunite with all my students. Let the good times roll and the learning begin!

Update for my Mother/Nurse: This is somewhat gross, but it is healing nicely and the bruising is going down.

Alakanuk at last

Hugs. The best hugs around. Hugs that have been waiting since spring. Four out of fourteen students have ran into me and have squeezed their smiling face into my shirt and wrapped their dusty arms around me. Many friends and staff have welcomed me back with warm greetings. Being able to see familiar faces makes me realize that I am happy to be here.

Unfortunately, my time has quickly been consumed by learning new curriculum, putting my class back in order, and getting prepared for a new school year. My hopes of going for walks, helping new teachers out, and going hunting have been pushed aside while sweat forms as I struggle to do the simplest task in the classroom. Yesterday, I finally got some more help in my room, but by that time I had already pushed my injured foot past its limits. I owe many of the people favors in return for the help they have given me.

Some of the new teachers and I have enjoyed each others company in the evenings for dinner together. We've gotten lots of laughter crammed into these stressful days. The teacher in the next classroom was paired up with me as her mentor. I promised later I'll be able to help her clean out some of her cupboards which unfortunately get cluttered as years go on by past teachers. She is very prepared, knowledgeable, and energetic. I'm excited for our classes to do some buddy projects together. I'm thankful to be a part of a great teaching team that we have this year!


Since I can't walk with the new teachers to show them the beautiful scenery Alakanuk has to offer, I gave directions to Sarah and Sammy so they could walk to the dock. With the autumn sun and cool breeze blowing, I craved to see the colorful Yukon. Sarah was able to capture the view in a panoramic from her cellphone!

I can't wait until I can walk again. As you can probably tell from my tone, this transition back to work has been more frustrating and difficult than I originally thought. Soon, I will be able to see my students again, see the sights again, and visit people more freely.

The first day of work

During a quick trip to Anchorage to check off last minute errands before a long-haul in the bush, I got to see a few people I knew, as well as meet a few new people. Almost everything about heading to the village this time around seemed a lot easier. The stress of knowing which stores or shipping companies to rely on was eliminated, having most of my stuff up there, and knowing what to expect made my transition to Anchorage and Alakanuk an enjoyable time.

Much of the weekend was an adventure. I met and stayed with a couple new teachers going to Alakanuk. Everything including grocery shopping in a wheelchair proved to create some humorous memories.

Since my situation and surgery isn't easily fit into a quick one sentence summary, I either ended up blabbing on about the intricate surgery or just simply saying, "surgery" with a shrug and a smile. After eating my favorite breakfast at Snow City, we decided to take a cab to a movie. On the way to the theatre with my two new compadres, a cab driver asked me how I hurt my foot. Since I was tired of the honest route, I chose to say, "A taxi driver ran it over."

I have an extra navicular bone in each of my feeet. Three years ago, I injured my right foot playing sand volleyball. The doctors casted my foot for 8 weeks and I had to stay off of it completely during that time. After crutches and then four weeks of somewhat unsuccessful physical therapy, they told me I would be a great candidate for surgery or else I could live in pain. I chose pain. After a few years of slowly healing, I was excited to actually begin to run, jump, and play basketball. And then after snowmachining 60 miles to Kotlik, AK, I jumped to block a shot and landed on my foot with two familiar pops. Suspecting that I reinjured it, I planned for surgery this summer. One month ago, my surgeon cut my extra bone connected to my arch tendon, as well as a piece of my other bone and took at the connection between the bones. They are now held together with two lag screws and washers.

Sammy being towed in my wheelchair after I hopped onto this ride at Freddy's.

It was very fun to have the two new teachers, Sarah and Sammy, in Anchorage and on the same flights out to Alakanuk. Sarah pointed to a larger cargo plane in St. Mary's when we landed and asked, "Is that the size of our plane to Alakanuk?" My nose squinched as I said, "That's definitely going to be larger than our plane."One of the other teacher's daughters mentioned in St. Mary's while we waited to board our next plane, "Since we left home, the planes just keep getting smaller and smaller." Very true statement.

Once we got on a nine passenger plane, the co-pilot turned to Sarah and said, "You doing okay?" Her white hands searching for stability, she replied, "Ya, I just don't like flying." He replied grimly, "Ya, I don't like flying either." Sammy and I of course continued our relentless laughter towards poor Sarah.

Once in Alakanuk, we quickly toured the muddy roads and then arrived home. I am appreciative that people have been so nice to help me carry luggage, my backpack, and my tote. I simply wouldn't be able to do it otherwise.

It's good to be back! The house is clean and set up. My roommate's dog Briar is happy to see me. I'm glad Theresa is my roommate again. My classroom is a little overwhelming, but I know some things might just need to wait until I can get back on my feet. (The clinic said they have a wheelchair, but it can't leave the clinic so I don't know what to do.) I have been lucky to reconnect with a few friends from Alakanuk again as well as some students.

Although I now lay with a sore throat (welcome back to Alakanuk.. sickness may have escaped for the summer but it's back!) and an aching body, I am happy to be here. Here's to a fresh start of a new school year! I pray that I can reach each student, help others, and simply love. 

North to Alaska-- again!

A summer filled with family, friends, and travels comes to an end tomorrow. I look forward to starting a new school year, meeting new friends who will also call Alakanuk home, and trusting that God will lead me through this next year. This year will be a completely new experience-- by being able to build on relationships established in the village last year and by giving me opportunity to bring new experiences and goals to the classroom. The best part of going back up to work in Alakanuk, is that so many things are already in place. My classroom is mostly set up, my room is in order, and I am familiar with the surroundings and culture. I know what to expect this year. Now, I get to build on that.

Over the summer, I wanted to reflect and find ways to improve after my first year teaching. I found it necessary to think of how to improve our reading program, how to create incentives for better behavior and responsibility, how to make learning even more exciting and long-lasting for the students, how to better communicate with the parents about their child's learning, and also how to create an efficient schedule and tracking system. While these thoughts swirled in my mind all summer, my excitement for reuniting with my students increased. (More to come...)

 This picture was from a couple weeks ago, but getting prepared for AK is a little bit more of a task when it involves having a cast. I still have two and a half weeks before I can put any weight on it.

Migrating South for the Summer

At the end of May, when I returned to my hometown area of Winlock, Washington, I thought the adjustment would be easier than at Christmas, but I still had quite a shock.

People typically say that going back to your homeplace at Christmas after working in the bush is shocking. In 5 months you become accustomed to a completely new way of life and climate. I remember landing in Seattle in December, then sitting in a car on a freeway with so many green trees!

Supermarkets explode with colorful fruit displays, ceilings of stores are tall and spacious, and there are so many different races of people living such different types of lives within one general location. So acclimating to my old way of life took a few days, but before long I was at the end of my Christmas vacation zipping around in a car, grabbing my hot eggnog latte and laughing with friends like old times. So next time coming back to Washington can't possibly be quite as shocking... right?

Wrong. It was about the same shocking experience all over again. In the late winter and spring months, I started using my new snowmachine to get to the stores and other villages. My tongue picked up more of the "village English" which consists of more of a Yupik way of telling stories, a different way of structuring sentences, short phrases used frequently, a certain intonation of the voice while talking, and a more select separate bank of vocabulary. Suddenly I found it strange that I felt awkward in a place that I call my true home-- my own comfort zone.

Some mannerisms from living in Alakanuk got engrained into my everyday routine. They stuck with me for a couple days which sometimes caused a little confusion or a laugh.

For example, my dad asked me a simple question like, "Are you hungry? Do you want to get something to eat on our way home?" and I answered yes. A few seconds later I furrowed my brow at him wondering why he was still staring at me directly in my eyes. He repeated, somewhat exasperated, "Do you want to get something to eat?" I said, "I answered! Oh wait, I'm so sorry. I must have raised my eyebrows and not said anything. Yes, I'd love to stop somewhere to eat!" After living with Yupiks for so long who often forgo a verbal "yes" for an eyebrow raise, I had gotten used to also becoming quiet and opting for an eyebrow lift when answering questions.

After sleeping off some exhaustion from traveling, I woke up to go visit my aunt who was having chemo in Portland. As I was leaving, I thought to myself, "What's the weather like?" so I could properly choose my face protection. Then I remembered I was driving a car, so most likely goggles and a wind-proof balaclava wouldn't be quite so appropriate. I grabbed my drivers license (people need those???) and headed out. As I was getting on the freeway, I had an instant panicking thought to check the gas gauge because Portland was at least 60 miles away and I didn't know how many miles had been driven on this tank, etc. Then I had to remind myself again, "Okay. Not my snowmachine. Cars have larger tanks AND there are gas stations along the way. And if I need food or water there are plenty of places available."

After being in Washington and traveling around, I am grateful to have the experience of living and teaching in the bush of Alaska. There are many advantages that make me sincerely love the people I live with and the area they have introduced me to. Often this summer, I have looked at my pictures of the wide Yukon, the sparkling snow, and at the people with rich hearts I have gotten to know. It is a distinct culture with practiced ancient traditions, loving people, and unfortunately also much anguish. Although I'm not sure of the exact purpose for God leading me to the Arctic Tundra, I know I'm blessed from it. I look forward to going back.

Cultural Week

Towards the end of the school year, our school turned into workshop central with cultural activities in each room. Through the chaos of scheduling fiascoes, the students ended up gaining a taste of some knowledge passed down from Yupik elders. Although there wasn't always an elder present in the workshop, students, classroom aides, volunteers, elders, and people hired from the community combined their skills to have students work on projects such as spears, spear throwers, dance fans, dance belts, fish traps, and manaqs (fishing poles).

I learned the length of a spear should be from the elbow of one arm to the tip of your finger on the other arm.

After it is cut to the proper length, a plane is used to carve the square wood into a cylinder. "Plane and turn, plane and turn, plane and turn." Every one of us was silent, sweating, and concentrating for a few hours steady.

After it is nicely rounded, you can use the wood shavings as sand paper to make it smoother. Then a cut metal pipe is pounded over the front end of the spear as a weight. Lastly, a hemisphere is carved out of the back end and feathers are tied to allow the spear to guide through the air. I used swan feathers dipped in ink that I had found in my classroom. Bummer cut them to be shorter and fancier for my custom spear.One of our other tasks was to create dance fans. Male dance fans are larger and look similar to bear paws while they dance. Female dance fans only have two finger holes and are smaller. When we arrived at the workshop, there were only patterns for male dance fans. I came up with a pattern using a compass for the girls to make dance fans that would comfortably fit their fingers.



They play a game called Lapp Game which is very similar to baseball. It is typically played on the ice with a softball-sized leather/rubbery ball. I had never seen the game, so my class taught the kindergarten class and me how to play. The students decided to split up girls against boys-- one team in the outfield and one team lined up to bat. After they hit the ball, their goal was to make it down to the other side through the outfielders and back without getting hit with the ball. Technically you could imagine it like baseball with a home base and one other base. I liked how many runners can run at the same time and how there is only one out before the sides switch so it tends to be a little more exciting and engaging than baseball.

At the end of the cultural days, a few drummers played for the students and an eskimo dance was held in the gym. It was a fun end to an exhausting, yet enlightening set of days!