Now for the story time… I’m pretty sure Kong teachers could host their own sitcom sometimes. The night of the earthquake I decided to sleep on the couch and watch a movie. At 3:30 AM I awoke to POUNDING on our door and the dogs were ferociously barking… I’ve never heard them so upset before. I tried to just sleep through it thinking that if I didn’t acknowledge the knocking, it would go away. The pounding continued so Rachel ran out of her room and asked who it was. There were two guys outside the door screaming (in a panic that I have never heard before) that there was an earthquake in Japan and a tsunami would hit the coast in 2 hours. If it hadn’t been for the conversation a week earlier, I would not have believed this… but I had knew there was actually a REAL possibility a tsunami could hurt us! We didn’t let the guys in just incase alcohol was involved and this was all fake… but we did point them in the direction of our principal’s house. I started to get nervous and we had no way of verifying the earthquake. We have no television and no internet at the house because the new school blocks the signal to the satellite at the store for cable/internet. BLAH! I tried calling Bernie (her husband is the VPSO) and failed so then I tried calling Sheila… again no answer. Rachel got ahold of her mom in Maine and found out that there really was an earthquake. There were threats of tsunamis in Alaska but we didn’t know how severe in our region. As she was talking to her mom (about 5 minutes after the guys woke us up) there was more pounding on the door. The guys had gone to all the other teacher housing to warn and Dustin came over after. I laugh so much every time I think back to when Dustin pounded on the door and we answered… There was Dustin with a back pack on his back, one on his front, a goofy hat on his head (sorry Dustin… that hat always makes me smile though), a pile of clothes in his arms and jugs in his hands for water. Now I honestly don’t know HOW he did this so fast since we were the first teachers warned… but I guess in a crisis he is the go to guy! If I remember correctly, his words were, “We need to get to higher ground or we’re SCREWED!” He told us to pack our warmest clothes and blankets incase the electricity went out. Rachel’s response was, “Well do I have time for a coffee and a smoke?” He said yes but to get up there after! I frantically began packing clothes, blankets, computers, books, cards etc to bring with me to school. Rachel made coffee and poured it into 2 mugs but I was too anxious to drink it at home- I NEEDED to get to school. We then poured it into travel mugs, she packed and we headed up to school. We left the dogs because we wanted to talk to our principal about bringing them up once we got to school. Dustin told us to just let them loose on the tundra because they would have the best chance of survival that way… they would go where they needed to go in order to survive. HA! It’s sorta funny to look back at how we all react in an emergency! In the mean time panic set in at Patrick, Michele and Eddies house as well. Eddie wanted to go back to sleep after the warning but Patrick would have none of that! From what I understand, his words were “You have to take this SERIOUS! This isn’t an ****ing joke! You have to get up and we need to get to higher ground or we will ****ing die!!” Patrick proceeded to move his tv to the counter in the kitchen trying to protect it and brought his playstation to school with him. When Rachel, Garnet and I got to school- we all met up in Michele’s room to look at the news online and just release the energy/stress/anxiety we were feeling! We were repeating what the guys said as they were pounding and about alerting our principal when all of a sudden over the intercom our principal said (since he could hear us all talking in Michele’s room on the other side of the wall), “As if your freaking principal could save you?”
I was TRULY surprised when I got to school that there weren’t tons of people from the village evacuating there. In fact, there was NO ONE else from the village at school. ONLY the kussaq teachers!!!
We went to the office, made coffee and sat around waiting, waiting and waiting. I remember Dustin kept repeating that we were all going to be hamburger. We wouldn’t drown, we would be ground beef. Since the sea was all ice- the tsunami would throw ice chunks at us and turn us to hamburger. “We’re screwed… we’re hamburger” was what he would repeat. He also taught me the importance of a ditch kit. He was ready so fast because he always has a ditch kit handy for emergencies incase he ever has to ditch!
After more research we learned that the tsunami wouldn’t hit until around 8:00AM and it was about 3:30AM by the time we got to school. We had a few hours to spare to say the least but were all too worked up to go back to sleep. Some of the group went home to wait but Michele and I stayed to watch a movie on the smartboard in my classroom. We didn’t want to risk it by going home. As time passed we started to feel a little ridiculous… STILL no one from the village had evacuated yet. Patrick called and told us to come on over for breakfast. He cooked bacon and pancakes –a delicious ‘last’ breakfast! We ate and were back at school by 8:00 since it was a school day and that’s when we have to be there any way. 8:00 came and went and there was no tsunami in Kong.
I will say… the people in the village got a REALLY good laugh about the kussaqs who evacuated to school during the tsunami crisis. The people who alarmed us did not mean for it to turn into a joke—they were genuinely concerned. One of them was a student and the other was his cousin. When they heard the news they panicked and thought it would be a good idea to let the teachers know. I am grateful they were looking out for us… even if we did become the butt of the jokes. Whenever I told the story that day- I brought a smile to a lot of faces. If this happened again, I would react the same way… no regrets. However, I am glad that we didn’t all bring our dogs to school… that REALLY would have gotten us made fun of! The teachers and 6 dogs evacuating for the tsunami…! I hope reading about this story is as good as hearing it in person- if not… ask me sometime!
Although our situation turned out ok and even quite hilarious in some aspects… it’s hard to think about those who weren’t so lucky. I’m sure I will remember this ‘eventful’ day for years to come!
CAMAI!
A few weekends ago I went into Bethel for the Camai festival! Michele, Edwin, Patrick, Garnet, Dustin and I all flew out on Friday afterschool and stayed at Chris’ house. It was so nice to be able to hang out with everyone OUTSIDE of Kong for once. The social aspect of Kong can be so limiting and we just do the same thing nearly every night this year… watch a movie. Chris grilled steaks and we all had a great night. 
Saturday we went to Camai and watched Kong’s Yuraq (Eskimo dance) group perform for the first ever time at Camai!!!Now for a little background… this is a really big deal because last year was the first time the village was even allowed to have a Yuraq group. From what I understand, there was Eskimo dancing before missionaries came to the region. When the missionaries came… the dancing was banned in most villages. The village has tried to start a group in the past but there were certain elders who would not allow it. Last year when Sheila asked the traditional council for permission it was finally allowed. There are still some people in the village against the dancing, but most of the people are really excited.
Anywho, we went to support our friends, students and community members who came to dance. They made up a few of their songs and did SO AWESOME! I was really worried that with such a large crowd our students would shut down and get really nervous, quiet and un-expressive in their dancing. Luckily they proved me wrong and were TERRIFIC! They pounded the drums, sang their hearts out and moved with the music. They danced for a half hour straight until their time was up and then the crowd cheered for more. Half the group had already left the stage when the crowd cheered for more, but they all returned and continued the songs. Kong received a lot of recognition for this being their first time at Camai and for doing so well. One of our students was even on the front cover of the newspaper.
After the dancing we went to the lobby where people from around the region gather to sell handcrafted items. They always have such beautiful and unique items there. Let’s just say I spent way too much money but I got some beautiful artwork in return.All of the first year teachers were invited in to Camai for a 1st year teacher inservice. After Camai a big group of us met up at a house that a lot of the Bethel teachers live in together. It was fun to see/socialize with people from around the district… never really happens in person out here so we definitely enjoyed ourselves!
These were some pretty pictures Michele took outside of Chris' house the next morning...
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