Busy busy busy

People must be leaving big animal bones around our house as gifts for the dogs or something. Every time the dogs go out they manage to find a new bone (femur, shoulder blade, etc). Moose doesn't complain.

We took the dogs out to mush again... except no skis this time. Instead they were hooked up to a sled and pulled Rachel across the lake as Megan and I skied. I think everyone had a blast. If you have facebook, I posted videos of the sledding and skiing(I wiped out going down hill and did a number on my body).

I wanted to let you see some picture of the steam house and steam (maqi)!!! We went again last weekend with Sheila at her in-law's house. Her mother in law, daughter and niece joined us for part of the steam.
This is a picture of the steam house from the outside.

Here we are in the entry way before the steam- this is the area you sit to cool and dry off.

Below is the stove and the HOT area you sit in for the steam. That's right, all of us fit on the little platform Michele and I are standing on for the picture.

Here we all are after the steam! Notice the red skin and little burn scars on Garnet's arm... it's kind of like sitting on the beach... but not quite.

I traveled with the HS boys to Quinhagak for their district tournament. We played the first game against Quin and STARTED the game with a Technical before the game even began! The basketball got stuck between the rim and the backboard and one of the boys jumped & held onto the net to get the ball down. The ref came over and said we were starting the game with a technical. A few minutes into the game we almost got another technical because one of the boys wore a different uniform than his usual and therefore the number wasn't what we had put on the roster. The boys played a great game though. They led the game the first 3 quarters and the 4th quarter the score was very close. So close that they tied and went into overtime. During overtime one of our best scorers fouled out and we only 5 kids left- just enough to be on the court. We then went into double overtime and our other 2 scorers fouled out. Not good. We were playing with 3 boys v.s. 5 and all or our scorers were on the bench. The boys played hard but ended up losing the game. This was Quinhagak's first win in 14 years!!!!! Quinhagak is a lot closer to the mountains that I often take pictures of out my classroom window. I tried to take pictures but it's even prettier in person.

This is a picture of the parking lot at the district tournament. Yes, Quinahagak actually has roads.

Last week there was a murder in Kong. I won't go into detail but it was hard on the whole village. Everyone is safe now. The man murdered was involved in the school and different projects going on. We have his funeral tomorrow so there is only a half day of school. I thought you may be interested in seeing the state trooper airplane. Out here we have one VPO(village police officer) and a VPSO(Village Police State Officer). When something happens they are the ones called because they live here. In this case, an emergency, they needed backup and called on other people in the village to help out. The incident happened at about 11:00 PM from what I understand and the state troopers didn't make it to Kong until about 10:00 AM the next morning (the plane was barely able to land due to fog). Here was my view of the plane from my classroom.

Here is a picture of Moose's cut :( I think I'm taking him to the vet this weekend in Bethel because after e-mailing the vet a picture, he is concerned and wants to see Moose.

Life on the Tundra and trip to Anchorage

WOW I haven’t blogged in a while! Let me start from the beginning of what I can remember/kept notes on that I should blog about…

About 3 weeks ago we had a JH Basketball tournament here in Kongiganak. The team from Kwigillingok rode over by snowmachine aka Snow Go. This is a picture of the team loading up afterwards for the drive home. The kids all sat in the sleds behind the snowmachines.

While I watched them load up I saw this partial rainbow. I saw it a few times that week and my classroom aides told me that it means it will be really cold. A ring around the moon also means it will be really cold.

After the tournament we all went for a long walk out towards the dump and graveyard. At one point I stopped on a hill to take a look at the view of the village and the tundra. Moose came running from behind me and totally knocked my legs out from under me. He didn’t even stop to see if I was ok- just flattened me and kept going! He is a beast! He also managed to chew my new shoe, a slipper, and a sock that week. He has been perfect ever since though!

This is a view of the village, tundra, and boardwalk.

After our walk we went to Sheila’s for fried bread… MmmmmMMmmm delicious! It was basically a donut without the sugar on it. Instead she fried the bread and then we could add butter, jelly, cream cheese, sugar, peanut butter or whatever we wanted to the bread.
That same weekend I also went for my FIRST ALASKAN STEAM! In case you don’t know what a Steam is… it is similar to a sauna but a lot hotter. This is the equivalent of a bath to the locals. Most of the families have their own steam houses. Each steam house has 2 little rooms. An outer room and then one room containing some floor space and the stove. First everyone goes into the outer room (a little bit cooler but still HOT) to undress. They then carry a tub of water into the stove area with a cloth to cover their mouth and try to protect it from the heat. It was SO HOT! I thought my throat was scalding and that I would die of dehydration or something. I don’t think I can truly explain how it felt. We were all sitting in this small room with a stove and then cups of water were poured over the stove and coals creating a ton of steam. Whenever you can’t bear the heat anymore, you are supposed to go to the outer entry room to cool off and then do it all over again. When you are about ready to be finished for good you take the soap and shampoo back into the heated area, clean and rinse off. Then back into the entry way until dry. Sheila, Rachel, Garnet, Michele, and I steamed together. Usually women steam together or men steam together. Children can go with anyone and married couples can steam together. Sheila said it was a good time to gossip and vent. I agree! Although the very beginning felt torcherous, I LOVED the experience. My skin felt great after and I was so relaxed. It’s not good to steam on a full stomach and after a steam you are ready for bed. We went home and lounged for about a half hour until Sheila called AGAIN! One of the ladies in the village had been hunting and go her first Caribou! All were welcome to come take some meat home with them. Why not?!
Michele, Garnet and I went with Sheila to get some meat and boy were we surprised. We walked into the house only to find a huge Caribou body being cut up on the kitchen floor!

Sunday evening Garnet, Michele and I made a Caribou stirfry and Monday night Caribou stew. Both were decent although I still prefer Moose meat to Caribou.
…Maybe Garnet and I shouldn’t cook together…

On Sunday Megan let me go Skijoring on her skis. What this means is I was on her skis and Moose was in a harness hooked onto me. When he ran, I moved. It was a BLAST!

…what wasn’t a blast is shown below…. Moose tangled me up and I fell face first into the snow. Lonny then came up and attacked me on the ground. Michele was nice enough to get a shot of all this instead of helping!

This next picture is of Megan skijoring with Moose—I LOVE the picture because they are out on the tundra skijoring AND there is a plane flying/landing right over them! A TRUE bush Alaskan picture!

We really had a fun weekend!
On Monday of that week we got another call to get Caribou meat from one of my student’s dad. He had caught 3 caribou!
(His dad is on the left and baby sister on the right sitting in the chair watching)

It was pretty cool because the dad tore out the tendon in the leg and told us the importance of these tendons. When they are dry, people bang on them and little threads peel off. The peels can be used for sewing or to wrap around a baby’s leg to help with walking/running in the future.
While the dad talked to us (for about an hour) I thought for sure we were going to lose Michele. She started looking really pale and had to look away from the body. We walked home with lots of ribs and who knows what other body parts!
Sheila came over and showed us how to saw the ribs to make it easier for cooking.



ANCHORAGE!
I went to Anchorage for a Special Education Conference last Friday night until Wednesday afternoon. I headed back to Bethel on Wednesday night and made it to Kong Thursday morning (because planes don’t fly into the villages after dark, I couldn’t go to Kong on Wednesday evening). The conference was GREAT. Well, either the conference or being in Anchorage… whichever the case, it was MUCH needed. I was reaching the point of being burnt out and the conference was a nice break and great way to meet other sped teachers from around Alaska. I went to some trainings on understanding the state of AK Sped Handbook. I also went to presentations concerning FASD, assistive technology, and filling out the transition section of an IEP. After the conference I went out to eat a TON, did some shopping, and even had a few drinks (no more dry village!). We went to a dinner theater called Bear Tooth to watch the Superbowl. The game was on a big movie screen and it was free to go. I went with my friend Zach (1st year teacher in Bethel) and Marco (1st year teacher in Palmer). Seemed like most of the people there were Saints fans but I wore my BLUE still!
The conference was at the downtown Sheraton hotel which is also where we stayed. Here is a view from the window!! Beautiful!

Below are Julane and Michael (aka Papa T). Zach and I spent a lot of time with them- they both work in the district as well. We had a great time! This picture was taken at Moose’s Tooth— a pizza place and brewery (I think)!

Zach apparently enjoyed the Moose’s Tooth beverages…


Here is the PT Cruiser Julane and Michael rented-it was fun to ride around in. Almost forgot what it was like to be inside a vehicle!

I <3 Moose! The lady at this store told me she had seen 7 moose on the interstate that morning!

We went to a chocolate factory and saw this Chocolate Fountain!

While in Anchorage, I bought new Backcountry skis as well as a dog harness so that Moose and I can go skijoring or I can just Cross Country Ski on my own. On Thursday evening Moose and I tried out the new skis with Megan and Lacy. DISASTER! Everything was going great… Moose pulled me over the lake to the very end of the new housing. We were just standing there on a snow drift and I fell over… don’t ask how. When I fell, the metal edge of my ski must have hit Moose in the leg and pulled off about a half inch of his skin/fur most of the way! It is now hanging on by a thread. I unhooked him and he still ran home but was bleeding. We wrapped it up with an ace wrap and duck tape (you could see the bone!) and then his foot swelled up really bad. I was pretty upset about all of this—not sure if I can make him pull me ever again the way that ended…

After loosening the wrap the swelling has gone down and although he limps sometimes after waking up from a nap, he still loves to run an play with the other dogs. I put these Notre Dame socks and a pair of booties on him for the long walk today- doesn’t he still look happy?!


Friday the kids celebrated Valentines Day at school… here are a few pictures that you may enjoy seeing:



This weekend was the JH basketball tournament at Kong. Kipnuk came and played 4 games. I got to keep the books for 3 of the games- LUCKY me! I’m getting good at this.

NOW… if you don’t see a blog again in the next couple of weeks don’t be surprised. I have 5 IEPs this month, 4 of which are 3-year re-evaluations! Sped teachers out there- I’m sure you know how I feel right now! Slightly stressed out and overwhelmed! In fact I should have spent the last few hours working on the 2 coming up this week instead of blogging but this was a little more exciting. Hope you enjoyed!

Since I am still sitting here waiting for my pictures to upload (takes forever with this internet!!) I thought I would add a few things to my 'Only in Alaska' update:
**My aides can take kids to the clinic if they seem to be sick. They just leave the school and walk to the clinic.
**When women are about to have a baby, they fly to Anchorage... alone... and have the baby... alone. 3 days later they fly back to the village with the brand new baby! I couldn't believe they go through all of that alone! As Jean, one of my aides told me, "We are tough women!"
**A few weeks ago we saw a ton of smoke near the village (maybe 2 miles away). I was in the store when it was first spotted and someone came in saying there was a plane wreck (very possible out here). I went out side and sure enough a HUGE black cloud of smoke. I went into minor panic mode... I was supposed to fly to Anchorage in a week. I thought, no way was I getting in a plane right after a plane wreck! TURNS out, it was just a snow machine that had caught on fire on the tundra! YIKES!
**People tend to say good morning at any time of the day
**Kids constantly say "THAT'S CHEAP!" when they aren't happy about something. (Example: Open Gym is over and I tell them it's time to go... their response is "That's Cheap" or "So Cheap".) (Example: They don't like the snack they get at extended day so they yell out "That's Cheap!".) One of my little students was even told me the principal was "SO CHEAP"... really?
**when kids are playing around, instead of saying "just kidding" they say "I JOKES"

GO WOLVERINES! Travel to Chefornak!

On Friday after school the high school boy's basketball team traveled to Chefornak for a tournament. Gideon (their coach and a classified 2nd grade teacher in Kong) asked me to be the certified chaperone. I was SO EXCITED to accept- why turn down a travel opportunity?! Newtok and Kipnuk were the other two schools that were supposed to play. Kipnuk is really close to Chefornak but it was too cold for them to travel by snow machine so they didn't end up coming. Newtok and we were supposed to stay over night and leave at 1 on Saturday. To make a long story short... we got weathered in. District policy is we aren't allowed to fly with students if the windchill is below -35 degrees. I think on Saturday we were at about -43 degrees. Gideon and I worked together to make dinner for the 2 teams (burgers and corndogs.... YUM). It's not like we could just go out to eat somewhere. The boys played another basketball game on Saturday night- if we were going to be there why not? We ended up beating Newtok two times and losing to Chefornak two times. This is a picture of one of the refs... I thought it was great that he reffed the game in snow boots! ...ONLY in Alaska...

SINCE we were stuck in Chefornak... some of the boys and I decided to go out and 'tour' on Saturday afternoon. They have 2 stores. One is HUGE compared to Kong's. It had 2 levels. The other one was itty bitty and farther away. Alexie, one of the students, told me it wasn't far. In reality it wasn't. But I didn't dress appropriately. I had on my gloves, a scarf and a head band covering my ears... but what I DIDN'T have on was a face mask, goggles and a hat! We got about 3 minutes into the walk and I started to freak out. I had just looked at the windchill chart which showed how long it takes to get frostbite. For the temperature we were at it only took 5-10 minutes. I didn't know how far the store was. My face was HURTING! About the time I got really close to panicking, we saw the store! WHEW! What and idiot I can be... when we returned from the walk I took a picture just to show how red my face got. I had probably been in the building for about 2 minutes when I took this picture... I am relieved to let you know that I do NOT have frostbite :)

On our tour we saw some little village kids out sled riding (as the OHIOans say and sledding as my Indiana friends say). The cold didn't stop them!

I also took a picture of some steam houses. They had their steam houses lined up across the boardwalk (sorta like across the street) from their actual houses. This picture doesn't show it perfect but I thought it was cool how they were all lined up.

Here is a picture of Chefornak's school....

On Sunday we were supposed to be on the first flight in the morning... aka noon. I called Grant Airline probably 5 times (drove them nuts) checking on the status of the weather. For so long we were at -37. Seriously, that close?! By 3:30 I was worried we would be weathered in again because the last plane goes out at 4:00. At the last minute they agreed to fly us! Whew!! I was ready to get back and relax at my own house. The boys were great- not too rowdy or anything. They were actually ready to go home too. They didn't even play around in the gym Sunday- they just cleaned their room and sat waiting. (I had to include pictures of what happens when HS boys get bored and clean...)


2 little 207s came to pick up our team. This is a picture of them landing in Chefornak. To the right you should be able to see an incline... that is called Tern Mountain.

This is a view of about half of Chefornak from the plane. There is more housing that you can't see...

Here is one half of the Kong boys team on the plane ride home. They were HOMESICK believe it or not! When the plane landed I heard "YEA we're home" and they all gave each other high fives ;)

Below is Tern Mountain from above... you can hopefully see the crater. While I was in Chefornak, Gideon taught me all kinds of things. Tern Mountain is a dormant volcano. The Yup'ik eskimos like to use the rock from Chefornak because it is GREAT for steams due to being volcanic rock with many holes. He told me there are many huge boulders in Chefornak that blew out of the volcanoe. Although he didn't know the facts such as how old it was, he did know stories which were passed down generation to generation. Apparently people believed the 'mountain' had something against people who tried to cross it. Anytime someone would cross to get to water on the other side or just for the sake of climbing, it would fog up really bad and show terrible weather. They believed it was trying to keep people away. He also told me that because of this 4 Shaman went to the base of the volcano and turned it so the crater was facing north. (Sorry I don't TOTALLY understand quiet everything he was saying but this is the story I got and I thought it was interesting to hear... who knows HOW many generations it has really been passed down). I found this site which you can look at to learn a little more about facts of the volcano itself: http://www.mountainzone.com/mountains/detail.asp?fid=63934


Here is yet another AMAZING Alaskan Tundra picture. The tundra is frozen but we barely have any snow. It is VERY unusual according to all of the locals. We typically have drifts as high as the roof of a house by this time of the year (from what I have been told by my aides). When I went to the store last week some of the locals also told me that it is however colder than usual. The snow helps insulate and the clouds keep us warmer. Unfortunately we have been having clear blue skies which= COLD! They asked me how I was fairing with the cold weather (really not terrible) and told me that it is even too cold for the Eskimos! The lack of snow makes it difficult to travel by snow machine because it is so bumpy. It is also difficult to travel far with a 4-wheeler because it could easily get stuck in what snow there actually is on the ground.

The picture below is a part of Kong's surrounding area. To the right is frozen tundra and to the left is the frozen Bering Sea. You should also be able to see part of the river that runs by Kong and leads into the Bering Sea.

Back in Kong for another beautiful sunset. EVERY sunset here is AMAZING.... and sunrise... and clouds... and any average day sky. The sky is one thing I make a comment on every day- I really can't get over or truly help you understand how pretty it is here.


I know this blog is super long... and hopefully you haven't fallen asleep reading it yet... but I wanted to include some more things and stories Gideon told me over the weekend. SOME of you WILL be interested... I just KNOW it :O)

1. Kongiganak is a newer village. It separated from Kwigillingok in the early 1960's because there was a lot of flooding.
2. Kwigillingok means 'place with no river'... even though it DOES have a river today. Apparently way back in the day the story goes that a girl lost her earring in the tundra and was really upset about it. Her dad dug deep trying to find the earring and a river ended up forming which is why there is one there today.
3. People used to be buried without a coffin. They were placed in the ground sitting up with their knees bent and arms wrapped around their knees.
4. It was also ok for people to take things from a grave as long as an exchange was made. For example, you could take a necklace from a grave if you put in its place a fish... or a pair of earrings...
5. If a skull is found (which happened often I suppose since people weren't buried in coffins) a person is supposed to gather a pile of grass and place the skull on the grass facing the sun.
6. Eskimos practiced their own sort of conservation as Gideon explained it. In the spring they would only hunt one type of goose but not that type in the fall. In the fall they would hunt a different type.
7. The Yup'ik only took what they needed from the land. They didn't pick extra berries that they wouldn't need or catch extra fish that weren't necessary. They respected the land and valued what they had. (This sorta goes to show how much society has changed... we are all so greedy now...)
8. Gideon's dad always told him a story growing up... which goes along with #7... It was about a lady berry picking one day and a LARGE bird (he called it a dinosaur) swooped down and picked her up. The husband watched it happen and tried to follow. The bird took the woman to the top of the mountain (I think he was referring to Tern Mountain). By the time the husband got there he saw her bones in a nest where 2 dinosaur babies had already eaten her. He was next. His dad always told him lots of stories and there were many lessons to be learned from the stories. I'm sorry I can't tell the stories better (Gideon used his hands to explain a lot) but it was really neat to hear some of these things first hand!
9. I don't think I told this yet... but at the beginning of the year Gideon and a couple of the boys found a MAMMOTH TOOTH!!! NOT KIDDING (at least it looks convincing and that's what he said it was- I'll choose to believe). I'll ask him to bring it back to school to take a picture.

Ok- that's all for tonight... only spent 2 hours writing this. Any questions from anyone?! (I didn't edit this so I hope it all makes sense...)
Thought you may like to know... it's currently -12 and feels like -39 degrees outside. Jealous?!