Onward!

I went in to Bethel last weekend to take a test and the weather was nice and warm! They lost most of their snow and the temperature was in the 30s. I had a good time despite having a bad cold. I know my students don’t get to go into town very often so before I left I asked them if there was anything they needed or really wanted. I figured they would ask for chips, cokes, and candy, so I was surprised when the biggest request came out to be socks!

My life should be much easier next year. The district is changing the reading program and I may actually have resources and material to work with. It’s been heck trying to figure out how to teach reading with hardly any books! All new teachers in Alaska are required to take 2 courses dealing with the history of Alaska and the different cultures here. I’ve been busy trying to finish them before summer so I can enjoy a nice mental break when I fly home!

So good news on the guy that was lost between villages. They found him after 4 days. The search and rescue team found his snow machine first, then a couple days later spotted him walking. He stuffed grass in his clothes for warmth – dug way below to find the grass, and it kept him alive!

At the last NYO meet of the year we went to Goodnews Bay – no site of bears or caribou like we thought, but the view was just beautiful! We climbed a big hill but had to rush back down because of a snow storm. We stayed 2 nights at the school and on the last night they held a big feast for the coaches and chaperones. The people from the village brought in all kinds of good dishes - moose stew (my favorite Eskimo food!), salmon jerky, baked salmon, Eskimo ice cream, fish soup (whole fishes floating around in broth… interesting. The eyes looking up at me made me pass this dish up.) They had blueberry tea, actually made from picked blueberries in the fall… so good!  Goodnews Bay is south from here, and the mountains surrounding it separate it from Bristol Bay. They lost most of their snow, too, so the ride to and from the airport on the sled was muddy and bumpy. It’s all part of the experience though, so I don’t mind – just go with it and expect to get dirty and be sore from sleeping on the floor!

My leg is almost back to normal. It still has a deep bruise but it’s doing much, much better, and I’m able to go on hikes again, which I’ve missed. 

So we only have 3 more weeks of school left! This year has gone pretty fast, which, looking back, I’m thankful for, because otherwise I might have gone crazy. I feel so much more comfortable teaching with this strange system with so many different grade levels, and I’ve come along way with my students. Today my junior high class admitted they gave me a hard time this year because I’m a new teacher (no surprise there… they tested and pushed me over and over and over and over…) and in general I think I handled it pretty well, considering I’m the youngest teacher of all the 352 teachers in the entire district.

Hope yall are doing well! Thanks for reading the blog and for all your prayers.

Close Calls

I’m finally getting to where I can walk normally again. On the fox chase I had a snow machine accident. I went up over the bank of a river, and thought the other side leveled off, but it went straight down and straight back up. I didn’t want to get the snow machine stuck in the narrow valley so I gassed it. I went straight up, 10 feet in the air, and flew 21 feet before I flew off the front of the snow machine and landed, (thankfully,) on soft snow. But the snow machine had to land too, right on top of me! 600 pounds falling on top of me. Ouch. I keep thinking back and count how lucky I was that 1) There were 3 other people there to pull the machine off me and 2) I didn’t get injured badly. We were miles and miles from Newtok, so we couldn’t get a signal on the cell phone. So after Kevin and Travis (Travis is one of my high school students) pulled the snow machine off of me I couldn’t even roll over. My leg was bent back and therefore took most of the blow of the snow machine weight. I blacked out for a short while, and they didn’t want to roll me over because they thought my back was broken. I knew it was just my leg – knee, really, and I couldn’t move it. While they were contemplating on what to do next I just lay there in the snow for about five minutes. When they saw I was going to be okay they were actually pretty impressed with the jump and that’s when Kevin measured the distance I traveled through the air. They helped me on the back of Kevin’s snow machine and my student drove my machine back. No major damage done to the machine – just a really cracked “dashboard” and a damaged oil tank. So after what seemed like forever we made it back to Newtok and Kevin took me to the clinic. The guy there was on the phone to the doctor in Bethel to discuss what to do. I knew it wasn’t anything serious, just pretty banged up. It was already swollen pretty bad and bruised up, but I knew I didn’t need to fly to Bethel for anything less than a tear. I was just thankful the snow machine didn’t land on my head and that the guys were there to save me! Anyway, the guy at the clinic gave me some crutches, ibuprofen, and a couple of instant cold packs. He said “if you need more cold packs there’s always the snow outside.” I was on the crutches for a couple of days and after 2 weeks the swelling is finally going down and I can walk without a limp. It still hurts to turn it but nothing serious. 

In a couple of days I’m traveling to Goodnews Bay with the NYO team. I’m the certified chaperone for Newtok and another school on the island – Nightmute. Grant said it’s likely I’ll see bears and caribou, and I really hope I do! I’ve heard Goodnews Bay is beautiful. I’ll definitely take the camera. My only concern is if we get weathered here. I finally saw my first blizzard a couple of nights ago and it was outrageous! Winds were 80 to 90 mph and our house was shaking! We had another snow storm last night, but I hope everything is calm when it comes time to leave. We’re scheduled to leave Thursday at noon and to return Saturday afternoon.

There is a man from Newtok who tried to travel to another village before the blizzard came and he never made it. The search and rescue team has been looking for him for 2 days now and we’re all hoping they find him! People have been lost for days and have survived, so I’m hopeful. Every time I go out on the snow machine I learn something new, and I see every time the necessity for safety and doing things right. I’m typically the kind of person to just jump in and go for it if it sounds like fun. But it can cost you your life out here. When I was away from the village and got stuck on a snow drift I learned you need to take a shovel with you when you’re far from the village. When I hear about the people’s stories of how they were riding, and the next minute it’s a white-out, you need to be prepared. Have a beacon on you and carry a compass, take energy bars with you in case something happens. I’ve learned some things through trial and error, and I’m just thankful God allowed me to survive those errors!

Hope yall are doing well, I can’t wait to see everyone! And don’t worry about me, I’m doing fine!

In His Grip,

Kim

Hey yall

I don’t know who’s more excited about summer – my students or me! I do like my job, most of the time, and I am constantly in awe of God’s hand in my adventure. But the cold excitement has worn down and the increasing sunlight is too nice, and I’m looking forward to the days when I don’t have to think about work for a while. The sun sets around 10:00 at night, and we’re gaining a few minutes every day.
The other day a couple of my students came to my house with the guys’ basketball coach (a guy from Louisiana) and asked if I wanted to go hunting rabid foxes. I jumped at the opportunity to get out and have some fun and was even more excited that they wanted to include me in their Yupik activities. So we all took off on our snow machines. We would ride to the top of a hill and look all around. When we spotted something moving in the distance we would take off, speeding off to get the fox. It’s common knowledge you don’t need a hunting license in the bush. At least, no one checks if you have one. I wasn’t aware of this until a couple of months ago, but Yupiks don’t eat the fox, they just use the fur. But for a long time (years now) the foxes (or many of them) are rabid, and spread it to the dogs in the village. So they are constantly killing dogs and killing foxes whenever they can. So anyway, we went looking for rapid foxes, and the fun is all in the chase. We got three that day. How it works is (if you’re a peta activist you may want to skip this section) you chase the fox and run over it with the snowmachine. You have to do this several times because they are pretty tough, and you need to slow them down in order to make the shot. When you shoot your gun your back has to be to the village, so it’s easier to do this when the fox is right at your feet. So anyway, we got 3 foxes and it was a lot of fun!
We finally got a new incinolet, and the water system at the school is working again. Instead of the big distillers they have they actually have CLEAN running water right out of the pipes, so they can finally use a drinking fountain. They removed the distillers, so teachers had to get water from the drinking fountain for a while (not cool! Spitting tobacco, little kids putting their mouths on it… and we’re suppose to get all our drinking water from that?) So anyway, after some protests they finally plugged a distiller back up so it’s back like it use to be for the teachers. We go to the school, get a key, go out the back way, down a ramp into an outside building, hope the lock is not frozen… if so, we have to pour boiling water in the lock… and finally, fill our empty jugs. This is the same room where we do our laundry. Yeah, it’s a lot of work but you get use to it and for sure, I don’t take our water supply for granted now!
I’m out for now. I hope yall have a blessed Easter, and lets don’t forget that Jesus was OUR sacrifice, and He is the risen Lord! That is something to be stoked about!