written in alaska, posted in texas... finally!

It’s done! I’ve made it through my first year of teaching. Good gravy, I’m glad it’s over. Professionally it was a difficult learning time; spiritually it was an amazing and humbling time; recreationally I had a BLAST.

I’ve learned another piece of the Yupik culture puzzle. The young kids seem to be unruly and simply not disciplined. For a long while I assumed the parents had a tendency to be apathetic towards managing their kids’ behavior, and I’ve had to force myself to accommodate the unruliness. Little kids crawling around at funerals, talking while elders are talking, completely disregarding guidelines and direct instruction – I am simply stunned at the lack of structure – it really bothers me. I don’t mean to be a grouch – I love kids and their playfulness, but there are boundaries (at least where I come from) to how far a little one can act up. I know my upbringing demands self-control - playing sports and years of academic studies, and my strong family values all play a part in how I carry myself and why I hold a high regard for being strong and disciplined. Respect for yourself and for others is a big part of my life.

But I’ve found out that the people here are not being apathetic when the kids run rampant – they are simply being Yupik. That is how they discipline their kids – by letting them figure things out on their own. They allow the kids to “experience the world” – let them do things the way they do and they will eventually learn on their own what is acceptable and what is not. I wouldn’t have the patience! But it has helped me be more tolerant and patient, knowing that it’s tradition, a way of their culture. Who am I to judge anyway, since it’s worked for their ways of life for centuries! I’m just comparing the stark contrasts of different culture upbringings. It’s one more thing to understand while living among the Eskimos, and it’s important to understand. I didn’t know for a long time. Knowing that they are raising their kids (just in a very different way) makes a great difference, especially as a teacher! It takes time, though, to adapt.

I stayed up late last night just to see how long the sun would stay up. At 2:00 in the morning it was still light outside. Dusk lasts a long time! Then the sun rises around 5:45. It’s so awesome!

We picked up trash today around the school and had cream soda floats afterwards (we didn’t have any root beer.) We’re all excited about summer! Soon afterwards our bush plane came in for most of the teachers to leave. So right now I’m actually in Bethel waiting for the flight to Anchorage. I remember last July when I first arrived here at the airport. I was terrified! I didn’t know what I was getting myself into at the time and I was already past the point of no returning to the road system! Ha.. I’ll never forget that. I was acting all strong and tough but really my heart was pounding. 

The principal and me were talking today, reminiscing over my first year out in the bush. We’ve had lots of adventures! It’s become a joke between us about the fox chasing accident. Whenever one of us tells about some kind of bad news, the other says “but I got the fox!” (When they rolled the snow machine off of me the first words I said were “I got the fox!”) He laughs every time that is brought up. I mean, yeah it was a really close call but he was impressed at the fervor at which I gave to the task.

He was thinking back and said “You’ve survived two life or death situations” and noted with humor how I’d better tone the adventures down a notch next year. The potentially fatal situations I get myself into are tallying on me.

I guess it’s safe to tell now about my other life or death situation, now that I’ll soon be home and mom will be able to see I’m still alive. I guess it was late February or early March when I took a ride out on the tundra, but it was a very cold day. The temperature was -60 plus wind chill. So before I tell the story, I’ll say now that it’s over, I know I was stupid! I know I was carefree and too optimistic and completely naive. I knew it was dang cold, and it’s only colder when you’re going fast on the snow machine. But at the time all I could see was how fun it was going to be and nothing would happen.

So anyway… my roommate had kept telling me I should take my cell phone with me on hikes just in case something were to happen (not that I’ve ever been able to get service out there, much less get acceptable service in the village.. ) but anyway, I was walking out the door before I remembered the phone, so I went back to get it. I was wearing my snow pants, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and the carhartt on top of that, with gloves, my ski mask and snow goggles, which (now I know) is NOT appropriate for days as cold as this, when you’re outside more than a few minutes. (At least not for a native Texan) But like I said, at the time I was invincible!

So I took off, first riding around the outskirts of the village then picked a random direction and went southwest for about an hour, quite a few miles past the village. I ran across a frozen stream and the frozen ice walls were a beautiful sight, so I parked the machine and got off to look around. It was cold. Every time I took my gloves off to take a picture I had to put them back on within only a few seconds because they would get blue and start to hurt…so I decided I didn’t really have to have pictures. After walking around a bit I became really cold and thought I should go back since I didn’t have any food or drink, and the ride back was long and cold.

When I sat back on the snow machine and got situated, I put the keys in and it wouldn’t start. It wouldn’t make a sound! I tried not to panic – after trying to start it maybe ten times I stopped and had to take a few deep breaths to assess the situation. I was probably 6 or 7 miles from Newtok, in -60 degrees weather, the wind blowing constantly, a white sky, with no parka, no food, no drink, and no one knew where I was. Stupid me.

I was already freezing from walking around and taking off my gloves and ski mask to try and take some pictures. I didn’t understand! The dang machine was working FINE just a while ago! (this was before the wreck). I started to move around some, bouncing up and down in an effort to try and get warm, but no luck. I tried to start the machine a few more times and it simply wouldn’t turn on. I was in deep stuff. I slung my backpack around and thanked God for the nudge to remember the cell phone, but I doubted I’d get any service. I tried to call Kevin but I couldn’t get a signal.

I’ve been told you shouldn’t leave your snow machine because it’s more likely you’ll get lost. They usually find the snow machine before the person if you’ve wandered off from it. But I knew too that I was freezing, and I couldn’t just sit there and freeze to death, especially when no one knew I went out! So I decided to take action and try and walk back to the village. I was praying a blizzard wouldn’t come but the sky wasn’t promising.

Not wearing the proper attire, it wasn’t long until I was shaking uncontrollably from the cold. I trekked on in 2 feet deep snow for a couple miles and tried to call again – Brandi answered (Kevin’s wife, a teacher) but right after she answered the call we lost connection. I tried to jog to try and get back sooner but if you’ve ever tried to jog in 2 feet of snow you know it’s pretty much impossible!

Well, only a couple minutes after trying to call, the phone rang! I was so excited. It was Paula, another teacher and Brandi’s sister. The problem now, though, was that I was shaking uncontrollably from the cold and my voice was barely audible.
I was able to get out a “yeah?” to let her know I was there, and I knew by her voice she was concerned – she asked if I was okay when I couldn’t say much else, but when I forced myself to stop walking, I held my breath for a while and had to regain my control. Mentally, I was pretty calm. But I couldn’t control my body. I wasn’t sure I would be able to tell them where I was. I slurred the short version of the situation: “I’m behind the airport. Can Kevin come?” She repeated it back to me and said Kevin is on his way. I was so glad...and really surprised. I was still miles from Newtok and I couldn’t believe I had service! There had to be some divine intervention there! I mean, honestly, that just doesn’t happen!

Anyway, I figured I might as well keep walking, so I kept following my snow machine tracks back the way I came. I walked maybe 20 minutes more and saw someone on a snow machine come up over a hill maybe half a mile away. He was not directly in my line of trekking so I was waving my hands to make sure he saw me. Thankfully he did! But it wasn’t Kevin, it was Grant (the principal). He was with Kevin when I called so they both went, in different directions from behind the airport. I was so glad to see him because I didn’t know if my body could handle the 4 miles remaining. I clambered up on the back of his ride, but instead of going home he kept going, toward the stranded snow machine. At this point I didn’t care about the dang thing, I just wanted to get out of the cold and wind. But he gave me an extra parka he brought and it did help. Anyway, come to find out there wasn’t even anything wrong with the snow machine! The emergency stop button had been pressed sometime between getting off the snow machine and getting back on, but it’s a small button that I had overlooked and never even realized was there. So needless to say, I felt pretty stupid. I was able to drive the machine back, and I profusely thanked him and Kevin for coming to my rescue.

That’s 2 times those guys have saved my life this year! I am forever grateful for them!

So glad to be back in Texas!

2 weeks to go...

I’m stoked about summer and am having to put all my effort into maintaining momentum to finish the year strong! I guess it’s just the weight and pressure from the first year of work coming to an end and the relief is already starting to feel sweeter than I can describe! When I fly into Texas my first stop will be the ballpark in Arlington to watch the Rangers game that Friday – what better way than baseball to kick off summer!

The other day I was walking a ways out and met a little boy named Nikki who has gone with me on several hikes. For just being 10, I was surprised to see him toting his .410, spitting tobacco! He said it was his dad’s birthday and he wanted to bring a bird home for him. What a world of difference between our 2 cultures! For one thing, that a kid would want to go actually hunt an animal for a birthday gift, and another, that you can just walk a little ways from your house with a gun and start shooting birds! (Not to mention a 10 year old with no supervision, carrying a gun with a pocketful of ammo, chewing tobacco!) So we hiked on, settled on a high part of the tundra a couple miles from Newtok and waited. Geese were plentiful and he got a few good shots but didn’t hit any. He made the bird calls and knew all the tricks and safety procedures… I was pretty impressed, but nothing surprises me much anymore. Geese are nice to get, but the real victory is when you take home a few cranes. I hear they taste excellent. We only saw them in the distance and didn’t try that far of a shot. Nikki was excited to share some of his expertise with a kussaq (white person) so he was explaining how you have to keep your back to the village and don’t shoot in the direction someone may be walking or riding. He was proud to know you don’t keep the gun loaded but only when you’re ready to shoot, and what you do to attract different kinds of birds. It was cute, but mainly I was impressed! He wanted me to try a few shots so I did, and it was pretty exciting! I can see myself hunting in the future.

The snow is finally melting. The drifts aren’t as high and there are lots of slushy fields. It’s tricky when hiking in it because some snow is still sturdy and will hold your weight, but your next step may cause you to sink up to your waist. A couple of days ago I was buried in snow up to my waist and literally had to crawl on all fours for 30 yards in the slush to higher ground. So even though I no longer need the full winter apparel I was pretty cold and soaked pretty good after that incident. This doesn’t just happen out on long hikes though – the route I take to carry my laundry and pack water to and from the school is the same way. When you’re carrying 5 gallons of water and bags of clean clothes and you sink through the snow, it takes a while to crawl out!

Last night was prom. The teachers and some older students helped decorate and the dingy gym actually looked pretty good for a few hours! I’ll post pictures on facebook. The dances we’ve had in the past we just plugged an ipod into the speakers for music, but we went all out this time and flew in a DJ. It was great! And even though there’s not a clothing store for 100 miles, most of the students wore nice clothes. No tuxes, but not a problem! I love the simplicity and casual atmosphere.

We are officially done with Saturday school for the year. I’m so thankful! They weren’t too bad, but all the same, having to go to the school every Saturday starts to wear you down. But hey, if it’s one thing I’ve learned this year it’s that hardships make you stronger, and I won’t take free Saturdays for granted, you can be sure of that!

Well, I’m out – it’s a beautiful day and I want to go for a walk. Happy Mother’s Day mama, and to all the other mama’s out there! :-)