Back in Action!

Beautiful sunset in Newtok

Breathtaking beauty in Anchorage! (the background, anyway!)

I’m back in Alaska! I had a nice summer but it feels good to be back in the land of cool weather! It’s 50 degrees right now! I spent some time in Anchorage before I flew out to the bush – mailing some groceries to myself and soaking up the beauty of Alaska. I stayed with my room mate’s relatives and we met up with some other teachers from Newtok. I took a bike ride down a beautiful trail, beside a river and down to the coast. A guy riding the opposite way warned me there was a moose up ahead and sure enough one was right next to the trail. I stopped a short ways off to take some pictures. There were also a few bear sightings! I never saw them but there was a mother bear with her 3 cubs only about a quarter of a mile from where I was staying, and another bear was actually breaking in to someone’s window in another part of Anchorage! Not sure when this happened but it was some time this summer. There was also a polar bear in Hooper Bay, which is a village out here in western Alaska! Not too far from Newtok! I’d love to see a bear.

Monday evening I flew on the smaller jet to Bethel (the bush hub, 300 miles from the road system) and caught a cab to the school district office, which is where I spend almost every night I stay in Bethel. It’s a lot of fun catching up with other teachers in different villages. So we find a place on the floor and blow up an air mattress if there are enough, and it’s pretty cozy! Only in the bush do you have teachers sleeping in the office and you wake up to the “district mama” coming in to make coffee.  

We had 2 days of in-service in Bethel and it was great being able to collaborate with other reading teachers. Wednesday evening we were scheduled to hop on the bush plane and fly out to our villages and I could hardly wait to get back! We took our luggage to the gym at the Bethel school to wait till our flight time, and when we were loading the shuttle van they shove a pizza box in your hand and send you off out into the wilderness!

I understand how those new teachers feel right out of college because I was there last year! I feel for them because I know what it’s like to thrust yourself into an uncertain world, out of your comofort zone, cut off from everything and everyone, broke and not knowing how I was going to do this unique job. So needless to say I feel much more confident having survived this crazy life in the bush! Of the 8 teachers in Newtok, we  have 1 new this year. Her name is Betsy and she will teach the 2T class, which is when they transition into English instruction. Betsy is 24 years old so I’m excited about having someone close to my age. It would be nice to say I’m no longer the youngest teacher in Newtok but my day will come!

On the 45 minute flight out to Newtok I could barely contain my excitement! God has His ways of letting you know you’re where you’re supposed to be, and I know He was pressing that point, because I literally couldn’t sit still from excitement.  We landed and I jumped down on the rocky ground and had to jog off that eager sensation. It sounds funny, but seriously, I am glad to be here – even with our incinolet not working, our stove not working, the dodgy boardwalks, packing water, the e.coli infested land, and back to the busy busy teaching schedule. Teaching in the bush is not just a job, it’s a lifestyle. From the time you get up in the morning until (many days) you go to bed at night, you’re with students or doing work or doing something that there is not enough people to do. And even though it drained me completely last year, I’m happy to be here. How GREAT is God that He allows you to persevere, to overcome, and to glorify HIM in the process!?!? All I can do is give this year to Him and I know He will do great things.

I was walking to the school yesterday and a little girl asked me when school started. I told her Monday, and she replied, “in three more sleeps?” Instead of saying 3 more days, they measure time in sleeps.  The sun sets at 11:30 and last night it was so beautiful I couldn’t even try to describe it. The colors were so vibrant, so vast and so bold, that all I could do was stand there and bask in the beauty of God’s handiwork. The picture at the top doesn’t even do it justice.

Over the summer Newtok had a tragedy – a 14 year old took his own life. My heart aches and of course I wonder if there is something I could have done differently, if maybe I was part of the reason it happened, as he was in my home class. We had several suicide threats that almost happened last year. I’ll never forget the times I spoke with those students, completely moved by the Spirit, and I absolutely know God is in complete control, because I wouldn’t have a clue what to say, but He spoke through me. Not every situation ends up happy, though. Eskimos have some of the highest rates of suicide in the world. This summer alone there were 8 suicides in southwestern Alaska. Here’s an article about suicide in Alaska, and it talks about 2 suicides that happened in Bethel: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/us/14alaska.html

So with that, I’ll ask for your prayers again for the people of Newtok and all over Alaska, that they will find the peace that comes with salvation that God offers through Christ.

In Him,

Kim