Racing

Our cross country (running) team is traveling to Chevak this weekend. Last week they didn’t travel because of the funeral, so the kids are ready to go. When we went to Nightmute it was beautiful! On the plane ride we flew over the new site, Mertarvik, and saw the preliminary houses. The only way I can describe it is like we were looking at the Promised Land. From the muddy, puddles everywhere, sinking, trashy and infected place we are now, the joke of western Alaska (even though it’s beautiful in it’s own way), flying over that island was amazing. There was solid ground, green rolling hills that I saw myself hiking, fresh springs of water coming right out of those hills, and game of muskoxen, caribou, and moose.

The pilot doing some swoops and stalls over Mertarvik,
where Newtok will relocate.

The pilot flew us around a bit for some site seeing and did some impressive, stomach wrenching stalls and turns in the Cessna. It reminded me of Laura Ingalls’ times, when families looked for good land to live off of. It’s the same situation with the Natives. So we arrived in Nightmute, which is a smaller village than Newtok – around 180 villagers, and settled in our classrooms where we camp out. I was toting around this box that Newtok’s site tech wanted to pass off, so I hunted down someone named Bev at the school. Cheaper and much faster than mailing it… you do what you have to do. Then we walked to the store, which is one of our traditions after we drop our bags off at the hosting school.

The kids shot some hoops in the smallest gym I’ve ever seen. The entire length was the length of the typical 3 point line. Then we did a walk-through of the course the kids were to run the next day. It was so beautiful! We wound up hiking off the trail and exploring. There were countless fresh water springs coming out of the hills. There’s something about the sound of running water in the wilderness that is just amazing. So we climbed some steep hills, followed the springs’ source, had a rock throwing contest, and inevitably sat and took in the breath-taking beauty of the place. There was this huge hole in the ground with big rocks lining the walls that was a lot of fun to walk around.

Abu taking in the beauty

This is weird: Eskimos of course have their own kind of food, but lots of kids eat Crisco sandwiches. I mean, not just a little Crisco smeared on some bread, but huge piles of Crisco! Nasty. Their main use of Crisco is for Eskimo ice cream though.

I wandered in one of the Yupik classes the other day and they were making seal oil lamps. They explained how useful they are, how they burn much longer than a candle, and easy to make, seeing how seal oil is a common supply in every cabin! All you need is the oil, a glass dish, a piece of cloth, and a match to light it. Still learning cool stuff about the Yupik culture!