Normalcy in Newtok

Well I’m back in the bush and just finished up the first week of my 8th semester in Newtok. Of all the cruddy things that have happened up here, and as much as I want to get back to normal civilization sometimes, I can’t help feeling that I’m suppose to be here. Yes, people can be cruel and I often want to turn ninja on them, but I’ve come to call this place home. Most of you know that the village is in the slow-yet-desperate process of moving to Nelson Island across the Ninglick River. Apparently there has been some mismanagement of money and backstabbing going on over the years. I really don’t know the full story, but the Eskimo’s tempers are high and the place is full of tension. I guess even the smallest of places even in the middle of nowhere has politics. Anywho, you have to learn to be on constant lookout for.. how shall I say.. angry people with evil intentions. We were having a staff workday last week, and us gusuk teachers were all in one room. Grant comes in and says “Don’t leave this room, I’m locking you in. There are angry people outside the school with guns.” Four years ago I might have freaked out, but now I just take it in stride. We all agreed to stay put and wait until the madness settles down. Unfortunately, the Tribal Council (TC) is right next to the school, and there was some kind of problem going on over there. In a few hours we were able to go home without meeting trouble.

Naomi is still out sick, receiving cancer treatment. She says she is doing fine and is expected to come back towards the end of the year. In the meantime, we hired a new sub to fill in for her. Apparently this sub was not given sufficient information as to what she was getting into - she didn’t know the housing has no running water, plumbing, and is often out of propane and heat. She had to camp out in the school library for a good while because her house was too cold (not to mention moldy) to live in. So she is a little disgusted with how she is expected to live. She is an elderly woman, and I feel bad for her, but Newtok is known for being behind the times when it comes to modern-day living conditions, so I guess she’ll either learn to cope or move somewhere else.

Me and Betsy are having to pack more water than usual, too. The water in our pipes that we fill with a hose from the school isn’t good water, so we don’t use it to eat/drink, but we do use it to shower in and wash dishes. (Yes, this year I finally do not have to go to the school to shower!) I mean, okay, it burns my eyes and is sometimes freezing cold, but it serves its purpose. Anyway, it’s not working at all, so we are back to the old fashioned way of packing more water than we usually do. Especially after a blizzard it’s quite the challenge to carry 6 gallons of water every day through knee-deep fresh snow and over drifts, but it’s the norm.

Last semester was a cold one, but we didn’t get much snow. I was glad to come back over Christmas to see we got plenty more. We’ve had a couple of blizzards in the week that I’ve been back, and just to give you an idea of what that looks like, we received about four feet of snow in a span of 8 hours and the village power went off. Kevin, Boo, me, and a few other people had a lot of fun, though, chasing each other around the east side of the village and having an epic snowball war. I will have to put up a video of some of the action on facebook.

The basketball teams were looking forward to flying to Scammon Bay for a tournament, but they never were able to get out because of the weather. Next week we are hosting a tournament - hopefully teams are able to come in then. I am actually leaving Monday to spend over a week in Bethel with a few students for an ejournalism class. We are going to do some reporting “out on the ice” according to our corresponding teacher, so I’m looking forward to getting outside of the classroom for some fresh air. I hear we don’t have to sleep on the floor, either - they have cots for us! So I’m pretty excited that I might get a bit more sleep than my usual chaperoning trips.