March Madness

This month is known for it’s stormy, blizzardy weather in southwestern Alaska. We’ve been on weather hold on and off – the guys who flew in to work on the technical problems in the school and the water well are stuck here. We’re actually able to watch the district basketball tournament in Bethel via the VTC.

I had a good 23rd birthday! My favorite part was the string of “Happy birthday, Kim!” over the VHF. Speaking of the VHF, the elder women or single women often say “boy scout, boy scout” over the VFH when they need help with something – like packing water or dumping the honey bucket – and someone will go help out. The boy scout recognizes the ladies’ voice since everyone knows everyone, and he goes to help out. It’s interesting how they have their ways of life here!

We were without water yet again for a little over than a week. The distillers were not working properly so we couldn’t use the showers. One day we had to close the restrooms during school – not so good when you had 4 cups of coffee! – and finally went home early. The next few days we just opened the restrooms and just couldn’t flush. We used the toilets like honey buckets. It was bad, but that’s how the natives have it, so I made the best of it! The pipes to the washing machine have been frozen for a couple of weeks now, so none of us can do laundry either. I’m trying not to fret because of the bedbug situation. I haven’t seen another one, but I’d really like to wash my sheets.

Even though it’s frustrating and plain hard sometimes, I’m very thankful I can experience these hardships. I’m not necessarily complaining, because living among the Natives I have no right to complain. We all have to pack water, but at least I don’t have to walk halfway across the village to do it. I don’t have running water and a flushing toilet, but at least at least I don’t have a honey bucket like the Eskimos do. I don’t have cable or internet in the house, but many of them don’t either. I can only have 2 showers a week (when we’re not on water watch), but they don’t take any showers, only steam baths. Every so often I have to sleep on the floor, and they are just thankful to get to go somewhere. I have plenty of room at the house; many Natives live in small shacks with several family members. So whenever I think I have it rough, I remember there is always someone who has it worse than I do and I’m thankful for what I do have.   

The adventures never seem end up here, the good and the bad.  I’ll say this – I’m becoming stronger and able to persevere through the tough times, so I’m thankful for that. Newtok is known all around western Alaska for being infested with bed bugs. The house I’m living in was bug-ridden last year, and I’ve already killed a few of the nasty blood-sucking parasites in my room. So I’m praying they don’t get out of hand. I’d rather have no heat in the house than have bed bugs, but we’ve already been without heat, so we’re learning to experience all kinds of tribulations that the natives go through yearly.
I got frostbite yesterday – it was just first degree, but still painful! I took the snow machine (mobile…) out on the Ninglick River when it was -35 with wind chill. I had my ski mask and goggles on, but the wind chill with the speed on the snow machine penetrated the protection. My lower face and fingers were so cold and painful I new I needed to head back to the village, so I came home and found a big white patch on my cheek. So perhaps it was frostnip, definitely not the full-fledged blackening frostbite. My fingers were cold enough they could have been broken off…but no signs of frostnip there. It took the rest of the day for most of patch on my face to go away, and today you can still see it if you look closely, but I’m sure it’ll go away eventually. Well, I’m glad it wasn’t more severe, but I’m becoming more like an Alaskan! (Don’t worry Texas, you’re still my number 1 state.)
I’ve been enjoying my snow machine and am pretty impressed with what kind of terrain it can handle. I’ve already been thrown off of it once (the first day I got it!) and was sore for 2 days afterwards. I’m very thankful I didn’t break anything, but it was a fun ride. I plan on not doing that again.
A few of my classes are becoming better, a few seem to be getting worse. I think it might just be the age of the kids. My high school health class is simply a joy to teach – we have open discussions daily about any and everything – from drugs to Jesus, discussing past life experiences, and it’s become a treasured and respected time. I am simply real, I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not, we are honest and forthcoming. Being able to share my faith and listening to theirs, two different cultures coming together talking openly…it’s more than just a class, it gives us a new way to look at life. And we all walk away with something. We all really enjoy just sitting and talking. It took a little while for them to be comfortable opening up, but boy, I look forward to those classes.
The pictures above were taken at different times.. The sunset is unbelievably beautiful, I was so glad I had my camera. I was about 5 miles out on the river with my snowmachine, and watched the sunset. It's moments like these that make it impossible not to praise God! The snow pictures I took on a snowshoeing hike. The bush plane is a Cessna caravan, the biggest plane that comes to villages. It can seat about 10 people. You can see the whole album on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020301&id=159100597

Radical Revolution

What does the world learn by watching us Christians on earth? No one ever said following Jesus was going to be easy or safe. In fact, Jesus promised it WON’T be, so how come we distance ourselves from getting uncomfortable, from getting our hands dirty, from taking risks for God’s kingdom? How come we try to make it safe when it’s not suppose to be?

 Here’s a quote I like: “All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don’t tiptoe.”  Christianity should be anything but boring. When we lose lost people to a world of materialism, drugs, and violence, it’s because we don’t dare them enough. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of sitting still. I’m tired of going through the motions because “that’s what we’re suppose to do.” We need to get out of our comfortable surroundings and make a difference! It may be a small act, but when lots of people do lots of small acts, it adds up. Who CARES about careers anymore? Our ONLY concern should be what kind of servants we are.

I follow a God who is not safe, but He is good. People have been taken captive, thrown in jail, suffer humiliation, have died for this God. We need to stop living in our safe little bubble and go out there and love people. There are lots of options in the world that will not get your hands dirty, but what kind of life is that? Jesus lived among the poor, the outcasts, the lowly, the “dirty.” Anyone can applaud Jesus’ work, even non believers. It’s time to make a radical change in our lives! It’s time to go out there and LIVE the gospel! 

Revelations says we must be either hot or cold, because if we are lukewarm, we will be spit out of God’s mouth. (3:16).

“Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.” –Jacques Ellul

Sweet Settings

I’m back from my nice week-long break from teaching and bush life. I had such a great time in Anchorage! I met some really cool people from all over Alaska, teaching in other bush villages of different tribes, people from bush hubs, and from cities. A group of us really hit it off and had a blast going out on the town. They are bush teachers, too – not in my district, but still in that general area. It was funny because all the bush teachers came with empty suitcases and left with groceries and necessities, something we’ve just had to get use to doing. So we didn’t bring lots of clothes (especially “nice” clothes) – therefore we were labeled as “the bush teachers,” with our hiking boots on, rugged jeans, and t-shirts. Hey, that’s my style!

I came back Saturday morning and was pleased I didn’t get weathered in. Newtok actually had a blizzard while I was gone. At the airport in Bethel I walked out on the snow-covered “parking lot” for the planes to the Cessna caravan. The pilot opened the door for me (the handle being 6 feet off the ground) and dropped the (2 foot) “hanging step down” so I could climb into the seat. I had to laugh because only out here would they expect you to pull yourself into a plane. This caravan is the biggest plane they have. It was loaded with cargo packed in up to the cockpit, so I was the only passenger and sat in the copilot’s seat. The mail needed to go to Chefornak (another bush village) so we stopped there first. The pilot and some men from the village unloaded the boxes onto sleds tied to snowmachines while I sat there and watched a gorgeous sunrise. I must say, I really wanted to be a pilot in that moment to be able to see this every day.

When we arrived in Newtok it was snowing pretty hard, but it wasn’t extremely cold, which was nice. A guy with a sled graciously offered to ride my luggage down for me, and another guy gave me a lift on his snowmachine. When I got off he said “do you want me to bring your snowmachine to you?” I was so excited! I’ve been waiting for this ever since I bought it in January. It’s used, and I got it for a good price (me and my roommate are actually splitting it.) I didn’t know how to drive it but figured it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. So I ran inside to drop my stuff off and realized the heat wasn’t on – it was FREEZING! But I was too excited to worry about that then. So I took off and boy, did I have fun! That thing is powerful and FAST! I bought ski goggles at REI in Anchorage just for this occasion, and I’m glad I did, because it was snowing and cold once you’re going really fast. I also had the ski mask on so I was pretty comfortable. I rode out on the frozen river and went pretty far out on the tundra – I saw some amazing landscape out there! I’ll take pictures and post them. There were green-blue ice walls as tall as I am!

So eventually I came back home and had to deal with the freezing cold house. It was so cold I could see my breath and some water in the sink turned to ice. I laid my keychain thermometer out and it was 30 degrees. Carol (my mentor) talked to Naomi and apparently the heat had been out 4 days, but Naomi has been in Bethel for the most part. This happened to some other teachers a few weeks ago and they wound up sleeping at the school. So anyway, I just bundled up and (naturally) put on a Christmas movie to just go along with it :-). But thankfully after a few hours someone came to see about it and it’s fixed now.

Well apparently yall got tons of snow! I’m so happy! I hope everyone is enjoying it!!! Stay warm, and have a great week!

Kim

Keepin on keepin on

Hey you! It’s been almost a month since vacation and I can’t decide if time has crawled by or if it’s sped by! Ha, I know that sounds crazy, but honestly, so much has happened…I’ve been ridiculously busy, and it feels like it we should be close to March by now!

Yesterday I took about a 2 mile hike away from Newtok with the snowshoes I got for Christmas. It wasn’t too cold – I was able to wear a sweatshirt and my carhartt, and of course my snowpants. I took my backpack with a thermos of peppermint tea :-) which was great when I was a ways off and stopped to rest and got cold. The husky that always goes with me found either a moose or caribou vertebrae and was playing with that while I drank the tea and took some pictures (that I will post on facebook).

I’m the “designated chaperon” for all the trips that I’m not going on as a coach. The first week back the junior high basketball team was supposed to go to Toksook Bay (pronounced “took sook”), so like always, we pack the night before, take all our stuff up to the school, pile it in the hallway, and go to class, waiting for the plane to tell us how close they are. Sometimes we get out early, sometimes we don’t leave till after school. So it’s very inconsistent. But the wind was blowing pretty bad that whole weekend and we weren’t even able to fly. I felt bad for the kids but they’ve made that trip up since then. Last weekend we went to Tununak (pronounced “tuh-noo-nuck”) and it was fun. Except when they stuffed all 4 teams of girls into one classroom to sleep. The room was actually freezing, sleeping bags were laid side by side after we pushed all the desks along the walls, and there was still not enough room to sleep comfortably. By the time the kids were all settled, the only room left was a small piece of tile floor, so I was extra cold! I’m just glad I brought a blanket. But anyway, the kids played good and we had fun. This past weekend my room mate went instead of me (I was thankful for a weekend off) because she taught there in Kipnuk for the past 10 years. They were able to get out fine, but were stuck an extra 2 nights because of fog. They got back today after lunch. We already used up our sub money, so we had to combine classes in order to have enough teachers today.

Next week (Feb. 8-12) I’ll be in Anchorage for some training and I can barely wait! I can go to a restaurant, a store, have a shower every day if I want, see cars again… yes, I’m excited :-) We also don’t get a spring break like lower 48 schools, so I’m considering this an early vacation.

I guess that's about it for now. Thanks for reading my blog and please keep praying for the people here!

Kim

Well hello!

I’m back in the full swing of things up in Newtok. It only took me an entire semester to find a decent schedule and routine that would fit this crazy hectic lifestyle!

Sad news, we don’t have a girls basketball team anymore. Some of the girls moved away over Christmas, others cannot play because of duties they have to tend to outside of school, and others are injured. Well, we had a fun 3 weeks of practice anyway, and maybe next year there will be enough gals to play. The boys team is set and have already traveled to a tournament. There is a junior high team too. I’m going on all those trips as the certified chaperone but this past weekend we weren’t able to fly out because the wind was too strong. Maybe this weekend we’ll be able to play – the kids are super excited!

Newtok’s robotics team won district, if you didn’t know, and went to state to compete last weekend. There were 4 eligible kids able to go and they had a blast. We weren’t able to get out of Newtok, and they weren’t able to get in, but it’s more fun when you’re stuck in a city! They actually got to stay at hotels instead of school classrooms, and on their weathered-in days the coaches treated them to movies and nice restaurants. There is an article online in the Anchorage Daily News about it, and a video of our Newtok team doing an Eskimo dance. In the article, our chaperone described how our kids were on “sensory overload” with all the sites and sounds of the city life. You can see the video here: http://community.adn.com/adn/node/146969

Well, the heart of winter is here, and I’m still alive! There are different sites to see temperatures online, but they aren’t constant. But the coldest it’s gotten, according to our principal, is -60 with the wind chill. I of course had to go check it out, and I can’t even explain how cold it was! I went snowshoeing with the most heavy – duty winter gear I have and I was still cold! The other day I walked out to the coast and back, about 200 yards there and back, and when I got home (no kidding!) my eyelashes had chunks of ice in them! Okay, I’m pretty sure you get the idea. It’s cold.

I’m still learning a lot about the kids and their culture. It’s all fascinating, and I’m so intrigued by their survival skills and subsistence lifestyles! I also learned what makes family “family” up here. What we might call a cousin may be a sibling, depending on whether their parent is your aunt or uncle. There are lots of little differences like that, which they call “The Yupik Way.”

God is teaching me more and more to lean on Him, and I love to, but I still have to stop trying so hard on my behalf. Sometimes we just have to let go and enjoy the ride. I’m still working on that one. :-) I’m enjoying the ride for the most part, but letting go of things I can’t control is what gets to me too often. But how great is it that He keeps working with me!

I guess that’s about it for now, thank you for reading and thank you for caring! Have an amazing week!

Oh my goodness. I knew Alaska was cold, but this is pure craziness! And it’s not even near the typical winter coldness. Right now it’s hanging around -25 to -30, and this is “not a very cold winter,” I’m told. I had a verrrry long red eye flight back from Christmas. I was weathered in at the Bethel airport for almost 10 hours, and I was afraid I was going to be stuck there for a few days. The wind was too strong for the bush planes to fly. But I finally got out! It was a bumpy ride but I was so thankful I was actually going to sleep in my own bed I didn’t even care. Well, when I was waiting to get on the bush plane, the guys loaded the wrong luggage. So we stood there while they unloaded and reloaded it. Unfortunately I was in such a rush (and white stupid in my packing)… that I didn’t have my winter gear on. Only a sweatshirt, no gloves or parka! It was pretty brutal. But we finally clambered into the 5-seater Cessna and headed home. I can’t describe how cold the walk to the house was. All I can say is, the guy who offered to ride my luggage to my house saved my life! I knew I was in some serious trouble when I stepped off the plane. It’s a 10 minute walk to the house. The wind was so fierce, the cold so intense, I thought I was going to have to knock on a house and find some shelter before I made it home. And if you know me, that’s something I would NEVER do! The coldness penetrated every piece of clothing I had on, and after about 30 seconds of walking I realized I needed to get home fast, so I started to run as best I could through the foot of snow and around the drifts. When I finally got home I had to bang on the door for Naomi to open it, and thank goodness she was there! I came inside and sat down on the floor, trying to defrost! For the next 30 minutes my fingers literally hurt. Anyway, I knew I was lucky not to get frostbite, and I won’t test my strength like that again.
I did, though, go out for a walk on the tundra the next day, in proper clothing, and the snow is waist deep and very hard to walk in like that! I didn’t get very far. I’m anxious for my snow shoes to get here so I can go further out. But don’t worry, I learned my lesson!
School started up good and I’m getting into a routine pretty smoothly. This semester is going to be really hectic with a bigger health class, taking a long distance course, studying for my praxis 2 test in reading (which is in march!), and (possibly) coaching basketball. Many girls aren’t able play for one reason or another, so as of now we’re not sure if the team will exist. But I’m just thankful God has provided and has allowed me to follow Him here, even when I have no idea what I’m doing.
Hoping you’re warmer than I am,
Kim
P.S. The picture was taken in Anchorage on my way home for Christmas. There are definitely no trees around here!