Onward!

I went in to Bethel last weekend to take a test and the weather was nice and warm! They lost most of their snow and the temperature was in the 30s. I had a good time despite having a bad cold. I know my students don’t get to go into town very often so before I left I asked them if there was anything they needed or really wanted. I figured they would ask for chips, cokes, and candy, so I was surprised when the biggest request came out to be socks!

My life should be much easier next year. The district is changing the reading program and I may actually have resources and material to work with. It’s been heck trying to figure out how to teach reading with hardly any books! All new teachers in Alaska are required to take 2 courses dealing with the history of Alaska and the different cultures here. I’ve been busy trying to finish them before summer so I can enjoy a nice mental break when I fly home!

So good news on the guy that was lost between villages. They found him after 4 days. The search and rescue team found his snow machine first, then a couple days later spotted him walking. He stuffed grass in his clothes for warmth – dug way below to find the grass, and it kept him alive!

At the last NYO meet of the year we went to Goodnews Bay – no site of bears or caribou like we thought, but the view was just beautiful! We climbed a big hill but had to rush back down because of a snow storm. We stayed 2 nights at the school and on the last night they held a big feast for the coaches and chaperones. The people from the village brought in all kinds of good dishes - moose stew (my favorite Eskimo food!), salmon jerky, baked salmon, Eskimo ice cream, fish soup (whole fishes floating around in broth… interesting. The eyes looking up at me made me pass this dish up.) They had blueberry tea, actually made from picked blueberries in the fall… so good!  Goodnews Bay is south from here, and the mountains surrounding it separate it from Bristol Bay. They lost most of their snow, too, so the ride to and from the airport on the sled was muddy and bumpy. It’s all part of the experience though, so I don’t mind – just go with it and expect to get dirty and be sore from sleeping on the floor!

My leg is almost back to normal. It still has a deep bruise but it’s doing much, much better, and I’m able to go on hikes again, which I’ve missed. 

So we only have 3 more weeks of school left! This year has gone pretty fast, which, looking back, I’m thankful for, because otherwise I might have gone crazy. I feel so much more comfortable teaching with this strange system with so many different grade levels, and I’ve come along way with my students. Today my junior high class admitted they gave me a hard time this year because I’m a new teacher (no surprise there… they tested and pushed me over and over and over and over…) and in general I think I handled it pretty well, considering I’m the youngest teacher of all the 352 teachers in the entire district.

Hope yall are doing well! Thanks for reading the blog and for all your prayers.

Close Calls

I’m finally getting to where I can walk normally again. On the fox chase I had a snow machine accident. I went up over the bank of a river, and thought the other side leveled off, but it went straight down and straight back up. I didn’t want to get the snow machine stuck in the narrow valley so I gassed it. I went straight up, 10 feet in the air, and flew 21 feet before I flew off the front of the snow machine and landed, (thankfully,) on soft snow. But the snow machine had to land too, right on top of me! 600 pounds falling on top of me. Ouch. I keep thinking back and count how lucky I was that 1) There were 3 other people there to pull the machine off me and 2) I didn’t get injured badly. We were miles and miles from Newtok, so we couldn’t get a signal on the cell phone. So after Kevin and Travis (Travis is one of my high school students) pulled the snow machine off of me I couldn’t even roll over. My leg was bent back and therefore took most of the blow of the snow machine weight. I blacked out for a short while, and they didn’t want to roll me over because they thought my back was broken. I knew it was just my leg – knee, really, and I couldn’t move it. While they were contemplating on what to do next I just lay there in the snow for about five minutes. When they saw I was going to be okay they were actually pretty impressed with the jump and that’s when Kevin measured the distance I traveled through the air. They helped me on the back of Kevin’s snow machine and my student drove my machine back. No major damage done to the machine – just a really cracked “dashboard” and a damaged oil tank. So after what seemed like forever we made it back to Newtok and Kevin took me to the clinic. The guy there was on the phone to the doctor in Bethel to discuss what to do. I knew it wasn’t anything serious, just pretty banged up. It was already swollen pretty bad and bruised up, but I knew I didn’t need to fly to Bethel for anything less than a tear. I was just thankful the snow machine didn’t land on my head and that the guys were there to save me! Anyway, the guy at the clinic gave me some crutches, ibuprofen, and a couple of instant cold packs. He said “if you need more cold packs there’s always the snow outside.” I was on the crutches for a couple of days and after 2 weeks the swelling is finally going down and I can walk without a limp. It still hurts to turn it but nothing serious. 

In a couple of days I’m traveling to Goodnews Bay with the NYO team. I’m the certified chaperone for Newtok and another school on the island – Nightmute. Grant said it’s likely I’ll see bears and caribou, and I really hope I do! I’ve heard Goodnews Bay is beautiful. I’ll definitely take the camera. My only concern is if we get weathered here. I finally saw my first blizzard a couple of nights ago and it was outrageous! Winds were 80 to 90 mph and our house was shaking! We had another snow storm last night, but I hope everything is calm when it comes time to leave. We’re scheduled to leave Thursday at noon and to return Saturday afternoon.

There is a man from Newtok who tried to travel to another village before the blizzard came and he never made it. The search and rescue team has been looking for him for 2 days now and we’re all hoping they find him! People have been lost for days and have survived, so I’m hopeful. Every time I go out on the snow machine I learn something new, and I see every time the necessity for safety and doing things right. I’m typically the kind of person to just jump in and go for it if it sounds like fun. But it can cost you your life out here. When I was away from the village and got stuck on a snow drift I learned you need to take a shovel with you when you’re far from the village. When I hear about the people’s stories of how they were riding, and the next minute it’s a white-out, you need to be prepared. Have a beacon on you and carry a compass, take energy bars with you in case something happens. I’ve learned some things through trial and error, and I’m just thankful God allowed me to survive those errors!

Hope yall are doing well, I can’t wait to see everyone! And don’t worry about me, I’m doing fine!

In His Grip,

Kim

Hey yall

I don’t know who’s more excited about summer – my students or me! I do like my job, most of the time, and I am constantly in awe of God’s hand in my adventure. But the cold excitement has worn down and the increasing sunlight is too nice, and I’m looking forward to the days when I don’t have to think about work for a while. The sun sets around 10:00 at night, and we’re gaining a few minutes every day.
The other day a couple of my students came to my house with the guys’ basketball coach (a guy from Louisiana) and asked if I wanted to go hunting rabid foxes. I jumped at the opportunity to get out and have some fun and was even more excited that they wanted to include me in their Yupik activities. So we all took off on our snow machines. We would ride to the top of a hill and look all around. When we spotted something moving in the distance we would take off, speeding off to get the fox. It’s common knowledge you don’t need a hunting license in the bush. At least, no one checks if you have one. I wasn’t aware of this until a couple of months ago, but Yupiks don’t eat the fox, they just use the fur. But for a long time (years now) the foxes (or many of them) are rabid, and spread it to the dogs in the village. So they are constantly killing dogs and killing foxes whenever they can. So anyway, we went looking for rapid foxes, and the fun is all in the chase. We got three that day. How it works is (if you’re a peta activist you may want to skip this section) you chase the fox and run over it with the snowmachine. You have to do this several times because they are pretty tough, and you need to slow them down in order to make the shot. When you shoot your gun your back has to be to the village, so it’s easier to do this when the fox is right at your feet. So anyway, we got 3 foxes and it was a lot of fun!
We finally got a new incinolet, and the water system at the school is working again. Instead of the big distillers they have they actually have CLEAN running water right out of the pipes, so they can finally use a drinking fountain. They removed the distillers, so teachers had to get water from the drinking fountain for a while (not cool! Spitting tobacco, little kids putting their mouths on it… and we’re suppose to get all our drinking water from that?) So anyway, after some protests they finally plugged a distiller back up so it’s back like it use to be for the teachers. We go to the school, get a key, go out the back way, down a ramp into an outside building, hope the lock is not frozen… if so, we have to pour boiling water in the lock… and finally, fill our empty jugs. This is the same room where we do our laundry. Yeah, it’s a lot of work but you get use to it and for sure, I don’t take our water supply for granted now!
I’m out for now. I hope yall have a blessed Easter, and lets don’t forget that Jesus was OUR sacrifice, and He is the risen Lord! That is something to be stoked about!

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

First off, happy birthday mama! Hope you’re having an awesome one! Wish I was there to celebrate with ya.

Everyone warned the new teachers to the bush that late January through February would be the toughest time. Well, I can’t say that because I was at a training in Anchorage, and I was too busy studying for the praxis that I didn’t give it much thought. But now I can say I’m really, really anxious to see May get here. I’m a bit burned out to the novelty of teaching and the kids are getting rowdy. I could use some time off. So I’m really looking forward to the upcoming summer months in Texas! Of course it doesn’t help my nerves any when I get phone calls from brothers and sisters, wish makes me even more homesick!
But I can say that I’ve come a LONG way in so many ways I don’t even know where to start! So maybe that will be a few blogs down the road…

As you know by now we always seem to be on water watch. I don’t know the base of the problem but it’s got something to do with the well and the erosion of Newtok. We’ve had some guys come out to look at the problem and try to fix it. They’ve been here for close to 3 weeks now. In addition to having low water supplies at the school, our incinolet decided to stop working at home, so we’ve had to trudge up to the school every time we’ve needed to use the restroom. I’ve gotta say, when it’s 3:00 in the morning, I don’t think I’m civilized enough to rule out a bed pan.

We’ve also had many journalists, photographers, and video-makers visit Newtok for weeks at a time. Two guys traveled all the way from France to visit the first city – scratch that – place – dramatically effected by global warming, and we’ve had people from England and Switzerland visit as well, and they all camp out at the school, interviewing people from the village and asking questions about the affects and plans to move to the new site.

This month I signed the contract to come back next year. I took my reading praxis test last weekend and have one more test to take to be “highly qualified,” but at least I know I did something right to be asked back! So I went to Bethel and enjoyed getting to eat out, even though it’s so dang pricey. An order of cheese enchiladas (which doesn’t even compare to Tex-mex…) was $20! So when I was weathered in Bethel due to a blizzard in Newtok I spent plenty of money and was hoping not to get stuck another day.

But I made it back and am keeping my eyes on May, trying to finish strong and glorify God while going forward. Hope everyone back home is having a great March!

Kim

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