The Store

This is the store in Atmauthluak.  It is like an old fashioned general store.  It carries a wide variety of goods... things like motor oil, rope, coats, and food.   The prices are high because everything has to be flown in.  For instance, a medium bag of potato chips is $8.00.  What they carry varies from week to week, depending on the weather and what is able to be shipped in.  Oh, and some of the food is past it's expiration date.  I ate some crackers from there that had expired in 2008.

They also carry various and sundry toiletries and supplies, as well as native crafts by locals.  I bought a pretty knit hat while I was there, and other teachers bought beaded jewelry.

One of the best selling items are boxes of bullets!  Most in the village are subsistence hunters, which means they live off the land; hunting, fishing, and gathering.  Here is one of my students buying some bullets before heading out for a day of hunting when the migrating birds started showing up.

There is also another small store in the village, a family devoted a room in their house to house some groceries.  They are open in the evenings while the bigger store is closed.

So, that is a taste of shopping in the Alaskan bush!

Re-Entry

Those last days in Atmau were a frenzy of grades, packing and last visits!  I was also getting the classroom ready for the new math teacher to take over the reins in August.  I'm happy that the students are getting a teacher with a wealth of experience.  She is coming from another village, so should be able to step right into it.

My trip home was great!  The village airline agent picked me up on her four wheeler and I hopped on the short flight to Bethel... much more relaxed than I'd been 9 weeks ago on the trip out to the village.

I spent the weekend with Anna:

I enjoyed the service on Sunday.  It was Anna's last time singing with the worship team since she is moving to Good News Bay.  I took a couple of cute shots of Elizabeth & her, they are going to miss each other!

I still have things to share that I didn't have the time to blog about, so there will be some additional retro-postings...

How do you eat a whale?

...one bite at a time!  I changed my old favorite from elephant to whale so that my students could relate better, and it worked.

Now, I feel like I'm the one eating the whale.  This last week of school is whirlwind, so many details to take care of for my classes:  grades, records, organizing, packing, decisions for next year.

The last days I've spent making Yup'ik style dolls, modeled after a doll that one of the teachers here learned to make at a district workshop.  The students have done a great job, here are some of the finished products:

So, off to take another bite of that whale!

"Can't Talk Now, We're Cooking a Teacher"

she said into her cell phone.

Steams are the showers of this village.  Since the homes here don't have running water, many have steam houses as a method of cleaning.  The one that I went to today had 2 small rooms with enough space for the 3 of us in each one.  The ceilings were low, although I could stand up in the outer room if I stood where the roof peaked.

The outer room had nails around the perimeter, and we left our clothes there.  The inner room had an oil drum stove fired with wood and lava rocks (like you'd find in a gas grill) on top, and enough floor space for us and the basins of pond water and melting snow.

I really had no idea just how hot and intense the steam would be!  My skin felt like I had just touched an oven rack.  We held washcloths over our faces to keep the heat from searing our lungs.  Yeah, it was HOT.  I finally said, "That's it for me!' and dove out into the outer room, much to the amusement of my hostess.  I cooled down, and went back in for another round.

We steamed, sweated, cooled down, and then repeated the process.  The final step was to wash using the basins.  We scrubbed and rinsed, and then sat in the outer room for a final cool down.  My lobster red skin gradually faded.

I'm pretty sure that every single pore I have is completely clean now.

Not only an effective method of cleansing, but this rather lengthy process includes a valuable social aspect as well.  It was a time of bonding: we enjoyed small talk, giggles, confidences and talked about God.  There was even some singing!

I'm glad I had this opportunity. Now I am clean, incredibly relaxed, and have had a glimpse into another aspect of life in this village.

"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance." -Japanese Proverb

Prom was a smashing success.  You would have never known that there had been all those eleventh-hour glitches... the gym looked great, the food arrived and was served, the music worked out fine, and all appropriate cords were found in time to pull it all off.  All the hard work by the middle school teacher, who sponsored the event, paid off, everyone had a great time!

 Prom had a rather slow start, but no worries, these two rocked it out and got the party started, got the party started, got the party started!

Too bad this isn't a video!

Everyone dressed in their finest duds!

An elementary teacher worked hard to set up a photo booth.  Teachers at all grade levels pitch in for the prom. Using a green screen and his MacBook Pro, people were able to get their pictures taken and then he dropped in the background of their choice.  It was great!  Here are some of the results:

You can see how the photos look with the backgrounds dropped in if you go to our school website.

The last dance of the night was called a broom dance, and it was a dance version of Musical Chairs, played with partners instead of chairs.  Lots of laughter!

Oh, and we didn't clean up the gym.  The custom is to leave it up for the children who were too young to come to prom and have a "Kiddie Prom" on Monday.  After having the lunchroom/gym closed off to them for a whole week, the kids will be invited into the grand ballroom and rock out to the music cranked, play with the balloons, and partake in leftover refreshments.  Should be a blast!

The Tassel is Worth the Hassle!

Well, 2 of the 4 seniors completed their phases in time to graduate.  Everyone finished up math in time (whew!), but two need another semester to get their writing and research presentations done.  Here is a very nervous Graduate presenting her Senior Project to the judges & community:

So the past week was spent decorating the gym for the impending festivities, which are held all on the same day: Graduation and Prom.  Miles of streamers festoon the gym, pillars were erected, lights strung, and festive posters made by talented staff and students adorn every wall.  The ordinary room where hot lunches are served on cardboard trays has been transformed into a tribute to the honored graduates.

We had graduation this afternoon, here are a few highlights for you:

 Miss M. is bound for college in Montana!

 Classmates since Kindergarten!

Thanking mom!

Sorry about the blurriness, I had my camera on the wrong setting for the gym.  Now, off to take a nap and go back to school for Prom.

Goose Mini Feast

My google search last night was "wild goose cook safely".

Cooking wild goose made me nervous.  The native advice that I've gotten ran along the lines of: 

     a) Don't cook it too short, or it can make you sick,  and

     b) Don't cook it too long, or it will be too dry

 The traditional way here to eat birds of any kind is to make bird soup.  It is quick, easy, and feeds a lot of people.   Since I am pot-and-pan-challenged here, I decide to roast the geese in the oven.  I looked up lots of recipes, and decided to use a recipe that I have used successfully with chicken, Roast Sticky Chicken.

When I went to the school kitchen to ask to borrow a pot to cook rice, the cook was interested in my gussak attempts at preparing geese, so she and her daughter joined us.

It was a fun time, the geese turned out well... I think everyone was surprised.  Whew. After all my years of cooking, I'm learning new tricks!

"You are old," said the youth, "And your jaws are too weak For anything tougher than suet; Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak— Pray, how did you manage to do it?" ~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Tuesday brought more wild game to my doorstep:  4 geese!

This time I was an old hand... although the kids commented on how slowly I was plucking, they admired my goose when it was nekkid because I had worked carefully to keep the skin intact.

And, yes.  I am wearing my pajamas.  It is Spirit Week, and today was wear your pajamas to school day.  Aren't I a good sport?!

After the tedious task of cleaning those birds, I decided not to cook them today... it would have taken way too long for a school night.  So, tomorrow the kids are invited for a mini-feast after school.  I will roast the geese (just how long does one roast a goose?!), cook up some rice, and scrounge up anything else I can find in the pantry to supplement the meal.

After I shooed the kids along their way, a couple of friends came over for a sewing session and gab-fest.   We are fortunate enough to have access to sewing machines, so we are working on some quaspeqs (pronounced kus-pucks).   Okay, to be truthful, they worked and I talked... all in all, a lovely day.

A proud seamtress displays her first seam ever!  Fun times.

Flying Desks

"Harboring resentment is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die." unknown

How's that for a practical analogy?  I read this a while ago, and saved it for a future day.

Unfortunately, today is that day.
 
The village is small.  We have about 80 students K-12, which means they grow up together, and graduate with the same kids they were with in Kindergarten.  While this makes for a tightknit clan in some ways, in other ways it can be difficult.

Something between some teen boys came to a head today.  The period was ending, they had just cleaned up and were ready to go.  I believe that taunting words were said, and it was the last straw for this student... all of a sudden, one of my seemingly gentle students went ballistic.

His fury was frightening.  The desks and chairs that were lifted and dashed to the floor were the expression of his intense anger.  Remarkably, I also think the aim reflected restraint on his part... they landed directed next to the bully.  He, thankfully, still had that presence of mind not to injure anyone.

I feel terrible that my classroom was not a safe place for this child today, and am praying for wisdom on how to work with these students on the concepts of acceptance, kindness, and forgiveness.

Skype and a Goose

I skyped for the first time this weekend.  Just like the picture phones on the Jetsons!  It was so much fun chatting with my guys.  They wrote me an amazing song for Mother's Day... I laughed until there were tears in my eyes.   I miss them, they are not only wonderful sons, but fabulous individuals who are blessings in my life.  I know they will just love being called fabulous.  

Yesterday a teacher friend went hunting, and got some geese.  We went over for a goose dinner today, another exotic meat "first" for me!  Figure/ground discrim check:  Can you spot the head on this platter?

This girl's got some gravy making skills!

Hey, I liked it!  It was tasty, and quite entertaining... the head was a fun talking puppet:

Not everyone appreciated the talking goose humor.

Anna was more adventurous than her mom.  

She tried goose brain and here she is holding the eyeball that she ate.

All in all, a fun adventure in dining!

"Treat your family like friends, and your friends like family." ~old proverb

I've been enjoying the company of a special guest since Thursday:  Anna!  It's been fun to have her share in my life here in Atmautluak.

My students were very excited to have Anna visit... some of them remembered her from when I moved here and some didn't realize that she is my daughter.  Family is very important here, so they especially have valued her time here.

We've had fun together, enjoying each other's company as well as those of students and the staff that have welcomed me here.  We've shared meals, fellowship and stayed up way too late.

I am thankful to have a daughter that has grown up to be a friend.

"Small Cheer and Great Welcome Makes a Merry Feast" ~Shakespeare

Today was Henri's eleventh birthday.  The village was invited for a feast!

I walked to the feast with two other teachers.  We walked into their house, and there were people filling every spot on the furniture and on the floor, spilling over into every other room.  The kitchen floor had huge pots of food lining the whole side of the room, and the mom of the house, sat in the corner, waiting. We found seats on the floor, sat and waited and chatted.

Here are two people I've enjoyed getting to know in my weeks here: our 1st/2nd Grade Teacher, and one of the women who provide meals for the school (& her cute youngest!). 

People continued to come in, filling every inch of the welcoming home.  After a bit, the birthday girl sat at the head of the kitchen table, and we sang happy birthday to her.

Serving time!  The hostess started scooping up dishes of food, seated in her corner, and squatting along the pots on the floor, and her designated helpers brought food to seated guests.

First the men seated at the kitchen table were served, as is the custom.  The servers moved swiftly, and soon everyone was enjoying a meal.  There were many different dishes, all served randomly.  I was brought a delicious bowl of chicken soup and a serving of Eskimo ice cream.  Eskimo ice cream is a delicious concoction of berries, sugar, Crisco and fish or seal oil.

A friend was served some sort of meat.

As the men seated at the kitchen table finished their meals, they went outside to make room for other men.  My friend explained that even those who had finished their meals would take a turn at one of the six places at the kitchen table and then be served birthday cake and partake of the bread, hardcooked eggs, candy and pickled fish that were the special finish to the feast.

I met new people, enjoyed the meal, asked a lot of questions, and had a good time!  I will leave you will some shots of this adorable guest: