The Eye (Brows) Have It!

I cannot believe I have not posted about this before! Knowing this fact is crucial to ANY communication with Yup'ik speakers. So, generally if you ask someone if they want to do something you will get a verbal "yes" or "no" or at least a nod or head shake. Not here-they only way to decipher your answer is to watch the eyebrows. If a Yup'ik person is answering "yes", they will raise their eyebrows. That is it! (oh, and by the way, EVERYONE, young and old alike do this!)Thank goodness my partner-in-crime clued me into this because there is seriously NO verbal response, and at times you think you are being ignored, until you remember to keep your eyes on their face at all times during conversation.
P.S. The answer "no" is just a blank stare!

For Dan

While walking home today, I noticed fish drying on someone's front porch- turns out the fish are Northern Pike from recent ice fishing in the Kuskokwim River. Dan loved catching Pike while living in North Dakota. I must really miss him- if I am posting pictures of dried fish!

Last Trip to Toksook

I started my job this year at the village of Toksook Bay, so it seemed fitting that I end this year there as well. What a difference from the fall to the spring! According to many of the residents, this has been a record year for snow accumulation.


This is the village on Nelson Island where a herd of musk ox live. (No, I didn't get to see them, this is a picture of a poster in the school!)

Check this out! This is a snowmobile buried in the snow- look close and you will see the handle bars!

When I reached the Head Start building, some of the kids were sitting on the roof because of the amount of snow, and when you look at the next picture, notice the "snow steps" down to the front door. (When I was here in the fall, the front door was level with the ground).

When I got to Head Start, I had the honor of listening to the teacher read a story in Yup'ik. It was great! Even though I could not understand a word, I could completely follow the story. (the name of the book was "On Mother's Lap"- about a little Yup'ik boy and his mother- and it can be found on Barnes and Noble -if should want a great little cultural story!)

Native Children's Art Show

This week at the District Office, there is a display of children's artwork from all the village schools. It was so much fun to look at, and really made me think of my "art docent" days at Cherry Valley School in Polson! Enjoy the photos!

Food for Thought

Anyone that knows me knows how much I like to cook and bake. And I still enjoy it while working in the frozen north! In fact, it is one thing that helped me to feel "normal" while I am here. Each time we travel here my PIC (partner in crime Kathy) and I make our meal plans. We have started bringing more and more in the way of groceries with us. Food is quite expensive here (Read: one gallon of milk and a box of cereal= $20). This time, we actually packed lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, apples and strawberries in our suitcases! It also helps the time to pass quickly when you can sit down to a nice home-cooked meal with someone else!

Our first night here, we had salad and pasties- Yum-Yum! Sure beats cans of soup and packages of oatmeal!

Moose Cheeseburgers

One of my third grade students was telling me about a recent trip to Puerto Rico that he and his family took. *
I was asking him about the things they did, what they saw, and what they ate. He told me that he had had cheeseburgers, but he did not like them. I asked his why and he asked my if I knew they made cheeseburgers out of cow? Yes, I did I said. I asked him what he thought cheeseburgers made of- he replied "Moose".

*(this year in Alaska it was a record year for PFD(Permanent Fund Dividends) payments, basically each member of a family gets money from the state of Alaska, so this year most people took vacations)

Towels + Earplugs = SLEEP!

I have discovered the magic combination for sleeping through: A: the never-ending Alaskan sunlight and B: noisy roommates who cook and watch TV at 3:00AM----

Towels (pinned over the windows)
Earplugs

What took me so long????