PKA

Monday I began my real work here as I was shipped out to my first village, beautiful Napaskiak (home of the Hawks), or PKA as it's known from by airlines. So that morning I packed up the rest of my crap and headed in to the District Office, and from there I loaded up an LKSD cube van with all my gear and the drivers ed/welding gear. We chartered a Cessna 207 and one of the boxes still didn't fit. Once it was time to go, our pilot turned and asked "ok who's co-pilot?" to which I said "what the hell...can I be?" It turns out, yes, I can. Pre-flight instructions are a little bit different on bush planes. Ours went something to the effect of "your seatbelt works just like you'd think it does, the emergency exit is the door right next to you, we'll be there in about 10 minutes." A friend told me about the pre-flight instructions they got a while ago, which went like this: "In case we go down, the gun's under my seat." I can see how that could be a really good thing to know. So sure enough, 10 minutes later we were at PKA International Airport and Convention Center. (see photo)

It was a really nice day, and the pilot radioed the school to let them know we were soon there, so upon landing I just dragged all my gear out of the plane and sat down on some of it and waited for Joe, (the school secretary, town mayor, barber, et al.) to come get me on his 4 wheeler/trailer, which he did within a half hour or so. After a hectic day of setting up, settling in, planning schedules (overfilling my schedule), and other business, I was "ready" to teach on Tuesday.

My daily schedule has 4 welding classes in a row in the morning, then a drivers ed class in the afternoon. Then at 6, I have a group of 10 students from the village of Oscarville (home of the Hornets) who come across the Kusko for drivers ed class. I give these kids a lot of credit. They work hard, have good attitudes, and they get on a boat every day to go take a night class. I've really enjoyed the students so far. Here is the Napaskiak slough where nautical arrivals and departures take place.
I have had the opportunity to cross over to Oscarville a couple of times myself. I went and taught the class at their place this past Wednesday, in the very classroom of my great friend Erin. We had so much fun that I was invited back to Oscarville after class on Friday, where I was treated to a couple of delicious meals and learned how to play Canasta. Crossing the Kusko is more of a trip than it would seem like. It's a very, very big river. It takes about 10-15 minutes in a boat moving at a pretty good clip. Here are some photos of the river. It is not only large, it is effected by the tides by several feet. That is why you will see some boats sitting way up on dry land in some photos, and boats wisely anchored out in the sloughs in other photos. Getting in and out of boats at low-tide requires rubber mud boots, which places mine high in the running for being the Best 17 Bucks I Ever Spent.

At Napaskiak, everybody gets around on 4 wheelers via the boardwalks, which go everywhere, like streets almost. There is a small general store, a public water fill station, the school, and a large Russian Orthodox church(below), among other things. There is a basketball court at the school, 3 feet above ground on deckboards and fenced in. The kids are really good basketball players. They play anytime the weather is good for it. The weather has been alright. We've had some really nice days and a few, like today, that have been sort of drizzly and blah. I teach class in a little red shed outside the school, where they have their "shop" classes. Wednesday morning was a particularly chilly one, about 45 degrees, and I hadn't yet gotten the heater working out there. The girls came to class and exclaimed "MAaaaannnn, so COoooolld"
Anyone who has spent time in the bush has probably heard that.