Full Blown Springitus

Forget the swine flu. I have no hard data to support this, but I'm certain that Spring Fever has taken many more casualties this season. It's a northern hemisphere pandemic!! Disinfect everything you see!!! And if you should come into contact with me, you had better drink a gallon of OJ, get lots of sleep, and do whatever else it is that you do, because I am a carrier and I am contagious.

My students have it too, but I don't think we caught it from each other. The students lately have been coming to class exhausted. That's because the sun sets at about 11:30, it stays light/twilight til 12:30, and the kids stay up til 2 or 3 in the morning. But it is what it is. It's frustrating, but not daunting. I just stay upbeat, try to make it fun for the kids, and if all else fails, torture them with hands-on, minds-on assignments. Oh, the horror.

My symptoms:

Baseball. It's no secret that I love the Milwaukee Brewers. I love the fact that I can listen to them online, broadcast by WTMJ, courtesy of MLB.com. 4,000 miles from Miller Park I can hear the action clear as a bell. I have subjected several Yup'ik Eskimo students to hearing Bob Uecker do play-by-play. I also love the fact that the team is playing great. Today we listened to the Crew beat the Cardinals 1-0, much to my delight. I love pitcher's duels. I wish all games were 1-0 Brewer wins. "Hope springs eternal" was a phrase made for baseball. By the way, if the color scheme on this page makes you think about the Brewers, then I'm glad.

Fishing. While I did get to catch a few pike and a few tomcod over the winter using a manaaq, that was a far cry from scratching the itch. Normally I would have organized all my tackle in mid-April, one of my annual rituals. Instead, I can only daydream about bringing fish into the '76 Starcraft I have collecting dust in Racine. Can't wait to get out fishing and camping.

Haircuts. I haven't had one since the end of February. I'll go visit Barber Bill once I get to town, and try to get presentable.

Food. When I think of summertime food like brats on the charcoal grill my mouth floods with drool.

Family and Friends. I can't wait to see everybody. You're all loved and missed.


And the cure: If all goes according to plan, I'll be landing in Madison on Sunday the 24th.

Oh yeah.

I've got it bad.

Eek! A Village!

I'm squeezing in one last village for the year before the highly anticipated summer break. I landed here in Eek (home of the Cougars) on Monday and so far, so good. Two of my three classes are taught during the normal school day. No big shocker as to which of the three has attendance issues. What teenager wouldn't want to stay after school for an extra class in May? Especially when there are geese, swans, and cranes to hunt.

This past Saturday was prom night. I wonder what attendance will be like now that the staff here can't use that old "if you skip or misbehave you can't come to prom" threat. If you're wondering about the prom, I didn't go. I had the opportunity to chaperone prom back in my first year at Maple. I'm really not into dances. But, here's a picture of the parking lot at Eek school at 10:30 on prom night.


The accommodations here are top-notch. That's because I have a friend, Traci, who teaches here and has an extra room at her house. It's nice to finish out the year at a place with a comfortable bed, good food (including fresh fruit and vegetables), and good company. She has a couple of kittens that are actually quite friendly. In fact, overly friendly at times. They do make things interesting, it's just that if I sit down they climb all over me, they follow me around the house, and generally are pretty friendly. I'd still take a dog any old day of the week, but these felines are ok.

I got out for a couple of walks around the village. The Eek river is broken and flowing strong.


Here's the runway at the airport.

Just kidding. This is the old runway. They have a new, nice one now. This one looks like it would have been a tad spooky.

Other than that....2 weeks from now I should be in my truck bringing my boat to town for lots of summertime use. Students aren't the only ones who get excited for the summer.

The Birds Are Flying

Yesterday I flew out of Kwethluk and back to Bethel, a flight of about 10 minutes. It was and is absolutely beautiful. T-shirt weather. Remember when I was stuck sitting at the runway back in Kong for a long time? I was actually kind of hoping it would happen yesterday, it was that nice out. Sadly, the plane was right on time.

Once we got up in the air we saw lots of geese flying. One group was relatively close to us and the pilot quick cut and released a hard right, flashing the wings at the group. We had a laugh over that one. It was so pretty to see the melting riverways and animals on the move, I would have loved to just fly around for a while for the fun of it.

Monday I'm flying out to Eek which is further away so hopefully it's a nice day. I'm looking forward to Eek, but I am worried about these birds. Bird hunting takes over peoples lives this time of the year, I am told. It was beginning to become that way at Kwethluk. Students fail classes because there are geese. People lose their jobs because there are geese. I'm worried about geese thwarting my attempts to teach.

I shot video of our takeoff from Kwethluk yesterday, just for the fun of it, to show the friends and family back home the difference between my commute to work and theirs.

Speaking of friends and family back home, I love and miss you all. I'm really excited to see everybody in just 3 short weeks!!

We Saw Us A Critter!!

Not a heckuva lot to report here in KWT right now. Classes are in full swing, and with the great weather we've had over the past 10 days, student attendance is the #1 obstacle I'm facing. The calendar is a distant second.

Last Saturday Erin and Joel (roomate at the TO) rode their snow-gos up here to get me, and we rode on down to Bethel for the evening. I was able to do a little laundry and pick up some fruit and veggies to bring back to the village to share.

Sunday on the ride back we saw a big ol' lynx running across the river in front of us. It stopped on the edge and gave us a withering glare before turning away to the woods.

We've had even warmer temps this week, up to about 40, and last night and today some rain. It's making things a sloppy slushy mess, and the hikes just don't sound as appealing.

Spring was nicer when it wasn't so springy.

Touch of Spring Fever

Each evening in Kwethluk has been sunny, and they've gotten warmer by the day. It's light until 10:30, and it would be a pity to waste the daylight. I've been doing some hiking and exploring in and around the village. Here is some of the evidence:


This is from the Kwethluk River, an offshoot of the Kusko. That burnt-orange looking thing in the upper left corner is the school.

This is what I believe to be called Birch Hill. It was a nice hike out to it, and the panorama from atop made it worth the while.






Ahh, spring!!

BET/KWT

The busy, needed, and fun-filled week in Bethel is over. And what fun it was...

The first weekend back, I went out manaaq-ing for the 2nd time in my life. The first was out in Toksook Bay, this time was down river from Bethel at the confluence of the Kuskokwim and Johnson rivers. Don't worry, the ice was plenty thick. How thick? Well, we drilled as far as the hand-auger would go, and still needed to work hard with a pick to get through the rest. Luckily, after a couple of holes were drilled with much effort, a nice Native man came over with a power auger and blasted several holes for us, so all we had to do was pick through the last 4 inches or so. It was about 4-5 feet thick.

Having holes, we moved on to the fishing, which meant using a stick with some line, a heavy jig tipped with a pike eyeball, some jigging and some patience. Our group got several pike, I got 3 myself.

Another thing I'll be missing out here is some of that fancy home cooking at the TO. Here's John displaying a pan of brownies Jimmy made.





Now I'm at Ket'acik Aap'alluk Memorial School (Home of the Kings) in Kwethluk (KWT). Classes will begin this afternoon. I went out for a nice long walk last night, and there were lots of people out walking around enjoying the beautiful weather. (It was clear, calm, sunny, and zero)




There are trees here that are taller than me, which is a refreshing change.

So Long, Boiler Room

This past Friday was the day for me to skedaddle from Kongiganak, aka Donkey Kong, aka Kongiganak, pronounced in the traditional, non-kassaq way. Normally I like to do these departure things on Saturdays, as there are tons of SNAFU possibilities when traveling, and having the whole day as a buffer for them is helpful. But this time I had my final inservice of the year to attend in Bethel on Saturday, so Friday afternoon we made a go of it. More on that in a bit.

How was Kong? I'm sure that's on everyone's minds. Kong was ok. There, I've said it. Positives first: I met, as always, some kind and friendly staff and locals there. I had a nice comfy living area up amongst the ductwork. I was so used to the hum up there, I was kind of sleepless my first night back in Bethel. Kind of like missing the sound of the trains at night in Gordon, WI, which I do. There was a pretty nice (clean) kitchen to use at the school, and even an open shelf in the fridge where I could keep my perishables. Oh, and they let me have a key to the school. Some places like to hem and haw about borrowing me a key to use while I'm there. Some make me sign my life away on a sheet of paper. Some pretend not to have any or know their whereabouts. Some just refuse. Anything besides giving me a key right away is stupid. Kong passed the B.R. Key Loan Intelligence Test.

Not-so-positives: My classes were all taught after school hours at Kong. This meant that my day was spent doing prep work, reading, conversing with friends, etc. I'd much prefer to teach in the day and be done in the evenings. The kids like it better that way, too. The thing is, they have a choice, and several chose to drop out of the classes, since staying enrolled would involve being at school until 8:30 at night. It gets frustrating having kids drop out of your program, especially since it's an opportunity they haven't had before, and may not have again. On the plus side, the students that stuck it through were dedicated.

Also, the facilities had a couple issues. With pretty much every village I go to, it's a given that there will be some civil construction project, with construction workers living out of the school, cramping my itinerant lifestyle big time. At this one, there was actually a temporary living place near the jobsite for all these guys to live, with most of the necessary amenities. The one thing they were missing out there was showering and laundry facilities. Not to worry, as Kong has a washeteria for them to take care of their needs. But, the day I arrived in Kongiganak was the day the washeteria burnt up and the music died. Doing hygiene, for me, meant waiting til stupid hours of the night for this parade of workers to be done in the only men's bathroom in the school.

Speaking of the men's bathroom, special thanks to the kid, who every 3 days or so would go in there and piss all over the place. Oops, I almost forgot to thank his buddy, the kid with the bloody nose who leaves blood on the floor, sinks, and walls.
Every school should have staff facilities, separate from everybody else's.

I suppose at this time I should cut to the chase and discuss the travel back. My charter plane was scheduled to arrive to get me at 4 PM on Friday. I had the maintenance man help me get the gear onto the sled and out to the runway 15 minutes early, just to be safe. The weather was about 5 degrees, wind about 20 knots. Not too bad. But, by the time the plane showed up at 5:20 I was kind of cold. Evidently the airline had me down for 4/7 instead of 4/3. When my ride went to pick me up at the airport in Bethel and asked about my flight, they made the panic face and scrambled to send a plane out for me. Not only that, but in the meantime a big A.T.S. twin prop cargo plane showed up and was taking up most of the taxi area, which meant I had to move all the stuff from the usual loading spot. Moving all the gear over to my plane across glare ice without spikes was a tricky, backbreaking pain in the posterior.

After loading up, it was a cold, drafty, noisy ride home. I got the plane with the really bad doors this time. I always have earplugs in my coat, largely due to the possibility of sometime having to ride in this particular plane. It pays off...

Arriving at Yute Air so late in the day, nobody was there besides the employees. My ride/box van was nowhere to be found. After I called the TO for a ride, then my coworker showed up all stressed out about the whole thing. So I had 2 rides show up. Right away, the scheduled driver said how they had to cancel an appointment to get me so late. Since they were the same person who set up my flight, I informed them that I had been sitting at the runway for an hour and a half, what the #@&* happened to 4:00?? Who knows how one can mess up the difference between Friday 4/3 and Tuesday 4/7. Soon enough I was at the TO, wolfing tacos for dinner, and Donkey Kong was just another one for the books.