And so begins February...

So, our internet has been out for a week in the village.  Which doesn’t seem like a big deal, until you realize how much you use it.  I’ve been utterly bored!  And the internet company was not helpful about getting it up and running again.  Luckily I noticed tonight, as I was doing my dishes, the pretty lights on my internet box (which sits in my window, next to the sink).  It’s funny how excited we all got when it came back on!  It’s ridiculously slow though.

It’s also been ridiculously cold up here.  Pretty sure it hasn’t been above zero all week.  The moisture from my breath freezes on my coat as I walk to work.  Sometimes it makes me wonder...

(I love postsecret.com)

Anyway, I’ve got a killer tax refund coming back to me.  Pretty excited.  Last year, I went to Oahu on my tax refund.  This year, I’m going some place warm and sunny.  I just want to lay in the sun in a bikini and thaw.

Other news in the bush:  Basketball season is in full force.  Last week both our girls and boys basketball teams went down to New Stuyahok (also known as just Stu) last week.  They left Wednesday after school.  Now, you have to realize, when there’s only 21 high schoolers in the whole school, and 15 of them are on the basketball teams, that really leaves your lesson plans in a lurch.  Especially when two of the five students that are left haven’t really attended school since January.  It also means that when 75% of your high school leaves for sports, so does 75% of the village (if not more).  This week is the Elks tourney in Naknek, which means they’ll all leave again on Wednesday.  AND, if that doesn’t draw enough of our students away, there’s also carnival in Stu starting on Tuesday.  For all of you crazy Colorado folk, it’s not like the flashing lights and fast rides carnival.  It’s more like a festival;  cultural events take place, sometimes dog-sled racing, and other fun stuff.  Anyway, anyone who doesn’t leave for basketball will probably go down to Stu for the week for carnival.  Just another week in...paradise?

And I’m going to leave you by dispelling a few myths that seem to be in everyone’s head:  

1. Alaska is not always dark in the winter.  Even on the shortest day of winter, I had 6 hours of daylight.  Right now, the sun is coming up sometime between 8 and 9ish (not sure when exactly because I'm teaching) and setting around 7pm or so.
2. Alaska does not always have snow.  This is unfortunate right now, and apparently rare.  Recently, it’s been bitter cold (think -20) and very windy.  Not the best conditions for snow.  But very good conditions to keep our 2 or 3 inch layer of deadly ice in tact.  Currently, the lower-48 has more snow than my village.  It’s irritating.
3. There’s a significant difference between “Alaska” and the “Lower-48.”  They might as well be two different countries.  It’s not something you truly understand until you live here though.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Well, I received my contract for next year yesterday.  I suppose that’s a good thing.  I have a job in Alaska if I want it.  However, I’m having a lot of doubts of what I should do next year.  Might as well explain it all, since I don’t talk to most of you often...

The Good

The students here are awesome.  They have a lot of potential.  If you can reach them, appeal to their better nature, and build a good rapport with them, then you can truly tell that I picked a wonderful village to work in.  Maybe I got lucky because there’s two of us new teachers here.  Maybe I’m just a lesser of the two evils.  Who knows.  But it seems like they enjoy having me as a teacher.

The staff I work with is pretty cohesive.  Well...for the most part.  There’s 5 teachers, a special ed teacher, and the principal.  In a small school like ours, it’s important that everyone gets along for the most part.  Half of us live in very close proximity to each other, so it makes for pretty good friendships if you get along with them.

I make about $15,000 more up here in Alaska than I do in Colorado as a teacher.  That’s pretty awesome.  Who wouldn’t want to make more money?  Cha-ching!

It’s beautiful up here.  The weather hasn’t been “typical” Alaskan weather.  It’s been pretty warm.  All of our snow has melted and is just a thick layer of ice.  Even so, it’s still pretty.

We do have a bush airline that travels straight from Koliganek to Anchorage.  That makes things much cheaper in the long run, so I don’t have to fly through Dillingham.

The Bad

There’s not a lot to do here.  The village is VERY small.  I’m not sure anyone really understands how small it is here.  Less than 200 people in the village, and about 60 of those people are kids at school.  There’s not a lot of socialization opportunities here.  Very few people my age that aren’t already married with kids.

The economy here is pretty poor, much like most Alaskan bush villages.  In such a small village, jobs are hard to come by.  This puts a stress on the community as a whole.  Luckily, alcoholism isn’t very high here, however it can be a problem for some.  One of the jobs here is the dog-catcher.  Stray dogs are a problem for a couple of reasons.  They get into the trash, and when they can’t find food, they get violent.  They’ve attacked kids in the past.  So, they round up the stray dogs, take them to the dump, and shoot them.  Pretty crazy, right?  Guess who has that job...a high school student.  Other jobs include the trash man, the post office lady, the store cashiers, and a handful of village council jobs.

I’m the only teacher here that is single.  That’s pretty frustrating sometimes.  Being the only one without a family is sometimes hard.  It’s especially hard since I’m pretty close with my family in Colorado.  It can also be tough, since most of my friends are also in Colorado.  I truly miss going out for pizza and a beer after work with some friends.

Although I make more money up here, it also costs more money up here.  For example, a gallon of gas is $6.25 in the village.  Everything at our store is very pricey.  I have to ship everything in.  Transportation in and out is pretty crazy too.  The only way to come or go is via plane.  It cost me about $1400 to come home for Christmas (just for flights and hotels in Anchorage between flights).  So even if I am making more money, there’s a lot more expenses.

I’m still paying on my mortgage in Colorado.  Although I have a roommate now that helps with the cost of that, it’s still an added expense.  Everyone that wants me to stay here simply says “sell it!”  Easier said than done in a crappy, military-based economy.  Besides, I really enjoy having a place of my own to come home to when I’m not in Alaska.

The Ugly

The living conditions are decent.  But they’re not great.  I’ve gotten my rent knocked down quite a bit due to the condition of the housing here.  There’s an issue with mice where I live, which is disgusting.  They’re weird little mice too.  They don’t just eat things, they hoard it.  The mouse poison I put out, for example.  They started hoarding it under a blanket of mine and in a pair of jeans I had laying out.  Their trying to poison me back I guess.

In such a small school, if there’s anyone that you don’t get along with, it makes things very very difficult.  It’s hard to avoid people if you don’t see eye-to-eye.  And, at the end of the day, it’s not like you can go very far to escape the troubles of the day.

The Conclusion

Umm...I have no conclusion.  I have no idea what my plans are for next school year.  I’ve applied to all 11 Colorado Springs school districts, however, a lot of the districts are down-sizing.  Should I sign this Alaska contract?  Or not, and hope for a job in Colorado?  I have 30 days to decide.  Ultimately, it’s my decision, I’m aware.  I’m not sure if the good things outweigh the bad.  It’s just a shame more school districts won’t have jobs posted by then...

Superstitions and Other Weird Things

This blog would’ve probably been better if I posted it closer to Halloween.  But, what can ya do?  I’ve discovered life up here is a bit different.  They have different superstitions and beliefs up here.  Some sound familiar to things I’ve heard about before, others are a little more strange to me.

Hairy Man

We’ve all heard about Big Foot, right?  I suppose every place has some sort of large, hairy creature.  Down in Colorado, we call it Big Foot.  We don’t usually pay any mind to the idea of such a creature.  It’s not real, right?  Who knows.  Apparently there was a special on the Discovery Channel or something about Big Foot eating all the elk in Manitou Springs.  Well, I know all those Manitou people are slightly crazy, and usually pretty high...but why it made it on the Discovery Channel, I have no idea.  Anyway, up here, they call him “the Hairy Man.”  I suppose it falls into the same category as Big Foot.  Extra-large, extra-hairy creature that eats the animals.  The people up here will swear to you that they’ve seen the hairy man.  And, they run away from him, because he’s scary.

Northern Lights

This one is pretty basic I suppose.  All the kids have told me that if you whistle at the Northern Lights, the lights will snatch you up.  They’ve told me about a kid they knew that disappeared.  Good thing I can’t whistle very well!  Ha!

“Little People”

This one has a whole day devoted to them.  January 18 is “Day of the Little People.”  Around here, they call them “Sintheaqs” (I’m not sure if that’s spelled correctly, as it’s a Yup’ik word, and I don’t speak Yup’ik).  It’s pronounced “sin-the-ucks.”  I’m pretty sure that different areas have different names for them.  They’re little, gremlin-like creatures that come out and cause havoc.  Everyone’s afraid of them, like they fear the Hairy Man.  They don’t talk about them much, other than their devilish creatures and no one likes them.  When things go wrong, and no one can explain it, they always blame the “little people.”

Bad Bread

How many of us has tried to bake something and it’s gone terribly wrong and tasted awful?  Apparently, when that happens, you should throw it away immediately, otherwise someone in your family will die.  eekk!

Spiders

Only males can kill spiders.  If females kill spiders, it will rain for days.  Females must trap the spiders and put them back outside.

Hunting Customs

When someone gets their first moose up here, it is customary to give it all away to the community.  Because subsistence is the way of life up here, almost everyone who is old enough will have a moose tag during moose season.  So, when the young kids shoot their first moose and give it away, the older family members will also be able to get moose to stock their freezers for the winter.

Survival of My First Semester

Well, it's official!  I've survived the first semester as a 7-12 Teach-A-Little-of-Everything Teacher.  So, I guess to end the year of 2009, I'm going to try and sum of my thoughts and experiences.  Bear with me, this entry might jump around a lot...

Middle School

Okay.  Now, let's just get this out there.  I never imagined myself as a middle school teacher.  In fact, I moved to Alaska to avoid having to take a middle school job in Colorado.  Well, now I'm in Alaska, and guess what I teach?  MIDDLE SCHOOL (well, high school too...but that's another section).  And not only do I have to teach middle school, but I'm not just teaching them science.  I'm also their PE/Health teacher, AND their math teacher.  I guess the biggest difference between teaching middle school here and teaching middle school in Colorado is class size.  I teach (are you ready for this?)  12 middle school students.  Yeah, just 12.  Not too shabby.  Although sometimes it's a little overwhelming, it's not awful.  It's a learning experience for both them and me.  Fortunately, they don't hate me.  We just get tired of each other.  It works both ways I guess.  They've figured out the routine with me.  Next semester, I will only be teaching science and PE/Health with them.  Oh, they play the most ridiculous form of kickball I've ever seen.  It's like kickball/tag/dodgeball.  It's funny as hell!  I love watching them play!

Picture clarity is poor because the gym lighting is poor...but this is the MS kids playing kickball.

High School

This is what I thought I was going to be teaching when I moved here.  High School Science.  But, alas, I only teach one science class...out of 6.  I also teaching high school health and a high school elective, which this semester was Current Issues in Science.  There is about 22 high school students.  We're a little top-heavy in the school right now, with more high schoolers than elementary school students.  Overall, the high school students are pretty good.  Just like any other high school, there's always a few that are tougher than the rest.  There's a few that I struggle with.  There's a few that I feel like I've connected with.  Every day's a different battle.  The hardest part about teaching the high school is the lack of curriculum for the classes I teach.  There is technically a curriculum, but it is very old and outdated.  Current Issues was an interesting class to teach.  I let the class become student-guided.  They picked topics that were interesting to them, and we discussed and researched them.  One topic we spent a lot of time on was Pebble Mine, the local gold and copper mine that is being developed just upriver from us.  Their final project for that unit was to write letters to either Governor Parnell or the Alaskan Congress/Senate members.  So far, we've gotten two responses back:  one from Parnell and one from Senator Lisa Murkowski.  It shows that a little interest and hard work will give even a high school student a response!  

In and Out

Alright, there's two ways into or out of the village if you're traveling by plane:  Via Dillingham or via Anchorage.  When I first arrived, I came from Dillingham, directly from inservice.  We fly on small Cessna-207s.  They seat 7 people and some luggage (and luggage can be stored in odd places in the nose and tail of the plane).  They're pretty small...well, really small.  And they can be a little scary at first.

Cessna 207 (I didn't take this picture...found it on the web)

The other way in or out is via Anchorage.  Only one bush airline flies directly from our village to Anchorage: Dena'ina Air Taxi.  He flies a slightly bigger plane:  A Navajo two-engine plane that seats up to 10, and gear that can be stowed in various places including the wings and nose.  I just flew with him to Anchorage, on my journey home for Christmas.  He charters flights throughout the Nushagak area, so we left Koliganek, and dropped off most of our passengers in Levelock (another village in Alaska).  Because it was just me and one other passenger, I ended up sitting up front with Josh, the pilot.  He gave me a headset and we talked throughout the flight.  He pointed out the different villages as we flew by.  Unfortunately, it was pretty dark, so I can't say I saw much.  We also flew by the volcano and both decided it would be cool if it erupted right at that moment.  (Yeah...I'm a weird science teacher, that shouldn't surprise you.)  You could smell the sulfur coming off of it!

Dena'ina Air Taxi (also didn't take this photo)

Weather

Sunrise, at 10am!

Our weather has been weird apparently.  I don't have much to compare it to, so I can only tell you what I see, and compare it to what everyone tells me it's usually like.  We had hardly any snow when I left Koliganek for Christmas.  We've had two crazy storms that came from the east.  Our storms that come from the east bring in warm winds.  It melted all of our snow, turning it into a nice slick layer of ice!  But to make this ice, you have to have wind.  Very fast wind!  We have had gusts 50-60 mph.  One storm had gusts up to 80 mph!  Whew!  Talk about blowing your feet out from under you!  Temperature wise, we've been all over the place.  Since the first day of fall, we haven't really had temperatures above 40.  In December, we had a few days below 0.  Last week, we hit -35.  Then this weekend, it went from -35 to +20, overnight.  That temperature change, in addition to the crazy wind, snapped my satellite cable!  Right in half between the two houses!  This picture is of the sunrise.  Yes, I was awake to see the sunrise!  It helps that the sun rises around 10am.  The sun also sets about 4:30 or 5pm.  The longest day of darkness was on Monday, so now it will start getting lighter!  Hurray!

Christmas Holidays

We finished up the semester with Santa's Workshop, a Christmas Program and Potluck.  Santa's Workshop is the typical junk that we all had in elementary school and could buy for our parents and grandparents.  It gives the community a chance to go shopping for each other though, which is good, especially since not all of them have the ability to leave the village.  For the Christmas Program, all of the classes either sang songs, did a play, or had a game show.  It was a lot of fun.  The whole community came to watch the kids preform!  I also talked to a couple people about their traditions regarding Slavi, the Russian Orthodox Christmas, which begins January 7.  One of the men in the village was making stars for what begins as a giant festival of sorts.  From what I understand, there is a lot of caroling and feasting, and traveling between the villages, usually by snow machine.  Because so many of the people have families in the neighboring villages, this lasts several days.  I was told many times that I should really be here to see this event, but unfortunately, I do not return to the village until January 9, two days after Slavi begins.  Everyone in the village was very nice as I left tonight, wishing me a Merry Christmas.  Even people I didn't know were giving me hugs and wishing me off.  It was nice.  I also was given a jar of fireweed jam to take home with me to share with my family by one of the parents of my students...we'll see if I share though.

Next Semester

Next semester I'm teaching a whole different array of classes.  I'm still teaching middle school science and PE/health.  I'm also still teaching high school science and health.  I'm going to pick up the journalism/yearbook class, as well as another science elective, that has not really been set in stone.  We'll see what happens.

Well, I think that's it for now!  I'm really excited to go home to see friends and family for the holidays in Colorado!

Frozen Fabulousness

Snow in my front yard

Today marks the first “big” snow of the season!  Pretty exciting!  And it warmed up today too!  It’s been right around 0˚F for the last week.  Today it was above 30!  Whoa!

My "back yard"

Last week, Rick and I took the high school kids out to the dump to talk to them about waste and how it relates to their community and where it goes.  Then we took them to the stream, where the dump water run-off leads to.  The stream was completely frozen.  Of course, the kids immediately started skating on it.  I wish I had my camera!  Then we took them closer to the river, where the stream leads, trying to make the connection between trash and water.  However, playing on the ice was much more fun!  The next day, we took the kids back out, and watched one of them set a trap.  It was pretty interesting.  We found a wolverine skull on our way.  Also cool.  One of the students picked up the skull, looked at me, and said, “Do you need any souvenirs for you friends or family back in Colorado?”

Side Note:  They bet on when the rivers freeze up here.  Depending on what river, depends on how much you can win.  The Nushagak River (the river I live by) usually has a winning pool of more than I make in a year apparently!  Crazy!

Dillingham

Last weekend, I flew to Dillingham to take the Praxis I.  That was the first time I have left the village since I got here in August.  We left on Friday and came back on Saturday.  It was the longest test ever!  It was actually 3 tests:  Reading, Writing, and Math.  Just to stay licensed in the state of Alaska.

One of my classes is Current Issues in Science, and they decided they wanted to learn about mining, due to the Pebble Mine Project.  Pebble Mine is potentially the world’s largest producing gold mine in the world (nation...world...I don’t remember.  It’s big!).  The problem is that it is located at the headwaters of the Nushagak River, as well as 2 other rivers, and right next to Lake Iliamna.  The Nushagak has the world’s largest salmon runs, which is important for the subsistence lifestyle up here, as well as commercial fisheries and business.  Anyway, that class wrote letters to local state representatives about their opinions on Pebble Mine.  We got a letter back from the governor of Alaska, Sean Parnell.  That was pretty cool.  It’s actually a raised-seal, and self-signed (we analyzed it).  I’m going to frame the letter for them, because I think it’s a pretty big deal for kids here.

Freezing Rivers and Tundra

Local Religions...

There's two churches in Koliganek.  A Russian Orthodox church and another Christian-like church (sorry for whoever's reading this, but I'm not quite sure what Christian sect the church is affiliated with, nor will I probably find out).  Most of the Natives in the village attend the Russian Orthodox church.  The other church is run by a former, retired teacher.  From what I understand, not many people attend his church.

This last weekend I got invited to a wedding! She's the mother of one of my high school students. The wedding was held at the Russian Orthodox church, with a big reception afterwards.  The service was interesting.  First off, please note, I really dislike churches, due to my own past experiences.  So going to this was a big deal for me.  When you walk in, men stand to the right, women on the left.  There are only a few chairs, for the elders.  The Russian Orthodox church smells very strongly of incense.  There's pictures of religious icons everywhere.  As the church leaders come in, they all kiss the icons that are on the main podiums and make the sign of the cross with their hand.  The service is given through song and chant.  Everything is said in threes.  Crowns are placed on the bride's and groom's head at one point, as a symbolic gesture.  It's quite a long ceremony (over an hour, I believe).  At the end, everyone lines up to kiss the cross the priest is holding and congratulate the bride and groom.  If you're not a member of the church, you just shake hands and continue on your way.  (Now...on a personal note:  This was definitely a very religious ceremony for me.  In terms of my comfort zone, it was definitely not where I normally feel "okay."  So, all in all, I survived, didn't burst into flames, and walked out without crying.  That's HUGE for me!)

After the wedding, there was a reception at the school.  I'm pretty sure our whole village came, as well as most of New Stuyahok (the village just south of us, which is where the groom is from).  There was a buffet feast, completely with salmon, turkey, ham, chicken, beaver, mashed potatoes, potato salad, agutak, pie, etc.  Everything was very tasty (beaver tastes like roast, for future reference).  Afterwards, there was a dance, but I headed home for the evening.  It was a Sunday, and wanted to avoid any trouble (which was apparently a smart idea).

I don't know much about the other church.  Honestly, I'm not interested in finding out more (if you know me, you understand why).  Besides, the man who runs it is gone for the winter, so I'm not sure there's a lot to learn right now anyway...

Students in the Bush

The first question I was asked for the first month that I was up here was "How are the kids different?"  And depending on the situation, would depend on which "kids" they were talking about.  Sometimes they were talking about kids in Colorado, other times it was kids in Alaska.  The kids in Colorado and the kids in Alaska are not too terribly different.  It's just different circumstances that make the kids different.  When it comes down to it, they're still kids.  Their work ethic isn't much different between the two places, they have relationship problems with the boy/girl friends, some of them have great home-lives and some of them don't, and they love sports.

Because of the circumstances of the high schools in the villages, there are a lot of students who live in other villages that come up to our school because there's no high school in their village.  They stay with extended family or live in boarding homes while their here.  The boarding home parents get paid for taking in kids, of course, and they usually have kids of their own at home.  They also have the right to send the students back to their homes if they get out of hand up here.

Education up here is very focused on the SBAs, which is the state-mandated test (similar to the CSAP in Colorado).  The SBAs here though are much more important to most of the students, staff, and parents than the CSAPs ever were for anyone I knew in Colorado.  I guess that is definitely a major difference between the two places.  Don't get me wrong, everyone knows it's important to pass your state-mandated test (CSAP, SBA, whatever) because of No Child Left Behind...but in Colorado, that's as far as it goes.  In Alaska, the students have to take an exit exam to graduate high school, which is taken for the first time at the end of 10th grade.  They are tested on reading, writing, and math, and the material is supposed to align with the Alaska state standards, which funny enough, is the same idea with the SBAs.

Most of the kids here are very technology savvy, too.  Our school district is a Mac 1-to-1 school, which means every middle school student has access to their own Mac laptop (although they cannot take it home).  Every high school student has a Mac laptop that they can take home, after they pay a $40 fee.  They end up with a lot of skills using the different programs.  We use a program called Remote Desktop to monitor the students while they are working.  We can take control of their computers, freeze their screens, or just monitor them.  Pretty cool!

All in all, the students in the bush aren't much different than students in the suburbs of Colorado.  They have their issues, but their kids...what kid doesn't have problems, right?