Teaching in Alaska

Pictures of our house

2009-04-18T13:18:00.002-08:00

Front of House

Master Bedroom

Living Room

Cold White Stuff

2009-02-24T16:13:00.002-09:00

On October 1st it began snowing and it has snowed about twice a week for the last 5 months. The result has been not only a numbing white landscape, but an ever rising ground level. Where you oriniginally had to climb 5 steps to get into the front door, now you only need to climb 2. An outdoor basketball court that was 3 feet off the ground is now covered in two feet of snow. Stair railings seem to disappear into the ground.
The Native elders claim that this is the most snow they have ever seen in Emmonak. They warn that the more snow we get, the higher the chances that Emmonak will flood after the thaw. We'll see.

Emmonak makes it on CNN

2009-02-09T15:22:00.012-09:00

Check out the following video to see CNN's portrayal of Emmonak. Kristian even made it onto the video, so be sure to look for her when you watch.

For the accompanying story go to:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/09/rural.alaska.villages/index.html

Lucky's Big Adventure

2009-02-09T15:11:00.006-09:00

Lucky, our black lab, made the journey to Alaska with us in January. After several months of planning and worrying they day came when it was time to stick him in the crate and drop him off at the airport. Actually, it was my mom who dropped him off. Nevertheless, he flew over 3000 miles to meet us in Anchorage. Despite our concerns, he has thrived in the negative temperatures and is just as happy as could be.
Lucky and I coming in from one of our infamous -25 degree walks

Christmas

2009-02-09T14:45:00.004-09:00

Fortunately, I made it home safely and in time for Christmas. I was joyously reunited with my wife and everything has been wonderful since. We had a great time visiting family all across Arkansas and on January 2 we flew back to Anchorage. Kristian had a rude awakening upon landing in the Last Frontier. I think the pilot said it best, "Welcome to Anchorage where it is a balmy negative 25 degrees outside." After a few days of shopping and sightseeing, we bid farewell to civilization and headed back out to the bush.

Native Youth Olympics

2009-02-09T14:32:00.004-09:00

I coached the elementary Native Youth Olympics with another teacher and in December we flew with them to Hooper Bay to compete. Native Youth Olympians compete in such as events as the Wrist Carry, the Seal Hop, and the One-Foot High Kick. The students had a great time and were very successful!

Snowmaching in November

2009-02-09T14:16:00.004-09:00

Sorry, it's been quite a while since my last blog. I got busy making an imovie for Kristian and I totally disregarded my blog. So let's catch up:

It started snowing in October and basically never stopped. Everything that was brown or green turned white. The cold 30 degree temperatures of September and October quickly turned into the frigid -30 degree temperatures in November and December.

At about the middle of November a few of us took snowmachines out to the Bering Sea, about 8 miles from Emmonak. We made a fire and cooked hot dogs. It was my first trip on a snowmachine and let me tell you, if you thought -15 sounded cold, it's nothing compared to -15 with a 70 mph windchill.

First Snow (October First)

2008-10-12T00:14:00.004-08:00

Bush Travel

2008-10-12T00:07:00.003-08:00

The absolute best thing about flying in the bush is that, if you ask, the pilot will let you ride in the cockpit with him.

Hooper Bay

2008-10-10T23:19:00.006-08:00

All of the Lower Yukon teachers were flown down to Hooper Bay for 2 days of in-service at the beginning of October. Hooper Bay is a large village of 1200 on the coast of the Bering Sea. Incidentally, it's the windiest place I have ever been. About 2 years ago a fire burned down the school and most of the teacher housing in Hooper Bay. They have rebuilt and the new school is undoubtedly the nicest school I have ever been in. It is situated on a small bluff overlooking the Bering Sea.

The Hunt

2008-10-01T22:50:00.007-08:00

Moose hunting is undoubtedly the peak of existence for many of the citizens here in Emmonak. So naturally, when I was asked if I wanted to go on a moose hunt I said yes. It was to be Kevin, the middle schools writing teacher from Wyoming, Ray, the custodian from Emmonak, and me, the not so avid hunter from Arkansas. The plan was to leave Friday after school, take Rays boat to his Fish Camp, which is a fancy way of describing the place we were going to be sleeping, and then waking up early on Saturday morning to hunt moose in the crisp Alaskan climate.

Things started smoothly. We got the boat, put gas in it, 66 gallons for approximately 450 dollars, and headed off up the Yukon River. It should be pointed out that a majority of moose hunting in the lower yukon is done from the boat. The idea is to gently cruise around bends in the river until you find a moose getting a drink of water or trying to swim across. According to Ray an ideal hunting scenario is when the moose is in deep water . You can just pull up next to it and wait for it to get to shore. Then you take the shot. Obviously, this style of hunting leaves plenty of room for error. It's important to remember that native Yup'iks do not hunt for sport. They hunt for food. If they do not kill a moose they do not feed their families during winter. Hunting ethics will always be outweighed by hunger here in Emmonak.

So there we were, cruising around in Ray's alluminum boat in search of a moose. Within 1 hour of leaving Emmonak we spotted a moose running away from us about 150 yards down river. It was too far to get a good shot but it certainly didn't stop anyone from trying. In hindsight it was a good idea to shoot at that moose, we wouldn't see another one for about 24 hours.

After 2 hours of riding around Ray asked if we would like to go to the Bering Sea, which we of course did. It was nice, I guess. Pretty much what you'd expect. Big cold ocean. Upon leaving the sea we made our first mistake, and I use the term 'we' lightly. We got stuck in a sandbar about 100 yards from the sea, in the bay. Fortunately, we were able to get out and push the boat back into the main river. I smiled, thanked God, and we were off. Until 5 minutes later, when Ray tried to punch the boat through a 1000 yard slew with water 6 inches deep. We made it about 500 yards in before we were completely lodged in the river silt. It was about 9 p.m. with the sun going down and the air quickly getting colder. Ray said we would have to wait about an hour for the tide to dislodge us. He was right about the tide part, but he was wrong about the hour. We were completely stuck for over 6 hours in a boat the size of 2 king beds in 32 degree weather. It was my first real taste of Alaska.

Obviously we made it out alive and spent the rest of the cold dark morning spotlighting for moose. We made it to Fish Camp around 4:30 in the morning without a moose.

The next day was spent riding around in a boat in the rain pretending to care about moose. However, I did get the opportunity to carve my first fork out of a stick when I realized that I hadn't remembered to bring one with me.

At about 8:00 on Saturday night we received a radio transmission from Ray's brother that he was chasing a seal not far from where we were. We raced over and aided in the seal hunt. Kevin drove the boat, Ray chunked spears at the seal, and I tried not to look the creature in the face. In the end, there was a dead seal on Ray's brother's boat. The one thing I remember him saying was,"Thank God, I was starving."

The School

2008-10-01T22:22:00.005-08:00

Emmonak School was constructed in the 1970's at a time in American history when royal blue was considered fashionable. It consists of 20 classrooms, a gymnasium, a cafeteria, an office, and a wood shop. The school population is about 200 students from k-12. I teach sixth, seventh and eighth grade social studies and an average class consists of about 12 students. For some reason the school population is predominately male. There is about 1 female to every 4 males.

I teach in the middle school section of the school which is substantially nicer than the highschool portion. I'm not sure why that is. We have four classrooms in the middle school: one for me, one for math, one for reading, and one for writing. We do not have a room for science, but then again we don't have a science teacher.

The middle school students are broken up into 4 separate groups of students with whom they spend the entire day. There is a 6th grade group (group 1), a 6th/7th grade group (group 2), a 7th/8th grade group (group3), and an 8th grade group (group 4).

School days are pretty traditional. However the students are evaluated using a 'level' system, meaning, they do not recieve grades. Teachers check off academic standards as students complete them. Once they've completed enough standards the student can take the level test. If the student passes the test, the student moves to the next level. A seemingly good concept, except that every student progresses at a different pace. Some students are rapidly progressing through levels while others are getting stuck in the mud. The end result is a classroom full of students representing several different levels. For example, I have one class with students who are in levels 5th, 6th, and 7th, with some getting close to being in 8th. So what level do I teach? Yeah, well I'm still working that one out myself.

I have gotten the job of sponsoring student council and I haved written a proposal for a guitar club. There is also a good chance that I will be a coach for NYO, or Native Youth Olympics. An athletic event which showcases such American favorites as the Indian Stick Pull and the Seal Hop. I told them I used to play football, they'd never heard of it.

Home Sweet Home

2008-09-20T23:23:00.000-08:00

After returning from Mountain Village I had a chance to get settled into our new apartment. Turns out it is considerably larger than our apartment back in Fayetteville. Three bedrooms! 2 of which remain completely bare to this day. It also seems as if they used our apartment as a broken dresser depot, there must be ten dressers in this place. It is located thirty feet from the school, which makes the commute rather short. Only downside is that I do have to make it a point to get away from the school from time to time. I could live within a 200 foot radius for a week and not even notice.

Anyways, back to the apartment. All in all its a great place. Oddly the tub is about 3 feet off the ground and there is this weird pump that puts off quite a racket anytime you flush the toilet, but all things considered, its probably one of the nicest homes in the village. It is actually a duplex, the other half is occupated by the principal and his dog, B.B. Big Butt

Mountain Village

2008-09-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

I was only in Emmonak for about 3 days before they flew all the new teachers to Mountain Village for more in-service. Mountain Village is another bush community about 60 miles up-river from Emmonak. Not coincidentally, Mountain Village is also home to the District Office for the Lower Yukon School District. It is a beautiful community built in the valley of a small mountain on the banks of the 'Mighty Yukon.' It is home to some of the best moose hunting and salmon fishing in the world. People will literally spend tens of thousands of dollars to hunt and fish in the region where I live. Not me, though, the superintendent took me out on his personal boat and I was able to catch my first salmon. But if you're picturing some scene from 'A River Runs Through It' then you can just forget it. Picture this: Aluminum Boat, giant net, four stroke engine and me with a life jacket under my coat. But so what, I caught a salmon in Alaska.

After my valiant defeat of the wild fish I watched the director of Human Resources gut it, shove a stick through its mouth, and put it on the fire. As I was watching that fish cook over the fire it finally hit me...I live in Alaska, and I'm a long ways from my wife and family.

Emmonak, Alaska

2008-09-20T22:26:00.002-08:00

Emmonak is a village of less than 1000 souls about 8 miles from the Bering Sea, right square in the middle of the Yukon Delta. It is a Yup'ik community consisting of approximately 97% native Eskimos, about 15 whites, or 'gussiks,' as they like to call us, and one Korean woman who runs the Family Restaraunt, go figure.

My wife and I went to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon. It is a beautiful country, but extremely impoverished. When she asked me to describe Emmonak I said, 'Picture the Dominican, then take out the beaches, palm trees, and beautiful people.'

Where Emmonak lacks in aesthetic qualities, it makes up 10 fold in human caliber. The people I have met here are some of the most genuine, kind, and giving folks I have ever come across.

Getting from Anchorage to Emmonak

2008-09-20T22:03:00.001-08:00

There are no roads that will take you to Emmonak. Well, not in August anyways. In the winter the Yukon River turns into a major ice highway system accessible to trucks and snowmobiles alike. But that's winter. In the summer you have to fly to Emmonak. If you thought sitting next to a baby on the Little Rock-Dallas flight was bad it's only because you haven't flown in one of the winged death machines they call planes in Alaska. Remember that movie 'Alive' about the plane crash in the Ande's and the rugby team that went cannabalistic to survive. I'd recommend trying not to think about them if you ever find yourself soaring through the Alaskan skys in a plane the size of a Volkswagen van.
Sidenote: If you ever do fly in bush planes remember to constantly call and confirm your reservations with the aviation company. In the dawn of this new millenium, when everything from music to space travel is computerized, many bush flying services still record their reservations on a legal pad...IN PENCIL! I saw it with my own green eyes and it was stupefying.

Groceries

2008-08-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

Buying groceries in the bush is not only expensive, it's insulting. Who in their right mind would pay 10 dollars for a bag of potato chips. So before leaving Anchorage I went shopping.

I spent about 500 dollars on about 400 pounds of groceries. Normally I don't weigh my groceries, but when you have to mail your groceries from the store , you also get the rare privilege of discovering just how many pounds you expect yourself to eat. I figure about 100 lbs of my groceries were in cleaning supplies, detergents, bottled water, and toiletries. That means that I have about 300 lbs of food for 130 days, that's about 2.3 lbs of food per day. I have no idea how much a normal person eats in a day, hopefully 2.3 pounds or less.
One great thing about Alaska is that there's not a sales tax. Unfortunately, you can expect to pay at least 10% more for anything that has to be shipped to Alaska, which is pretty much anything you could possibly buy. In the end, you'll end up paying about the same amount you're accustomed to in the lower 48, however, by the time you ship things into the bush you will end up paying considerably more.
I bought my groceries at a Costco, which is equivalent to a Sam's Club. Everything is sold in bulk, but in the bush, bulk is exactly what you need. After spending 500 dollars on groceries, I spent about 350 dollars in shipping costs. They told me it would take about 1 week for my groceries to reach Emmonak from Anchorage, they were wrong. It actually took 3 and a half weeks for my goods to arrive. That's a long wait when you don't have shampoo. Fortunately my wife was nice enough to send me some priority packages from Arkansas.
It's funny the things you take for granted. I never pictured myself mailing my groceries home, but that is exactly what I did.
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Anchorage

2008-08-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

It took me almost 20 hours to get from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Anchorage, Alaska. Granted it's a long ways away. In fact, its the same distance from Fayetteville to Anchorage as it is from Fayetteville to Machu Pichu, Peru. By the end of August, 5th, I had not only moved across the continent, I had flown from daylight, to darkness, and back into daylight again. When I landed in Anchorage at 11:30 p.m. the sun was still up. It's an odd feeling going to bed with the sun still in the sky, you try to black out the windows, but sunlight has a remarkable way of finding cracks to squeeze through. This picture was taken at about 10:00 at night from my hotel room in Anchorage.

The Move

2008-08-24T17:24:00.001-08:00

Getting one's self a teaching position in the Alaskan bush is relatively easy. There are websites and job fairs whose sole purpose is filling vacancies in bush school districts. I would say that the easiest part so far has been getting the job. But getting the job, and actually getting to the job, are two drastically different ordeals entirely.
For one thing, Delta doesn't land on gravel runways, so you have to book flights on small prop planes that fly out of Anchorage. Getting your goods into the bush requires an incredible amount of trust in the USPS and even more patience. I shipped about 100 lbs of personal items (clothes, books, pictures, etc.) from Arkansas for about $100. Very cheap when compared to the costs of getting food in Emmonak. The stores in the bush are extremely expensive due to shipping costs. You can expect to pay between 50 to 100% more for items in Emmonak. For instance, a 12-pack of soda costs about $7.oo. To combat these costs most teachers simply buy bulk in Anchorage and mail it themselves.
But all of these inconveniences seem insignificant when compared to the loneliness that accompanies the separation between me and my wife. She is in Arkansas finishing her degree and won't be able to join me in Alaska until January. Fortunately, we are able to stay in close contact by using Skype, God's answer to the distance problem.
During the month leading up to my departure date my wife and I scrambled around trying to get moved out of our apartment, items mailed to Emmonak, and mentally prepared for the big move. On August, 5th, at 6:00 in the morning, we said a tearful goodbye and I boarded my plane, questioning the logic which was placing me 4000 miles away from my best friend, my wife.

Why Alaska?

2008-08-24T16:51:00.000-08:00

"Its dark for like a month straight up there..." is probably the most common thing my wife and I heard when we mentioned we were moving to Alaska to teach. The second most common thing we heard was "why?" A sound question from anyone who enjoys sitting behind their desks enjoying the false sense of security that can only me aroused by those grey cubicle walls that double as bulletin boards. We're told 'Life is short' and rarely have the opportunity to do anything about it. So to answer the question, 'why?'
Well, for starters, we have family in Alaska who work in the Bush school district where we are heading. Then there is the reality of being poor newlyweds in dire need of fiscal stability. Next you have that empowering sense of purpose that all new teachers seem eager to relinquish. And of course there's adventure. Where else can you go gill netting with a superintendent, moose hunting with a principal, or akutaq eating with the natives. Akutaq, pronounced a-goo-duk, is also commonly referred to as 'Eskimo Ice Cream.' It consists primarily of crisco, fish, berries, and sugar. It's not as good as it sounds. But back to the matter at hand, why alaska? The easiest, way of answering this question is by posing one of my own. Why Alaska? Why not?
And thus you have the basic premise behind our decision to move to the village of Emmonak, 8 miles from the Bering Sea, in the heart of the Yukon Delta. As for this blog, it will merely be an online journal for anyone interested in the adventures, challenges, and life experiences of two newlyweds who decided to move to the Alaskan Bush, away from home, family, and comforts we often take for granted