I spent the majority of the day today with the JV's.  Initially we were going to make zucchini bread (because I was given a bunch of zucchini), but we decided against it and took a cat nap instead.  Then we all walked to church.  Fr. Chuck forgot to bring up the Roman Missal with him and no one could find it for a few minutes, so that was a big to-do ("it's Roman in the hallways!").  The prayers to the faithful were the usual, asking for plentiful harvests and hunts, praying for people out at fish camps, and praying for the poor and that law makers push for equitable taxes.


After church I went to Swanson's to look for sales.  I ended up with two boxes of Kraft Mac n Cheese and a bag of mint hershey kisses...which I'm pretty sure were from Christmas (only $1.99 though!).

One of the JV's is house sitting so she shuttled us back to their house in groups of three, and we ate dinner together.  Lu joined us at the last minute after going on a hunting trip with a teen group.  Whitney made us a great meal of rice and beans and roasted veggies.  It's nice eating in a big group setting, rather than by yourself.

After dinner, Father Chuck (pictured folding his arms in the picture on the right) and Father Tom came over and talked to us about Bethel, the Yup'ik people, Jesuits, etc for a couple of hours.  They shared some zucchini bread that some one had made for them with us, which was ironic considering that we were going to make some earlier.

Father Tom did most of the speaking and told us all kinds of stories:  about working in BIA schools, about the traumatic pasts that people in the area have had due to a multitude of reasons like tuberculosis/TB outbreaks and dysfunctional families.  He also talked about how infrastructure and modernization have negatively impacted the community, by creating divides between family members and generations, and by also making people feel unimportant.  With heating oil brought out, people no longer had to work together in order to keep a house warm, and chores became replaced with a flick of the switch.  We also discussed the "language of silence", which is HUGE around here.  It's the most introverted group that I have ever been around, which I think is great, but it takes some time to get used to.  People don't always or reply when speaking to you, especially if they don't know you that well.  They also speak softly, and will just sit and be quiet with someone.

It was a beautiful day today, so when the Fathers left we decided to walk to a nearby  park and play some basketball/soccer.

I walked up to Yuut Elitnaurviut (a trade school/training center for a variety of things) to catch some good views and pictures of the sunset.  I was lucky and got to see geese flying.  Lately there have been birds all over the place because they are getting ready to fly south as our fall is quickly approaching.  There was also a beautiful (and kind of creepy) mist creeping over the tundra as well.