Bottoms Up

Ducks feeding in the pond behind work.

General update on my life...

Sorry I haven't posted blog updates in a few days...I just went through a marathon of trying to upload pictures and write a few lines.  I've been busy with Bethel stuff, work, other events, meeting people etc.

I've been discussing a few travel arrangements.  It looks like I'll be traveling to Hooper Bay soon for my position in a couple of weeks.  I had talked with one of the guys I went to Kwethluk with about going up again this week or soon.  Alaska Airlines had cheap tickets (which I ended up switching to get even a BETTER deal) so I'll be going into town the end of September and hopefully doing some hiking and sight seeing as well as picking up supplies, eating McDonalds and maybe going to see a movie.

I got an iPhone today...so if you have an iPhone or iPad or iSomething feel free to "facetime me".  I also have unlimited texting.  I don't have a lot of minutes so I'm trying to limit my calls during the week (free nights and weekends).  I have a completely different phone number, so either ask my parents or myself for it.

The Bethel Fair is over.  It was good and pretty intense for a short period of time.  Lots of setting up, breaking down and things going in and around the cultural center.  Emma Hill, from upriver in Sleetmute (pop...100?) had a fundraiser concert, and all the proceeds went to the YK Delta Lifesaver Fund.  Bethel doesn't have a pool, and a few decades ago after a lot of people drowned, there was a grassroots effort to build a swimming pool here so people could learn how to swim.  The Lifesaver Fund is being put towards providing FREE swimming lessons to kids in Bethel and in the YK Delta (again, which is roughly the size of Oregon).  You can donate here.

I'm planning on doing a food drive for the food pantry here during Make a Difference day in October.  The food pantry here isn't open every month , and even so last year it couldn't open for two other months because they didn't have any food.

Work-wise I've been trying to network to the places I'm going to be traveling to, reading and re-reading the grant that I'm working under, and doing computer stuff like trying to develop an interesting presentation, figuring out a way to have a community calendar of events for Bethel and the greater YK Delta online, and making a website for artisans in the area to sell their goods or for entrepreneurs to advertise.

Oh, and I also finally moved into the dorm, so hopefully I'll have pictures soon of it all decorated.

Another example of why I hate internet comments/people's "opinions":

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/business/media/q-and-a-with-stuart-elliott.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1346313381-Tl7+G7B3zbFzDLhv7UIXOQ


This is so ridiculous and offensive on so many levels, to women, to the native people who live here, to the white people who live here..etc etc etc.  It just makes me mad.

And it's not that hard to look up Bethel's demographics.  According to census data and my poor memory, I think Bethel is about 60% Alaskan Native/Native American and 35% Caucasian/White (compared the villages that are usually 90%+ native).

Sled Dogs and Sunsets

Taking care of a dog team for a week was pretty cool, considering the only other exposure to sled dog racing before was the movie Balto.  A lot of dogs that mushers have are "Alaskan Huskies", which are basically just mutts that are bred for endurance and speed, rather than conformation to a certain breed look or standard.

From the ever-reliable source, Wikipedia, "the Alaskan Husky is a very affectionate dog, bred to cuddle with other dogs as much as with people. The Alaskan puppy will often walk right up to a strange dog and attempt to instigate a cuddle session."  A lot of the huskies I've met will try to grab you with their paw/leg to draw you in closer and then press their head against you.

That's my favorite of all the dogs on them, Jura.

This is Rita.  She's intense.

Pika (I call him Pikachu)

Marion is very shy.

Pumba

Yukon THE husky is the closest to the camera, then Earnheart and Trick in the front....and then Marion and Pikachu in the back.

Jura coming in close for a cuddle sesh

Sleepy dogs in their dog yard


The sunsets behind the dog yard over the tundra were incredible to watch (around 10:00 pm now).

BIA Sand Pits

While I was borrowing a truck, I figured I should take advantage and drive out to the sand pits to take some pictures of the evening.  The sand pits are really fun to drive on, and it kind of feels like a Disney ride. 

Moon rise over Bethel

Walk with the Occupy Dogs

Yesterday I went for a walk with my friend Diane and the occupy dogs (the ones that I was dogsitting for a few weeks).  Some views of the walk and some birds we saw on the way back:

 

 

And the topic for discussion on our walk: Ally Bill of Responsibilities [for working with Native groups]

How Big is Alaska?

I just applied/submitted my tickets from my trip out here to get Alaska Air miles.  I'm halfway to getting a free one trip ticket into town!

ANYWAY

Distance from O'Hare to Seattle: 1,720 air miles


Distance from Seattle to Anchorage:  1,448 air miles


So I'm basically half of the country NORTH of the contiguous US.  Crazy.

Moose Helper

It's what's for dinner....probably tomorrow or Tuesday night.

My friend shot a moose last week and brought home 500 pounds of meat.  FIVE HUNDRED.  They said it was a small moose.  They were very kind and gave me a couple of pounds of frozen "hamburger" moose meat, which I am currently trying to thaw out in my freezer.  Hamburger Helper was on sale at AC and I bought a couple of boxes....and now I know what I can use it for!

Bethel Mud 1 Meg 0

I have a mud stain on one of my new shirts.  The mud here is very rich in iron, after it rains sometimes the water just looks RED.  The water can sometimes look reddish too from the iron.  I pre-treated the shirt with some stain n wash and some other stuff (for a LONG TIME) and then washed it today....and the stain didn't come out. I decided to look up how I might go about getting it out, and this is what my search brought up:

You can dye T-shirts with a number of organic materials, including dirt that is rich in oxidized iron.

Guess the stain isn't coming out.

Alaska Vocab Lesson: Pop

This is pretty much a no brainer because all of us at some point have come across a person or two or a few thousand that call soda pop.  But did you know that the plural of pop is pops?

It still catches me slightly off guard whenever someone says it.

"Pop" is a lot more expensive up here in the bush than it is back home.  We have the normal brands (aka no Birch Beer, Mr. Pibs etc etc) although plan Coca-Cola seems to be pretty hard to find.  Sometimes pop companies will send up expired cases of pop...which is why the woman I mentioned in the post below was looking at the expiration date.  When's the last time you thought to do that?!

I've had a few only in Bethel/twilight zone experiences the past few days. Driving a Bethel truck has included it's share of incidents...I made a seatbelt, had to go through the passenger side because the driver door was stuck, etc.

The entire town manages to show up 5 minutes before anything starts or is due.

AND a woman just bought a Diet Coke and looked at the bottom. To see if it had expired.

Bethel Community Fair

Today was the first official day of the fair.  FINALLY.  I feel like there has been so much build up for these events.  Today people could walk around and see all the exhibit entries.  Here were some of them:

...and many more.





The fair continues tomorrow as well as Saturday Market...so I will be very busy.  I'm going to try to step out to see the bird demonstration...they are bringing an eagle and an owl!  There's also going to be a concert tomorrow night by Emma Hill who is an Alaskan singer/songwriter.  She's originally from up the river in Sleetmute (look it up and see how many people there are!).

Today I've been busy getting ready for the Bethel Fair, which officially starts tomorrow.  I spent a good part of the day putting flyers up on the bulletin boards around town and helping to put schedules on people's cars.  A lot of people have broken windshields here, and I was really nervous that one of them would just completely shatter if I touched it the wrong way.

We also did judging tonight on everyone's entries.  They had an edible foods category, and guess which one I judged?

Salmon.

Smoked salmon, jarred salmon, salmon strips, red salmon, king salmon...


For the next week I'm house sitting and taking car of a sled dog team, two chickens, and I get to drive one of their pick up trucks.  Their house is in the new subdivision by the airport, and the back of it looks right out on the tundra.

Here is part of the dog team:

For the next week I'll be feeding and taking care of a team of sled dogs.

Alaska Vocab Word: Washateria

This one I had to look up because I kept on seeing it listed in phonebooks.  Washeteria or Washateria is another word for a laundromat that often includes a a place to shower.  I see it listed a lot in villages.

Saturday was so windy that sometimes I would be walking and it felt like I was on a treadmill because I couldn't get further forward.  I walked to the Tundra Women's Coalition thrift store because they were having a $2 sale (everything you could fit in a grocery bag for $2).  I bought a belt (to be used as a strap on the bag I made), 2 pairs of non muddy shoes that I can either dress up with or wear to ballroom dancing class, a hat (until I can buy a fur one) and a Chicago mug.  Reyne and I watched the Hunger Games which was interesting.  I'm glad I FINALLY got to see it.  Now to read the books!  Good thing I brought my Nook...the estimated wait time for the book in our library is 76 days.

Sunday I went to church and was late, but luckily I figured out why:  Mass starts at 10:00 am, not 10:30.  The Jesuit Volunteers were introduced and everyone blessed them and then all the kids who were going off to college.

I would say that about every other week someone is blessed for something.  A couple of weeks ago we said a blessing for a family that was moving.

Not surprisingly, the sang the Lord's Prayer again in Yup'ik, and I still couldn't follow along.  Luckily I found this video on Youtube, which I'm going to watch over and over and over this week.  Check out how long some of the words are!

After church we had a pancake breakfast for the JV's, and a birthday cake for one of the former JV's.  If the guy serving pancakes looks familiar to you, it's because he was in the Taco Bell commercial.

After that I went over someone's house, and then over to their friend's house.  We played RummeyKub (my score was over 400...yikes!), I got attacked my hair done by 5-6 year old girls, and ate authentic Mexican food (as I had managed to find and befriend the majority of the 2% Latino/Hispanic population of Bethel in one day)

Today: Rain. Highs in the lower to mid 50s. Southeast wind 20 to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph. 

great.

Today is a very special day, because it's Kiara Anne's birth day!  Congratulations to my cousin and his wife on their beautiful baby girl!

Very windy today (or blustery if you're Winnie the Pooh).  You can still hear the wind whipping outside.

I listened to a lot of past episodes of Talk Line today.  I missed today's broadcast.  Talk Line is a radio talk show where people from all over the delta call in.  Some have questions, some have comments, and some are looking for their husband's who haven't called them yet and were supposed to have picked them up half an hour ago.  It's pretty interesting.  What's funnier is that I know two of the regular hosts and the guest host, and I'm starting to know some of the callers as well.  You can listen to it here http://kyuk.org/category/radio/

I watched the movie "Big Miracle" today with Reyne...aka the whale movie with Drew Barrymore and that guy from The Office in it.  As it turns out, there's a few people from the YK Delta in it!

I've been busy and running all over the place the past few days and have been too tired to update my Kwethluk post or write any new entries.

Yesterday I went to the farmer's market at Meyer's Farm.   Meyer's Farm is a cutting edge organic farm in the Alaskan Bush.  A lot of people (at least most of the people I hang out with) stop by their markets on Wednesdays or Saturdays to buy locally grown produce, or things like breads and Greek yogurt.

Farming out here in tundra land is a pretty new concept, but it's been taking off.  The reason why I went to Kwethluk was to look at a USDA grant program that was seeing how crops would grow in a reclaimed area that was once the landing strip for the airport.  If "the feds" like it, more grant money could come in for bigger farms.  In Bethel, people grow food crops in containers or in beds around their houses.  Up here we have some of the best soil in the country.

The Alaska Municipal League is now over.  It was really interesting to see all the different places that people were from.  Barrow, Kotzebue, Juneau, Kenai, Bristol Bay, Cordova.  Someone (probably from Juneau) brought "vote yes on 2" signs and pins to the meeting for people to take with them.  We've been inundated with commercials here about the proposition 2, mostly from the "vote no" people.  I'm not really supposed to comment on politics, but I'll just say that the "vote no" people's top 3 contributors are the Alaskan Miner's Association, ConocoPhillips, and Shell.  The "yes" people are The North Slope Borough (Barrow), the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, and the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

I played frisbee with one of the JV's and some of the former JV's who stayed in the area and friends.  It was good to get out and run around for over an hour.  One of the guys was trying to teach us how to throw the frisbee, but I found a puppy and decided to play with her instead.

Today I went to a musher's house and might get to help her take care of her dogs and run the team in the winter!  I'm so excited.

I also cleaned my desk and spruced it up.  I put peacock wrapping paper that my mom used in a package to line the bulletin board, and then I covered a plastic container with some of the extra paper to make a little pencil/pen/highlighter holder.

I also took a used priority flat rate envelope and cut some of it so I could have a place to put files right in front of me.  I turned a box on it's side to make shelves, and the yellow magazines in them are nothing else but National Geographics that someone dropped off at the "free" shelf outside the library.  I'm going to give some to a teacher who uses old magazines in her class, but I think I'm going to take a couple of them and cut the pictures out to decorate my room.

After I took this picture I got a package from my grandparents with a wooden vase and silk sunflowers in it, so now those are on my desk too!

Since I was in a rare organizing mood, I decided to re-organize my backpack and my "just in case" stash.

A brush, bug dope with extra deet, an umbrella, a Nature Valley granola bar (for both the nutrition and to take a picture to submit to their picture of the week contest), a toothbrush, an emergency blanket (one of those foily kinds), a first aid kit, binoculars, tea (also hot chocolate),matches,  lip balm and.....jiffy pop (also from G&G).  Because you just never know.

Business Trip- Alaska Style

I survived my first village trip today and I even used some of my survival gear that I keep stashed in my backpack! The matches that I picked up from the Irish Pub/Restaurant that we took refuge in during a thunder storm in Chicago that I accidentally had in my carry-on were used to light someone's cigarette when their lighter wouldn't work.  Prepared for everything! (Hopefully I won't have to use my emergency thermal blanket or meal replacement bars if I get stuck in the winter somewhere).  As for "business attire" I wore my new Bogs boots, jeans, and had rain pants and rain jacket packed in my backpack "just in case". 

Alaska is a very "just in case" state.

It was the first time I had seen Alaska outside of Bethel (and the Anchorage airport), because it was either dark or cloudy when I flew in.  We took a boat down the Kuskokwim to get to the village and two things really stood out to me:  1) the river was huge and 2)  we passed by nothing but fish camps and wilderness for half an hour.

Being off of the road system makes commuting interesting. You either have to take a plane or a boat to the villages in the area.  Bethel is part of the YK Delta area, and is part of the Lower Kuskokwim School District-one of the (if not the) biggest school district in the country in terms of area.  So when I went on a trip with a consultant to the tribe in Kwethluk and someone from the economic development office we took a small fishing boat. 

This was our "commute":

The river is pretty big.  All of the fish camps we passed were just structures completely off of the grid:  no running water or electricity.  Just a roof over your head and some drying racks for fish.

After passing nothing for miles and miles, all of sudden houses and boats started popping up along the shore. 

 

First Village Trip

Well, I got my bogs on and a pile downstairs of a bunch of gortex stuff, bug dope, and a life jacket.  First time on a boat here and first time going to a village! 

Swimming in the Kuskokwim

It hasn't stopped being hot here (yet).  I'm not complaining, but it's kind of foiled my plans of bringing limited tank tops and shorts, and starting no shave November early (don't judge me- it was in the 40s not including wind chill some days!)  So yesterday, I went to "the beach" with my friends and went swimming- in the Kuskokwim River.

It was cold.

But it was nice to be able to do something summer/ Lower-48ish after I had been wearing polartec and down the week before.

It wasn't really swimming perse, it was more like walk in until the water hit your knees, wait until your legs went numb, and then run out screaming.  We weren't the only ones there.  The river was busy, with people boating by and docking, more people coming down to the "beach", and float planes landing.

Diving in

Brrr!!

Late Night Stroll

Last night after vegging out on the couch and watching a movie, I went for a late night walk around town.  The sun was just setting.  I'm slowly being able to find my way around town.  I haven't gotten seriously lost in a while.  Now it's just being able to find the quickest routes, but sometimes with views like this you don't want to.

Alaska Vocab Lesson: A Bethel Car

Bethel cars are dirty (from the dirt roads and the mud and dust that come from the roads) and there is usually something wrong with them.  The heat only works when you open the glove compartment, the alignment is WAY off, they make weird noises, one of the windows doesn't roll down, etc.  I don't think I've been in one yet that hasn't had a check engine light on. 

Bethel cars (or sometimes "Bethel trucks") are really expensive to fix, so you just don't fix the stuff that doesn't really need fixin'.

Synonyms: in the Lower 48, clunker