Yup'ik Words and Phrases of the Week

This is a new project I've started for our Facebook page.  We're on Week 2!  Here are two images that I've done so far:

Poverty Thresholds

In an online/audio webinar on Alternative Measures of Poverty today.  We had to look up what the family budget for our area was.  This is Rural Alaska's:

Rural (AK)

One Parent, One Child

Item	Cost
Monthly Housing	$1044
Monthly Food	$317
Monthly Child Care	$819
Monthly Transportation	$390
Monthly Health Care	$312
Monthly Other Necessities	$327
Monthly Taxes	$460
Monthly Total	$3670
Annual Total	$44037

Professional Biography

I feel so official now!

Megan currently serves as an AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) at the Bethel Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center. Her primary focus is on the “Partners in Growth” Program which is designed to help Yukon Kuskokwim Delta region villages energize and stabilize their local economies with professional development opportunities and independent job creation. Megan’s work helps to mobilize resources, transfer professional skills to residents, generate private sector commitment, and increase the capacity of YK Delta communities to determine locally appropriate solutions to community challenges.

The Partners in Growth program is funded by an AN/NHIAC grant and is a multi – agency collaboration between the University of Alaska, Fairbanks–Kuskokwim Campus, Bethel Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center (YPCC), Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA), Bethel Community Services Foundation (BCSF), Alaska Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and six Southwest Alaska villages. The program offers a series of professional development workshops to participating communities in small business growth, financial planning, technical and computer skills training, entrepreneurial skills, grant writing, local manufacturing, arts marketing and customer development.

Megan is originally from Enfield, Connecticut and received a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Eastern Connecticut State University.  

Toksook Bay: Day 2

We just walked around Toksook in a snow storm trying to hang up flyers about our progams in some of the stores in the town.  We managed to find one that was open!

Visibility is low today, but it's nice in Bethel right now and the winds are blowing east, so we might be able to make it on our scheduled flight.  Who knows.

Enjoying the snow either way!

Ciuliamta Uyangtaakut

I'm at a yuraq (Eskimo Dancing) festival this weekend in Toksook Bay.  There are six communities here!  I recognized a bunch of faces from Bethel too which was nice to see.

Toksook Bay is a beautiful village.  Hoping to go out and explore more today!

Iditarod Finish

Well I made new friends and we stayed up ALL NIGHT (literally until 6am) watching Iditarod finishers come in and cheering them on!  It was so awesome being able to see Aliy Zirkle come in, Joar Ulsom and Jake Berkowitz's close finish, and I even got to see Pete Kaiser come in before I had to go back to the airport! (He came in around 8:35, I called a cab then, and at 8:50 I was getting ready to go through airport security).

Aliy Zirkle!

Joar and Jake: 30 second time difference!  My friend to the left with a flag she made for Joar.  They let us stand on the finish line.

Me on the finish line!

Pete Kaiser!

Kaiser dogs!  Maybe the dogs I'm helping Casie with this year will run the Iditarod one day!

Iditarod Update

No one has come in yet, but they are expected to be here tomorrow afternoon or evening.  Right now Aliy Zirkle is chasing Mitch Seavey down and is following 2 miles behind him coming out of Elim.  There's a bunch of people resting in Elim and even more in between Koyuk and Elim.  Their next stop will (probably) be White Mountain where they have to take a mandatory 8 hour rest.  White Mountain is just 77 miles away from Nome.

Last year Aliy came in second place in the Iditarod!  She is one of the (close to 2 dozen) mushers that I am rooting for!  Go Aliy Go!

Also saw that this was one of her dogs (sound like anyone you know?):

Travel Map

Here's an updated travel map that I scribbled all over with Paint.  The green lines show the route where I flew, purple lines are where I have driven, and there is a short blue line in between Bethel and Kwethluk where I took a boat.

More Nome pictures

After the Musk Ox adventure I went to another lecture at the Bering Land Bridge NPS office on "Beringia".  Beringia refers to an ancient steppe that included both parts of Siberia and Alaska, and inlcudes the land bridge that is now submerged that used to connect the two.  I've been learning a lot about the Shared Beringian Project so I figured that going to the lecture would be good to learn more about it.

I talked to one of the rangers there for a little bit who is from New Hampshire.  It's so nice meeting New Englanders here.

Anyway, after that I walked around Nome again and took some more pictures, stopped by race headquarters, and stared at the Bering Sea for a bit.

The Search for Musk Ox

Today I went to a lecture at the Northwest Campus on musk ox!  The presenter is a biologist who has studied musk ox all over the state, primarily in the arctic regions.  I was so exhausted that I kept on accidentally falling asleep (the lights being dim didn't help either) and then waking up startled because I didn't know I was sleeping or for how long.  The presentation was really interesting though and I learned a lot!

After the presentation we went on a search for musk ox!  Nome is pretty spread out, and we drove a ways out of the main part of town to look at some of the local musk ox herds' favorite hangouts.  We saw two different groups and about 40 musk ox all together!  It was so cool!  I didn't get good pictures because they were kind of far away, but I tried to take a picture through the scope that we were looking through.

Those lumps are blurry musk ox!

That group of dots on the mountainside are a group of musk oxen!

The group looking through the scope at the critters.

In Nome!

Hello from Nome!  Going to a musk ox lecture right now!

Winter is back.  It's blowing snow today.  Time to get the parka back out!

Today some of the JV's and I went over to KuC to make bowls for a fundraiser.  It was fun to get nice and dirty!

I'm headed back to Anchorage tomorrow so I can go to Nome for a couple of days!  I'm hoping to see a few people cross the finish line.

Here's information for anyone who wants to send a fan photo or message to our local mushers Pete Kaiser, Richie Diehl, Mike Williams Sr and Mike Williams Jr (aka The Delta Fource):

Make a sign and Take a Photo of you and the sign to share with other Kaiser Race Fans. Send the photos to kaiserdogteams@gmail.com

Well it's T-Shirt weather in some parts of Alaska now!  30-40 degrees.  All the ice and snow that I was pretty sure was going to form a glacier over the whole town has now mostly melted away.  Lots of slush that sometimes is re-freezing to just ice.  I guess I must really like cold weather or something because I've caught myself thinking "but I'm not ready for it to be spring yet!" lots of times. 

I spent today writing a bunch of stuff and getting things ready for our trip to Toksook!  Saunders and I are very excited about the trip. 

In other news, looks like I might be going to Nome this weekend!

Iditarod Trail & Other Stuff

Well I've been on the phone with people from Toksook Bay lately and it looks like I will be out there the 16th and the 17th to meet with community members and artisans and crafters in the area, help out one of the advisors from the college, and help people with Silver Hand permits if they want.

I need to write several articles for this week so that is today's goal along with finishing proof-reading and submitting our application for a Summer Associate VISTA.

I'm still taking my Inter-ethnic Communications class and have been taking online webinars and courses in things relating to VISTA and ones from the Small Business Administration.

Right now there are students from the Lower Yukon and Lower Kuskokwim school district schools here for a high school to college transition program.  They've been having guest speakers come to the Cultural Center and they are also staying in the dorm so I get to see them pretty much all day!  I was asked to speak to them about AmeriCorps and VISTA.  I really hate speaking in front of people, but when someone invites you to speak here you don't say no.

I'm also still obsessively following the Iditarod.  Right now they are about 400 miles or so into the race.  Most of the mushers seem to be around the McGrath-Ophir area.  Here is a map of the trail this year with some of my own doodlings:

Just another normal day...

Sorry to inform you, Brother's Pizza will not be open today. Our cargo is stuck in Anchorage... We will try this again tomorrow morning. Will keep you guys posted...

Information on the Sequestration

Got this lovely email today:

As you are likely aware, Congress has not reached a deal on balanced deficit reduction to avoid the across-the-board budget reductions commonly known as “sequestration.”  Thus, the President was required by law to issue a sequestration order.  This order cancels approximately $85 billion in budgetary resources across the Federal government for the remainder of the Federal fiscal year. 

Given your relationship with the Corporation for National and Community Service, we wanted to provide you with information about how these unfortunate budget cuts will affect our programs. 

CNCS’s senior leadership team has engaged in extensive planning efforts to mitigate the effect of these cuts. In planning how to implement a possible sequestration, our guiding principle has been to protect the ability to perform our core mission on behalf of the American people.   While these types of cuts are painful, we have carefully considered how to use the various tools at our disposal to reduce costs and mitigate to the extent possible the disruption to our operations, to our programs, and to all of you.  

The information below describes the potential impacts of sequestration for the current VISTA members.  

Impact on VISTA Members

While sequestration will have a significant impact on the VISTA program moving forward, CNCS will honor all current agreements allowing for a full year of service for existing VISTA members.  CNCS will manage the funding reductions by reducing or cancelling new placements, decreasing the resources provided to the summer associate program, and reducing other internal and program overhead costs.

Once again, I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge your dedication to serving the American people. Should you have any questions about any of the items discussed here then please contact your supervisor.

Also read this:

"According to a report by the National Human Services Assembly, the CNCS could face an 8.2 percent cut in funding due to sequestration.It could get worse for the CNCS — a bill passed in the House called "The Path to Prosperity," which contains more than $5.3 trillion in cuts over 10 years and includes measures to eliminate the CNCS all together"

Iditarod Delta Force

They're calling the four mushers from the YK Delta "The Delta Force":  Richie Diehl (Aniak), Mike Williams Sr. and Jr. (Akiak), and Pete Kaiser (Bethel).

Here is an interview that KNOM did with Richie, Jr and Pete:  http://www.knom.org/on-the-trail/wp/2013/03/03/at-races-start-rural-alaskans-eye-the-trail-ahead/

Iditarod Re-Start and Mat-Su Valley

Today Ryan and I headed north to meet Saunders in Palmer and eat lunch there before heading over to Willow to watch the Iditarod Re-Start.  The drive to Palmer was gorgeous!

There were a ton of people at the re-start.  We got there a little late which was fine because we had a chance to relax and chat beforehand.  We ended up seeing most of the mushers start, about 35 of them (66 total). 

Running of the Reindeer

I didn't end up running in the Running of the Reindeer because yesterday afternoon I started getting exhausted and kind of dizzy (which combined with my bunny boots and already lack of running skills does not make for a successful time running from things with hooves and antlers), but some of my friends did!  There were lots of costumes and a TON of people so I couldn't take a lot of great pictures but I got some!

Reindeer before the race

runners lining up

some of my friends and other people wearing ridiculous costumes!

walking the reindeer back

Iditarod Start!!!

Well the jet was super late last night but I made it into anchor town around midnight and am now watching the Iditarod ceremonial start! So awesome!

When Raven Was Killed

 This was posted on several Facebook groups this morning:

WHEN RAVEN WAS KILLED
Athabascan Story

Raven had played so many tricks on mankind for so long that one day a great chief decided to kill him. The chief invited Raven to visit him and when the black bird wasn't watching, he quickly threw him into a large skin bag which he tied tightly shut so that the troublesome bird would not escape.

Then, with the large bag over his shoulder, the man began to climb a very high and steep mountain which was close by the village. It was very dark inside of the skin bag so Raven could not see anything. He asked the man what he was doing, but the chief ignored him.

As the chief climbed higher and higher, Raven spoke out again.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked.

The chief just kept on climbing.

"I can tell that you are climbing a mountain," insisted Raven. "Why are you carrying me there? What are you going to do to me?"

The man ignored him still and continued to climb.

Raven warned the chief that he would be sorry if he killed him, saying that bad things would befall his people.

When the chief was on top of the mountain he threw the bag with the Raven over the side. As it fell, it struck the side of the steep cliff and ripped open. Raven was torn to pieces by the jagged rocks as he crashed to the ground far below. The chief had killed Raven!

When the chief returned to his village, he showed the people the pieces of Raven so that they knew what he had done. All of the men called him a great chief for killing the mischievous trickster. For several days the villagers were happy and they celebrated.

Finally, though, some people started to notice that all of the water was gone. They went to the river, but it was dry. They went to a lake, but it was empty. There was no water to be found! Then the people began to get thirsty. They knew that they could not live long without water.

The people asked why the water had vanished and a shaman told them that it was gone because the chief had killed the Raven. Now the villagers were not happy that Raven was dead and they wanted him back before everyone died.

The shaman told the chief that he had to put Raven back together. The chief took all of the pieces of the dead bird and put them together again. When he was finished Raven came back to life! He jumped up and started to fly away, but he first asked the chief why he had brought him back to life.

"All of the water has gone," the chief replied, "and only you can return it."

Raven flew up higher and then spoke to the man, "Look around you, there is water everywhere."

The chief turned and saw that the lake was full and that the river ran deep and fast again. As Raven disappeared in the distance, the chief promised never to try to kill Raven again.

Because of his powers and role in their heritage, Natives do not kill ravens.