Hello world!

It is great to see you!

 

It is hard to believe that I am really in Alaska.

In last couple days I have periodically experienced what is like a rush of adrenaline, where I ask myself, “why the h%@! am I moving to an isolated sub-arctic region.” (For the few people who don’t know, I have taken a position teaching middle school and high school Language Arts in a village of 300 native Koyukuk Athabaskans within the Interior of Alaska. There are no roads in or out, access is by bush plane only.) Nevertheless, I keep traveling toward my destination, knowing that after a few deep breaths I will again realize that I have made this decision for adventure, immersion into another culture, teaching experience, to test myself, and lets be honest… the hardship pay.

As I venture into the unknown of the last American Frontier, I reflect on what it must have been like for pioneers to the area. I wonder then what it must have been like for the Koyukuk’s before the Russians and Americans invaded. Invasion is not my role; I am here to teach the future Elders how to live in two worlds, the world that values one’s own traditions and culture and the world of the ever infringing outside.

I wonder too, am I really going to be isolated out there if I can write to you on my laptop, listen to music on my backup hard drive, send you a picture I took two minutes ago through a wire that connects from my camera to my laptop, talk to you on my Skype (internet phone), and find my own location using my GPS… am I forgetting anything?    

Back to traveling… I am surprised I haven’t run into more young adventurers. I guess their season is over and they have all returned home.

I have met other people. Doug, a Denali bus driver that I met in the Denver Airport after my flight was delayed- due to the events in England, said that if I go through Denali next summer I should ask around the bus driving community for him and he’d set me up with a free place to stay. Thanks Doug!

I met a nice baby named Avery on the plane to Anchorage, who liked the looks of my Atlantic Monthly and decided that if she sat in my lap she might at some point manage to get a tasty corner of my delicious magazine.

I stayed with a couple in Anchorage, Jack and Teresa. They informed me that I will need a thing called a gator suit and a head net to keep the bugs off me. Alaskan ice cream, I learned is made of whale blubber and sugar.

On the train from Anchorage, through Denali, and up to Fairbanks I met a lady who is a nurse in Nome. She told me that the runways in bush towns are small, so I should brace myself when the plane lands. I already know not to worry about the ducked tape surrounding the windows, that I need to ware warm clothes because the plane is freezing even in summer (this should not be a problem- I can bring only myself and forty pounds onto this plane, so I figure I’ll wear fifty pounds of clothing and pack in my bag a laptop and thirty pounds of food (half of which will be chocolate). The lady from Nome said the chocolate in bush towns is not very good. She also gave me some advice about teaching. As a nurse people come to her when they need something because they are really sick. People will be less interested in what I have to offer, so I shouldn’t take it personally if they are not interested in what I have to offer. Plus, she said, half of them will be drink in class and won’t care about what I am trying to do. I really do not believe this will be the case in Huslia. Alcohol is illegal in my town, although there will be a few parents who still their own beverages and this will have an effect on my students. The culture is generally very respectful of education and sober. Nome is not a dry village.

I met a couple from Ohio on the same train. They bought me dinner and introduced me to an Alaskan who works on the pipeline. The pipeliner told me I would be eating all sorts of things at the village potlatches including beavertail and muskrat. I’ll try to stick to bear, moose, caribou, and salmon jerky. This man informed me that I can tame lynx. I ask if he thought I could tame a grizzly, checking to see if he was kidding or not. He wasn’t. Knowing a few guys from my town made him chuckle, the right side of his mouth smiling and right eye squinting, commenting that they’re characters. Soon I will find out what kind of characters he’s talking about.

I have sent at least two hundred pounds of stuff to Huslia. I am prepared for at least three weeks worth of meals, six if I conserve. I will order more food in a couple weeks.

It is eleven o’clock and still semi-light, but I feel likes it’s eight-thirty. It’s time for me to get some rest for tomorrow. Goodnight!

                                                                                          

Portage Glacier

~ by kristeninak on August 15, 2006.