Jibba-jabba

So there's this student in my class. A bit of a handful, one of those kids that, regardless of where in the school they teach, all of the staff knows by name and reputation. He was the one I was worried about before I took over the long-term sub gig...but he's really grown on me, and I'm really seeing how 95% of his "bad" behavior is really only due to getting picked on by other kids and not being able to control himself or knowing how to react properly. It's not the guy's fault, he's really a good kid.

Well, on Monday he came in with a mohawk. I'm not talking got-a-haircut-and-it's-a-little-longer-on-top. His head is shaved on the sides and there's a 3-inch strip down the middle of his melon. At one point near the end of the day our Principal came in and made a comment that he looked like Mr. T, and of course, having been born in 1995, he just stared blankly.

So it fell to me to explain who Mr. T was.

Just close your eyes and imagine thirteen 4th grade Eskimo kids walking around the classroom saying "I pity the foo'!"

Randomosity

Pic from one of the high school boys games here last month vs. Akiuk. The league tournament was this weekend, and from what I hear, it's coming down to a coin flip to decide who gets to move on to districts in 2 weeks.

We took a couple rides over to Akula this weekend...this is Sara (near) and Carey (far) on Friday afternoon. We'll be headed back soon, I'm sure, to check out their hardware store (!!!)

Like a mythical creature, we had heard stories about the hovercraft that occasionally delivers people and goods from Bethel along the river. Yesterday we finally caught a glimpse.

Nothing too exciting...

...unless you've been stuck in the village for a while.

This is just a pic of the AC store in Bethel on Monday night. Mecca of assorted grocery items otherwise accessible only by a large shipping fee. Like produce.

(picture taken from Subway....mmmmm, Subway)

What's been up.

It's been a while, so I'm going to do this post list style. Cool?

1. It's a bit surprising how warm 14 degrees can feel when there's no wind. Seriously.

2. Been fighting of my first real illness since I've been up here, it seems. One of those colds that just vaguely makes its presence known, then lets you beat it back with vitamin C and other such weapons, then *wham* hits with a vengeance. Luckily, I made it to the weekend, so I was able to sleep for the next 48 hours if need be...in theory, anyway.

3. Did a lot of snowmobiling a couple weekends ago. Went out with some folks bird hunting out on the tundra on Saturday, and out to help with mushing again on Sunday. Lots of fun. Had a bit of excitement Sunday when Eric was knocked off his dogsled by a "mechanical failure" and after I doubled back for him we had to chase down the now-runaway dogs. After catching up to them (not always with both skis touching the ground, I might add), we had to figure out a way to get them stopped...yes, even at the time I was aware of the similarity to the cowboy movie cliche. But, after some proper russlin'...and untangling...and attempting to herd/tow the pack home...all ended up safe and sound, no worse for the wear. Except Eric, that is, who was a little sore from the initial fall. Excitement all around.

4. You know what else is similar to herding cattle? Teaching elementary school. Seriously. I'm not going to go too far into it or complain too much, I promise...but damn. And really, it's not been all bad, I'm just a wimp. And some of the kids are really great, but not great enough for me to not end up wanting to stab myself in the ear with a pencil 4 times a day :-)

5. This past weekend was pretty laid back, thankfully. Slept a lot (or at least as much as Loki would let us), and did some stuff around the house. Took a ride to Atmau just for fun on Sunday...there was a tentative plan to go to Bethel, but the weather was just too bad, so we just went out to see how the trails were, etc. Managed to get a little frostbite on my face...not too bad, but enough to remind me to bundle up whenever I get on the machine...heh.

6. Ended up making that trip to Bethel yesterday after school. It really is amazing how much faster the trip is when you're traveling with just a couple of people and not a whole group with 5 or 6 sleds. We managed to make it there in less than an hour...the first time we rode in, I remember it being close to a 3 hour trip. Of course, the trail was pretty bad then, too. Anyways, it was good to get in and go grocery shopping. Even hit up Subway (the only chain-type eating establishment within, oh, I don't know how many hundreds of miles)....very nice indeed.

7. A big ol' CONGRATS! to Eric and Sherry on their new baby! Looking forward to meeting the little guy :-)

And that's the Cliff Notes version of my last couple weeks...sorry, I've jest been so busy during the day with my class that once it's time to quit for the day I just want to head home and decompress for a while. I'll get back on the posting bandwagon here, I promise. Even have some pictures to post...some which may be to gory to actually put here...we'll see :-P

News Article

Just a quick note to post a link to a news article about the storm this past week.

Remind me to post this weekend about basketball (going on now) and officially starting with the teaching (last couple days)...

Word from the Coast

So remember how I mentioned yesterday that the winds were supposed to be worse down on the coast? Well, I got an interesting email today from our neighbor/Junior-High-teacher-extraordinaire Christina. Seems she has been in touch with Kendra Cleveland, a former student down in Quinhagak (where she, along with Sara, Carey, and a few other teachers here had previously taught), and got the story of what's been happening:

you knw what?? we have about 70 knot winds here...the church bell fell...school windows trying to break...wires cutting in half...shacks an all falling...four wheelers going across the roads...55 gallon drums going across....a teacher house got its window broken

I expressed my concern and got the following reply and extended description...

yea i knw...its like so bad... all the villages lights are out. im at the school...we're still having school...the winds came around lunch time.. kids have to wait for there parents to pick them up. not unless they stay here in the school.... since electrical wires are flying around we're told to stay here in the school...not unless our parents says its ok for us to go home or they pick us up... yea...the lil kids parents or grandparents are picking'em up...so we're almost the ones left....and theres trash flying around....the wind got calm an now it picked up again..

And then later...

well winds went up to 100 around here...so yea..we're still in school....im in p.e. but i dont want to go to that class..the teacher said it was ok for me to be in his class with the 6th graders

Now Quinhagak is Internetless. I'm only assuming they are in school at all today. I'm not really sure. I'll let you know if I hear more.

Just to give a little comparison (weather geek that I am), 70 knots is 80.6 miles per hour. 100 knots is 115.2 mph. That's equal to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. So yeah, pretty windy.

But hopefully things have died down there a little bit by now and not too much damage was done. And Kendra, if you're reading this, hope you're doing good and everything's ok...thanks for the info!!

Windy Sunrise

I was at school this morning to sit in on the 3rd grade class I'll be taking over for a couple months (gulp!), listening to the wind howl outside, when I noticed a pink glow enter the room from the window behind me. I turned around to check out the sunrise (mind you, it was around quarter after 10), and immediately shuffled down to Sara's room to grab her camera. All kinds of funky colors that the camera didn't even catch. Cool, eh?

But as I poked my head out the back door to take a couple shots, I was having trouble staying still in the wind. And it's gotten worse all day...there's a "high wind warning" in effect, with a nice 40-something mph breeze gusting into the 60s. They're supposedly getting into the 80s down on the coast. That's in the hurricane range, peoples...and not at all uncommon. Perfect kite flying weather!

The nice thing is that the temperature's been really warm the last couple of days. It was in the upper 30s yesterday and mid 40s today, and it actually rained for a while last night. Crazy. But combined with all the extra sunlight we're seeing on a daily basis, it's almost like a little dose of spring.

Almost.

Round 2

We had a pretty wicked blizzard going on yesterday...bad enough that school was canceled and everything in the village (read: the store and the gas station) was closed. We had a nice little snowdrift inside the back door of our house.

Then, it kinda let up last night and was fine this morning.

Then it kicked up again this afternoon. This is what it looks like outside right now (or at least 15 minutes ago, when I was walking to school):

Mind you, the picture doesn't really do the scene justice. For instance, that drift in the middle of the picture is about, oh, 7 or 8 ft tall. And it wasn't there this morning. I had to run home from school to grab the checkbook a little while ago, and in the 3 minutes I was in the house and started to walk back, the drifts had shifted and there were new little baby 2 foot drifts on the path I had just taken. Footprints and snowgo tracks just made disappear in minutes. It's pretty neat, actually. Except when you have to walk through it.

We're going to try to get some good pics this weekend...

Wheee!!

KUSKOKWIM DELTA-

INCLUDING...BETHEL...HOOPER BAY...NUNIVAK ISLAND
930 AM AST THU JAN 25 2007
.NOW...

...BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH 900 PM TONIGHT...

NEAR BLIZZARD AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS FOR THE WHOLE KUSKOKWIM
DELTA THROUGH TODAY WITH STRONG NORTHEAST WINDS GUSTING 40 TO
AREAS OF 60 MILES AN HOUR AT TOOKSOOK BAY. THESE WINDS WILL
CONTINUE TODAY AND CAUSE THE POWDERY SNOW TO BE EASILY BLOWN
AND GENERATE WIND CHILLS IN THE MINUS 35 TO 45 BELOW RANGE.
CONTINUED INCREASE IN SNOW WILL BE EXPECTED TODAY AS THE STORM
SYSTEM MOVES ONSHORE FROM BRISTOL BAY.

Me, me, me...it's all about me

Here I am after getting back from the ride on Sunday. You can tell it's pretty warm out by the fact I wasn't wearing a facemask :-P