It was snowing and I tried to get a shot of the snow coming down against the gym. You can see the larger flakes. The students said when it is real cold the snow sometimes comes down like tiny ice balls. This is from the window in my room at school.
Here is Susan in her pretty red coat my sister gave her. I am trying to load some English software on one of the computers in my room while I am doing this. Behind Susan is the frozen Yukon River.
Here is the kid walking through the water on top of the ice on the river. It was in the twenties with no wind. A very nice day to walk around for Susan and I. Hope you like the movie.

The kids were taking advantage of the new snow for some fun on a sunny day. Never mind that they were sledding out on the river ice. If they get caught on the ice before it is judged safe they will be put in jail. The blue edge is ice covered with water. They were walking through the water and out on the ice. Their tracks can be seen far out onto the ice. Susan and I knew them and told them the ice was not safe. They just told us kids did this last year. I said "Well, where are those kids."

Here is the friend I was talking to you about. Susan and I were walking about 5 pm along the river. There he was near where I saw him before. On the camera his form is really small. I was pleasantly surprised to see the actual shot was much better. I hope he is not shot by the native Alaskans!!!!
He wanted us to see both sides! Susan's cold is much better. I was glad she could make the walk this evening. In folk lore foxes are egotists, but our fiery, friendly, fox, friend makes not boasts.
See. She is waving again. Across the way is an island in the Yukon River. We are going over there, maybe in December, to see how big the Yukon is on the other side. I'll take pics.
My sister and mother sent me these pants. They have orange in the plaid with an OSU symbol. Thanks a lot for the thoughtful boxes. I think I would like warm pullovers for Christmas, not sweaters. I will put a picture of one on here so you can see, if you needed a list. I wore these to both stores and the people looked at me like "Oh, Brother."
This picture is of small remnant of the river that is not frozen. The wind was very brisk this evening and we walked quickly about one half mile back to our school. For that matter all too soon we may not get much light. The veterans said we will have about 4 hours of gloomy light per day and that will be while we are at work. Someone is taking care of me because I have 20 feet of windows (it seems) in my room so I will see the meager light. Susan has big windows in her class room, too. I am not afraid, because my students put out a bright inner light that will keep all of us warm and happy. I called my nephew, Ryan who lives in Florida, using Skype at school. My students all wanted to see him and his family. They were so friendly to Ryan asking many questions. My students are truly good people.

October 18

Today, Susan sent me to take pictures of the developing ice on the Yukon River. You can see the ice forming along the river's edge. In the fore ground is some driftwood cut and piled for someone to use in their sweat house. The native Alaskans do not bath they sweat to clean their bodies.
It is cold today. The wind is blowing from I don't know where, certainly not the Sahara. You can see the ice start to pile up. A lot of the boats have been lifted out of the river and put up to be replaced with snow machines. That is what Alaskans call snow mobiles. Many are excited for winter. Safe routes are marked on the river and people go much faster than boats. Sometimes the river breaks through and leaves a couple of feet of water on the top of the ice. I have been told the snow machines just keep going, but the ride can become wet as well as cold.
Here is a fishery boat. The engines are as long as I am tall. Notice it takes three axles. One of my friends went out with a native to get fire wood. He said they would crash into the ice, back up and crash into it again when they go in ice that was thick. He said he has never been so cold.
The river piles up the ice on top of firmer ice making what looks like drifts. It will take a few feet of snow to make travel smooth over this river.
This is about three inches thick. This is a close up of the drifts of ice on the river. They are 2 to 3 feet tall in places. I walk from our house down through the dusty town along the icy river by to beautiful town dump which leads to the cold airport. From the airport I walk across a mile stretch of destroyed road which comes out at the health clinic. I think it might be about a two and one half mile walk. Last night on this walk I saw a pretty big red fox near the junk yard by the river. When I was behind the dump I turned around for some reason and another red fox was following me with ten feet. I talked to him about my dogs at home. He or she stopped to listen until I finished my story. I turned to leave and then turned back and the fox had vanished. Of course, I had no camera. I had my camera tonight in case I saw them again. No fox.

Gulls at the trash dump.

Bering Sea

The wind was blowing about 40 mph and the sand was blowing in our eyes.
Can you believe Susan got into the water. I sure did not. It seemed about 40 degrees.
This dog belongs to the math teacher in the picture with me. I think the dog felt sorry for Susan and wanted to help her get warm.
The Bering Sea was blowing in so hard the water was brown with a muddy sand.
This is a shot from the plane as we took off for Emmonak.

The is one of the streets in Emmonak. They have a silty gray mud when wet. It hardens on your shoes and comes off later in your house.
This is a nice shot of our house. The red tank is for fuel oil. The trees and grass are strategically placed for beauty and to let you know what season it is. See, we don't have snakes so we can have nice long native grass. We had our first light snow fall on Oct 1st. These boards are really slick with just frost. I am glad Susan and I have spikes that fit onto our shoes.
GHOST FOUR WHEEL RIDERS!!!! GETTNG CLOSE TO HALLOWEN!!!!! Look at the strange clouds in this shot.
A shot of the part of the High School. It is very old and needs replaced. Heard we are fifth one the list of new improvements. The elementary wing is a lot newer.
I still can't get over this blue glacier ice, really wierd. But not as wierd as ghost riders

More Pictures Taken This Week

A missionary couple and their young son live in the brown painted building. The missionary's wife sings like an angel. I get the point by just listening to her songs. Last time we went the service lasted two and one half hours. Susan and I miss our church and church members form Blytheville Presbyterian Church. We are kinda home sick this weekend. I am sick with a cold.
You dance, No, you dance. Who will join the native Alaskans dance at the dinner to welcome teachers? Not I, maybe, next time.
The vehicle of choice during the months without snow. I have seen 6 people on one of these. They will move at 100 mph when a teenager is driving, I think. I'll have one with mud flaps, please. Almost all of the natives Alaskans will slow way down so on dusty days they don't get us dirty.
Here is a picture of one of the dances. The motions and body language tell stories of berry picking, fishing, and hunting. The males get on the floor and the women stand up. I noticed differences in motions between the men and women. They had a dance, dinner, and gift-giving for us. It really made me want to do my best and help all of their children I can. Susan got some awesome earrings given to her made by one of the ladies. May God Bless these nice People.
Here is a good shot of a boardwalk going to the cemetery. Beside the boardwalk is the city utilities. The sewer has a suction on it to keep the water and stuff flowing in the pipe from freezing. A villager told us the sewer empties into a lagoon which flows into another lagoon then another till the water finally gets to the Bering Sea. The city water is taken from the Yukon River on the other side of town. The water is only filtered. I think I want boiled water, thank you!! I tell myself, don't be a baby, just drink it. I feel better with Tang or Tea added; Clorox? maybe?

Alaska Tundra and Berries

Above is Snowy Owl which we saw on our river trip. These things are huge, bigger than a barn owl, maybe. Two of them were sitting in trees near the river. When we got too close they would fly a short distance away, but well within gun range. Don't these things know the people use their feathers for hand held decorations during native dances? The feathers at the dance could have been from sand hill cranes which Susan spotted shortly before the picture on the bottom. My students say they have eaten sand hill crane meat. I always ask if whatever they are telling me about tastes like chicken. They said mostly dark meat.
This is an area of tundra that came right up to the bank of the Yukon River. The word lichens, mosses, berries, bears, and reindeer come to mind. The footing is really spongy and with each step clouds of bugs fly up. I don't think I was bitten anything like how often I was bitten during a summer twilight in Blytheville, Arkansas. While the young man from the family who was showing us around was holding onto the boat anchor, he was picking blue berries and eating them right off the river bank. Berries do not grow around Emmonak because of the bad drainage, so close to the sea level and the sea. I am not that smart, the native Alaskans have been teaching me!
Here is shot of some of the flora and fauna of the tundra. The red berry is a cranberry. The moss looks like rose moss we plant in flower gardens. Our tour guides helped us pick some of the moss to make tundra tea. She said it had a calming effect. I havn't tired it, yet.
This place helps everyone take good shots. I gotta tell ya, I am sleeping better and feeling great. I think part of it is that I am doing what I love, working with kids.
Alaska did not help me too much with this shot!! I was down close to the tundra with the bugs in my eyes. I wonder if the bug action bothered the camera, also. I wanted to show the little blue berry.
PS. We got cable tv thanks to our nice neighbor's help and I watched OSU beat Washington State with Susan. We didn't talk about it, but I got homesick for things past. The super nice teachers, students, and their parents are all so nice and encouraging, that I know we will love it here. We are going to eat tacos with fellow teachers at our principal's house tonight. Talked to my sister, mother, grand neice and nephew, their dad, and sister's husband on Skype today. It is so unreal to be able to see them when their what, thousand of miles away. I got e-mails from many of the teachers I spent 5 years teaching with from Blytheville. They are very encouraging and as I have learned years ago, teachers are some of the nicest people around. If I make it to heaven, I know I will see them there sooner or later.

National Geographic Tour of Lower Yukon

Hey, we had a fantastic voyage on the Lower Yukon River, around 80 miles worth!!! This a shot of us leaving Emmonak. May be the last time we get a chance to leave the village. We netted salmon, viewed a large area up river from Emmonak, saw a seal hunt,visited the summer fishing camp, met some some Yupiks that were so friendly I could have sworn I was in Oklahoma or Arkansas, saw an expanse of Tundra, and road miles and miles with the fresh Alaska wind in our faces.


Here is our crew three wonderful people from the Watksa family, a Texas teacher, a Phillipino teacher(planned and arranged the trip, a Colorado teacher, and a new teacher mentor who is native of Hawii. Oh! that is me behind the camera with Susan. This boat cost $18,000 with the motor costing $16,000. The right to net fish salmon cost in the neighborhood of $20,oo0. This aluminum boat really moves on the river water. It had a four-stroke engine for fuel economy. I think we purchased $300 of fuel at $5.oo per gallon and used probably three fourths if the total.
Here is the net that was cast into the river. The net has a floater side, which you see and a weight side in the water, of course. We would leave it out for around 30 minutes while drifting down the huge river. Then the net was pulled in with the fish tangled in the net. The net could have no fish or 100 fish. Our first try netted 10 fish and the second got us 7 more salmon. The species were silver and king salmon. If Oklahoma bass from a farm pond they would have been humongus, but as silvers go average, and kings small.


Here are some of our catch. King salmon have kind of a snaggle overbite with dark freckles on their backs. Silver are, right--- silver. We got home at 2 am and had to get the catch up to our houses. We wrapped them in freezer paper and put them in a freezer each of us have in our houses. I baked one of them today. We had a get together for dinner and consumed it. It was very good. Hope I got a lot of omega 3 out of the deal, cause I was sure tired out all day at school. The wonderful trip was worth a little fatigue. We were having meetings and working in our rooms.

Sunset was around 11pm. A person has to watch it or you work too much. Susan and I haven't been watching the clock enough, but operating like a couple of Oklahoma farmers, working from sun to sun. I can only put five pictures on at a time, to I will tell the rest of the story later.

Rigby and me

My principal likes me. Hope that is true by the last day of school!

Some boats belonging to villagers. Behind the boats is an island. The Yukon is more wide than the Mississippi at Blytheville. Some of these boats cost $10,000 and a motor $6,000. We are eight miles from the Bering Sea as a crow flies.

An old boat that Susan found to photograph. The front of it opens like the ones I rode in during my days as a Marine.

The Catholic Church at Emmonak. 

The front entrance of Emmonak School and the trusty van.

Church

Susan and I are going to go to a missionary church tonight at 6:30. I think the denomination is Church of Christ. Last Sunday we attended a Catholic Church and learned from the priest about not giving up on ourselves. One of the teachers said a Presbyterian meeting was somewhere in town according to the Internet. Maybe, we will find out tonight. Monday, we start with in-service meeting again. I think it is over Literacy by Design. Hope they have snacks! Or drawings for teacher supplies!! Susan and I found some boots today in one of the two stores. They stay warm to -43 degrees. I bought them for $22 since Susan had already bought herself a pair. They were in a back room and on sale. The reg. price was $70. Abby said some kids came by our house in Blytheville and asked if the flower man was home. I am going to miss our school kids. All the kids on the streets here in Emmonak say hello and ask if we are teachers. They seem really nice and polite. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I can't wait for the first day to meet all my new students. I hope some of them are gangsta like my brothers and and sistas.

Here are some pictures I just took.

Anchorage from our hotel room.

The airplane Susan almost puked on.

My principal getting our house ready.

Yu'pik with a spear he wanted to sell us for harpooning stuff.

Our house with a nice porch. Yes, the house is on stilts for spring flooding. The ground is peat and boggy so people do not mow their grass. Another good reason to live here!

Classes Assigned

Got my assignment for the next year. I will be teaching Reading to students who are in the six, seventh, and eighth grades. Class sizes will be around 16 to 17 students. In Alaska, the students are on certain levels and in certain grades. In a perfect world this is what happens at school. The levels are determined by the students academic progress. The grades (6th, 7th, 8th) are determined by the students' age. So a teacher could have students who are on several levels, like 4 grade, 5 grade, 6 grade, 7 grade, and 9th grade, all in one (age grade) like the 8th grade. The teacher is a facilitator who helps students move up academic levels. When a student takes a test over a certain standard and gets a grade of proficient, then the student moves up to the next standard level. The tests are supposed to be indicators of the student's ability to understand and/or explain a certain standard on a certain grade level. When a grade is given, it is A, B, C, or developing. Experienced teachers told me they really don't know a student's grade until report cards are calculated by the computer program. No percentage grades are given. Student work at a self-paced rate. I think we are on school improvement, so we are giving Aims tests to students with the frequency determined by the students level with respect to their age-grade. The Alaska Department of Ed. monitor(person) will be able to review these test results and child's progress. This data is per student and per teacher. The teacher can lecture/teach students on grade level standards with their lesson plans reflecting the standard having been covered. Tests over the standard are given at the level each child is currently working on. If the child achieves proficiency then that standard is checked off on that child's record which the computer computes into a report card. Simple?

Emmonak, Alaska Here We Are

After a couple of days staying in an off brand motel in Anchorage, we moved to a Sheridan Hotel in downtown. It was about $300 a night for someone coming off the street, which, of course, we could not afford. Lower Yukon School District was our host for the next two days of intensive, informative sessions of instruction. A good person by the name of Grant took Susan and I shopping around Anchorage and gave us much needed advice about shopping for the Bush. He is like many educators who I have ran across in my teaching career. They have infinite patience, kindness, goodness, and a love for their fellow human beings. I, though, remain a work in progress. With all the good examples I have found in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alaska; someday, I may,at least, be able to act like I have those traits.

After we left Anchorage by air we arrived a Bethel. From there we took a small 10 seater plane to our new home at Emmonak. Susan's stomach did not appreciate the roller coaster ride. I laughed and laughed at her expressions of discomfort when the stuff in her stomach was pressured by the falling plane up to the very back of her tongue. I know I am bad. I admit it. Anyway, when we got there a young man from Arizona, kind of a sufer dude type, said he had the same fluid discomfort. As it turns out, when we had to fly to Mountain Village for more intense new teacher training, we had a very smooth flight and both enjoyed the pleasure of the Alaska scenery.

Get this: The school is run down and in need of paint and eblow greese. It looks like we teachers will have to do the painting and cleaning when we return from Mountain Village. I am okay with that.

We are not sure what we are teaching or were we will be teaching. On the bright side we have recieved a good education about the culture and we have a fellow teacher who grew up in the village. She is very nice and has pledged to help us learn as much about the culture as possible as we are teaching her friend's children and relative's children. As we walked around Emmonak the adult people were very friendly and would shake our hands in welcome. They would thank us for coming to teach their children. Susan and I are going to work very hard for those parents.

This evening we went to an native dance and country western dance. The native dancers were accompined by native crafted drums. Their dances tell stories and confey emotion along with beautifully expressed hand and body movements. I can not wait to learn the stories. Maybe, one was about a crane and another a bear, I think.

We used Skype to talk to my daughter, Sarah. The next day her finance, Ben, helped us to see each other. That was wonderful for Susan and I. We were filled with love so quickly when we saw Sarah we became over whelmed. I hope we can get my other daughter, Abby, hooked up. (To Skype) We appreciate all the people who have the backs of our daughters and will never forget their kindness while Susan and I are working in Alaska. If you do not know what (have the backs of our daughters) means go to Blytheville Middle School or High School and ask one of my brother or sister students I left there. I still have many of their pictures and laugh about the fun times and good things we learned about each other while in school together.

Aug. 5, 2008

We got to Anchorage after a horrendous 11 hours. Alaska is beautiful, just like so many others have found out. My sister said it was 108 in Enid, Oklahoma and it was around 60 here. We felt the carcinogens lodged in our lungs fleeing into the clean, clear air.