My new favorite Alaskan memory...

I just got back to Nome from Unalakleet yesterday evening around 6:30, and I was blessed with big excitements during my time there. Unalakleet is the largest of the Norton Sound villages with close to 1000 residents. I had heard that it was the "best" village to visit, that the town was really clean, and the people held their education and health in really high regard. Thursday we hopped on a little 9-passenger bush plane and flew about 35 minutes south to the airport in Unalakleet. That was an experience in itself. Because the airport is so small in Nome, you can check your bags about 1 hour before your flight and then leave the airport until about 15 minutes before your flight. There is no security when flying to the villages, and if you're really sweet, you can usually talk the pilot into letting you sit in the co-pilot seat. I did not do that because I'm still a nervous flier, although I do really enjoy it once we're in the air. Our flight was a bit delayed, but we got to Unk with about an hour to spare.

Shanna, the dietitian who traveled with us had made arrangements for the three of us to stay at her boyfriend's parents house while in Unalakleet, so we went there first to drop our stuff. We were met by Nita, the mom, with open arms and cranberry rhubarb bread (delicious). After chatting, eating a bit, and making plans to picnic later that night, we headed over to the IRA building (a city building) to get set up for Summercise. We had gotten word the night before that Sarah Palin would be in Unalakleet on Friday, and that we would have to move Summercise to the school that day because she would need to IRA building to sign an energy bill.

Anyway...we had summercise that night from 7-8:30. There were about 30 kids there, who were AWESOME. There were two or three 4 year olds and several parents stayed and watched. We played name games, did relay races outside (the weather was BEAUTIFUL that day), talked about the negative health effects of drinking soda, played an exercise-dice game, and the native corporation talked to the kids about safe bodies. (i.e. wearing bike helmets, having adults they trust, what to do if someone makes them feel uncomfortable.) After cleaning up the building we headed back to Sam and Nita's place and almost immediately headed to the river and took their boat a few miles down to their relative's camp. There, we picnicked...they grilled burgers, salmon bellies, we had potato salad, grapes, more cranberry rhubarb bread, etc. I fished a little while we were there, but was unsuccessful. The pink salmon were jumping everywhere, but I guess they weren't hungry. It was frustrating, I would cast, and a fin would come out of the water right under my line...still no luck.

Sam and Nita were telling us how many bears they had in Unalakleet, and Christina mentioned really wanting to see one, so they offered to take us up the coast line to go bear watching. After the picnic, we headed in their little boat out toward the ocean. Before reaching the coast we ran into one of the health aids in town and her husband who were seining for fish. Sam hopped out on the bank of the river to help and I got some good pictures of their catch. They had probably 2-300 pink salmon in their nets and kept maybe 70 of them. After that, we continued out onto the ocean and headed in really close to shore to make our way back down looking for whale, seal, or walrus carcasses that the bears like to feed on. Nita says that when they go greens picking or cranberry picking around there, they'll see 8 or 9 bears per trip sometimes. Sure enough, we spotted one! It was a young one they said...maybe 2 or 3 years old, and a really dark color. I didn't get a picture of it because it ran away too fast, but it was so cool!

We watched the sunset out on the ocean and then went back to Nita and Sam's. Nita shared some sour dock (a green they pick) and wild rhubarb with us. We went to bed around 2 am and slept late the next day. We went back to the IRA building to move all of our stuff over to the school right when the crowd was gathering to see Sarah Palin. Just as we were finishing loading our stuff into the Jeep, she pulled up. We were the first people she came across, so she stopped and shook our hands. Shanna made me explain to her what Summercise was...so yes, I did see Sarah Palin and spoke with her for a few minutes. Unfortunately I did not get a picture WITH her, because she was being pulled away, but I did get some really stalker-like pictures of her talking to other people. ;) I didn't really realize what a big deal that was to get to meet her until we were on the plane heading home. I talked to the ex-vice presidential candidate and possible presidential candidate for 2012. How cool.

We had Summercise with about 40 kids this time, and the kids seemed to really love it again. One girl, Jill was so incredibly smart. She knew so much about nutrition and diabetes already, and I think she wanted to be a chef. KNOM, the radio station in Nome was in Unk. to cover the Palin visit, and stopped by to interview some of the kids, which I think was a big thrill for them.

Once we got done there, we went back to Sam and Nita's, where we had delicious salmon spread, more bread, potato salad again, sour dock and blueberries, and some other snacks. We had about an hour before we had to be at the airport, so we quickly dropped our bags off and ran some diabetes supplies over to the clinic there. I cannot tell you how beautiful their clinic is in Unalakleet. It looks much nicer and cleaner than the hospital in Nome, and you can tell the health aids and staff there are very proud of it. It looks brand new, although they built it over 5 years ago. The health aid we had seen seining the night before gave us a tour of the clinic before we left.

At this point we had about 30 minutes left, but Nita and Shanna were determined to get me to catch a fish. We ran back to the house where Nita was waiting with one of their fishing rods and an ulu. We all hopped in the truck and drove down to the mouth of the river. I cast a few times, and sure enough, I hooked a humpy (a pink salmon). I pulled it in and with maybe 10 minutes left to spare, Nita cut it up on the rocky river bank, put it in a zip lock bag, and drove us to the airport where I carried my cut fish on to the little 9 passenger plane back to Nome along with a home-made gift she gave both Christina and me. I have to keep that one a secret though until I get home and share it with Bobby and my parents.

It was such a surreal and busy trip...I'm so glad Unalakleet was the village I visited, I'm so thankful that Shanna introduced us to Nita and Sam (two of the most generous people I've met), and I am so thankful that God provided such beautiful adventures during our short time there.

all my love,
em

Waiting...

I'm in the CAMP office right now waiting on our plane to get to the airport so we can go to Unalakleet. There are three of us going from CAMP and two from the native corporation in town. Two of us interns will be doing Summercise there while the dietician from our office sees patients. Since I have some time to kill, I thought I would tell you about a conversation I had with one of my five and six year olds the other day on the bus from the pool. Such a cool kid! (as background...this child has diabetes) Our chat went something like this:

Kid: "So are you in highschool or what?"
Me: "I'm actually in college"
Kid: "oh, so what kind of job do you want to have?"
Me: "I want to be a dietician...you know somebody who tells you how to eat properly and stuff?"
Kid: "Oh well if I get to be a diabetes doctor, maybe we could work in the same hospital and work together! When I was in the hospital, I had a dietician and she was really nice! I'm sure you'll be a nice one too!"
Me: "Well thanks! I'd love to work with you!"
Kid: "So are you going to work in Anchorage or in Nome?"
Me: "Well I'm from the other side of the country, so I'm not really sure where I'll end up, but that would be really cool if we could work in the same place!"
Kid: "yea! Let's pick some days we don't want to work ok?"
Me: "ok...like what days?"
Kid: "ummmmm how about saturdays and sundays? We could not work on those days...unless there's an ambulence. If there's an ambulence, I'm there."
Me: "That sounds like a really good plan...I could use saturdays and sundays off."
Kid: "Yea...unless there's an ambulence."
Me: "Definitely."
Kid: "Ok well if you ever get to go to the Anchorage hospital when I'm a diabetes doctor, I'll be in the part that says D."
Me: "Why D? D for diabetes? or D for doctor?"
Kid: "No...you can just park your car in the parking lot...that's where my car will be, then you just follow the signs that say D. That's where I'll be...in the D part of the hospital. That's where I stayed when I was in Anchorage."
Me: "Ohhhh like the D wing of the hospital. I definitely will."
Kid: "ok."
Me: "ok."

Such an awesome kid. I know she'll make a great doctor. :)

Pictures from Dorothy Falls and other...

hey guys! I don't have time to write about this now, but we hiked to Dorothy Falls last night, so here is a link to the pictures. There are also some more pics from around Nome in there too.

love!
em

http://picasaweb.google.com/emilye9/Nome1#

Karaoke in a ghost town?

Friday night was one of those times I can honestly say I really wish I had taken my camera. I don't know if I can fully describe the hilarity of the evening, but I will do my best.

Our friends Jeremy and Seiji invited us last minute-style to the "Spaghetti Feed" saying it was about 12 miles out on West Beach, and that we would have to get ready pronto because "they" stop serving spaghetti at a certain point after which you get really dirty "why are you here?" looks. So the three of us interns and Jeremy piled in the back of Seiji's beat-up pick up truck and took off down the beach. I didn’t really know any more details than that, and I was expecting to see a bonfire on the beach, eat spaghetti, hang out for a bit and then come home.

We bounced our way down the beach for about 6 or 8 miles and all of a sudden we realized the truck was smoking a LOT. We came to a stop, and all hopped out. Seiji looked down under the truck where there was liquid spewing out of the bottom of the cab. We thought it was the oil. Luckily there was a fairly big mining operation a few hundred yards up ahead. We drove the leaking truck on up and came to a stop in front of the mining camp where there were two miners out working on their dredge boats. We explained the situation to them, and one of them brought out his tools to look at the truck. He diagnosed it as having leaked just about all the transmission fluid in addition to being really low on oil. So double dilemma. The other miner at the camp offered us a lift up to Cripple River where the spaghetti feed was happening so that we could meet up with our friends and hitch a ride back with some of them.

No bonfire in sight…instead we came up on an old ghost town, of sorts, called Cripple River Mining Camp. There were rows of little buildings, a chow house, a meeting hall, and miners playing horseshoes outside. Apparently the “Spaghetti Feed” is actually put on every Friday night during the summers by the GPAA (Gold Prospectors Association of America) whose members pay to come up for a week or weeks at a time to mine for gold in Nome. And apparently about once a summer, the youngsters from Nome head out to get a free meal. We found the other Nomites and sent a few people back to pick up the two who had stayed with the broken down truck.

Meanwhile at Cripple River, since we had missed the spaghetti due to mechanical difficulties, we decided to check out the festivities. There was a fake hanging, an induction of new members of the “hole in a rock” club (literally, members have to bring in a rock with a hole/holes in it and recite the membership oath), and then the karaoke began! The night started off as it should with a moving rendition of “North to Alaska,” and only got better from there. All those old miners were serious about their karaoke, and seemed to get a big kick out of the Nome crowd being there. There were about 16 of us from town sitting along the back wall of the meeting hall, and many times the miners would turn around and take pictures of us as we cheered our friends on or sang along. The night ended with a dance party as our new friend, Jesse, belted out “I would walk 500 miles” by Allister, a beautiful sunset around 12:30 am, and a very crowded pickup ride back to town. Ah, Nome. Gotta love it.

It was really nice because I feel Friday was one of the first times since we arrived back in May that we were considered one of the “Nome crowd” rather than just the Summercise interns. Since the miners were all from out of town, all they knew was we came from town. Many of the Nomites we went with had moved to Nome from other places, and were in our shoes not too many years ago. I’m pretty sure Friday was my favorite night so far.

Yesterday was really lazy, and today was much the same. The roomies and I made an Indian feast last night! Elise’s boyfriend had just sent a bunch of curry packets up from the Asian market in Detroit, so we heated those up. Maerilly made sticky rice, and I pan fried the Naan dough Elise made. It was so delicious. It was nice to have some spicy food, and something other than the usual cafeteria food. Today we went down to the movie theater in Subway to see Up, the new Pixar movie. It was so cute! I would really recommend it. It was amazing how much of a comfort it was to be in a movie theater. The theater here looks much the same as the ones at home, and it just felt normal. It didn’t feel like we were in a strange place…just like we were hanging out with friends at home. I think this weekend has been good for my soul. I’ve been a little homesick and cranky lately, so finally feeling like an insider in the community for a night and seeing the movie today were both really refreshing.

Spiritually this week…
I tried to go back to that Wednesday night Bible study at the Baptist church. They had about 25 extra missionaries in town this week as part of a summer missions team that comes up several times a year from Texas. When I got there Wednesday, everyone seemed to be going in different directions. The missionaries who are up here all summer, the only ones I know, were headed to do some dog sledding out at Melissa’s, while the older men of the group were going fishing. Somehow, I got swept into the fishing trip, after being told the salmon had started running. So instead of doing the study, I found myself fishing with all the old Baptist men. ;) I didn’t catch a darn thing except on little dinky flounder. It was cold and windy as all get out. So I don’t know exactly why that happened. Obviously I wasn’t supposed to go to Bible study that night, but I’m still kind-of trying to figure out why that didn’t pan out.

Probably one of the best things that happened was when I got a facebook post from one of my small group girls from home. She asked me what God was doing in my life right now. When I started thinking about it, I realized just how much I had been learning this summer, and was able to send her a really long response.  If you haven’t thought about that question lately, I would recommend it. I think it’s good to reflect on that and give thanks because it’s so easy to forget. Some of the interns and I have decided to write a letter to ourselves to open six months or so down the road, just as a reminder of the ways we have changed and things we’ve learned on this trip. I’ll have to get started on it soon…only 2.5 more weeks!

Best Buds...

 

Camping...

So…it’s been a busy week or so since the end of session 1. I think I’ll start from the most recent events and work backwards.

I was feeling a little lonely last night, so I went down to the beach by myself to journal and think for a bit. It is so beautiful out there, and the weather has been so great the past few days. On my way back I met up with Tala and Megan, two of the other interns, who were headed to the beach for a little girl-talk, so I hung out with them for a bit. We had some really good conversations which was really refreshing. I think I’m learning that those times that I start feeling isolated, or like I just can’t connect with people, or like I don’t want to be around people, I need to do the opposite. I need to seek out people to talk with, hang out with. If not, I just get lost in my own head and feel lonelier. It’s like what I was learning at that Bible study last week. Life is all about relationships, so when I feel tempted to isolate myself, it should be a red flag. Yea…there’s my rant. :D

Half of us interns have been in Council since Tuesday morning helping with a diabetes and cancer prevention camp for kids from different villages in the area. The camp was held at a man named Tom Gray's summer cabin, or "camp" as they say here, and was going on from Sunday to Thursday. The first three interns went out on sunday and stayed until tuesday, then we replaced them. The camp is put on by the CAMP department at Norton Sound (how many times can I say the word camp in one blog post?) and was really awesome. There were only 9 campers ranging from 12 to 16 years in age. All the kids had to apply to go to the camp, and in their own ways seemed really excited to be there. Tom is a guide in this area and takes people on hunting and fishing trips year round. He and his wife, BJ, hold all sorts of camps at their cabin, including bible camps, native camps, and this CAMP dept camp. They are so generous, and really keep the kids on a tight schedule. We all took turns doing chores around the house.

The first day we were there, we went seining for fish, which was so cool. We kept about 4 fish total, and the group who seined the day before had caught a King Salmon which was really exciting because the salmon have not really started running yet. It was such hard work! Basically you have a net that is about 50 feet long (??), one end of which is laid out on the bank of the river. The other end remains in the boat you are using, and the group of people split up…half on the riverbank and half in the boat. The boat takes off across the river, stretching the net and moving upstream while the people on the bank walk the other end of the net upstream as well. The boat then turns toward the bank creating a “C” with the net. The people in the boat jump out and all start pulling the line in and then harvesting the fish. So cool!

I got to cut up a nice sized Dolly Varden (trout) with an ulu which was really cool. I prepped the fish for drying and got to hang it on the drying rack and then flip it and check it for fly-eggs the next day. It just hangs outdoors on a rack, is put in the smokehouse for a while, then dries for a while longer.

The next day we went on a really nice hike up Council mountain, ate a bunch of Eskimo food, and did an Eco-challenge. The eco challenge was so fun! Each team is given a clue and has to find a coffee can with matches in it. The matches are given to the teams 2 canoers who then canoe across the river to the teams runner and pass the matches off. The runner runs the matches down to the team’s swimmer who swims them back across the river to the team’s two fire-builders who have been gathering wood the whole time. The team then builds a fire and fills the coffee can with water. The first team whose water boils wins. My team was awesome and beat everyone by a mile! We watched a slide show of all the pictures from the camp and then talked for a while before going to bed.

The only bad thing about the camp was the mosquitoes. I cannot exaggerate how many there were. I was completely drenched in bug repellant the whole time I was there, and I still got a ton of bites. In my Picasa album there is a picture of the Gray’s dog, Jase, and that will prove my point.

The kids at the camp were so cool and very different from the kids we work with at Summercise. For starters they were older so they required much less attention. They were also from villages in the area, and it was really interesting getting to hear their stories a little. They were harder to crack and seemed a bit wary of us at first. The girls are very soft-spoken and reserved. We learned about different facial expressions among natives that mean different things, and for the first time I picked up on a few of them. A wrinkled nose means no and raised eyebrows mean yes. Often times they don’t answer when you as a question, you may just get one of those expressions, or you may just have to wait a few seconds for an answer. They were such cool girls though, and the boys were hilarious. Two of the girls live in Nome, and I ran into one of them last night on the way to the beach, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep in touch with her a bit. She was one of my favorites and much more open and out-going than some of the girls from smaller villages. I loved it, I just wish we had had more time to get to know the kids. I wanted to hear more from them, and I feel that they had only just started opening up by the time we left.

Over the weekend we went “camping” in Council. That trip did not turn out the way we expected. People say they go camping, but often what they mean is that they go stay at a cabin in Council. We ended up staying in a cabin and the barn at a friend of a friend’s camp…long story, and a little awkward. It’s tough because we often find ourselves completely dependant on other people out here for rides, equipment, getting out of town. The first day of camping was frustrating because it was not what any of us interns were anticipating and we felt like we were mooching off the cabin owners. Apparently they have the interns over every year, and it’s probably not that big of a deal. They were so nice to let us stay, and again they shared their food, their home, and their story. I helped the daughter of the family clear some property in Council she recently bought. That was really fun, despite the mosquitoes. It felt good to work with my hands a little, kept me out of some drama that had begun among the interns, and gave me a way of paying the family back a little which I think Maggie, the daughter at least, really appreciated. We went fishing a bit that weekend as well, and I caught 4 fish, 3 on a fly rod. Oh it felt so good to be out in nature and doing things I love. Despite the rocky start, the weekend turned out to be really fun and relaxing. Very much needed.

We have today off, so I slept in really late, and we’re trying to decide what to do for the 4^th. I think that’s all the updates for now…here’s the Picasa site again. I’ve still got to upload a few more, but by the end of today it should be complete.

http://picasaweb.google.com/emilye9/Nome1#

All my love,

em