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