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!