Back Home!

Greetings!  I'm back in Shishmaref...although it was a little iffy out of Unalakleet yesterday.  I've been warned that often flights won't make it out and some of our teachers did not get to their final destinations yesterday.  I do find the flying from place to place interesting though....and to think I used to be so afraid of flying once!

I am currently at the school where I have showered and am doing my laundry and using the internet...and the flush toilets!  The weather is quite blustery out...it's been rainy and windy.  The waves are intense off the sea.  I will not enjoy my walk home...oh, well.  I am not complaining because Helen, my neighbor and the high school special ed teacher, drove me down here on the 4-wheeler.

It's after 10:00 and light out.  That is so weird!  I believe someone told me that there is a curfew of midnight for weekends and summer and 10:00 for school nights.  I can understand how hard it is to get kids to bed when it stays light so very late.

Many folks are out camping to do subsistence hunting, fishing and berry picking.  I've had the good fortune of trying salmonberries...quite tasty.  I watched my neighbor's daughter, Maggie, prepare salmon for the outside drying racks today.  Several of us "newbies" visited with her and then with her mother, Elizabeth and her daughter, Denise.  Elizabeth Nayokpuk is the wife of Herbie Nayokpuk (now deceased)....the Shishmaref Cannonball.  He raced in the Iditarod.  Elizabeth was showing Denise how to do the beading for the sealskin slippers.  Denise is quite a remarkable young lady.  She's back here in Shishmaref from the Lower 48 to learn more of her family's culture and to learn the language (she already speaks Russian and another language as well).  Elizabeth received more orders for sealskin slippers and such as we all gazed at the beautiful work.  I'm told there are incredible craftspeople here in the village....ivory carvers and etchers, whalebone carvers, sealskin craftspeople, etc.  I have also seen some artifacts retrieved not far from here....arrowheads and a tool used in making igloos.

I cannot wait to start posting some pictures.  This is such an interesting village....it's hard to describe in words.  To the north, the Chukchi Sea...to the south, the mainland just the other side of the Shishmaref Inlet or lagoon.  The weather on both sides can be different and changes dramatically and quickly.  The area between my home and the lagoon is grassy and has flowers throughout which are already changing with the seasons.  Out the front of my house is a bit of a rise and I can just see a little bit of the sea.  I'm fascinated with the way the "roads" and paths are cut out of the land around here.  Oh, the cemetery is just to the east of my home.  I'm told that there is a good shaman and a "not so good" shaman buried there near the upright whalebones and that you shouldn't pass through them.  I'm glad I live right across from the Lutheran Church for protection!  I was told my house was haunted, too, but I don't think so.  It's very nice and bright.  The work that has been done in there to make it so is greatly appreciated.

There is a post office here and two village stores.  Just this week, AT&T came through with new DSL hook-ups so I will have to look into that.  Otherwise, internet is through GCI which is what my cellphone plan is with.  I do think I will get a land line though with unlimited long distance calling.  I shudder to think what my phone bill will be for these past few weeks.  I was calling family and friends with hourly updates as new things were happening!

That's got to be it for tonight....it's almost 11:30.  Thanks for the emails....I may be 3000+ miles away but you are all right here in my heart and mind.