Gosh, I cannot believe it is almost the end of March and I did NOT get anything posted earlier. I am so sorry because I know there are people trying to follow my adventures. It's a combination of so much happening and so much to get done and finding the time for everything....including getting everyday chores completed....because it does take longer to do certain things that I have so much taken for granted back home.
For example, we were recently put on a severe water conservation plan. The village has two huge tanks supplying the water for the village. I can't remember exactly what each tank holds...one is in the hundred thousand gallons and the other is in millions, I guess. The smaller tank is the one the school, the Health Clinic and some city offices get their water from. That includes a few of the teacher housing units, too....but not mine! We have to haul our water and dump our honey bucket! Anyway...we were down to five and a half feet of usable water in the tank and that is getting serious when it's only March. It's my understanding that in the past, April is usually when things get "iffy" when it comes to the water. Water is pumped to the city tank from the washeteria tank (I might have that wrong but that's what I heard at one time) and that the initial water is collected from the fresh water ponds (??). Well, surprise, surprise....the water line froze. That meant that water had to be hauled via filled tanks and pumped into the big tank....a difficult, round-the-clock job in order to get the water level up to par.
One of the reasons we began to run out early in the year was that at the beginning of March, Shishmaref hosted the Bering Strait School District Regional Basketball Tournament for four full days. That meant 170 additional students and coaches in our school building. You can imagine the water usage at that point. Last week, we were given measures of what to do to conserve water. This week, we received the "critical" point word that we were at only one foot of usable water. Let me put it this way....IF we had had to shut down, we would have been using honey buckets in the school....get the picture?
Here in the ECE building, we set our own water conservation measures by cutting back to one toothbrushing session per day instead of two, no coffee for the staff (EGADS!), snacks and lunches served on paper plates, ice being brought in for our water use, and....catch this...
"If it's pee, leave it be (Don't flush!)! If it's brown, flush it down!"
Actually, that was no big deal to me because back home in East Jordan, that's what we attempted to do at the house simply for our own way to conserve water even on the city water hook-up.
But, can you imagine that in a school system? Ha! Fun! NOT!
The teachers were all instructed to haul their house water from the washeteria and to shower at home...not at the school. Laundry was to be done at the washeteria as well...not at the school. It may seem like a small inconvenience but one thing I learned is how expensive it is to do laundry at the washeteria. Another eye opener for up here and makes me understand why the villagers are not able to afford washing their clothes as often as one would expect. I have taken up wearing the same pair of jeans and tops for several days myself. Oh, my....how would that go over back at school in East Jordan? I'm laughing up a storm right now....STOP! I promised myself I would NOT use this blog to vent about issues back home. STOP!
So....it had even gotten to the point that we had to cancel our evening open gym sessions and that's a BIG deal up here. Keep in mind that there's not a whole lot to do up here and it's not like the kids can go out and play a lot in the severe cold. Even the adults thoroughly enjoy the late evening gym times for their basketball games. Closing it down was a hard, but necessary, decision in conserving water in the long run. We were even put on notice that the upcoming Inupiaq Days and Spring Carnival (basketball tournaments with neighboring folks coming to play and local dog mushing events) might have to be cancelled. We have 20-30 military personnel coming to the village from April 10-18, too, and I would assume that means they will be staying in the school. They are from Arctic Care and from my understanding, they are coming to work on the dogs in the village....snip, snip and such!!! There will be a lot of water usage during that time.
Oh, and we recently had a hairdresser visit the village and worked into the wee hours of the night for a couple of days doing hair in the school...using lots of water.
It's different up here, folks! We take a lot for granted down in the Lower 48.
Now...on a more positive note....we are back up to five feet of usable water in the city tank. The workers have literally been hauling water around the clock. We can go back to doing laundry at the school but I'll still wait another week...it's still important to conserve where we can....everybody doing their part. We're still not...."out of the woods" on this one....but then there are no "woods" nearby up here in the tundra!
On that note....I'll end this posting and go use the bathroom....and no, I won't be flushing! Be back in a few to talk about the Iditarod....TTFN
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