Wednesday, December 31, 2014

The Last Day of 2014!

Well, here it is....December 31, 2014!  I would be amiss if I didn't write at least one post for this year.  No guilt trips here, folks...none at all.  Time is "different" up here.  For starters, I have never worked so hard in my teaching career as I have up here in Shishmaref, Alaska.  It's not just the changes that have taken place in the field of education (which I don't totally agree with but I'm almost done anyway).  Nope....it's not just the day-to-day work in and for my classroom.  It's the extra work that goes into living up here in the Frozen North....although today is unseasonably warm again.  What is up with that?  I walked to school in my jeans...no snowpants.  Unreal!!  I came to school because I can get a better Internet connection...I'm probably going to cancel my home Internet service on Friday....what a waste of money.  All you folks down in the Lower 48...quit whining with your slow Internet connections....you have NO idea what slo-o-o-w means!

Speaking of "slow"....I would like to remind my friends and family back home not to listen to what the post office staff tells you about when "the package will arrive" here in Shishmaref.  I come from a long line of postal employee relatives and I appreciate their work...but in all due respect, this is remote Alaska (just below the Arctic Circle, folks, and 100 miles from Russia) and delivery dates mean...nothing...up here!  Packages might get to Anchorage in "normal delivery time" but that's where "normal" ceases!  From there, it TOTALLY depends on weather and room on the plane....I'm serious!  I still snicker over a package that was sent to me from Michigan a couple years ago from a bank where the personnel had been told what my situation is up here....not only mail delays but time zone differences and dropped phone calls.  People just don't get it.  Those folks sent an "overnight" package with instructions that the contents had to be signed and back on their desk the next day by noon or some such nonsense.  Cracked me right up!  First of all, I think it took about a week for their "overnight" package to get to me in the first place....which was, in all due respect, quicker than it normally would get here....ha!  Oh, well....on a happier note....thank you to the friends and family who sent Christmas packages....I enjoyed them all....on Monday, December 29th!

Anyway...living up here adds more to daily chores as well....like being sure enough water is distilled for daily usage....or having enough water in the holding tank to begin with.  Oh, yes....and dumping the honey bucket which I will have to do when I get home today.  Going home today is a trek...not a car ride.  It's not that far of a walk and it'll be light out when I head home....I think....if I leave before 4:30 p.m.  The biggest problem in walking home today is that the snow pack has turned a bit soft because of the warm temperatures.  Again, what is up with that?  Craziness!  It's so much easier to walk in minus degrees when the snow is hard.  I will be hauling my sled home today with some totes that need to be taken home now that Christmas is over and the week-long village activities are coming to an end.  Each day starting on December 26th, there have been dog sled and foot races.  Each night in the gym, the community comes together to celebrate and award prizes to ALL participants.  Today marks the final events and tonight will be the big celebration in the gym.  Admittedly, I will probably stay home in my humble little abode....watching the crystal ball drop in Times Square (four hours after the actual event...hee....time is "different" up here)....and doing a jigsaw puzzle.

So what's my point in this one and only blog post for 2014?  Time is "different" up here.  I have been thinking about this post for a week now.  When I first arrived here in Shishmaref in August of 2011, I was totally fascinated by what I was experiencing.  It was all new and different....big time "different" from what I was familiar with back in my hometown of East Jordan, Michigan.  Plus, I was living a dream.  As you will recall, if you have been following my dwindling blog, I came to bush Alaska as a result of my trip to China in 1993.  I wanted to experience teaching in a different culture.  Upon the suggestion from a friend who had already spent time in remote Alaska, I began taking the steps to fulfill my dream....and here I am....half-way through my fourth year in this Inupiaq Eskimo village of Shishmaref, Alaska.  It's still here even though someday it will not be....as Sarichef Island washes into the Chukchi Sea.  I may have made my mark....but my mark will be washed away.  Time is "different" up here.

The "point" that comes to mind is this....if you read my previous blogs, read them again.  Life does not change up here.  Oh, sure....teachers come and go (and that's something I will save for private conversations with close family and friends) and the field of education is driven by "change" (boy, am I laughing right now....second grade team members from many moons ago back in East Jordan....CHANGE....ha!  The more things change, the more they stay the same!).  But life in Shishmaref has basically not changed....to a point.  The culture is the same....subsistence living is a driving force.  The folks hunt and fish for necessary food...despite what people living in the Lower 48 think should be done....until you have lived here, you wouldn't understand.  You talk about global warming and complain because you've gotten more snow (and snow days) than you ever imagined.  Of course, I'm old enough to say, "Remember when the snow banks were so tall and we had 10 Monday snow days in a row....yada, yada, yada...?"  Up here, the folks are saying, "The sea hasn't frozen over yet....what is up with that?  That will change the travel patterns of the seals, walruses, and polar bears.  The lagoon isn't freezing quickly enough.  We need to get over to the mainland to reach the migrating caribou herd."  And snow days?  Even in some of the worst weather, we seldom close school up here.  The changes in the weather patterns, I suppose, are relevant to where you live.  What works for one region doesn't work for another.  I just know that once I move back to Michigan, I will appreciate my sealskin mittens during some the the "blizzards" and will gladly shake my head and laugh at those who look in disdain at my mittens....at least my hands are toasty warm....and I will know that my friends in remote Alaska "get it" and are surviving the -40 degrees (with a -60 degree wind chill) because of the "gifts" the seals have given to the tribal hunters.

The culture hasn't changed.  What the folks do day-to-day has not changed.  It's the same...since I arrived in 2011 and well before that.  Another example would be the Christmas week festivities and games here in Shishmaref.  I was talking to one of the IRA members a couple nights ago at the awards ceremony.  I asked him how long the races and games have been held like that.  He said, with a gesture of his hand, "As long as I can remember....as long ago as when I was this big."  He continued with a little bit of the history of the Christmas celebration here in Shishmaref.  It's been going on for decades.  It hasn't changed.  I am sure that several years after I have finally gone back to Michigan (or wherever), the games will be going on each day between Christmas and New Year's Eve....provided the island is still there.  It will not change.

There are some things that some of the folks here in Shishmaref will tell you have changed.  The kids are being greatly influenced by technology.  Computer games, television and Internet have brought some not-so-great changes in the behaviors and attitudes of the kids and in parenting styles.  It's a force to be reckoned with.  I'm not sure what will destroy the culture/island first....technology or erosion.

Nevertheless, for the Inupiaq Eskimo culture....I wish you a prosperous 2015....prosperous as in hunting and fishing and preserving your culture....not in monetary wealth....not in material goods.  Change for the sake of change....bah humbug!  Keep the change!!!  The Inupiaq Eskimo culture is wealthier by far in their beliefs of tribal unity, humility, honesty, hard work and respect for Elders. 

Before ending this post, I must say that I do recognize that the only two sure things in life are taxes (which I need to get started on...even though Alaska does not have a state income tax...Michigan does and I still need to file down there!)...and death.  I have lost a very dear friend this past year (as tears well up in my eyes at the very mention of it).  Cancer is an ugly disease which I wish could be eradicated.  Not only did I lose my very good friend, but some other families back home were hard-hit by their own losses, too, due to cancer (and other sad endings).  I'm afraid that if I start mentioning names, I will forget someone and I don't want anyone to think their loss is any less important than another loss.  Families up here in Shishmaref have lost loved ones as well.  One very poignant reminder of the loss of a family member up here came a few months ago.  I watched for two days from my living room window as the men of the community chipped away at the frozen ground and permafrost to dig a grave deep enough to lower a casket into the ground.  It took several men days to dig the grave.  Something like that would have taken (and did when my Grandma Peterson and my Dad died in January of 1995) just a couple hours with gas-powered machinery.  A few days after the funeral, I then watched as the local children turned a nearby mound into a sliding hill.  There was no disrespect for those "resting" in the cemetery.  It's a fact of life up here....you make do with what you have and that's about the "highest" spot on the island and makes for a great sliding hill.

With that, rest in peace, my dear friend, Pam.  Although I miss you dearly, the happy, vibrant you will never be forgotten.

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you enjoy my one and only post for 2014.  No promises for 2015...no resolutions (I'd break them anyway).