Not all is picturesque in Kotlik.  Between the boardwalks is the refuse of the village.  Household trash is mixed with building remains, discarded machinery and junk snowmobiles and four wheelers. 

And then one day last week something interesting happened.  I haven't seen a spider or a web since I got here but suddenly there are hundreds of tiny ones all over town.  They were as much of a curiosity to the people here too.  The kids were watching them move around the boardwalk railings and spin there webs between slats.  Now they are gone again.

What an awesome day today!  Today we had a class on moose processing!  They brought a freshly killed moose into the school for the kids to clean.  The parts of the moose were laid out on plastic and cardboard in the school commons area.  This might shock some of you but kids were given very sharp knives and they participated in cutting up the moose.  Teachers got in on it to.  I got to cut the hide off of the departed mooses butt.  The most exciting part was when someone squeezed on the bladder and moose pee sprayed onto my boots,(yeah, I wear boots to work because that's how I roll). 

 The moose was shot by a woman named Vanessa.  She was very proud and so was her family. 

As you can see from the pictures everyone chipped in.  The entire moose was dressed in about 2 hours.

I've been doing a little experiment.  The coffee maker looking appliance you see here is a water distiller.  It distils about a gallon of water in 6 hours.  The erlenmeyer flask with the cola-looking liquid in it is what is left in the bottom of the distiller after it's done.  The quantity of brown liquid you see here is from 15 gallons of tap water.  Each gallon yields about 3 to 5 mL of this stuff.  When I first arrived here I was drinking tap water by the gallons, then veteran teachers told me about the distillers so I decided to try one.  Boy, am I glad I did!  My house mate Tim got us a Brita filter so between these two items we have copious amounts of good tasting H2O.

16 September 2014

A Saturday night at home (I wrote this one a few weeks ago)

16 August 2014

                  It's a wild Saturday night here in Kotlik, Alaska.  I'm listening to Olivia Newton John beg someone not to play D17.  The AM radio station, KNOM out of Nome plays old Kasey Kassem's "America's Top 40" shows.  Olivia is number three on the charts for this show.  I don't pick up any FM stations on my little shortwave radio.  I do get some Russian broadcasts.  I can't actually see Russia from here, but I can listen to it. 

                  I spent the morning in my classroom getting things situated. There are so many old books and papers to throw away or relocate.  I think every teacher must have that hoarder disease.  We are so afraid to throw something away for fear we will need it some future day.  Sometimes you just have to let it go. I did today.

                  Kasey just announced that "The Eagles" made it to number two on the charts with "One of These Nights"

                  After lunch me and Tim took Hobart out to the old airstrip on the southwest end of town.  We had to trudge through some pretty wet bog to get to it so I wore my knee high rubber boots.  If you look at old pictures of Kotlik on Google Earth this is the airstrip you see.  It's not used anymore after they built a much wider and longer one on the opposite end of town.  The new airstrip can accommodate much bigger planes if the need ever arises.

                  Now Kasey is telling his listeners the number-one best selling single this week is "Jive Talkin'" by The BeeGees.  When the song was over he ended his show with the classic sign-off "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars".  This was a broadcast from August 16th, 1975.

                  Back when we were in North Carolina, Hobart had a big fenced-in back yard he could play in all day.  He has to stay inside now unless I take him out on a leash.  There are some mean dogs in the area that could really hurt him.  My Principle told us that once, a teacher tied his dog up outside the school building and some wild dogs attacked it and killed it.  Also, townspeople are allowed to shoot stray dogs and can even get a bounty for them.  So, I take Hobart on several walks a day but unfortunately we are confined to the boardwalks or else we get all muddy.  Every few days I take him out in the bog and let him off of the leash.  Today, out on the old airstrip, Hobart got to run all he wanted.  He did some swimming too.  I saw a fox off in the distance.  Things will be better when the bog freezes so the mud will not be such a problem.  Whenever I let Hobart run loose I have to give him a bath as soon as we get back home.

                  On the way home we stopped to pick raspberries.  I don't save any. I just eat them as I go.  The tundra is full of berries this time of year.  I have eaten fresh picked cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and salmonberries.  All of them are good except for the salmonberries.  They taste like axle grease to me but I've been told they have more vitamin C than several oranges.

                  It's neat listening to the weather report on KNOM.  They cover the Kuskokwim delta, the lower Yukon river, the Diomede islands, the Seward Peninsula and all sorts of places I had only read about or seen on a map.  By the way, Seward, Alaska is not on the Seward Peninsula.  The town of Seward is on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage.  For most of the broadcast area the weather tomorrow will be scattered showers and high's in the low 70's and nightly lows in the 50's.  People on the Diomedes will see temperatures in the 50's and 40's.  I think winter comes early out there.

The school parking lot at Mountain Village, Alaska.

Going to a proffessional development workshop is a little different here in bush Alaska.  Instead of driving to the county office, you fly in a small plane and bring a sleeping bag and back pack.  You may be there a few days or even longer if the weather turns bad and you can't fly back.  I just flew back from Mountain Village on Thursday after a two day shop teacher's workshop.  (and boy are my arms tired)

7 September, 2014

So how did a guy from North Carolina end up teaching in bush Alaska?

                  In the summer of 2013 our family vacation was a cruise through Southeast Alaska.  For over a week I watched some of the most beautiful and wild scenery I have ever viewed flow past the cruise ship.  Rocky shorelines of wooded islands, waterfalls and glaciers, whales and seals all  were commonplace.  All I could think of every day of the cruise was 'Hobart would love it out here', and 'why am I not living in a place like this?'. 

                  I began researching the possibility of teaching in Alaska as soon as I got back to North Carolina.  In addition, I began removing things from my house that I could do without.  Extra clothes and things that could be donated or given away.  Like throwing ballast overboard my thinking was that if I actually did this move I would need to start lightening my load now. 

                  Alaska Teacher Placement (ATP) is a website that has a wealth of valuable and timely information for anybody seeking a job in education in Alaska.  I found out what I needed in order to get a teaching license in the state and the application process.  At this time I still had not completely decided to actually move to Alaska but I was getting the preliminary requirements done just in case I made the decision later on.  In October I started a "History of Alaska" course through the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in order to satisfy one of the licensing requirements. 

                  It's important to know that as 2013 was coming to an end, the situation for educators in North Carolina was getting worse and there was no indication things would be getting better.  Our pay had been frozen for 5 years, going on 6.  The State Legislators were coming up with ridiculous schemes to try to appease the education community which was getting angrier by the week.  Teachers and Teacher Aides were getting laid off due to lack of fund, and school budgets were getting smaller.  To me, Alaska was looking better and better.  Well, anyplace other than North Carolina was looking good. 

                  The prospect of teaching in Alaska was looking like a real possibility and the real question was, "Why not?".  So I registered for a job fair for prospective Alaska teachers that was to be held in Seattle late in March 2014.  At the time I was just putting my name out there to see what would bite.  As the time drew nearer and I actually paid for my round trip airfare it became apparent that I might actually make this dramatic move. 

                  I completed the history course and all of the other preliminary requirements to attain my Alaska license.  Everything was submitted and my job application was put up on the ATP site for employers to see.  In the middle of February I got the letter stating that my teaching license would be arriving soon. 

                  Next stop, Seattle.  I flew out on a Friday night.  Saturday morning I walked into the job fair in dress slacks, button-up shirt and tie, with briefcase in hand.  I still was not 100 percent sure I wanted to move to Alaska to teach but I was not going to hinder my chances of being allowed to make the choice myself.  The fair started at 8:30 and by 9:00 I had three interviews lined up. 

                  All three interviews went very well.  When I sat down to talk I was ready with a portfolio of my experience as a teacher, a professional resume', and a map atlas of Alaska in which I had circled every school in every district I considered viable choices for me.  Most important, I had my Alaska teaching certificate in hand.  In each interview I made it clear that my dog Hobart and me were a package deal and I had to be assured that he would be as welcome as I to this new job.

                  Interviewers had to know I was serious about getting a job, unlike many of the other fair attendees who looked they might have just taken a few moments to come in off of the cold, rain-soaked street to see what was happening at the hotel conference room.  They were surprised to learn that I had flown to Seattle just to attend this event.  And they were visibly impressed that I was so well prepared. 

                  When lunchtime rolled around I had been offered three jobs.  As I walked to the Denny's down the street from the hotel it occurred to me that it was time for me to decide if I was actually going to move Hobart and myself 4,500 miles across the U. S. to the cold, dark north.  I could have turned all the offers down and been on a plane back home the next morning.  That would have been the easier of the choices, and I would have spent the rest of my life wondering "what if?".  Over a plate of waffles and iced tea I decided to take the plunge and see what happens next. 

                  Back at the hotel I resolutely told the first interviewer that I accept his offer.  We sat down and he filled me in on details of my upcoming employment.  We talked a little more in the time he had left before his next appointment and then I returned to my room, changed clothes and walked around a drizzly Seattle until long past dark thinking about the many things I had to do to get Hobart and me ready for the move. 

                  It was exciting and scary.  I could have just made a big mistake, but then I have always made the best of the situations I have put myself in; joining the Army, getting myself deployed to Afghanistan, cutting my toenail too short, to name a few.  Thoreau said "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation".  I would rather not be counted in that number if it is at all up to me.  A question I have asked myself when faced with a life changing decision,  "What if Huck had never gotten on the raft?", referring to Mark Twain's book "Huckleberry Finn".  I would hate to think that I was offered a chance for a great adventure and did not take it.