I've not written a blog before, but thought this might be a more efficient way to share our Alaskan adventure. I can sure add pictures more easily, but wish I had someone with more expertise to walk me through some of this. Let me know how it came through!
On Jan 10, 2014, at 1:21 AM, raderdj@comcast.net wrote:
On Jan 10, 2014, at 1:21 AM, raderdj@comcast.net wrote:
*****************************************************************************Hello, Friends! This list has continued to grow and grow! You are all friends who have asked about our Alaskan teaching gig and encouraged us to let you know what's happening up here in the frozen north and/or post lots of Facebook pictures and stories! While I'd love to do that and probably will later, I really didn't want to do it until we return home. So here we are instead with periodic updates on what's happening. Nothing regular, no promises, just a story here or there to let you know we are still kicking!
As most of you know, our friends Matt & Rachel Grossmann who used to work at CEL & LCHS have been teaching for the past 6 years in the remote Alaskan village of Pilot Point. When we got together last summer, they let us know that the other teacher in their school would be taking a paternity leave in January 2014. Did we want to come up and sub for the month? Uh, yeah!!!! And so we found ourselves headed north this week.Did I mention that there are 10 kids at the school? Usually... Sometimes there are less. Never more. At least there weren't first semester. Matt teaches the elementary kids & Troy (whose pregnant wife is so thoughtfully providing us with this cool opportunity) teaches the secondary students. The students are native Alaskans, most of the Aleut & Yupik tribes.We flew into Seattle yesterday and then up to Anchorage this morning. The weather is in the low 30's with some light flurries but what's on the ground is sissy stuff compared to what we left in Lincoln. Since Pilot Point has NO stores, our primary job today was to buy groceries to last the duration. It was freaking me out a little to decide what I'd be cooking every day from now until the end of January, though I felt a little embarrassed when the Grossmanns pointed out that they were buying supplies to last through May for themselves and their 2 children We are allowed 750 pounds on the plane so not only do we have to be careful of how heavy our boxes of canned goods & vegetables are, they'll be asking us what we weigh, too. Wonderful... definitely should have been using that pedometer more this fall. Oh, yeah and on the way to the airport we'll be stopping at the post office to MAIL our suitcases. Apparently no one cares if your supply of socks & underwear freezes on the mail plane, but the frigid temps don't do any good for the fruits & veggies we'll be packing in, so they'll need to go with us on the bush plane. It's a different world up here, folks.
The moose, the Grossman's son & us The highlight of the day was when we came back with all of our supplies to the guest house (located in a very residential Anchorage neighborhood) where we are staying for a few days. Doug was standing near the front of the truck.He heard a sound behind him and turned around just in time to fully appreciate the very large moose strolling down the street about 5 feet away from him. He said he could have reached out and touched him. I have no other words for that one.See you tomorrow!Judy & Doug
Not a lot to report yesterday. It was a pretty ordinary day actually. We finished shopping for food, this time at a "normal" grocery store as opposed to the warehouse variety we visited yesterday. The guys packed all of our purchases into Rubbermaid totes in the "packing room" here at the guest house. Doesn't every guest house have a room specially set aside and equipped with boxes, markers, & packing tape? The Grossmann children had pediatrician appointments for checkups and shots, we all had lunch at Olive Garden & Doug and I even took in a movie this evening. We almost could pretend we were in Central Illinois.
I guess the only unusual moment of the day occurred when Doug, Matt and I took 275 pounds of food to the local post office. We carried in 7 Rubbermaid totes and 2 big boxes packed to the gills with non-perishables. It was 10:00 at night and the post office had lines of people with stacks of boxes just as high as ours. Matt says the lines are much longer during the daytime. Apparently some groceries will make "bush deliveries" that allow people to call or mail their orders in, and the store will then pack and mail it for you. The kicker is that you pay your grocery bill, the cost of the postage and then they add 15% on for their trouble. Food is crazy expensive up here. Who can afford it?
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| Taking our food to the post office |
We tried to be frugal shoppers and eliminated chips and cookies from our list! (Hope they weigh me on the flight coming home, too. Ha!) Perishables will ride with Rachel and me in the bush plane on Sunday.And can you believe the post office is open at 10:00 at night???
Judy & Doug
ALASKA DAYS 3 & 4
Saturday-
We finished up our grocery shopping on Saturday, had lunch at an awesome pizza place, and strolled through a park in downtown Anchorage that was filled with ice sculptures. Beautiful! The guys got the rest of the food items packed and ready to either mail or send on the bush plane. For a mere $900, we can take 750 pounds of anything we want on the plane including but not limited to people. We spent most of the evening weighing boxes and suitcases. By the time we'd added all of the people, all of the boxes of perishable food, our coats & boots, the children's toys, etc, the final total was 750 pounds on the nose. How we managed to do that is beyond me. Doug did not win any points with his estimate of my weight, but I'm pretty sure he thought my new snow boots must have been very heavy.
We actually did mail suitcases Saturday night, as well as some foods that may be frozen - cheese, ground beef, etc. We didn't mail them with the first batch of food on Friday because we have the intention of beating them home. You do not want your shredded cheddar sitting in the backroom of a warm post office too long! Also mailed a couple of Eskimo dolls to Missouri and a few t-shirts to Illinois. Doug took the attached picture at the post office and was scolded by the mail lady-NO pictures allowed in a federal facility! Who knew?
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| Mailing more food and some suitcases |
Today the adventure REALLY began. The school sent a 6 seater plane this morning for Doug & Matt and a few other teachers. Rachel and the 2 boys (14 months and 3 yrs old) and I rented a bush plane to take us this afternoon with all of our perishable food items (all 750 pounds of us...) I have never ridden in a small plane before but it was a blast. I got to sit up front with the pilot while Rachel and her boys were packed in the back like sardines amid boxes, bags & blankets. We used headsets to communicate. It freaked me out a bit when the pilot pointed out where the hatchet and survival gear were stored as part of the crash landing drill. The scenery was barren & beautiful, beginning with the mountains around Anchorage and ending in the very flat white tundra surrounding Pilot Point.
The PP airport consisted of a snow-packed gravel runway and 2 lonely buildings. There was not a soul in sight.
The PP airport consisted of a snow-packed gravel runway and 2 lonely buildings. There was not a soul in sight.
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| Doug in his 6 seater plane full of teachers-Note the eggs he carried on his lap for 4 hours! |
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| Doug was there to meet me when our bush plane landed |
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| Our house taken from the school window. It's really close! |
The teacher houses are very nice and really very functional. The family taking the maternity leave have kindly offered us the use of their home and it is, in fact, quite large with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and plenty of room to spread out. Since most of our food has not arrived yet, we shared left-over Anchorage pizza with the Grossmanns this evening (which weighed 3.5 pounds if any of you are counting) and then came home & crashed. Teachers' workshop tomorrow, kids on Tuesday.
***On a side note, my good friend Judy Duzan wrote me and said she'd found a good street map of Pilot Point and wanted to know our address so she could find our house on the map. I asked Matt and he said none of the actual streets are labeled, there are no street signs and no one know what their street name or address is. Everyone uses PO Boxes. The 2 teacher houses are right next to the school and he created the name "School Road" when he needs a brick & mortar address for school supply orders. One of his friends up here needed an address for her Alaskan driver's license and the state wouldn't accept a PO Box. She'd always liked whales so she submitted 200 Beluga Way. Sailed right past the DMV
So Judy, find the largest building on the map and the 2 little houses next to it are the teachers homes. Best I can do!
Pilot Point, Alaska
First day of school
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| Pilot Point School |
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| Kindergarten numbers with Alutiiq words in blue |
The Pilot Point
School Bering
Sea ) is full of fishing boats in the summer and Matt tells us that
some of the teenagers make extra money hauling ice out to the fishermen. They
do say that the few cars and trucks we see here, as well as any large items
(furniture, appliances, etc) that are brought in, come by barge. There are 3 miles of road
that circle the village with a lane that dead ends at the landing strip and
another that branches off to the dump. Haven’t been to the dump yet and not sure that I want to go there. It's rumored to be a favored snacking spot for the local wolves & bears. Alan, a cute little 5th grade boy, showed me a video
yesterday of a grizzly bear that came up on his porch and looked in the window.
He said their camera ran out of batteries before the bear actually looked in,
but they captured plenty of action before it stops. Alan lives about ½ mile from school. Yikes!
Alan's bear video
And to answer your next question...Dodger, the dog, is alive and well and still riding around town in the back of Alan's family's truck.
Alan's bear video
And to answer your next question...Dodger, the dog, is alive and well and still riding around town in the back of Alan's family's truck.
There is another town about 30 miles from here that has an active
summer cannery, but the only way to get there is by plane or 4-wheeler. I got
excited when I looked out the window and saw a car coming down the road Sunday
afternoon. Rachel said, “Oh yeah, that’s Al & Sue. They are some of the nicest people you will meet. They take a drive every
evening.” Really? A drive? Around the 3 mile loop? Out to the dump? Maybe to check out the empty landing strip? It makes an
afternoon at Wal-Mart look like an exciting event, doesn’t it?
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| Doug before school |
On the first day of school only 2 high schoolers showed up,
but another joined them today. We are expecting a new student Friday. You’d think it would have been a couple of easy teaching days
for us with so few kids, but it has been really stressful to keep everyone on
task and to have enough materials to fill the time. To complicate matters a bit
more, the students take many “distance learning” classes which don’t start until later in
the week. We print out MANY, MANY papers sent from other teachers-worksheets,
pre-tests, mastery tests, you name it. Of course, no one here is in the same on-line
class, so we are struggling to print the right sheets for the right kids.
Aaargh! And then we have to fax their homework to the appropriate instructor.
AND no one gets grades. If they pass the mastery test with 80% or better, they
are considered proficient and pass on to the next level. Not what we are used
to, for sure!
School lunches are fun, too. All 10 students and the teachers sit
together at a table in the gym. Lunch is also provided for the village elders
who come in with containers and take their meals home. Yesterday, we had
chicken noodle soup and home-made bannocks, a native fried bread made by Al, the school cook who is from the Athabaskan tribe. Today, he made moose kabobs which were absolutely
delicious! I thought I might lose some weight up here, but it’s not gonna
happen, folks! He is a fabulous cook! There is a school store run by the 4 students who make up the
student council. It’s stocked with candy and canned pop. The council members sell more to
the villagers who come by after school than they do to the school kids. No
place else in town to snag a Mountain Dew, I guess!
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| Doug, Matt & the basketball team! |
Coaches Doug & Matt had their first basketball practice today after school. They gave Michael, the only player, a run for his money-ha! Actually, they’ll be flying to a sports rally at another school in 3 weeks and Michael will be assigned to a team made up of kids from other schools with small populations.
All in all, we’ve really enjoyed the experience so far. The
hardest part has been going to school at 8:30
a.m. in the pitch black. Ok, ok, I can hear all of my Lincoln school
teacher friends snickering all the way up here. Doesn’t matter whether it’s
light or dark. Morning is not my friend!
Ha!
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