Dogs, Puppies, & Bush Planes.....

Well, moose season has officially started here in the bush. Which really doesn't mean much to a non-hunter like myself, except that school is closed for the week and I had a week of inservices (training). I didn't update much because not much was happening. If I did, it would look like this:

I sat all day listening to lectures.
I sat all day listening to lectures.
I sat all day listening to lectures.

Granted, it was very good information and I had a delightful presentation, but not much to write home about.

Until now.......

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I have been really trying to walk more. Not having a car/vechicle has really helped me achieve this goal. So I was offered a ride home and I politely passed. Until I heard those magic words: "We have the four-wheeler."

Sweet! I'm in!!!

And I loved it! It was fun bouncing around over the puddles. At one point, we passed a bunch of kids, one of them being my student, who were out playing with their dogs. One of the dogs started running alongside the 4 wheeler. My student shouts out, "He'll bite your foot!!" I think "yeah, whatever" when this wolf hound lunges and snaps at my foot!!!

I hold up my finger and say with conviction: "NO!"

The dog pauses for a moment & gives me a perplexed look. The driver gives this dog a hand motion that sends him running back to his kids. Sure wish I saw what that was, because it was very effective.

Then it hits me....I may have to kick a dog here in Alaska.

It was only later, when I got home that I remembered the man who drove me home is legally blind. Whoops.

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So one of my inservices was to take place at a different school in my district. Not uncommon in any district. What made this special is that we had to take bush planes to get to the other school.

Now, just because it says we're leaving at 8:30 does not mean we are actually leaving at 8:30. This is life in the bush. Nothing really goes according to plan.

So I arrive at the school around 8:00. I had checked the weather (looked out the window) & the sky was clear. Of course, when we walked out a half hour later we were covered in a blanket of fog. It dropped on us like a water balloon. And bush planes won't fly in the fog. It's too dangerous.

So we just work in our classrooms, chit chat....pretty much keep ourselves busy. The hours pass & I'm wondering when will they give up & call it a day.

At 11:00 we were told to gather our things. We went down to the airstrip....and waited some more.....and waited some more after that. Our plane arrives & we take a FIVE MINUTE FLIGHT to get to Akiachak at lunchtime.

It ended up being a lovely day. Akiachak is much larger & more spread out. We were standing on the deck at the school and you could see out for miles. There's not as many trees so the land & the sky seemed to go on and on. I bet you would have loved to see it....too bad I forgot my camera.

After our condensed version of the inservice, they had to hustle us out to the airstrip to make our 4:30 flights. Now, our district is made up of 3 villages (Akiachak, Akiak, & Tuluksak) so there were people from two villages flying out. We were piled into 2 pickup trucks & convoyed out.

We had a ginormous bush plane waiting for us. It fit 9 people and 2 pilots. (I love that the plane seemed huge to me.) And FIVE MINUTES later, we were home.

It seemed so surreal to me to be taking a plane to go to the next village for a meeting. My life now has these moments that are just so completely different from anything I've ever known that it blows my mind.

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I was exercising (don't be too impressed, it was the 2nd time since I moved here) and I finally get to the cool down part. I look outside my window to see a puppy come out into the road & howl. It looked just like Captain, the puppy I rescued a few weeks ago. I run outside & call, "Captain!! Captain!!" The puppy had started down the road but he turns and starts running to me. The massive lake in front of the house slowed him down, but he got to me, whining & carrying on with his ordeal.

I pick him up & was asking him how he got all the way over here. One of my neighbors comes out & asks me, "Did you find another one?" I said, "Didn't I already rescue this one?" and laugh. I look down at the puppy....hmmmm....didn't Captain have a bigger white spot on his chest?....nawwww....

I call Captain's owner. "Are you missing a puppy?" I laugh at him.

"Nope, Captain's right here."

Oooooohhhh nooooooo......this is a different puppy. This is a different puppy! I found another puppy. But Captain's Owner (protecting the innocent) tells me what house he thinks had puppies that looks like Captain.
So I venture off to return the puppy. Still in my exercise gear & dripping of sweat. Fantastic.

No one was home at the first house, but I decide to bring the puppy to a local kid hang out right by my house. Thinking maybe a kid brought him over to play & the puppy walked off. There are no kids there. Great.

But there is another teacher whose dog just had puppies. She's not sure if she's missing a puppy (she's building a dog sled team) so she does a count. Yeah, she's missing one....a black one. Just like the one I found. So she's pretty sure it's her puppy.

Good enough for me!! Puppy is now safe & sound.

Seriously though, am I a magnet for saving puppies? That puppy was running in the wrong direction. I totally saved it! Or am I just a dork who runs out of her house in her workout gear to go chasing down a puppy? I'm thinking maybe the latter....

Weekly Reflections - Month 1

I would have updated sooner, had it not been for unreliable internet service. One day the cell phones were down too. And then the power went out. You would think I'd be upset. I had no power & no way to communicate with the outside world. I wasn't upset as much as annoyed & bored. I've been more annoyed at the lack of internet. Man, remember when I would complain that the Internet was slow??? Those were the days!

Moose season has officially opened here in Alaska. And thanks to some generous villagers, I have moose meat in the fridge, waiting to be cooked up. It still has some hair on it. But I will try it. I've heard moose meat is very yummy. We'll see.

I went outside to take a picture of a fireweed. It was so green last month, but now it's a deep redish orange....basically the color of fire. Where I betcha that's where it gets it's name. A man came up to me & told me he's picking up my house & my neighbor's. I'm thinking, like on a route??

Oh no. He's lifting my house 3 feet. Out of the flood path. And here comes the kicker, "So you'll be out of water & sewer for a while. But I'm sure you can shower at the school."

I start laughing. HARD. I can't stop. All I can say is, "Of course."

Then he looks at our house & says, "Wait! There's your water line. Oh! I can do this without affecting your water & sewer at all! But don't tell your neighbors..."

Trust me, I won't.

And now for the reflections part:

My bush order finally came in. Okay, I'm still missing a box but the food came in. So life is a bit different having a pantry full of food. I now have a variety of food choices....and for that I'm happy.

Something has been bugging me that I didn't really prepare myself for. Now, I should have because this is not a "bush thing". This could happen anywhere.

When you start over somewhere new, nobody knows you. Which I knew, but I wasn't prepared for me having to prove myself as a teacher. California calls things different from Alaska. A SST is a TAT here. State Standards are called GLEs....so when people start talking, I have to clarify what they mean. Which makes me feel stupid. And i'm not used explaining myself in my classroom. I started something new and a "bigwig" came in when I was doing a "test run", seeing what works and seeing what I will have to do in the future. I was asked questions about it, and I didn't feel very good about myself.

I don't go to the principal for problems that I have. My style has been to work it out myself. And if I can't, then I go and say "I've done A, B, & C and it hasn't worked. I need help." Well, pat myself on the back because so far everything I can manage, but now I'm getting worried that I'm not out there making a name for myself.

But that's not why I'm here. I'm here for the kids. Already, the kids are showing progress. They can already do things (or at least the first step) academically that they couldn't do two weeks ago. But nobody comes in to see that. So I'm worried that I'm not coming off well at all or worse that I'm not effective. I think time will tell. I plan to just do my best and enjoy teaching my kids. I don't expect a red carpet welcoming or a parade, I just don't like feeling like people doubt my abilities. I was missing a curriculum binder that was supposed to be in my classroom (not the first thing NOT in my classroom) and was asked if maybe I threw it out. It was a big binder labeled CURRICULUM on it. Yeah, that's something I would do. I'm pretty sure I shot a dirty look when I answered that question.

Thank god my students love me. I can tell, they are what's going to make Akiak totally worth it in the end. And I am enjoying getting to know my co-workers. Sigh, leaving home and Farmar is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Weekly Reflections - Week 3

This week was a harder week for me. I've gotten used to not having my bush order (thank you Swanson's from Bethel) but I was starting to feel lonely. Don't get me wrong, the people here are great, but I only have a couple of people who I would consider my friend. But that takes time. It was hard going from one place where I had many friends (how many "send-off" did I have? i seriously love you all!) to a place where nobody really knows me. My only "safety net" was my cats. I think I miss being around people who know me. I miss my family & friends, sure, but I had a little pity party for myself.

Thankfully, my friends are a phone call or message away. I was told to get over myself by a good friend. That wasn't really what I was expecting to hear, but good advice nonetheless. Actually, I was told to remove something from somewhere else, but you get the idea...

And magically, things got better. I went to a cake & ice cream party (oh so good!!!) and had a fun time. I was told I would love this one movie and invited to a movie night (with popcorn too!!). My roommate had invited a co-worker over to dinner, so my social life is actually more eventful in the Alaskan Bush than in urban California. My doing nothing has gone from a day spent to only an hour or two.

I wanted to take this time in Alaska to figure out my issues with food. So I brought this book about emotional eating and started going through it. Now here's the funny thing: my issues with food are so different here. It's limited in both options and amounts. Because I don't have a whole lot of food, I no longer eat a whole lot of food. Everything's different here. I don't eat junk food. Cake & ice cream? Popcorn? Holy cow!! That's a party!!! That's a big freakin' deal around these parts!

So after 3 week, my pants are looser and I can fit a ring that wouldn't fit before I left. I wasn't sure how I was going to live with no fast food or pizza, but I am finding that one can live without it. It sounds crazy, I know. And the other thing I've found? When you don't have sweets, cake and ice cream taste like heaven here on Earth!! Let me tell you, food up here tastes so much better!!

Careful Where You Jump.....

So I was walking to the school one night when I came across two of my students playing nearby. We were excited to say hello and they asked me where I was going & if they could "follow" me. I said sure and they went trailing me down this path.

This path is actually pretty cool. It's very woody & bushy. Along the path grow high bush cranberries and even raspberries. It's very dense and lush....overall a great walk to work.

So my students are following me when I hear one of my students say, "This is where I saw the guns."

ALL STOP.....HEART IN THROAT....


I turn around, "What did you see?"

Student, "Nothing."

So I keep walking, and listening.

Up the path, the student says, "I saw them right here."

I turn again, "You saw guns here?" I'm panicked because I'm not quite sure who I tell about this....there's no 911. I'm going through my list of who to contact, but my first concern is to keep those kids from touching those guns....

Student 2 says, "They're not real Miss Ruark. They're blue and yellow."

Yeah, sure. I'll just hang around just to see.

Student 1 says, "They're right here." And he disappears into this massive bush.

MOMENT OF TRUTH

Where he holds up a 3 foot long bright blue Nerf gun. It was half his size. And he pulls out a second smaller Nerf gun.

Student 2 says, "Hey! That's my brothers!"

Student 1 says, "That's okay, we're just borrowing them."

They proceed to play. I tell them I'll see them later.

"No Miss Ruark, we're following you!"

Oh yeah, that's right.

:)

NOTE TO SELF: stop jumping to conclusions

And Speaking of Dogs.....

So last night I was getting ready for bed when I heard this howling. It was faint at first but grew louder and louder. I went to the window to see if there was an injured dog on the road....nothing. But I couldn't really tell where the sound was coming from. Every window I went to, the dog seemed to be right there. I couldn't see anything.

Then it occurred to me: The dog is under the house and it's following my footsteps. The dog is screaming at this point and I just think: What do I do? I say a quick prayer to help the dog find it's way but then I wonder, what if the dog's stuck and can't get out?

So then I decided to go out (it was midnight and dark) and try to help it get out. I grab my maglight, put on my boots and venture outside the house.

I can hear the dog yelping as I came out. I shined my light under the stairs..it was a pup.

I called it and out it came....a black puppy no bigger than my foot. it must have been four weeks old.

What do I do now?????

I picked it up to stop it's yelping and to try to process this situation....dogs were shot earlier today, did momma get it? Who do I contact? What do I do????

While I was pondering all this, the puppy had cuddled up to my chest and promptly fell asleep. He (a baby boy) would whine if I sat him down. So as not to wake my roommate (okay, I tried but she wouldn't wake up) I cuddled with him all night long. He woke up at one point and tried to suckle the fatty tissue around my thumb. I fed him some high quality cat food and some water & he cuddled up and fell right back asleep.

I found out later that some people dump puppies by the teacher housing in order for them to be rescued.

I loved that puppy, but I ended up not keeping the puppy. 1) There was a family with two stay at home women who would mother that puppy far better than I would and 2) my roommate doesn't want me to have a dog.

But I am not ready to have a dog yet anyways. I think I was the instrument of the dog's placement into it's forever home. I found out later that some people had heard it's yelping but didn't think to do anything.

Yeah, leave it to me to be the one who goes out in the middle of the night in the Alaskan Bush armed with a maglight to rescue a screaming animal.......

Sometimes I'm so brilliant I could scream......

His new family named him Captain......and I heard he's been cuddling with them all day. :)

Please Don't Shoot My Dog....

So my morning announcement this morning went something like this: The sheriff is shooting stray dogs today, so if you have a dog, make sure it is tied up.

One of my students came up to me and asked me, "Can I go call my mom so she can tie up our dog? I don't want my dog to die."

"Of course."

Oh my.....


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A man came into my classroom to help me set up my computers. One of my students came up to him and asked him who he was in Yup'ik.

My student was shocked when I turned to the gentleman and said, "He wants to know who you are." And then I turned to my student and introduced him. The look on my student's face was priceless!! He wanted to know how I knew that...well, I've been paying attention!!

They have Yup'ik everyday for a half hour. I've been going, not everyday, but I've gone several times. It's tough, but I've gotten a few phrases and words down. Mostly I know how to tell them to hurry up. It comes in handy.


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Does anyone have any questions they want to know? Let me know & I'll be happy to respond.

Pics of Alaska

This is my attempt at a slide show.....we'll see how this goes....

These are pics taken from Akiak...the peach house is my house.