12 Weeks Left

After two weeks up temperatures above 20 degrees (during the day) the forecast is showing that next week the temperature will start dropping again.  Still 8 above zero will still feel warm.  The warm temperatures brought in new snow that provides a nice blanket over the ice that formed when the temperature exceeded 32 degrees and the old, graying snow.
As we pass the mid-point in February, my mind keeps looking toward summer and even into the following school year.  On Wednesday I received my contract for next year.  Yes, I will be teaching in St. Michael again next year and will, in fact, be remaining in the village most of the summer.  In about a month we will pass the equinox and St. Michael will begin having days with more sunlight than darkness.  I am excited to have the sun up when I get up again.  I am ready to spend extended amounts of time outside again.

A Week Above

Last week the temperature climbed to 36 degrees during a storm.  The temperature has remained about 15 degrees for the last 10 days.  The day time temperatures stay around 25 degrees so outdoor activities are a possibility again.  Nathan has been running outside in the afternoons and Katie and I went for a ride on her honda to see new places (for me) around St. Michael.  The warm temperatures have also brought in new snow.  The last two days we have had some snow flurries--not a lot of snow, but enough to cover the old graying snow and the ice left by the 36 degree weather.  

Last week we only had 13 of 17 students come to school because of illness.  Yesterday we were back up to 15 kids out of 18 (one of our students re-enrolled).  There are 13 weeks left in school.

Kyra (her frostbitten cheeks are healing), Nadine and I .

Last week we learned how to jump rope.  They were very enthusiastic.  Here is Christine jumping rope.

Afternoon snack with Mary T. (the 3's class sub aide).  

Matilda reading in the library.  

Regina and Flora making a crown.  This is a common activity for many of the girls.  I tell them to cut it out  (sometimes I draw lines for them to cut) then they put it together.  Regina made this one all by herself.

Frostbite, a Lockdown, and more

February was ushered in by a windchill advisory: -65 degree windchill expected from Wednesday morning to Thursday afternoon.  Before leaving for school on Wednesday I turned all the faucets on to drip hot water and I turned up the thermostats in each of the rooms to between 80 and 85 degrees.  Then I went to school.  We now have 17 students enrolled in our fours class.  On Monday 15 were present.  On Tuesday 12 were present.  On Wednesday 11 were present.  On Thursday 10 were present.  The rest of the students were sick.  Some of them have been sick since last week or even the week before.  Others were sick last week, came in this week, and then were sent home sick again.  It was a quiet week and I feel like we were able to do some enjoyable and meaningful activities with the kids that were at school.
Back to Wednesday's windchill:  I came home from work and the temperature in the house was 66 degrees.  Remember the thermostats were set to 80 degrees and the heaters had been on this that morning and it was still only 66 degrees in the house.
Thursday began with my first personal look at frostbite.  One of my student's cheeks were frostbitten when she was walking home in the wind on Wednesday.  She did not have a face mask.
That afternoon we had more excitement.  We were just starting to get up after rest time when I heard what sounded like a snowball hitting the side of the building.  It was a muffled sound and I didn't pay much attention.  Mary L. ran in from the office and said, "Get the kids away from the windows!"  Flora and I began getting the kids to the back of the room (most of them were still on their cots).  Then Charlene and others from the city office came running in and said, "Get the kids out of the room!  Turn off the lights!"  We turned off the lights and Flora began taking the kids out of the room.  There were still three kids asleep (today of course they fall asleep), so I picked up one kid, handed him to Mary L. and went to get the others.  I noticed that one had woken up and I told her to go to Teacher Alma's room and I picked up the last sleeping child.  All through this transition I kept my voice calm and level and had a smile on my face.  The kids didn't need to know their was a guy with a gun outside.
We ended up taking the kids to the city office and had them sit on the floor.  Mary L. brought in some books from our library lab and we passed them out to the kids.  I told my students, "You could read to the 3 year olds.  They would really like that."  A few of my kids went over and sat with the 3s class and others stayed by me and listened to the book I was reading.  While we got the kids settled Charlene called the police.  Ten to fifteen minutes later we were told the police had taken care of it and we were able to continue with our afternoon routine.
Here's what had happened.  There was a man, who was drunk, shooting his gun out over the ice on the bay.  We found out about it because one of our head start staff saw him when she was coming back from her lunch break.  We were safe, we followed our procedures, we kept level heads, and the kids didn't really realize what was happening.  They weren't scared and they were able to continue the day with negative reactions.

Last week the kids had a great time rearranging the furniture in the dramatic play lab.  They were able to communicate and work together to move the large pieces of furniture and decide where to put things.

Chris and I watching our St. Michael Storm basketball game last Friday against the White Mountain Wolves.

Storm vs Wolves

Left: Logan, Matilda (back), Kyra, and Daiza enjoying the house made of waffle block.  Kyra and Matilda worked together to build it and then they shared it.

Frostbite:  The red patch on her cheek.  The other side also has a red patch.  

Christine and I in the classroom on her 5th birthday.

On Friday I had four students for Friday class.  We had a productive day practicing counting and story telling with a math mini-lesson and then played a color-matching game together.  After we had snack we went to gym and rode bikes.  The kids love riding bikes.  With the small classes we have had this week we were able to have all the kids on bikes at once.  Usually we have to divide the class in two groups and then switch half way through gym.  That afternoon (at -25 with -45 degree windchill) I walked with Chris to the big school where his dad was working and then met with Morgan (my Alaska state mentor). That evening Nathan and I watched the Storm vs Shaktoolik basketball game.  

On Saturday morning the storm hit.  Temperatures that have been between -25 and -40 since December 27 (with only four days around -10) rose 56 degrees from 28 below zero on Friday to 28 above zero on Saturday.  The wind blew continuously from 30mph-45mph with gusts around 55mph.  Again our house was shaking.  With the increase in temperature came new snow.  New snow from the sky mixed with old snow on the ground to create blizzard conditions that blocked our view of everything except the house 40 feet in front of us and the three buildings across the road from us.

10am on Saturday looking toward the IRA building and the AC store.  The light of the left is the IRA building. 

Saturday at 12pm: the red house about 40 feet from our house.

Looking toward the IRA and the AC.

The Catholic Church across the street.  On the left of the picture is the snow that has gathered on the window.

The snow storm cleared midday on Saturday so we were able to do our evening activities.  The wind continues to blow...so much that Jill's second story window pane came out of the frame, fell to the ground, and broke.  A tarp was brought over and taped over the window.  Fortunately, the increase in temperature kept her house from getting cold quickly.  We watched "Lost" for three hours and never got cold from a draft.  At -25 we would have been cold quickly.
Tomorrow we are having people over for a Super Waffle Brunch Superbowl Party.

There are icicles under the gym...

After cold and stormy conditions on Sunday (43 mph winds brought the temperature down to 40 below), Monday dawned bright and calm at 10:00am.  The winds were still present but not nearly as strong as the day before.  There were new drifts that had formed in the last 24 hours that blocked the roads and the big tractor was brought out to plow the snow.
Here are some picture I took during my lunch break of the drifts by our house.

I would like to direct your attention to the drift that developed overnight behind the red slide.  Follow that drift to the right and you will see Alex's house...yes the drift is almost to the top of the roof.

Here's the new snow drift that formed from the south side of our house and across the road to the Catholic Church.  The drift was three or four feet high in the middle of the road.

Here was the honda and snow machine path that used to go between our house and the red house.  It was erased by the wind.  The wind sculpted the snow like it does the sand at the beach.  

Monday night began as usual.  I went to Jill's house for Bible Study.  Around 8pm Jill received a call from Carolyn (our principal).  We heard Jill say, "I have a few volunteers already here."  We were being called to the big school...a pipe had broken and flooded the gym.  We bundled up, grabbed our mops, and walked to the big school.  On the way there Nathan noticed the Northern Lights glowing above the school.  They were low and far away and looked like a green cloud.  It was very pretty even though they weren't very bright or "dancing" across the sky.  We arrived at the school and were met by around ten other teachers already working in the gym.

First we mopped...

...then we towel dried the floor.  This led to towel races.

Two hours later the gym was dry, the fans and heaters were on, and we headed home.  The next day Mr. Picou (superintendent) sent pizza to the teachers in St. Michael as a thank you for helping out.  

Nathan went back the next day and looked under the gym.  There were icicles everywhere!  The gym is about eight feet off the ground.  There were icicles that reached from the bottom of the gym floor to the ground that were several inches in diameter.  No pictures yet though.

Our Next Arctic Reward

Nathan received a call from my dad last night asking if the Northern Lights were visible.  Apparently they were supposed to be bright and visible in Alaska.  Please keep in mind that the district I work in (15 villages) is the size of Minnesota and that is the state of Alaska was laid on top of the lower 48 states Juneau (east edge of Alaska) would be in Atlanta and the western edge of the Aleutian Islands would be in Los Angeles.  Yeah, Alaska is that big!

We had been hopeful this week and the week before when there were Aurora Borealis forecasts but each time we were disappointed or just saw glimpses of a spectacular show that would be happening much farther north (like the lights we saw on Monday night walking with our mops to the big school).  I went to bed last night feeling skeptical because there was nothing in the sky.  

At 1:15 am Nathan woke me up.  "You're going to want to get up and see this," he said, "It's amazing."  I jumped out of bed, put on my wool socks, snow pants, sweatshirt, parka, beanie and face mask, glove liners and gloves and my boots and we headed outside into the calm 25 below zero night.  Usually the moon is bright enough to light up the snow but for the next several days the moon rises just before the sun and sets right after the sun, so there is no moonlight.  I'm watching the snow and trying to breath in a way that won't fog up my glasses and then freeze.  We get to the road and I look up and right above me stretching from one end of the village to the other right above our heads are the greenish streaks of the Northern Lights!  We walked across the tundra and climbed the hill to the north and just stood and watched the lights.  They weren't as colorful or defined as the picture you see of them but they were unmistakeable.  We whistled at the (native tradition) and they began to dance.  While we were out we could hear another person down in the village whistling to them too.  We watched the green streaks dance to the north and become more defined.  The streaks would literally flow across the sky.  We stayed outside until almost 2am before the cold made us head back in.  It was a memorable experience.  We don't have pictures yet...Nathan is going to brush up on his low light skills with his camera.  Maybe we'll get some good shots before the sun takes back the night.  In March on the equinox we will be back to 12 hours of daylight and more.

January Changes

January began with a week of temperatures that dipped down to 40 below on a few mornings and remained around 30 below all week.  This was the week of our flooded hall and bathroom.  This was also the first week back to school.  The big school began on Tuesday, January 2 and soon realized that their pipes were frozen.  One bathroom was still functional, but the sewage system was frozen as well which meant bathroom use needed to be limited.  Therefore homey buckets were brought in.  These are not the Honey Buckets from back home that you see at work sites or fairs, etc.  These are five gallon buckets with a toilet seat on top.  By the end of the week the pipes were thawed at the big school.
At Head Start, Tuesday was a staff workday.  Flora, Cecelia and I worked to assemble new furniture that we had received over break.  We put things away and began to prepare the room for the next week.  Our pipes were also frozen.  Wednesday began with anticipation of seeing my students, but when I arrived I found out that the pipes were still frozen.  35 little bladders in a school with no bathrooms for 7 hours...not a good idea.  When Mary L. arrived we cancelled school for Wednesday and Flora had to call the parents to let them know.  Wednesday became another work day.
Thursday began with the anticipation of seeing my students.  I arrived and found the pipes still frozen.  Again another workday.  This day, however, we told parents that we would have school on Friday for everyone.  This gave us something to work toward.  By Thursday afternoon our pipes had thawed.
Friday began with anticipation of seeing my students.  When I arrived I was told the pipes had frozen again.  Friday became another workday.  By now Flora had worked on lesson plans and finished the rest of the year.  I had worked on our Lending Library bags that I had found and had decorated the library lab with book covers and new pocket charts on the walls where the kids can put their favorite books.
Saturday and Sunday began to warm up and Monday we had school again.  Both school were thawed and the city had cleared the block in the sewage line for the west part of the village.  Monday began with limited water use but by lunch all the plumbing was working again.  We had a nice normal week back to school.
This brings us to list past week.  We had school on Monday, a teacher in-service on Tuesday and Wednesday, and school on Thursday.  For the in-service, a few supervisors from the District Office in Unalakleet came with the presenter, and the teachers from Shaktoolik also came to spend a few days with us.  On Tuesday night, the Shaktoolik teachers set up a karaoke machine in the commons area and we sang karaoke for almost four hours after dinner.  This week the temperature ranged from 10 below to 10 above zero and was noticeably warmer.  We received two inches of new snow (blizzard snow).  This snow is characterized by having large individual flakes (some 1/8 inch diameter) and by being very dry snow that doesn't stick together on the ground.  This snow will stay on the ground until the wind start blowing.  Then it will get tossed back up into the air where it will swirl and create blizzard-conditions with limited visibility.
Last night around 9:30pm, Saturday, January 21, Nathan and I went over to Tim B.'s (assistant principal) house for a night of games and crab.  Katie had just gotten back from Elim with the boy basketball team (she is the coach) and had received a large box of crab.  We cooked up three of the crabs and then worked at getting the meat out of the long legs.  After we had eaten what we wanted to work to get, Katie, Sara, Nathan, Tim, and I played 9-hole Golf (a card game), Spoons (another card game that resulted in bruised knees and a broken chair), and Farkle (a dice game- like Dicey).  We ended the evening with a quick survey of the horizon looking for the Northern Lights (we didn't see any) at 2:30am.
Now it is Sunday morning and the wind is blowing hard sending the snow into the air and limiting visibility.  No one is outside.  All I can see of the big school is the street light that is out front.  The buildings that are closer to us look like they are surrounded by fog.  The temperature outside is 8 below, but the howling wind (43 mph) has brought that down to 40 below.

Here are some picture of what 20 below looks like:

Hoarfrost forms on everything.

Frosted tundra grasses still peeking above the snow.

Our two inches of snow didn't fall straight down...it came in sideways.

Snow accumulated on the side of the power-lines too. 

Looking toward the IRA (Tribal Building) and the AC Store.

Snow and frost accumulation on our porch.

Hoarfrost on the swing at our playground.

Bringing in the New Year

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve celebrations began with a community dinner at the city gym.  I got to sit and talk with some of my kids and then had a chance to play with them after dinner.  After the dinner, the BSSD teachers helped clean up and then clear the gym for games.  We had a big game of musical chairs in the middle of the gym and on both basketball hoops we hung up three pinatas.  At 7:30pm Nathan and I headed home.  

At 8pm we bundled up and headed over to Pam and Michael's for games and snacks.  We played our new Cranium-brand game.  Then we played a long game of Phase 10.  At midnight we turned off the lights and watched the city sent off fireworks over the hill behind the house.  It was very pretty, with the colorful lights reflecting off the snow.  There were a few people sitting out on the hill to watch (it was 25 below without windchill).  We finished Phase 10 around 1:30am and then we all went home.  For some reason, Nathan and I and Katie weren't tired yet, so we invited Katie over for a movie.  We watched "Amelie".  Before it was over, the french narration had put us all to sleep.  Katie went home at 4:30am and we went to bed.

Juliet demonstrates the power of static electricity for us on New Year's.  She picked up a receipt when she was laying on the ground and it stayed on her fur for about 10 minutes.  It slowly worked its way down to the tip of her tail and finally fell off.

January 2, 2012

Monday morning began with a knock on my door at 8:30am.  Flora had walked to work and no one was there.  We start working on Tuesday and the kids start again on Wednesday.  It was 27 below.  

When I finally felt awake,  I started a load of laundry and Nathan and I settled in to watch the Ducks in the Rose Bowl.  Suddenly, we heard the loud splashing of a waterfall. 

Romeo trying to figure out what's going on.

 I jumped up from the couch and took off for the back room.  However, the water was coming out of the sink in the bathroom.  First I tried turning off the faucet, but that wasn't on.  Then I tried the valves under the sink, while I called for Nathan.  He pointed out that the water looked soapy.  We went to the washer and turned that off.  The water stopped coming out of the sink.

The floor was covered with water that came out of the sink drain.

It flowed out into the hall and into Nathan's office.

And into my bedroom.  

We began our clean up efforts with all our towels.  Bonnie gave us her towels too.  We called Carolyn, who called Steve, who will hopefully come over to look at our plumbing by tomorrow.

Another Alaskan Adventure.

GO DUCKS!!!

Merry Christmas

This was the first Christmas that I have spent away from home and my family.  It was different.  It didn't feel like Christmas.  We hadn't up up decorations, we didn't have a tree, and it was very quiet.  Nathan and I called my parents over Skype  and we were able to see and talk to my family for the first time since August.  We saw my parents, Dale and Janis; my sister, Michelle, and her husband, Michael; my Aunt Karyn and Uncle Doug, my Grandma Kaye, and Hal, our close family friend.  They had opened their gifts from us already.  We opened the gifts from them over Skype.  Seeing them and feeling like we were together made it feel like Christmas finally.  

Merry Christmas everyone, we miss you!

That night we went to church and got to see our friends from the village.  Even though our church is small the people are very friendly and welcoming.  At the end of the service, everyone goes around the room and shakes hands and say hi or Merry Christmas.  That was hard for me at first, but I am beginning to do the moving part of this and initiate some of the exchanges.  It makes the community more connected with people showing their support.  

The Week After Christmas

The temperature has remained between 15 below and 21 below this whole week.  The floor is noticeably colder.  (Thank you Gram for the slippers!   They are wonderful!)  Frost is settling over everything and the air is very crisp.  Our groceries have been arriving this week (we have received 10 so far).  Katie has loaned us her honda for the break and we are taking advantage of it.  It makes bringing four 50+ pound packages back from the post office at one time manageable.  Thanks, Katie!  Our pantry is looking well stocked.  I have spent the last few afternoons organizing it as I put away our groceries.  (Our checked bags and coolers made it to our house the day after we got home.  They were on the next plane.)

Between tomorrow and Monday the other teachers will return to the village.  School begins again on Tuesday.