End of August

Sorry for the delay in updating my blog.  I was unable to upload pictures from Fish Camp but I have them posted on Facebook.  You can check them out at the link below.
http://www.facebook.com/megan.c.luke

After returning from fish camp I got to spend time with the new teachers who arrived while I was gone.  Jim is from Oregon,  is a Duck, came with two cats, and will be teaching 2nd grade, Ariel (pronounced R-E-L) is our 6th grade teacher, Jessica is our Middle and High School Special Ed teacher, Tim M. is our 7th grade teacher.

After spending a week moving in, we all headed to Unalakleet for our district inservice.  11 of the 15 village schools in the district were there.  The other 4 sites were in Stebbins.  We left St. Michael on Monday morning from the big school.  Unalakleet was sunny and warm until Thursday, the day of the annual Fun Run.  Katie and I represented our school in the 5.1 mile race.  No, I did not run the whole way, but I did finish.  On Friday evening we left Unalakleet and headed back to St. Michael.  I unpacked, did laundry, and repacked, then left for Nome on Sunday afternoon.  We go to the air strip for my 3:45pm flight at 4pm and waited for the plane to arrive until 5:20.  During that time we watched the sun slowly disappear behind clouds, the hill in the distance disappear into clouds, and the hill next to us disappear into clouds.  Then the rain started.  I was soaked in the time it took to walk the 10 feet from the truck to the plane.  Then I slept and when I woke up it was sunny in Nome!

I went to Nome for our ECE training with our Kawerak staff.  On Sunday night (I was the last one there), we went to Airport Pizza, and then Liz (Brevig Mission), Laura (Wales), Amy, (White Mountain), Kurt (Teller: new teacher from Oregon), Alex (Gambell: new teacher from Oregon), and I went to watch "The Dark Knight Rises".  I was so excited!

On Monday and Tuesday we went to training with our Kawerak staff.  On Wednesday we stayed at the Aurora Inn (where we stay when we attend district-funded activities in Nome) and worked in the conference room teaching the new ECE teachers how to administer our assessments and how to use our observation tool.  During these three days a big storm came in.  The wind was strong, it was raining, and the ocean in Nome looked like the Oregon Coast: huge breakers, white caps, etc.  On Thursday the storm subsided and we were able to fly out.  I got to do the "milk run": stopping in several villages as we made our way to the destination.  I also got to ride on the district plane for the first time.  We stopped in Golovin first.  They have horses.  Then we went to Elim.  They have trees, lots of trees.  Then we went to Koyuk.  They also have trees, and mountains.  Then we went to Shaktoolik.  Shaktoolik is built on a spit of land the has the ocean immediately on one side and a large river immediately on the other.  The village has one road, with houses and building on either side.  That's it.  Then we flew to Unalakleet.  The hinge to the door/steps was broken and needed to be fixed.  I switched to Era and waited 3 hours and then left for St. Michael.

Friday was a teacher workday so I went over to the big school for our morning staff meeting and ended up having other meetings to go to so I didn't get into my classroom at my building until 2pm.  This was my first work day in my classroom.  I am so thankful for my Kawerak staff, they had set up the room while I was in Unalakleet for the inservice.  Saturday was also a work day, and I spent that day working in my classroom.  At 2pm I went to the big school for the back to school potluck.

Today is Monday, the K-12 students had their first day of school today.  Head Start had a work day.  We finished getting ready for the year, creating things, and putting things away.  Tomorrow we start school.  I have 13 students at the moment.

A Week at Mosquito Bar Fish Camp

Mosquito Bar Fish Camp Day 1:

            Monday morning in Nome I woke up at 7am to bright sunshine.  The rain had finally stopped.  I had a quick breakfast and began repacking my bags for the drive to Council.  At 9am we met outside of the Aurora Inn and loaded the school’s Expedition and the mini bus with our gear and climbed inside. 

            Tom had spent the night in Nome so he led the way in his truck.  The road was covered with potholes and we passed two graders outside of Nome that were working to fill in those holes.  The road changed from potholes to smooth to potholes to gravel until just over the 62-mile point where the road had been torn up.  For the next eleven and a half miles of road was 3 to 6 inches of soupy mud.  We unloaded the mini bus and all 13 of us piled into Tom’s truck and the school’s Expedition.  Then we headed into the mud. 

            11 miles and many slips later we reached to road again.  A little while later we came to a straight stretch of road and in the distance we could see the village of Council.  Soon we came to the end of the road and unloaded the two trucks onto Tom’s boat.  Tom’s son Hunter was there with a boat as well and six of us rode on that boat downriver to Tom’s and BeeJay Gray’s camp.  We went around bends and watched the forest grow thicker along the riverbank.  On the top of one tree was a bald eagle and in the tree next to it was its nest and an eaglet.

            We arrived at fish camp and were greeted by their three dogs.  One even jumped in the boat as soon as we got to shore.  BeeJay was there to show us around the camp.  As soon as the rest of our group arrived and we had unloaded all our gear and supplies we ate lunch.   We had tomato soup, home-canned smoke salmon spread, pilot bread, fruit and chips.  Delicious! 

            After lunch a few of us cut yarn and tied the pieces into loops for hanging fish.  The others in our group went outside with Tom to learn how to cut salmon into strips for drying.  They used a wood table with long notched cut in the ends so that strips will be uniform.  We lined the straight side of the fish with the skin close to the edge and used a knife to cut the salmon into neat even strips.  Then we used the loops of yarn to connect two strips and hang them on the drying rack. 

            We let the fish hang there and drip (they had been soaking in a brown sugar and salt mixture for a day) before moving the pieces of wood holding the salmon into the power house to dry.  The air is constantly moving through the power house which speeds the drying process. 

            We noticed that as soon as we hung the fish the flies began buzzing around and landing on the fish.  Tom said that as the fish begin to dry they develop a crust that will prevent the flies from laying eggs.  He brought out a fish that he had been using to make stink eggs (fermented eggs) and cut it open to show us the maggots inside.  He told us he wouldn’t eat the eggs but his wife still would. 

            In the evening we had a fire and played the TP Game to get to know each other.  It was fun and let us be a little silly with the things we shared.  After that we had time to talk before dinner.  Dinner was caribou soup with noodles and vegetables.  BeeJay made fresh bread too.  For dessert Katya (Hunter’s girlfriend) made pecan and rhubarb custard pie with meringue.  I also got to try agutak (Eskimo Ice Cream).  After dinner we did a roundtable discussion about teaching in Alaska and different questions the new teachers had about the communities, parents, and students.  I am looking forward listening and learning more as the week continues.

Day 2:

            This morning I woke up around 8 am and we headed over to the big cabin for breakfast and our morning roundtable discussion about our reading assignment.  We talked about the issues that come up with students’ home lives.  We had a break and then ate lunch. 

            Lunch was hot dogs cooked on sticks over the fire.  I found two great spots and cooked my hot dog until it was brown and bubbly on the outside and hot on the inside.  After the hot dogs we roasted marshmallows to make s’mores.  I love roasting marshmallows and  soon became known as the most meticulous marshmallow-roaster at camp.

            After everyone was finished with lunch we got ready to go seining.  WE each put on a pair of neoprene chest waders and boots.  My boots wouldn’t fit over the waders so I wore my water sandals instead.  I wore my fleece over my long-sleeved shirt and then my rain jacket on top of everything.  Tom gave us a seining lesson by drawing a diagram in the sand before we loaded the boats.  Then we headed downstream toward White Mountain.  We drove the boat to a gravel beach and got out. 

            How to Seine:

            Tom and a helper are in the boat.  On the bow of the boat is the net.  The net had a rope at attached to both ends.  One rope is attached to the boat and the other rope is being held by the people on shore.  The boat goes out until the rope is tight and then they begin to let the net out.  While they are doing that the people on the beach begin walking up the beach and the boat turns in the same direction.  The people on the beach run to make a “C” with the net.  Then Tom drives the boat to the beach to make a loop while the people on the beach begin pulling the net to the beach.  As soon as the boat reaches the beach half of us get in the water and begin pulling in the other end of the net until it reached the beach.  Then we begin pulling in the lead line (named for the lead weight the weighs it down) until we bring it to the shore.  As the net get pulled it we can see the fish we caught. 

            We were seining for silver salmon.  The first time we seined we didn’t catch anything.  We moved to a new spot, seined and caught a humpy (Pink Salmon).  We moved to a new spot, seined and caught a lot of humpies and a silver.  We kept the silver and released the humpies.  We seined 10 times that day in eight different locations with varying levels of difficulty.  From gentle gravel beach to flooded meadow and a drop off.  At the end of our seining trip we three silvers and one king salmon (an identification mistake).  Still not enough for dinner so we headed back to a previous location hoping to get a dog salmon.  We pulled in a net full of humpies and four silvers. 

            We took all the fish this time.  The silvers were for dinner and the humpies were for practicing fish cutting and for making dry fish.  We loaded up and headed upriver just as it started to rain.  When we arrived back at camp we moved the fish cutting table into the river and learned how to cut fish with ulus (Iñupiaq).  I volunteered to be first.  First you cut out the bottom fins and cut the belly down to the tail and then to the head.  Then you cut off the head between the cartilage joints in the jaw.  Then you use the ulu, at a slight angle down to cut in front of the dorsal fin on the back down to the backbone where you follow the bones down to the belly for a nice fillet.  We cut the meat off high on the tail but do not cut off the tail.  Then we flip the whole fish over, bend the tail up to break it, and then repeat the filleting process on that side.  We cut up high on the tail again but don’t separate the meat from the tail.  We fold back the fillets and cut through the backbone close to the tail and discard the bones, and the guts, saving the eggs for stink eggs.  Then we take the meat connected by the tail and hang it in the smoke house. 

            When everyone had a chance to cut fish with an ulu I was about to practice more on the humpies.  We were going to make dry fish with the humpies so after I cut the fillets I made cuts in the meat every ¾ to 1 inch so when the meat hangs air can flow between the cuts.  After we finished cutting all the fish we moved them all into the smoke house. 

            I cut a silver and three humpies.  I was praised on my cutting technique for each fish and that made me feel wonderful.  Tom asked if I had ever cut a fish before.  Dinner was silver salmon fresh from the river, boiled salmon eggs, seal oils to put on them, cooked cabbage, and spiced biscuits.  I tried everything.  This was my first taste of seal oil.  It is very different and hard to explain.  After dinner we talked about our experiences fishing and headed back to our cabins to do our homework just after 10 pm. 

Day 3:

            Today after breakfast, our round table discussion, and lunch we learned how to can fish.  We cleared the dining table and covered it with cardboard.  We got 32 pint-sized jars and washed them , the lids, and canning rings.  Tom brought in the three silvers, king, humpies, and smoked silver salmon strips and used ulus to cut the fish into jar-sized pieces to put in the jars.  I was expecting to cut the fish into small pieces. 

            We filled all 32 jars and put 16 in each pressure cooker.  We put 1-2 inches of water in the bottom of each pressure cooker, secured the lid, and put them on the stove.  Then we watched and waited until the steam began to steadily come out of the valve.  Then we put the weight on the valve and waited until the pressure reached 12 pounds.  Then we set the timer for 100 minutes.  If the pressure fell below 10 lbs we would have to start the time over again.  We had a least one person watching the canners all the time to make sure the pressure stayed around 12 lbs.  We had to keep adjusting the flame on the stove to keep the pressure stable.  When the time was up we turned off the flame and waited until the pressure reached zero before removing the weight or opening the lid.  If we didn’t wait the sudden release of pressure would cause the jars to explode.  When we finally opened the lid and removed the jars, we saw that all 32 jars had sealed.  We set the jars out on the counter to wait for them to cool. 

            We put on our waders and set out for our last seining trip.  We loaded up three boats and went to the first site.  We unloaded onto the beach, and held our rope as the boat drove across the water dropping the net.  When the boat returned to shore we grabbed the rope from the boat and began pulling in the net.  It was heavy and we could feel the fish pulling against the net.  When we got it to shore the net was full of humpies!  It took all of us to pull in the net. 

            Tom said, “Now you know what a full net feels like.”

            We released all the humpies and moved on to a silver hole.  We caught one silver and one dog salmon.  We seined the same area once more and caught two more silvers before heading back to the camp.  We returned to camp, cut our fish, and hung them in the smokehouse before going inside for dinner.  BeeJay made us musk ox, mashed potatoes, and fresh rolls.  We also ate the smoked salmon strips that we canned earlier.  For dessert we had peach cobbler and fry bread (doughnuts) with maple frosting.  We went to bed at 11pm after our evening round table discussion. 

            Today I also got to try stinkweed tea.  This helped my cold!

Day 4:

            After lunch today we put on our rain gear and loaded up the boats for the trip 14 miles downriver to White Mountain.  14 miles on a river is a long way.  It was beautiful.  Everything was green from the rain.  We came around a bend and there was the village of White Mountain set around a small bay and built up the side of a hill.  We stopped the boats in the river and Tom gave us a verbal tour of the village pointing out the old school and the new school, the store, the post office, and the clinic.  Then we took the boats to the beach and unloaded. 

            Tom took us up to the school and met with Andy, the principal, who gave us a tour of the school including the new shop.  After our trip to the school we walked back down through the village and went to the store so the Nome teachers could experience a village store.  It was about half the size of the store in St. Michael.  After our time in White Mountain we boarded the boats again for a slow trip upriver in the rain. 

            Dinner tonight was very special.  BeeJay made us Eskimo food.  We had smoked salmon strips, dry fish, moose teriyaki sticks, seal jerky, cooked seal, fried seal, seal oil, seal blubber in seal oil (raw), bowhead whale mungtuk (skin and blubber cut in 2 inch strips: raw), beluga whale mungtuk (inch long pieces), dry white fish, herring eggs (on kelp: raw), walrus goak (hide and blubber: raw), beluga jerky, whitefish stink eggs (fermented eggs: raw), dry seaweed, Tunyuk (like wild celery), and atchaagluk (beach greens) in seal oil.  So many new flavors!  Delicious!  My favorites?  Beluga jerky, atchaagluk in seal oil, bowhead mungtuk, and smoked salmon.  To drink we had tundra tea made from a needles and twigs (not sure what kind)

            After we finished eating we got ulus and helped BeeJay make Eskimo salad.  We cut up smoked salmon, bowhead mungtuk, beluga mungtuk, herring eggs, beluga jerky, Tunyuk, dry seaweed, atchaagluk, carrots, and onions and topped it with seal oil. 

            For dessert BeeJay had made atchaagluk and berries.  Instead of putting the atchaagluk in seal oil, she had fermented the atchaagluk then added berries and froze it.  WOW!  I’m definitely going to try to make this.  We have beach greens in St. Michael.  I could even have my students make this with me at school.  While eating dessert we had our evening discussion and after our discussion we went outside and roasted marshmallows again.  A few teachers decided to go for a midnight canoe ride across the river in the slough.  They saw six beavers.  I went to bed after 1am.

Day 5:

            Today we had to go home.  We went to the big cabin for breakfast and our closing discussion.  We presented our hosts with gifts and then headed back to our cabins to pack and clean.  We helped clean the outhouses, the cabins, the bathhouse, and the main cabin.  BeeJay gave us the Eskimo salad to take for lunch along with some snack food and smoked fish for the drive back to Nome. 

            We loaded the three boats, all of us: Tom, BeeJay, Hunter, Shane, and the 12 of us teachers who went to camp.   Katya left early that morning to go to work.  She is a flagger on the road to Nome (that 11.5 mile stretch of mud).  We took the boats upriver to Council, moved the luggage into the two trucks, and headed off.  We stopped to say hi to Katya and less than a mile from the end of the mud, we got stuck.  A few teachers got out and pushed and we got unstuck pretty quickly.  When we reached the good road the mini bus was waiting for us.  We unloaded our things from Tom’s truck and loaded up the mini bus.  Four people moved from the crowded Expedition to the mini bus as well.  Then we began the 62-mile drive back to Nome (on dirt and gravel roads). 

            When we returned to Nome we said our “see you later”s and went our separate ways mainly in pursuit of showers and flush toilets after the week at camp.  We had a night to ourselves to prepare for our final class session on Saturday.

Overall this was an incredible experience and I would recommend that every teacher in rural Alaska living in a subsistence community take part in a fish camp experience like this.  This year I will have new and exciting ways to relate to my students, their families, and my co-teachers. 

Pictures to follow (I need to sort through 2200+ to choose the best ones).