First Impressions

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

After repacking and distributing my load between bags I was ready to head to Anaktuvuk Pass on a Wright Air Plane.

Zoey's kennel was loaded first and all the cargo was packed in around her.

I was a little nervous to see that the plane taking me to my village was a single engine aircraft. The take off in a plane this small was a little nerve racking. The wind made the plane fish tail or waggle a bit as we were gaining altitude. Once we were above the clouds the ride was smooth. I did not get a window seat. I was crammed in between a pile of boxes containing Oscar Myers Lunch meats and a woman with a baby. My eyes were glued to the windows. I looked down over the Chena river as we took off outside in Fairbanks. Along the way we flew over many rivers and small lakes. Then we started to see the southern foothills of the Brooks Range, gentle hills. As we penetrated the mountain they got taller, steeper and more rugged. The Dalton Highway and the transAlaskan Pipeline run along side the Tanana River outside of Fairbanks. In the North the mountains were snowcapped from last night's storm. As we approached Anaktuvuk Pass the plane slid into the pass so we were flying below the peaks. We slipped between the mountains before entering a wide open valley.

The wind played with the plane a little as descended. I was taken by the beauty of the place I will call home for the next year. The landing was smooth. There was a crowd of unfamiliar faces looking for their loved ones. After a Few Minutes I heard someone say my name. Ralph, the maintenance guy from the school was there to pick me up. He had to back the truck up to load my bags they were so heavy! A woman who was sitting in front of me on the plane approached Ralph for a ride. She was a teacher at the school also. When she saw me get Zoey off the plane, she said "I did not know there was a dog on the plane, she was so quiet. I guess Zoey does not mind flying so much. We loaded up the truck and drove to Rachel's house. She is a native, and teaches Inupiat language. Then Ralph gave me a tour of the village. Many of the places looked familiar. I had seen them on Charlie's Web Album. I did not have my bearings on the place yet, so the tour did not really sink in, as I found myself walking down the wrong road on my way to the post office.

Ralph dropped me off at my apartment after a tour of the school. He was unable to tell me which classroom would be mine and Brian the Principal is in Barrow.

I was assigned a 3 bedroom apartment. The smell fresh paint met me at the door. Everything is very nice and modern. The bedrooms are small but each has a good sized closet. I have a laundry room with a washer/dryer combo and a full sized freezer! I hauled zoey's kennel in this room. So I set about getting settled in. I started to open the pile of boxes that had accumulated in my dining room.

It was almost like Christmas except some of my presents were broken. Only one glass and one mug survived the trip.

All of my plates and dishes made it, except for one large glass measuring cup. I opened the package from Kim at the Sevilleta Refuge. She found the camera I had lost during a field trip there. Inside I found many other goodies. She include a package of green chile stew mix, some red chile and some prickly pear jam. My First Care Package! Thank you Kim!!

It was such a nice surprise to welcome me to my new home. I assigned one of the rooms to be my gear room where I will keep my Skis, snowshoes and winter clothes. The other small bedroom I want to make into an office. I moved all of the boxes of books, papers and art supplies in there. In just one day I had opened all of my boxes.

In the afternoon I decided to go over to the post office to see if there were any packages. The Woman at the post office said there weren't any but she gave me my key without even asking for any identification or anything. My credit card bill and last direct deposit receipt were awaiting me. On the way home we two young girls at the playground in front of the school ran over to see Zoey. She tends to make friends instantly where ever she goes. The girls, Monique and Jana-Martha followed me home. Jana-Martha was obsessed with my little digital camera and was taking pictures of everything. Especially Zoey. They showed me where the store is so I could buy some meat for dinner. I saw 1.99 on a package of Hamburger and 2.69 on a package of stew meat. I thought wow, that's a great price! When I got to the register I found out that was the weight not the price. I think I spent $13 on about 4 lbs of meat. I guess it could be worse. I looked at buying eggs, but I think they were about $13 a dozen. So I decided to wait. When we got back the girls played ball with Zoey in the hall, they helped me make my bed, they begged to stay for dinner. I used to stew beef in the green chile stew Mix Kim had sent me. It turned out really good, except for I burnt the bottom of the pot because I was so busy un-packing that I forgot to stir it. I warned them that it was spicy and they might not like it. I gave them each a little taste, they said it was good, so I gave them each a small dish. Monique ate most of hers although Jana-Martha did not. They seemed like sweet girls but I thought they would never leave. I tried to tell them how tired I was, how I did not go to bed until 3 in the morning… Jana-Martha just laughed, "I can stay up all night." She said. Yes, this is one of the problems in the land of the midnight sun, people do not have regular sleep patterns. I thought I might have a hard time falling asleep, but I was so exhausted that was not the case. I went to sleep around 10 pm, although that would be 2 am on the East Coast. The village was still bustling outside my window. I could hear kids playing and 4-wheelers driving by.

Thursday July 31st

I woke up at four in the morning, it was quiet. Zoey was eager to go out. So after having several cups of coffee, I got dress, put on my down parka and we went for a walk. We walked to the west of the school, up on the tundra. We followed one of the 4 wheeler trails up a hill. The ground was soft and squishy. There were hummocks of grass and the walking was un-even. Occasionally the ground gave way to a puddle below. As we approached the top of the hill I could see there were some hollows with some shrubs. Remembering that it is dangerous to spook a bear I decided to start making noise. "Oh bears, Oh Bears…" I called out. Of course I felt silly talking to myself, and I am glad there was no one around to hear me. The village was sleeping as I explored. Zoey discovered several ground squirrel holes to shove her nose it. Once we got to the top of the knoll I let her run off leash. She ran around stopping at every hole to sniff, but I think all of the ground squirrels must have been sleeping still. Either that or they thought it was winter already because it has been unseasonable cool. I don't think it has been above 50 degrees since I got here. Every afternoon the clouds gather over the mountains and leave some snow. I am struck by the beauty of this place. The mountains are rugged and full of life. I can't wait to get out and explore them. But for now I will stay close to the village and photograph them.

I decided to go through all of my receipts from the post office to make sure all of my boxes have arrived. What a task. I must have had over 30 boxes. I have been sending a few packages almost everyday for over a month. Once I had gone through everything I decided to go over to the post office to see about making an insurance claim. I told the woman at the post office some of my items were broken, and she told me to call the airline. What? I do not even know which of the 3 or 4 airlines that come through here these boxes were on. I tried to tell her that I had insured the boxes though the post office. She seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. Eventually she gave me the number of the office in Anchorage to call. Hmm. Not sure if this is going to be worth the effort.

Jana-Martha, who I found out is the daughter of the woman who works at the post office came over to visit again. I asked her to show me where I could pick berries. As we walked over to the north side of town, crossing the John river, we collected a small gang of kids. I am not sure if they were draw to me, a new Tannik (white person) in the village, or my black dog. Two girls stayed with us to pick berries, Isabella, another Tannik and Nelly. When I told Isabella my name, she asked if I was named after the high school in Fairbanks. No, I told her, but I am distantly related to the guy it is named after. There were many types of berries growing on the tundra. I tried a few, but remembering what happened to Chris McCandles decided I better wait until I can get a good field guide and learn what they all are. I know there are blueberries, and a very small cranberry. There were two other types of berries that were unfamiliar to me.

Isabella and Zoey in the Berry Patch.

Isabella wanted me to meet her brother, Jericho, who would be in my classes in the high school. So we stopped by her house on the way home. He was a nice Tannik boy, and very insightful. When I told he I would be teaching math he said "I finish my work quickly, but make me check it." Good to know, I thought. The girls followed me and Jana-Martha and Nelly stayed for dinner. Nelly is going into the 5^th grade and Jana-Martha is going into second. My friend Jenn in Vermont made me some Garlic Scape Pesto as a going away present. I made some whole wheat spaghetti and used the Pesto. Again Jana-Martha did not finish the plate I gave her, but Nelly helped her finish it. Nelly told me that Jana-Martha's mother does not cook. This is why she is always asking to stay for dinner! I asked Nelly, what they have for dinner at her house, she said caribou soup. I hope I can get invited there for dinner. I sure would like to try that!

Again I had no trouble sleeping through the bright night.

Friday August 1, 2008

This morning Zoey and I took a walk along the John river on the west side of town. The river is clear and swift. I am told it is home to a fish called grayling. The banks of the river are step gravel terraces. I am not sure if the formation is natural or if some of the deposits have been worked by machines. This is a busy town and there is always heavy equipment bustling about during the day. I am not sure what they are up to, but they sure seem busy. To avoid the bustle I like these early morning walks. It is quite, except for the sounds of the river. Willows five or six feet tall grow along the banks of the river. I wondered if bears would hear me coming over the sounds of the river, so again I found myself calling out to them. "Oh Bears…" Maybe tomorrow we will walk on the open tundra so we do not have to worry so much about the bears.

Today I packed for Barrow. It has been cold here, so I imagine it will be quite cold in Barrow. I am bringing my big down parka just in case.

I want to bake something but I have no eggs and no Baking soda. I have baking powder, but I guess it is not the same. Charlie and his family arrived today and I would like to welcome them with some sort of warm treat on this cool day. Maybe I will take a walk over to the store and see how much this is going to cost me…

Not too bad. I think I paid about $4 for a dozen eggs, and $3.50 for a package of yeast and $2 for the Baking soda. I made some muffins. Half dozen blueberry muffins from the berries I picked yesterday and a half dozen cranberry orange muffins. I brought some muffins over to Charlie and family, they were out except for his son who just came home to get his jacket. I asked him about watching zoey and how I was afraid she might get into stuff when I am gone because she is freaked out about the move. I was gone for less than 3 minutes and when I came back Zoey had taken the stick of butter of the table and was trying to eat it. Sigh. That's what I was afraid of! I figured this was Zoey's plea for attention. None of the village girls came over today. So she must be sad. (I think it is because one of them took all the money out of my wallet yesterday. So they do not dare come back.)

So I decided it was time to take her out for a walk. I went south of the village where we had gone the other day. The ground was still squishy and wet… My socks are still wet. After we got up the hill and a little distance out of the village I decided to let her go. She chased the ground squirrels. Well not so much chase them around as watch them dart safely into their holes. I walked further south than I had last time. I was carrying my binoculars, unlike before. I decided to have a look around to see if there were any critter off in the distance. Sure enough I saw a heard of Caribou to the south. They were so far away I could not make them out at first. Just dark colored dots. Then as I panned around I saw more and more of them. I counted at least 30, some of them had antlers. That's what gave it away. I remember someone telling me that dogs could scare off the big herds. So I decided it was time to head back before we spooked them. I started walking back, continuing to pan with my binos. In the meantime Zoey made it half way back to the village. There is a leash law in the village so I collected her up. When I got back to my apartment there was a birthday treat hanging on my door. Inga-Lise, the first-second grade teacher I met yesterday had made me some chocolate chip cookies. Yum! I'll have to write her and thank you note!

I visited with Charlie's family. Zoey got to meet their dog and cat, whom she will be staying with for the next ten days. Their dog is a pug, a quarter of Zoey's size. During our visit there was a knock on the backdoor. Some of the village kids had come to tell us the Caribou were outside the village. There they were visible from the steps of the house. The heard I saw earlier today was finally here. There was much excitement in the village. One of the elders told me they have been traveling 60 miles on the Argos trying to find them, and this is the first time they have seen them in the area this season. Was I the first to see them? (An Argo is an amphibious skid steer vehicle used for traveling over the tundra. It has 8 wheels, four on each side. I image they must be hard to steer on the tundra. )

I went out south of the village and climbed a hill trying to come up around behind the herd. I approached them from the side and squatted down behind a clump of willows where I sat and watched the heard come through. I got some nice photos, although I wish I had the longer lenses. I waited for them to come on to the ridge where they would be silhouetted against the clouds