Hello! Sorry I have not posted much recently. I have been putting in MANY hours everyday and there just is not enough hours in the day. It is Saturday, just a few minutes after 12 noon. I am multitasking at the moment, writing lesson plans, writing this blog as well as grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is not the same as we are used to. There is a store here, they have a decent selection of items. The problem is the prices are pretty high. Any fresh fruit or vegetables are hit and miss. Milk, well it is sold in the boxes that do not need refrigerated. It is the same milk we had on the ship when we ran out of fresh milk. If you refrigerate it, it is okay. A gallon of fresh milk is 13.00/gallon in Kotzebue. (that is 80 miles south of here). We do our grocery shopping online. Fred Meyer.com is where I am trying to shop right now, they have a good selection, prices are very good, you can even order milk, eggs and they arrive in good shape, and still cold. They ship it via plane, at the airport the boxes marked perishable are put into cold storage until they are loaded on a plane. There are other stores that ship into the bush as well, you can buy just about anything and have it shipped here. No alcohol though, we are a dry village.
School is going well, the kids are eager to learn (most of them) and they have a million questions for me, some even relate to the topic we are learning about. We use the Smartboard and show many places on it, they love to see other places. We are also doing a program called Rachel's Challenge. (all my KUSD friends need to check this out) It is a program about kindness based on the short life of Rachel Scott, a 17 year old student who was shot and killed during the Columbine High School shootings. She was a person who went out of her way and talked to and help students, maybe just saying a kind word or even hello to the student. We watched a presentation in Kotzebue for in-service and a speaker from the foundation was there. Not a dry eye in the place. Great program for kids. There is also a facebook site for it. Check it out. Well, I really need to finish shopping and lesson planning. Have a great day!

School starts tomorrow, I have been working in my classroom all weekend. I think I am ready for students. I will be teaching U.S. History, U.S. Government, Social Studies, 3 gym classes and I will be the girls basketball coach. I will fly to all the villages for the games, that is awesome, plus, I did not know until after I volunteered that our girls team was state runner-up last year. Plenty of talent on the team.

I returned to Kivalina last Thursday, we have been working in the school getting ready for all the kids to come back in. I measured me walk from the house to the school in number of steps, it is 64 steps from my door to the school steps. I did post some pictures on Saturday and Friday of more scenery, if you missed them scroll down on my FB profile and you will see them. Need to do a couple more things then go watch a movie and eat.

In Service in Kotzebue, Ak

We flew back down from Kivalina to Kotzebue Monday morning for in-service. Most of the teachers were given a sleeping bag and a blow up air mattress. About 200 teachers camping in the school, it is a combined K-12 school, each has their own wing. Not the Hilton but it could be worse. School supplies meals 3x a day, pretty good stuff. Pretty standard stuff, although there was a presentation on Rachel's Challenge. She was a 17 yo girl killed during the Columbine high school killings. She promoted kindness to everyone. She somehow knew she going to die at a young age but wanted to touch the hearts and souls of millions. tears were flowing freely. She now has an organization named after her promoting kindness and all the other values she stood for, Very powerful. Had lunch, looked at school data, ate supper with Katie and Emma at school. They are great and will be so fun to work with this upcoming year. My other co-workers also are awesome people, everyone has a great sense of humor. It will not be an boring year, that is for sure. We do have our work cut out for us though with the kids. We will be till Thursday afternoon then fly back, more updates later.

Kivalina at last!

I am here! It was a LONG day of sitting around the airport (a room that is 15 x 40) waiting to fly out. There was rain and for in Kivalina, so we were grounded in Kotzebue for a while. There is no TSA to deal with at the airport. There is a local lady who sells bake goods in the airport waiting lounge. 20.00 for a loaf of banana nut bread. I passed on it. Several people were having food delivered to the airport while they were waiting for their flights. Once the weather cleared, we loaded up into a Cessna Caravan 10 passanger plane. (it is one of the larger ones) the cargo/bags are carried in a pod under the plane. Any weight over 50# is .90/lb, it can add up quickly. I was 30# over, plus I had some frozen food to bring to Kivalina. The store selection of food in Kivalina is hit and miss. We were flying to Noatak, Ak first, we had 4 people to drop of there, it was about a 25 minute flight. The landing strip is a gravel strip. As soon as the plane is on the ground, pick-up trucks and quads pull up to the plane and the have the cargo/baggage off in minutes. Very efficent operation. We sent less than 10 minutes on the ground and headed off to Kivalina, it was about 20 minutes in the air. The scenery below was awesome. mostly flatland, with streams/rivers and tundra. Some trees but everything was so green. It was a bit foggy coming into Kivalina, but

no problems. We were met by a few people with quads and trailers, our luggage went on and off we went to our homes. There were 4 of us on the last leg of the flight, 3 new teachers like me and 1 returning teacher. Our homes are at the south end of the penninsula, I am about 30 second walk from the school. I do have a flush toliet/running water and a shower,(thank God) but other than the school and the teachers, most people do not have either or any of the above services.

After unpacking and getting something to eat, the 3 new teachers went for a walk around the village. There are about 400 people here, and around 100 k-12 kids. The kids found out we were new teachers and we were swarmed. 32 million questions later we made it back to our homes. I looked at my watch and it was 11:30. Really weird having the sun still out at that time of day. It was setting and was gone around midnight. The villagers are very nice and receptive. Everyone came by and said hello, I have had people stopping all day today (Sunday) to welcome me to the village. I head back to Kotzebue tomorrow for 4 days of in-service training along with the rest of the teachers from the district. A majority of the teachers have to be flown in by bush plane, it is the only way to get around. We will be staying at the school, we get air mattresses and a sleeping bag, I prefer my own sleeping bag. I will have room to load up on some more food supplies, get supplies every time you can.

Kotzebue, Alaska

I flew out of Anchorage Thursday morning, stopped in Nome, Alaska then flew into Kotzebue, AK

It is interesting being on a plane (I was actually on a 737-400 Alaskan Airlines) due to you actually taxi on the main runway, spin around at the end then take-off. Not the normal procedure for flight in many places. The airport is a 30 x 20 room, which also includes the baggage claim. Gets a bit crowded. Spent the night at the school, along with all the other new teachers. Air mattresses and sleeping bag. We have been eating well, the school district has been taking very good care of us. Tomorrow we fly out to Kivalina, it is about 80 miles north, bush plane is the only way in. Gonna be an interesting flight.

Anchorage

We (Brenda and I) arrived in Anchorage very early Tuesday morning (12:30 a.m.) We headed to the hotel and enjoyed the comfort of the room. Tuesday after having breakfast we were out and about. it was almost 60 degrees out and light rain. That did not stop us at all. We walked all over downtown Anchorage. We needed to find some winter boots, which after visiting several stores we finally succeeded in finding a pair rated at -58 F. That should work. We enjoyed walking around all day. After we returned to the hotel, we hit the hot tub and relaxed the rest of the evening. It was very strange having the sun go down at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday we were out and about again in Anchorage, armed with the camera we took a trolley tour of the city and surrounding area. We saw 2 moose along the side of the road. They were in the brush, pictures did not show them very clearly. We had lunch at a place called Humpy's. we both had the halibut taco, it was very good along with a beavertail blondie beer. (Brenda had cherry wheat beer). Brenda heads back bright and early tomorrow, I fly out later in the morning for Kotzebue (via Nome). See you later.

Last days in the lower 48

I am down to 4 1/2 days left before I depart. I feel like I need to do something to get ready, but everything has been shipped (some of the boxes have arrived). My teacher certification has been done, all my paperwork filled out and mailed. The weather has been in the mid 40's. Not very warm by our heatwave standards. I did notice that sunrise is about 5:30 a.m. and sunset at around 12:30 a.m. 19 hrs of daylight, but it is quickly becoming less. I am looking forward to spending a couple of days in Anchorage before I head north. I will post Anchorage pictures next week. I do not know how long it will take to get internet set up once I arrive in Kivalina.