Yeah! I finally made it to Noorvik. The weather was fine today, just pretty windy, so no problems with the flight to the village. I just hope I can make it back on Friday. I'm hearing things about snowstorms moving in, and I read a Facebook update about one of the education rangers from Nome getting stuck in Wales on a visit due to a blizzard. The temperature actually came back up to the teens today, but with the wind when I got off the plane here, it felt mighty cold. It has been hovering around 0 for the past few days in Kotzebue.
So, I'm finally able to get online here at this school. Even though I have some preparation to do for tomorrow, it's nice to have a little distraction. This school is nice. I had actually been to Noorvik briefly back in July when I went to Camp Sivu for a week. We flew in here and then took a boat about an hour down the Noatak River. I didn't get to check out much then. I didn't see a whole lot this evening because I had to get back here and start heating up the medicinal oils the kids make today. The plants have to steep in oil for a few hours. Tomorrow they strain them and bottle the oil.
I did walk around for a little while, though. I also went to see some of the kids practicing Eskimo dance. It's kinda neat. The drums have a nice sound, and the dances are stories, usually about hunting, told with the motions of their hands. Apparently there had been no Eskimo dancing here for over 100 years, and the school just got it started up again. I don't know what the story is, probably something to do with the particular missionaries who came to work this area.
I also went down to the river which looks pretty well frozen over. I saw some people either checking or setting up a net. I'll try to get a picture of that tomorrow evening. It's interesting. I can't remember how they get the net in there in the first place, but there are two holes made in the ice, and the net is held on a stick in each hole, so the net is under the ice, across the river. It's just set up and left there for about a day. then they pull it in from one side, dump out the fish, and pull it back through the hole to set it for the next day.
Alright, have to go check the status of the medicinal oils. I'll catch you all later. By the way, if anyone is reading this, make a comment from time to time -- even if it's to say, "this is really boring, stop writing!" I know I haven't been great at keeping this going, but it's worse if it's one-sided! Let me know what you think!
Keep up the writing. I check it every weekday. I usually read it through Google Reader, so I am not usually going to your site and I can't comment unless I am on your site. By the way, we have some pictures we want to send but we need to know if you want us to send them in frames or just the pictures? We had some made of Nate at a studio about a month ago. -Paul
ReplyDeleteI just happened on to your blog site. I guess you must be a park ranger interpreter. Sounds exciting. A group of us teachers went to Virginia last summer and spent 9 days with interpreters at York town, Williamsburg, Jamestown and Monticello. My old roommate was on his way to work in Custer ,South Dakota. I do not know if I have the nerve to cut strings and move to the middle of no where. It is great to hear you are having a good time at it. Keep up the writing.
ReplyDeleteGina,this is great and sounds like great fun. I wish I could be there with you!
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