At the Pittsburgh airport on Jan 3, about to leave for Alaska with Manzo!
Boarding the plane!
Leaving Pittsburgh!
Taken from the hotel window in Anchorage at about 10am
Willow, driving to the sled dog experience
Leaving Anchorage, driving to Willow. There were moose crossing signs everywhere
I had to have fresh Alaskan crab leg
All the sled dogs tied up
A sled dog puppy! His mom ran in the Iditarod
Me with my sled dog team :)
Manzo was exhausted after traveling to Alaska from Pittsburgh
I also had to try fresh Alaskan salmon! The server said it had just come in that morning! It was AMAZING!!
Manzo and a huge mountain of snow in the hotel parking lot
This was my tiny bush plane from Nome to St Michael
Landing in St Michael
Manzo loves to roll around in the snow! Here he is rolling around in the snow on the frozen ocean
Walking around outside my apartment in St Michael. There are a bunch of dogs that run around and there’s a litter of puppies that live under a shed that my roommate feeds so they don’t starve to death
Just past those houses is the frozen ocean. The sun never gets past about that high before setting again
Manzo in the cargo area behind me on the bush plane. He’s 12 years old and he was a trooper
After I got picked up at the St Michael runway (no airport, just runway), this was the drive going to the village
Beaver pelt: all the students spend time in the culture class every day where they learn the Yup’ik language, dance, sewing mittens and boots made out of animal pelts and guspock (sp?) made out of regular fabric, etc. The school supplies the material and the fur pelts are expensive!! It costs about $300 for a pair of adult size fur mittens!
sunset over the frozen ocean
Mitten pattern on the back of the beaver pelt waiting to be cut out with a razor
Litter of puppies
Stray pregnant dog on the frozen tundra
Boat frozen into the ocean shore
The drive from the runway to the village of St Michael (Taciq in Yup’ik language). Nothing but white frozen tundra with grasses peeking through
The bush plane from Nome to St Michael. People can order pizza or sushi, etc and have it delivered from Nome and they’ll deliver it on the next plane to the village
My first aurora!!!
Caribou/reindeer tracks
Bathroom pass is a rabbit foot
The school is called Anthony Andrews and it’s preK through 12th and about 150 students. Each class is a grade. The smallest class is 2 juniors, the largest class is maybe 15. I’ll ask for sure. The academics is maybe 2 grade levels below the norm, so a lot of the kids with higher academic levels will go off to boarding school after 8th grade, but that’s up to them. I think the boarding school is free for them if they’re accepted. Mt Edgecumbe is the most popular boarding school they go to, but there are also Nenana or Galena. Our school is great and our administrators are amazing and have turned the school around a lot, from what I’m told.
Walking on the frozen ocean
In Nome, you switch from Alaska Air to a bush plane company- Bering Air. Their airport is one big room and a hangar for planes.
Eskimo art in the Bering Air waiting room. Planes may be scheduled at noon, but could leave 3 hours early or later, or rescheduled depending on weather. Flights are always flexible and weather conditions always change and determine whether or not you can travel. The other new school counselor was stuck in Nome for three days before she could fly to Savoonga, on St Lawrence island. The Bering Strait School District includes St Lawrence Island (closer to Russia than Alaska) and Little Diomede island.
My first day some kids drew me pictures! ❤️❤️❤️
Flying over the frozen Norton Sound
Frozen grasses on the tundra
Inside my school
Getting off the plane In Nome and walking to the one room airport
Manzo on the frozen ocean (Norton Sound)
Manzo is glad to be in his new home and done traveling!!!
A panoramic picture of the Bering Air one room waiting room
In my school
My first aurora
A guspock (sp?) the pattern is the same but can be any fabric pattern. It’s traditional and the kids learn to sew it by hand in the school’s cultural class
Yup’ik values mural in my school
Flying into Nome over the frozen Norton Sound
Yup’ik language in the cultural class
Art in the school of the ice chunks in the frozen ocean
Coming into Nome and a sunrise at about noon
Mural in my school
Frozen Norton Sound
Frozen Norton Sound from the plane
My office!
The bush plane I took to St Michael- it was so tiny that they had to take out a seat to get Manzo’s crate in, and take his crate apart to get it in. The plane was only a little wider than manzo’s crate
Another teacher who had some frozen salmon thawing in her sink. Over the summer the people here go fishing, hunting and berry picking and they’re mostly subsistence eating here
The frozen ocean
How to order pelts
Seal mittens
A picture a cute little boy drew for me- it’s him giving me a flower :)
This is what I saw when I got off the plane in St Michael- nothing but white! Nothing could be seen but white and it was gently snowing. There was a man with a van there and a woman with a tiny toddler on a 4 wheeler (they mostly use 4 wheelers and call them Hondas. Only the health clinic and school has a van). I really felt like I had landed on another planet!
A traditional kayak/canoe hanging in my school
The pregnant dog that’s very sweet
Manzo in his snow boots going with me from the Nome airport to the Bering Air airport
Frozen Norton Sound
Manzo and I walking on the frozen ocean
A panoramic picture of the road and frozen ocean in St Michael. I walk everywhere (to school and to the store) but sometimes people will give you a ride on their Honda (4 wheeler). All the kids walk to school and some get rides on a Honda. It could be windy or snowy and -20 or more and they still walk to school and back. Some people in the village don’t have electricity and or running water. Most do, but the village didn’t get running water until 2006.
The satellites are pointing down bc we’re so far north.
Where I live and where the school is on the gps
Flying to Nome- some rivers etc
Yup’ik language in the cultural class
Leaving Anchorage! Some ice on the ocean but not nearly as much as the Norton Sound
Here the philosophy is you share what you have and you help each other out, even among the staff. A neighbor (special Ed teacher) brought me this yummy salad and some roast moose (it was also yummy!)!! I love this philosophy and want to bring that back with me. It’s a very big value here. I also think that the staff at the school are like family bc of the living situation. My roommate (whom I love!) is the high school science teacher.
The arctic wolf in his natural habitat ;)
Manzo loves exploring here and loves the cold weather and snow
Painted drums on display at my school
Nome airport
Out on the frozen ocean. 2 boys (teacher’s sons who are here from Japan) are sitting on a mound where the ice has buckled
Water lines are above ground and in insulated boxes
Manzo waiting for the bush plane
Roast moose (yummy! Tasted like roast beef)
Puppies
Getting off the plane in St Michael. The pilot gets your luggage out of the back for you, and any supplies that were shipped to the village (a box of vaccines were there for the health clinic which are nurses and sometimes a PA but we don’t have one right now. If you need to see a dr you fly out or Nome can fly in medicines).
The first day I saw the sun in St Michael! The sun doesn’t get much higher than this)
Each morning the students say the pledge in English and in Yup’ik
The ice buckling in the ocean
There was a baby died (from SIDS I’m told) when I got here. Funerals are three days long and the first two days are just singing hymns in English and some Yup’ik but many don’t speak Yup’ik anymore
On the frozen ocean
View from my office window
My first aurora!
Manzo in the back of the bush plane
The shore line coming into Nome
The school was named after a man in the village who was named Anthony Andrews
The front doors of the school and pretty stained glass windows
water lines going into a house
Seal mitten
2 comments:
Great pictures! Thanks for sharing!
Such an adventure!!
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