My boyfriend had a hairy man drawing contest for his students and the winner from each class is invited to our home this weekend to make brownies with us. That is suppose to be 6 kids total. He says probably 10 are coming because the one boy winner wanted to bring another boy so he was not alone with girls. And another wanted to bring a friend and another was having such a dramatic positive improvement that he invited her over. Who knows how many kids will end up here. We are buying more brownie stuff just in case.
We are working on the yearbook together which is fun. He took all the school pictures himself because the district did not approve sending in a professional. It is a fun project. He has been trying to get entries into a school wide cover art contest, but there have been no real entries. He was puzzled because his old school has tons of student entries when he did their yearbook. He thinks the big difference is there is no art program here so students just do not do any art or have confidence in doing something like that, where everyone could see your artwork. That is sad because I love art. I have been in Anchorage since late Sunday night. I have a fancy rental car and a fancy suite. I have already taken my certification exam and tomorrow I start my conference. I will share more tales tomorrow!
Working in the clinic, I am seeing first hand the horrors of alcohol in the village, mainly in the form of domestic violence. Considering I do not see too many patients myself, coming across what I have, it is a lot. It makes me so sad and so angry because I have been there. It is not appropriate for me to say anything to them about it, even though they are telling me all about it. All I can do is make sure the provider who saw them has reported it, if they know who is responsible. I am not sure what I can do to help. There is not that much support here or places for women to go unless they leave the village. No one can stop the illegal alcohol. I hope the tribal council has some options. I keep meaning to ask if they have Al-Anon meetings here. I think they do have AA at the TC. I think Al-Anon is a wonderful thing because it helps at least give you coping mechanisms for when a family or friend is an alcoholic. It can at least make the suffering a bit less and make you feel not so alone. I bring this up now because I also have a friend going through a bad domestic violence thing right now (drug related) and I am hoping she has the strength to actually file for divorce this week. It is a very sensitive topic for me, and I wish I could help people who are dealing with this.
These kids are all Easter Egg Hunting!! The plastic eggs were placed in the snow, and the kids ran for them. It was cute. It was hosted by the Tribal Council and took place outside my work.
We've barely had snow all winter, and when it did snow, it was maybe an inch or two. This is very bad for Eskimos who rely on subsistence. Then all of a sudden on Easter, we awoke to a huge blizzard! 30-40 mph winds and thick snow. You could not even see a few feet in front of you. I could not make it to church because the truck could no longer go and no one felt comfortable navigating a 4wheeler in the blizzard. You could not even see the way towards the church in all of the white. We ended up with an eight foot high drift outside out back door. All week we had tons of snow and awful wind, making it blizzard like conditions. The snow drift out back looks like it is ten feet high now. If you take trash to the dumpster, there is a 3 foot drop off surrounding the dumpster, so you have to throw it from a distance. Plowing is rarely done here, so the roads are unpredictable. Sometimes the walking is fine, and other times I end up stepping in a foot of snow every step. This morning we had snow inside our bedroom from a cracked window. Friday I was walking to work and there was a chest high snow drift in the middle of the road, blocking a lot of people from driving to school. They had to unload kids from the back of the Hondas and then scoot around it and pick the kids back up. It has now been rounded off to a giant hill you can climb or race your machine over. Our official ONE YEAR anniversary is in two months!!!!! While we were in love and all that before June 10, because it was long distance, June 10 is our official dating anniversary because that is when we had our first kiss in Seattle and started our crazy and awesome journey together as one. I have been in love with this man for over a year now and the same for him. On my old phone I have lovey dovey voice messages saved. We are planning to have a romantic dinner in Colorado, maybe at The Fort since it is my favorite restaurant. Or Buckhorn exchange. I am excited either way. But seriously, one year is a huge deal. Besides my ex husband, my longest relationship has been maybe a month or two. He is a wonderful man and I love our life here =)
This super amount of daylight is getting to me. While it is nice to finally walk to work as the sun is rising, the sun is not setting until 10:30, 11pm. I had to close the curtains just to sleep because it was too light outside for me. It is like I never see darkness anymore. And it will just get worse. It throws off my boyfriend's sleep schedule a bunch. Thankfully, I am so predictable that I am always in bed at around the same time nightly.
I am seeing some amazing sunrises though. The sun rising above the frozen sea is breathtaking. I finally found something at work that I do not like. Stool samples. Yuck! I dressed in disposable clothes and wore a respirator, just to scoop the sample into two small containers. I just could not even handle it. Especially when it is an Ova and Para test. Thankfully I just had to send it to Bethel, not look at it myself. I still shutter. On a sad note, there was some drama at a school board meeting. One of the people on the board (a person who interviewed me a couple of times for school jobs), specifically and angrily said that they should not be hiring Gusaks ever. Most of the members agreed, which is awkward when your Principal and Vice Principal are there and white. I guess they went on and on with their bigotry. While the Alaska law says they can have native hiring preference, the native person still has to be qualified for the job. You cannot hire someone unqualified just because they are native. Then a teacher/union guy who is way too crazy and obsessive told my boyfriend that I should sue the school district for discrimination since they refused to hire me because I was white, and now there was proof. Oi. So much drama. We told him to leave me out of it. While the person who had the job I wanted may not have been the best choice, the woman they hired for the last job I interviewed for is amazing with the kids. Plus I have my dream job and all is great. It just makes me sad that some people are so racist and do not like me or give me a chance because I am white. This is the opposite of living in Colorado. This Honda is officially ours!! My boyfriend finished paying for it yesterday =)
I learned that Yup'ik people raise their eyebrows as a non-verbal way of saying "yes". I had no idea. I need to figure out what I can give a presentation about at work that could benefit everybody who works there. Hmmmm. The natives can give presentations about Yup'ik stuff like food, language, culture, but I have no idea what to talk about. The things I know a lot about and am passionate about are kind of depressing and/or controversial. For example: safe sex, domestic violence, how to help someone who self harms, the damage alcoholism does to those around you, proper grammar, etc. The grammar one would be pointless because the local English here is awful. "Don't be mischief" is a common phrase. Or "buy me" when you want someone to buy you candy or soda. "Come" used by everyone when you need someone. I hate that one because it is so rude, and even tried to teach middle school kids to use a proper sentence and the word Please instead of "come". I am not a dog. I cannot respond to "come". But I hear people of all ages say that to each other. But anyways, not only would grammar be offensive, I have found recently that I need to change my vocabulary some because patients do not always understand what I am asking the first time and I have to rephrase all the time. Like the word "preference", no one seems to understand. |
AuthorI am a Colorado native who moved to Alaska for love and adventure. This journal is going to track my journey. Archives
March 2017
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