Friday was another culture night, focused on culture crafts for the little kids, like beading and sewing. Lots of native dancing and I had a good conversation with a native man who helps teach children cultural dances. An elder woman was laughing because my boyfriend was talking about getting a sewing machine since I want to quilt, and then we could sew the traditional clothing from cut cloth. She said that was the lazy way to do it, but that she sometimes uses one as well when she has a lot to do. I would hand sew a quilt and be like Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, but I would be down for using a sewing machine. Plus now I think it would be cool to sew SCA costumes one day.
My boyfriend has a Benjamen Franklin quote for every situation. That is awesome and sexy!
Friday was another culture night, focused on culture crafts for the little kids, like beading and sewing. Lots of native dancing and I had a good conversation with a native man who helps teach children cultural dances. An elder woman was laughing because my boyfriend was talking about getting a sewing machine since I want to quilt, and then we could sew the traditional clothing from cut cloth. She said that was the lazy way to do it, but that she sometimes uses one as well when she has a lot to do. I would hand sew a quilt and be like Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, but I would be down for using a sewing machine. Plus now I think it would be cool to sew SCA costumes one day.
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As I have mentioned before, alcoholism is a huge issue in this village, as well as drug use. This is a topic very close to me because of the alcoholics i have known and loved. One of them being my brother who passed away because of it.
Alaska residents are paid to live here. Right now, in a week or so, that is getting paid out and each resident adult gets $1800 and I think it is $500 per kid. My boyfriend does not get it this year because of the time he spent in Texas. He came back to Alaska a couple months after the application deadline. Anyways, I keep getting told by many people that it is going to be like the wild west here for a couple of weeks once people have money. There will be too much homebrew. I have heard from numerous people that the parents will fly to Anchorage for whatever reason, and just tell their kids to find someone to stay with. So the kids get very worked up and stressed and have an unstable home life for weeks, more so than usual. This leads to them acting out and being angry. It is very sad that money gets abused like that and that parents could just abandon their kids for a couple weeks and not care what happens to them. I know many kids are angry over homebrew, even though many might be drinking themselves in a few years. I read some writings kids did about how to make the village a better place and many wrote "get rid of the homebew and the drugs". I have never seen either but it is here. Chewing tobacco - another huge issue. 8 out of 12 7th graders yesterday said that they use chewing tobacco. Parents will give their elementary school kids a pinch of tobacco in the morning to keep them awake. This is awful and disgusting. I was told people chew because it is cheaper, but there is no reason to be giving little kids tobacco! Elilluki Alerqutet means "remember what you are taught and told".
I substituted for the same teacher as last time on Tuesday. I have been in the library most days so it was unexpected that I was asked to Sub. I may have went "yikes" in my head because of "those" 8th graders, but it was mentioned that around 10 of them have been pulled from class and put into special ed because of behavioral problems and/or reading problems. The first half of the day was decent. The kids were decent to me and we got work done. I read a story out loud to both classes of 8th graders so they could do their vocabulary worksheet that went with the story. I did not think anyone was paying attention, but when I changed a contraction to the longer version as I read (because I sometimes do that in my head. Too many years in school with a teacher who hated contractions in writing), a kid corrected me. One 8th grade class got everything done. Not in enough time to watch a movie, but enough done so I did not have to give them punishment homework. I did have two of the better students fall asleep, but managed to wake them up and get them to work some more. The troubled 8th graders were mostly nice to me. The first time I had them that day, they got work done. In the afternoon they were pretty distracted so not everything got done. But no one was loud or mean or causing trouble so I still did not punish them with homework. That was for behavioral issues only. Of course one kid was trying to steal pencils when I was sitting down helping a student do her work. And after that student had been behind the desk, I was afraid to drink my drink (these same kids have spit in my boyfriends coffee and I think put a fly in his water once). No one was mean to me, though. I had trouble getting the 7th graders to finish their work because the first assignment had word search on the back and they wanted to finish that before reading. Then when they came back for the last period of the day, I had one girl lying on the ground crying, two sleeping on the floor, one hiding behind a bookcase, and a girl refusing to sit down because another girl was in the seat she wanted. I also had three girls try and skip but got busted by the office. So no one was really disruptive or bad, but just refused to do anything but the first worksheet. But, their other teachers had the same issues. Takaqluki piitaten. This means "Respect the animals you catch for food"
In general, 75% of the Yup'ik diet is from foods they gather from the land. Picking berries , fishing, and hunting are how they survive for the most part. Most of their groceries from the store are what WIC and foodstamps can get and lots of processed food because it is cheap. One guy at the store was telling me was excited he caught some fish because he had been living on just cereal for awhile. Extended families live together, so 13 people can be sharing a small, 3 bedroom home. I know men use to live separately, but unsure if they still do that. This is why the kids are hungry, though. Even if you have a good job somewhere, people will have 5-6 kids of their own and then adopt a few more. One of the 7th graders came by this weekend to go hunting with my boyfriend. It seemed like he was hanging out here all weekend. We fed him lunch twice and cooked him breakfast on Sunday. They had no success hunting, though. A bird was shot and fell, but no one could find it on the tundra. This kid hunts to provide food for his family. He is 14, has five sisters and one brother. Has no interest in school or reading, but at least shows up, which is half the battle. I want to go find some blackberries, but I am very nervous about going where locals pick berries, because I do not want to take their food. i just want to try them because I heard they are different. I saw someone selling some so I may buy some instead. We shall see. if I see them by the school, that is fair game. No loca Every Yup'ik Is Responsible To All Other Yup'iks For Survival Of the Cultural Spirit, And The Values And Traditions Through Which It Survives.
With Guidance and Support from Elders We must Teach our Children Yup'ik Values: Love for Children Respect for Others Sharing Humility Hard work Spirituality Cooperation Family Roles Knowledge of family tree Knowledge of Language Hunter Success Domestic Skills Avoid conflict Humor Respect for nature Respect For Land Respect For Nature By The Design Of Our Creator We Were Created Yup'ik In Space And Time; Proud, For Generations To Come, Of The Values Given To Us By Our Creator. ***************************************************************** Eskimo culture have some great values. We have a poster showing different cultural values for different Eskimo groups, and they are all so awesome. Unfortunately, the kids are not growing up learning these values. I just colored a bunch of posters with Yup'ik values and laminated them and hung them up in the classroom. The values also have the Yup'ik phrase that goes with it. I just watched this video that was filmed in Hooper Bay and talks about the issues of the Yup'iks losing their culture. How the children do not hear stories, they do not know the language, they do not follow the customs. At first the language was lost because schools rewarded children for speaking English instead of Yup'ik, gave them candy and juice and punished them for speaking their native tongue. Now you have entire generations who cannot speak the language and the native speakers dying out. This is why they are trying to teach the language in schools now. But it is very sad. Yesterday the first round of killing stray dogs happened while the kids were in school. Any dog not on a lead can be shot. I get why they do it, but it is very sad. At least they moved the bodies. Two years ago they left the bodies by the school and a kid found a stray puppy he had been caring for, dead. Traumatic. I saw three strays yesterday as opposed to the 20+ I usually see when walking. Those three dogs were so terrified and it was heart breaking. I wanted one of the puppies, but cannot keep a puppy. Especially with no village vet. Plus our dog snaps at any puppies who come near me. Poor doggies. I hope they leave the rest of the dogs alone.
I worked with kindergarten kids again (well, mainly the one with health concerns). I did get another boy to actually finish his work which I guess he never does. However, since it is a Yupik class, he teacher would prefer i not help out there since they are trying to cut down on using English and they want a Yupik aide. But she was afraid of offending me. I totally get that one. I am learning the same as these kids, and today I was trying to at least count in Yupik but kept forgetting the words by the time I got to 4, which was the number of the day. So I was not helpful in that sense. The words are so hard to say and remember. I have never seen or heard anything like this language. I cannot even make the sounds in my throat. I do try, and hopefully rying and butchering it is not offensive. Church is where I try the most because half the songs are in Yupik so I have to read them and try to sing them. Oh, and half the letters are sort of silent as well. But I am unsure how you know which ones. Maybe there is a book and disk I can buy. I guess there are barely any people under 30 who are fluent in Yupik here. I assumed the kids were because their English is not that great, but they are not fluent in Yupik either. That means that when they can barely read, that means they can barely read any language. I understand the push to teach the kids Yupik before English, though it is not helping them later on I do not think. But you need to keep the culture alive. So it is tough and I do not think there is anything else you can do unless parents start working with them more at home. But if the parents are not fluent, then it has to be grandparents. Actually when kids are in trouble, teachers talk to the grandmothers above anyone else. I have heard and seen that many many times. Calling your grandmother is the biggest threat. I had a grandmother today come and get her grandson because he was not listening. In church, the elders who give communion are all women. I think I am interviewing Friday. I know both the principle and vice principle want me in the Media center. The main issue is going to be if they choose me, I think it goes to a committee first. The school did not advertize this job at the store with the job listing, as far as we know, so the committee may say that locals were not given enough of a chance to apply. So we shall see. If not, then hopefully the aide job. They have an issue with locals being able to pass the test, so that part is in my favor. It seems like 8th grade level kind of stuff as I have seen on the practice test. But I got 100% on my college placement tests at my last school, so tests are easy for me. But then I need to fly to Bethel. So it is all in the air now, so just subbing until i find out. I think tomorrow I may sub in the office, which is preferable for me and the vice principle. She wants my help in the office but it is also an all Yupik zone. I actually met a ton of Yupik women today at the school. All teachers or aides I think. Very nice people. No one is mean here that I have seen. I am not use to my whiteness being a factor. It is weird, even if I knew it would be the case. A 7th grader brought us a dead goose and a dead duck Friday as a present. My boyfriend and him were going to go hunt for birds this weekend, but he has a sore throat. This kid killed 12 birds in one day for his family! I also learned that he taught himself to hunt when he was 8 because his brother would not go out with him and show him. He still usually goes alone. Kids here usually start hunting alone by the time they are in 4th grade. I was watching Fox and the Hound with the kindergarten class Friday and at the end when the hunter wants to shoot the fox, all of the little kids were yelling "shoot that fox! hunt him!". Totally different than how my friends and I were as kids watching the movie! I wanted the fox to live!
The student said to fish with a stick with a string and hook wrapped around it and to use fish like flounder as bait. But that if I go now, it is very muddy. But I am still unwilling to fish without a license since I am not a resident, so am going to wait until I am one and then fish in the spring. But the idea of fishing with a stick is nuts! Yesterday we watched a YouTube video on how to butcher a goose since neither of us know how to. We were going to pluck it, but the video was saying it can be a waste of time since the majority of the meat is in the breast and legs. So we just skinned the birds and took the breast and leg meat. It was... interesting. And we did it outside our front door because it was warm there, so we had kids coming by asking if we were going to eat the head and things like that. But none of them wanted to take the carcass. We probably wasted meat, but it was a good first attempt and we got a meal per bird. I am all about filling the freezer with meat. We are hoping for 6 more salmon. We are making duck soup on Monday. The kid who brought us the birds hung out here for a bit while we talked fishing and hunting. He came at lunch so we fed him some of the food and gave him a cookie. Later on some boys came by looking for snacks because they heard about it. Plus they all want to try the duck soup. Another student came by when we were skinning birds and hung out. Very nice kid. I know who he is based on his homework. He is a 6th grader but still at maybe a 2nd grade education level. So my boyfriend is reading a book with him and trying to help him improve his reading. And right now he gets credit for just trying to do the school work because getting all zeros is not going to help encourage him. We had a teacher over for dinner and we invited the student from Friday back over, but he stood us up. So we had tons of steak left over. After dinner we played a weird version of Risk involving Gods. It was fun. We are trying to start a game night on Saturdays. Then movie time! Sunday I am walking to church with a couple of the teachers I found out that the school kids get their school breakfast and lunch for free. That is awesome! And it seems like every single kid does eat at school. I also learned that English classes do not start until Third grade, which seems like it puts kids at a disadvantage when the rest of their school life is in English, not Yupik. I had no idea how much work teachers had to do to get ready for school. Especially when you have 96 students. I have just been coloring, laminating, and making cute cut outs of polar bears and eskimos. I am obsessed with making animal cut outs now. I cannot wait until I can do Halloween and Christmas cut outs! Coolest gadget ever! My goal was to have the room look cheerful so maybe student moral would improve. But I see the amount of stuff my boyfriend does and how many documents he needs to create. Maps and tests and activities. Yikes. Oh, and I learned the Yupik word for "pee" lol, because of the need for a bathroom pass. But seriously, we have some Yupik posters up with words on them, and the meanings are very beautiful. Focused on the importance of family and community and spirituality.
I want to go find berries but my attempts have not worked yet. That is what all the kids and women seem to do. Pick berries. The majority of the kids spent the summer camping out and berry picking. I do not even know what kind of berries, just that if I wander the tundra, I should find some, according to this woman I spoke to today about it when I was walking. Today I need to walk to the clinic and check on my job application. My boyfriend left his phone at home so I am unsure if he is coming here for lunch or not, and unsure on the bell system to try and catch him between classes. The bell system is off I have heard so teachers are unsure when class is suppose to start and end, so there is confusion. Even this morning I think it went off way earlier than it was suppose to. I was still upstairs in the classroom when the bell rang, and there should have been five more minutes. I am going over every morning, that way by the time school starts, I should know if they need me to substitute. Today is the first day of school. I spent the morning running around, taking pictures for the yearbook. Now I am home because there is not much for me to do at the moment. I have my application in for subbing, and they will call me when needed. I want the librarian job or the teacher aide job, but still waiting. The jobs were just posted yesterday. I am hoping that the vice principle has some pull because she would want me for either job. I just had to talk to a Yupik office worker about it this morning and she was not as excited as others about me applying for those jobs. But either way I am helping my boyfriend with yearbook (he will have the contract though since he can work with the kids on it) and I will eventually be fixing the website and adding pictures as I take them. It was a crazy morning though! I have no idea what to do with myself now, but today is not a day I want to hang around school. I will probably go most mornings and see if they need help and make my presence known so more people get to know me. Today, all the elementary school teachers were wondering who I was and why I had a camera.
Kids here get a hot breakfast when they come to school. I have never seen that before. Toast, hard boiled egg, I think fruit. And everyone eats it. And I have heard that the school may run out of hot water today because every kid will want a shower desperately since the houses do not have water and they have to go to bath houses. I am glad to know the kids want to shower instead of being forced to. The elementary school kids are given their showers by their teachers, though. Everyone else just does it on their own. I was told that if a kid stinks I can just mention it to them and tell them to shower, and they will just take a pass and do it. Kind of rude but I guess necessary! We finally have shelves for the pantry! Good thing because an enormous amount of food came yesterday. One more box may be at the post office. I hope so, because we are missing vegetables. Have to wait on the meat order until it gets cold, I guess for the same reason as the cheese. no one wants to pay for freezer shipping and prefer letting the weather keep it cold. So end of September I guess. We have meat in the freezer of course. I do need to figure out what to do with tuna that will make it edible for me. I do not eat mayonnaise and you cannot eat tuna casserole all the time. But we have a ton of that and canned/pouch salmon. And spam, but I will not touch spam! It is raining, but I will probably do a trash run with the large amount of empty boxes since the dumpster is empty. Waiting to go to the post office when we have the Honda, but might go to the store. Was going to walk to the beach, but not in the rain. I have been so busy that it is weird just being alone with not much to do. I was just saying yesterday that I desperately desired off time so I could just read a book and do nothing, because we have been busy all the time. Now I have it and it is weird having zero people around. Not a bad thing though. Peaceful. Today was a fun day. Started off the day by walking to church. Because there was a funeral yesterday, the priest was in town so I got to meet him. even though the priest drank wine as well as the elders giving Communion, no wine was offered to anyone else.
After Mass I went to the store to try and find yeast. It is kept in the secure area with the cigarettes and Listerine. But they were out so no baking bread for awhile unless I borrow some. It was a nice morning out. Temperature has been in the 50's and low 60's since I have been here. You do not even need a sweatshirt during the day. My boyfriend made some moose stew in the crockpot which was awesome! We fed two other guests and still have enough for tomorrow. Seriously yummy stuff! After church I went to a friend's home and crafted. It was just us today, but some Sundays a bunch of people might come. I mainly just cross stitched because I've had no time to sit and plot my Christmas crafts. Because of the cost of mailing, I need to figure out lighter weight items. Now we are just doing classroom stuff since school starts Tuesday. Fun stuff like putting up posters and decorating stuff. The eliptical in the school weight room has a view of the sea. It was nice to look at while working out, even if the machine is old and scary sounding. |
AuthorI am a Colorado native who moved to Alaska for love and adventure. This journal is going to track my journey. Archives
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