The Alaskan Adventure - Volume 12 - Social Distancing 101
Well, it has been over two months since my last post. Ironically, it's two months to the day that I am writing this. Unbelievable how much can happen and change in just two short months. The most surprising of which was the temporary suspension of classes and the closing of school due to the Corona Virus, which is the obvious daily topic around the world. While there was a little more comfort here in the village because of our isolated location to the rest of the world, it was still taken very seriously and the wheels were set in motion to suspend classes, keep students at home and find a way to continue teaching them remotely. The hitch is that our village doesn't have the internet capabilities you might find in some of the bigger cities. Very few families have access to the internet here and are limited to their phones and the data available.
We decided to put together and send out practice packets that would hopefully help kids maintain their skills or at least encourage them to work on them to stimulate their learning. Once sent out, it was left in the hands of the students and parents to follow through on the practice and learning. It was decided by the district that we would make calls to each student, with the help of our aides, once a week to check in on their progress. It's hard to say what the overall results are. Some parents don't respond to phone calls, some to texts, some are very cooperative but discouraged and some who are very engaging and encouraging. Initial contacts were focused on progress of each student and if they had questions with their work. Further calls revealed students and parents were more inclined to want to talk about how their child was doing personally, and many students were just excited to talk about what they were doing in their free time or what they were doing with their family.
It was really hard for me to end school early for a number of reasons. I can say with out a doubt that this year was the best class 'and' best year that I have had in my 21 years of teaching. I really loved this class, we were having a lot of fun and were having a great school year. Even though the shut down was temporary, I had a bad feeling that it was going to be permanent for the year and I wouldn't have my students back again. The last week before we were going to send the kids home was very sad. I knew that I would be talking to them and would most likely see them around the village again at some point in the spring and summer, but saying goodbye to them was very difficult.
Equally sad was the fact that I was going to be saying an early goodbye to a lot of friends and staff that made the year very special as well. Some were taking an early exit back to the Lower-48, some were retiring and leaving forever and some would go to hide away in their own form of quarantine by themselves or with their families. But I did get to spend some great quality time with a select group of staff for the last month.
A group of paraprofessionals including the kitchen staff, all from the village, stayed behind to help continue serving lunches for the students. I wanted to do my part so I offered to hand out lunches to the kids and parents when they would come to the school doors to pick up. I knew I was taking a risk exposing myself to all the people coming for lunches, but to me it was worth it to see them and help out. I'm really glad I did. I enjoyed seeing the kids and many of the parents who would pick up multiple lunches for their kids. Each day brought more and more regulars and conversations were fun and always enjoyable. Equally as fun was the time spent preparing for lunch in the morning with our group of characters. That group was so much fun and I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.
It was decided that the face to face contact should be limited so our district decided to distribute the rest of the food we had available, i.e. dry goods and frozen foods, to the families of the students, Elders and to other families of need in the village. It was an incredible process in separating the food into hundreds of boxes for distribution. Our first two days, parents and adults picked up boxes with their four-wheelers and snow machines and the following week we delivered boxes to the remaining families. And holy crap that kicked my butt. These were boxes of 6-8-10 cans of 102 oz/6.5 lb various foods, plus miscellaneous dry goods, delivered in deep, soft snow, up and down driveways of 17 families. Ironically, I slipped on ice and went ass over tea kettle walking around the truck as we were about to leave. Go figure. I went home the first night exhausted, sore, throbbing headache, got the sweats and chills and slept like poo. It was the work of a strapping young 30-something in the body of a 51-year-old. The second day only involved five deliveries, so it was a lot more manageable.
I'll see the lunch crew around the village as time goes on, but I'm really going to miss the day-to-day fun and laughter with them. They're all good, hardworking people. I have to say they honestly worked their asses off and deserve all the credit and recognition there is to give. So my props to Christine Long (our fearless leader), Ted Landlord, Rose Andrews, Berta Alexi, Lucy Beans, Molly Long, Natalia Long, Crystal Gail Walters, Cora Long, Ester Long, Scott Hess, Michael Attie, Fred Beans, Joel Beans, Nick Long and Morgan Beans. Not only did we have a great time and lots of laughs, but we all became closer friends and I treasured our time together. I'll miss them.
I am excited to say I learned a new local activity in the village. It's a type of fishing they call manaquing and people love it. From what I observed, it seemed to kick in about January and it was all people talked about in February and March. What is manaqing? It's ice-fishing, but Alaskan style. You essentially have a twelve-or-so inch stick or piece of wood, a 15-20 inch piece of solid string tied to the stick and a spoon (lure) with a treble hook on it. Believe it or not the fish will bite on an empty hook, but many people like to put on pieces of blackfish, eyeballs of a fish that was caught or some other miscellaneous bait. The fish they are catching are Yukon Pike. Back in Wisconsin these would be trophy fish caught by experienced anglers. You adjust the depth of your line, gently lift your stick up and down and wait for these little monsters to bite. There are usually 10-15 holes that people have cut out and each one has someone manaquing in it. There are several spots along the river and village where people go to manaq. What I found it to be is basically a fun, social gathering where stories and jokes are told, neighbors catch up on life and families and you pull a bunch of huge fish out of small holes in the ice. I went three times, had three big bites and lost all three. Oh well. Back to bingo when it reopens and I'll try my luck again next year.
I arrived to Mountain Village August 1st, so everything is still new to me as it happens. Right now I'm speaking of spring as the village starts to wake up to the warmer weather. The two-foot base of packed snow and ice has begun to melt and we can begin to see the dirt roads showing again. Rivers of melting ice and snow fill the roads as water makes it's way down the mountain and village to the Yukon. On a walk to the school or down to the grocery store, depending on the day and the weather, you are either sinking in six inches of icy-snow or are walking on and around frozen paths of what you ventured through the day before. I'm also getting used to the longer days as we've come to know them. Longer days mean more light and when I say more light, I mean 'a lot' more light in the day. We are now to a point of light at 6:30 am and things not getting dark until about 11:00 pm. It's pretty wild. You look out your window and see light around 10:45 at night and you have to remember it's almost bedtime. Most people here have blackout curtains, so that alleviates some of the struggle with nighttime light.
A very sad moment I had recently was my attempt to fly my twenty-year-old son Seth out to see me. I had not seen him since the end of July, was missing him a ton and was very excited to finally give him the chance to fly to Mountain Village and see my new home. I had bought all the tickets and everything was set. Three days later the threat of the Corona Virus had become more severe and they were cancelling all flights into and out of the village. I had to cancel his trip and we would have to wait. I was able to get a refund from Delta Airlines, but the local airline Ravn had lost so much money that they were declaring bankruptcy. I ended up losing $1,100 in flights. Crap! Ravn happens to have a monopoly and hold on the Lower Yukon in that they are the only airline that services the area. My hope is that they are so cocky that they will find a way to get bailed out, come back (regrettably), and I will still be able to have my tickets honored. We'll see...stay tuned on that one.
That leads me to deal with my disappointment with summer plans. I'm now proud to call Mountain Village my home, but I had everything mapped out to see my brothers in Colorado and Arizona, and return to Wisconsin to visit friends and family there. Now I don't know if I will even have a chance to go back, especially considering most places expect a fourteen-day quarantine when you arrive. A lot of the things I seemed to take for granted are now just events that I can only hope will happen again one day. Things like taking in a professional baseball game (my Milwaukee Brewers), taking in a live concert or spending time in some of the fun public places I used to love to go to. Bummer.
*Side note wonderful news...I did find out from Seth that I was going to be a grandpa again. He will be having his first child in December. I have two grandchildren with my daughter Laura, and I am so excited to see the newest, beautiful little baby. I'm proud to carry on the title of Grandpa Nick.
My last piece of news is about my new apartment. I was very excited about the move and as they say...location, location, location. My commute to work went from a 90-step, door-to-door walk to a 60-step, door-to-door walk, lol. It also has a beautiful living room view of the Yukon River to the south, and half of the Asa Carsarmiut Mountain to my west. The summer will be auditorily colorful as kids will be playing well into the night on the playground, twenty-five yards from my front door, as well as four-wheeler traffic on the major road for north-south travel, which is ten feet off the steps of my front door. I already hear the steady flow of snow machines (soon to be put away) and four-wheelers, but it has become white noise and I don't mind it at all. Another nice thing that remains is that I am centrally located to all my major needs...school/work - 1-2 minutes, post office and bingo - 5 minutes, and the ANICA or AC Grocery Stores - 5-10 minutes. Home is where you hang your hat.
That's it for now. A lot has happened in two months to say the least, but I am sure there are many new and exciting adventures that will come with spring and summer, like...my first four-wheeler. More on that when the time comes. For now, lots of Facetime with family and friends, getting to know the village in springtime and settling in - or should I say, social distancing into my new place. :)
Until next time...stay tuned!
A group of paraprofessionals including the kitchen staff, all from the village, stayed behind to help continue serving lunches for the students. I wanted to do my part so I offered to hand out lunches to the kids and parents when they would come to the school doors to pick up. I knew I was taking a risk exposing myself to all the people coming for lunches, but to me it was worth it to see them and help out. I'm really glad I did. I enjoyed seeing the kids and many of the parents who would pick up multiple lunches for their kids. Each day brought more and more regulars and conversations were fun and always enjoyable. Equally as fun was the time spent preparing for lunch in the morning with our group of characters. That group was so much fun and I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.
It was decided that the face to face contact should be limited so our district decided to distribute the rest of the food we had available, i.e. dry goods and frozen foods, to the families of the students, Elders and to other families of need in the village. It was an incredible process in separating the food into hundreds of boxes for distribution. Our first two days, parents and adults picked up boxes with their four-wheelers and snow machines and the following week we delivered boxes to the remaining families. And holy crap that kicked my butt. These were boxes of 6-8-10 cans of 102 oz/6.5 lb various foods, plus miscellaneous dry goods, delivered in deep, soft snow, up and down driveways of 17 families. Ironically, I slipped on ice and went ass over tea kettle walking around the truck as we were about to leave. Go figure. I went home the first night exhausted, sore, throbbing headache, got the sweats and chills and slept like poo. It was the work of a strapping young 30-something in the body of a 51-year-old. The second day only involved five deliveries, so it was a lot more manageable.
I'll see the lunch crew around the village as time goes on, but I'm really going to miss the day-to-day fun and laughter with them. They're all good, hardworking people. I have to say they honestly worked their asses off and deserve all the credit and recognition there is to give. So my props to Christine Long (our fearless leader), Ted Landlord, Rose Andrews, Berta Alexi, Lucy Beans, Molly Long, Natalia Long, Crystal Gail Walters, Cora Long, Ester Long, Scott Hess, Michael Attie, Fred Beans, Joel Beans, Nick Long and Morgan Beans. Not only did we have a great time and lots of laughs, but we all became closer friends and I treasured our time together. I'll miss them.
I am excited to say I learned a new local activity in the village. It's a type of fishing they call manaquing and people love it. From what I observed, it seemed to kick in about January and it was all people talked about in February and March. What is manaqing? It's ice-fishing, but Alaskan style. You essentially have a twelve-or-so inch stick or piece of wood, a 15-20 inch piece of solid string tied to the stick and a spoon (lure) with a treble hook on it. Believe it or not the fish will bite on an empty hook, but many people like to put on pieces of blackfish, eyeballs of a fish that was caught or some other miscellaneous bait. The fish they are catching are Yukon Pike. Back in Wisconsin these would be trophy fish caught by experienced anglers. You adjust the depth of your line, gently lift your stick up and down and wait for these little monsters to bite. There are usually 10-15 holes that people have cut out and each one has someone manaquing in it. There are several spots along the river and village where people go to manaq. What I found it to be is basically a fun, social gathering where stories and jokes are told, neighbors catch up on life and families and you pull a bunch of huge fish out of small holes in the ice. I went three times, had three big bites and lost all three. Oh well. Back to bingo when it reopens and I'll try my luck again next year.
I arrived to Mountain Village August 1st, so everything is still new to me as it happens. Right now I'm speaking of spring as the village starts to wake up to the warmer weather. The two-foot base of packed snow and ice has begun to melt and we can begin to see the dirt roads showing again. Rivers of melting ice and snow fill the roads as water makes it's way down the mountain and village to the Yukon. On a walk to the school or down to the grocery store, depending on the day and the weather, you are either sinking in six inches of icy-snow or are walking on and around frozen paths of what you ventured through the day before. I'm also getting used to the longer days as we've come to know them. Longer days mean more light and when I say more light, I mean 'a lot' more light in the day. We are now to a point of light at 6:30 am and things not getting dark until about 11:00 pm. It's pretty wild. You look out your window and see light around 10:45 at night and you have to remember it's almost bedtime. Most people here have blackout curtains, so that alleviates some of the struggle with nighttime light.
A very sad moment I had recently was my attempt to fly my twenty-year-old son Seth out to see me. I had not seen him since the end of July, was missing him a ton and was very excited to finally give him the chance to fly to Mountain Village and see my new home. I had bought all the tickets and everything was set. Three days later the threat of the Corona Virus had become more severe and they were cancelling all flights into and out of the village. I had to cancel his trip and we would have to wait. I was able to get a refund from Delta Airlines, but the local airline Ravn had lost so much money that they were declaring bankruptcy. I ended up losing $1,100 in flights. Crap! Ravn happens to have a monopoly and hold on the Lower Yukon in that they are the only airline that services the area. My hope is that they are so cocky that they will find a way to get bailed out, come back (regrettably), and I will still be able to have my tickets honored. We'll see...stay tuned on that one.
That leads me to deal with my disappointment with summer plans. I'm now proud to call Mountain Village my home, but I had everything mapped out to see my brothers in Colorado and Arizona, and return to Wisconsin to visit friends and family there. Now I don't know if I will even have a chance to go back, especially considering most places expect a fourteen-day quarantine when you arrive. A lot of the things I seemed to take for granted are now just events that I can only hope will happen again one day. Things like taking in a professional baseball game (my Milwaukee Brewers), taking in a live concert or spending time in some of the fun public places I used to love to go to. Bummer.
*Side note wonderful news...I did find out from Seth that I was going to be a grandpa again. He will be having his first child in December. I have two grandchildren with my daughter Laura, and I am so excited to see the newest, beautiful little baby. I'm proud to carry on the title of Grandpa Nick.
My last piece of news is about my new apartment. I was very excited about the move and as they say...location, location, location. My commute to work went from a 90-step, door-to-door walk to a 60-step, door-to-door walk, lol. It also has a beautiful living room view of the Yukon River to the south, and half of the Asa Carsarmiut Mountain to my west. The summer will be auditorily colorful as kids will be playing well into the night on the playground, twenty-five yards from my front door, as well as four-wheeler traffic on the major road for north-south travel, which is ten feet off the steps of my front door. I already hear the steady flow of snow machines (soon to be put away) and four-wheelers, but it has become white noise and I don't mind it at all. Another nice thing that remains is that I am centrally located to all my major needs...school/work - 1-2 minutes, post office and bingo - 5 minutes, and the ANICA or AC Grocery Stores - 5-10 minutes. Home is where you hang your hat.
That's it for now. A lot has happened in two months to say the least, but I am sure there are many new and exciting adventures that will come with spring and summer, like...my first four-wheeler. More on that when the time comes. For now, lots of Facetime with family and friends, getting to know the village in springtime and settling in - or should I say, social distancing into my new place. :)
Until next time...stay tuned!
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