The Alaskan Adventure - Volume 4 - New Faces
Last week took a little detour as we were scheduled for our Lower Yukon School District inservice. The irony is that I had seen cloudy skies and rain for most of the week, and Friday and Saturday, finally got some nice clear skies and sunshine. I was packed and ready to go for my flight out of the village, and I wake up to cloudy skies and steady rain. Bummer! There goes a free day...in Anchorage...in a hotel...and restaurants galore. Damn. Oh well. Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow! Damn again. Cloudy skies and light rain. But there was a silver lining. In a town 30 minutes away, another plane was leaving and the weather to Anchorage was favorable enough for us to catch the flight. Our well-respected friend and district maintenance man Chris, also a village resident, drove us (Mike our IT guy and me) to the St. Mary’s airport and we laughed the whole way there.
One thing you have to get used to is that flights of the smaller airplanes, are very hit-and-miss here. The weather can turn on a dime and they don’t take chances with the smaller planes. That is especially true when the weather becomes even more unpredictable in the late fall and winter. Like Forest Gump says, “Weather in the bush (rural Western Alaska) is like a box of chocolates...you really, really, really never know what you’re going to get.” (Something like that)
Overall, I thought Anchorage was a nice city with some beautiful mountain views and a lot to do. It reminded me a lot of Colorado where I was last summer and had a great time with some amazing people. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to experience some of the great things Anchorage had to offer...like wildlife boat and plane tours, hiking trails, wildlife refuges, and a number of other popular outdoor activities.
One really cool thing I did get to see was the airport on Lake Hood, right outside of our hotel, the Lakefront in Anchorage. Lake Hood is the world’s busiest pontoon plane, airport. Operating continuously and open to the public, Lake Hood is the world's busiest seaplane base, handling an average of 190 flights per day. Really neat to watch as the planes (on pontoons) take off right in front of the hotel, throughout the day. Very loud...but cool.
The mornings and afternoons were spent learning and being introduced to new curriculum for the year. In our assigned conference room I sat on the far right, second to last row by the large bay windows overlooking the lake next to the hotel. Roughly every 15 minutes or so a pontoon playing would take off or land right outside the window, and over the hotel. While I would like to lie to you and say I was 100% intently listening to my presenter about the incredibly stimulating math materials, I wasn’t. I could see the other teachers steal a look when they were able to as well. It was so cool to see the planes fly down right over the hotel and hear the roar of the engine as it came to a graceful landing on the water.
It was interesting to see the wide variety and background of people who chose to make this life change in the Alaskan bush. I would have to say the mean age of most people was an older crowd, in their forties and fifties. Some were older and some younger, but they came from all walks of life and a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Many of them were already retired, but we’re looking for something more to overcome their 'retired boredom', or to give themselves a new adventure.
The inservice also brought me a new roommate. To be honest, I had expected my stay in Alaska to be a long, lonely year living in my three-bedroom teacher housing that I came accustom to in the first 11 days I was in the village. It didn't take more than ten minutes of conversation and a few good laughs and I knew Jeremy was going to be a good fit. He is from Minnesota and we actually have a lot in common. Although I'm a Green Bay Packer fan and he's a Minnesota Vikings fan, I didn't hold it against him and still agreed to let him live with me anyway. I’m also happy, because it will cut our expenses in half and since it’s a billion dollars for everything up here, it's helping both of us. The irony is, his hotel room was right next to mine during the entire in-service and I never knew it. Small world.
One thing that really made me sad about my limited time traveling around Anchorage was the amount of people who were homeless throughout the city. I noticed it when I first went to town and had a layover before even got to Mountain Village. There were a number of people near and around my hotel in the downtown area, enough that I could notice but not as significant at the time. Then when we came back to Anchorage for the teacher in-services, it was blatantly obvious. There were a number of people, sometimes with as many as seven or eight, sitting on the grass next to buildings and in a variety of places throughout the city. You could see pockets of people around the city mostly in twos or threes, but they were everywhere, on street corners with signs, walking around, or walking through the street. I felt really bad and I wondered how they could possibly make it in these long cold winter’s.
We also took a lot of rides with Lyft and Uber and our drivers were always very interesting. Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, there were native Alaskans, people who had moved and made Alaska there new home, and a number of drivers who had come from the Philippines. Our discussions ranged from how to survive the Alaskan Bush, the best spices for moose meat, benefits of hybrid cars to non-hybrid cars, nutritionist-holistic ways of living, life in the Philippines, and some 'very' strong opinions of political beliefs as it relates to the Alaskan, oil royalty fund. Nevertheless, each ride was a lot of fun and was still a great way to get where we were going.
One last, big task I had in Anchorage was to get to a big-box store i.e. a Costco, Walmart or Fred Meyer, and get the food and household items that would take me through at least the next three to four months. I had sat down before even coming to Anchorage and meticulously wrote out a list of everything I needed. For those who are closest to me back home, they know I make a ton of lists. And those lists procreate and have baby lists that turn into more lists...well you get the idea. I finally created a master list, made my way out to a SuperWalmart (I know some of you don't think it's so super...), but loaded up two carts and checked out to the tune of $504. Holy sh*t!
Part of that purchase included two very strong and sturdy totes to put everything into. You would not have believed the puzzle-like sophistication and precision that I had to implement to pack two carts worth of food and supplies into two totes and a suitcase. It may not sound like a big undertaking, but we also have to consider that each suitcase and each tote cannot exceed 50 pounds, due to regulations of weight on the smaller planes that fly to the villages. But...somehow, after sitting on and attaching zipties, I had my three pieces of cargo ready to go.
The flight back went off without a hitch and I even got a little treat on the last leg of the flight to Mountain Village. Our last connecting flight was a small, one-prop plane and I was placed in the co-pilot's seat. Actually it was really cool and pretty amazing to see the plane take off from the front seat. Although I have to admit, I was very nervous with my feet and hands so close to the instruments of the plane. I didn't want for one second to bump or nudge the wrong button or pedal and throw us into a nose dive to our death. Fortunately I didn't and I'm back here to write some more. I have to say, the views on the way back were even more breathtaking in the smaller plane and you just can't put into words how absolutely beautiful the view of the tundra, its rivers and landscape truly are.
It feels funny to say, but I actually was happy to be home and step foot in Mountain Village again. The reality is, home is now wherever I put my suitcase down. It's hard to comprehend sometimes. There are places and people whom I would truly love to be with again, but life sometimes takes us down some unknown roads and puts us on different buses that don't always allow us to see where we're going.
Most of the time that I've been back has been dedicated to getting my classroom ready and preparing for the start of the school year. I posted in another social media site about my staff and the people I work with and I'll say again, that they are some of the most friendly, helpful and kind people I have ever met. I really like the fact that there are so many residents from the village who teach and work in the building as well, and I've already begun to feel a welcomed part of the village. There is a sense of family like I have never experienced in a school before. It could be attributed to the small nature of the village or maybe to the fact that many of the people brought together are from such diverse backgrounds. I also cannot say enough about the people from the village. There is a such a sense of community with them and they offer and give so unselfishly, to help us and anyone, in any way they can. We have grown close so quickly and it is a very comforting feeling.
I am constantly chuckling as I talk and work with some of my new friends from the Lower-48 as it is referred to. There is a very good chance I am going to come back to visit with either an Arkansas accent or a Minnesota accent. There are seven people here (at least) from Arkansas and their accents are about as down-home as they come. I told them I was going to start a reference book to decipher their language. The other accent-influence coming from my roommate Jeremy might have me moving to Canada just to be able to keep up with his Minnesota dialect. No doubt Wis-CON-sin has some accent I can't recognize on my own and I'm sure they'll let me know about it too. That's the light side of that group. Again, they're great people and we've all grown very close in a short amount of time. We started having Friday dinners and one of us hosts a dinner for the group or anyone who wants to come by.
The villagers recently told us about free fish that is given away by a fishing company called Kwikpak Industries. They buy and process fish from the Yukon River and Bering Sea, which is then sold to places such as Japan, Europe, and several other countries. Kwikpak does sporadic testing of the river and gives the test fish away to villagers. We have been making regular trips to the dock to get the Chum and Salmon that comes in from local fishermen and women. We take a stick from the beach near the river, string them through the gills, and make our way up the hills back to our apartment. The fish are huge and the amount of meat we get is amazing. It is some of the best fish I have 'ever' tasted in my life. The fun part is that we now have regular conversations with our villager friends, about different ways to prepare and eat the fish. It's so much fun.
Even more exciting is that moose season has opened and we have been invited to go on the moose hunts by several of the villagers. It's supposed to be a surreal experience and the amount of meat that comes from a moose is amazing. Mountain Village School has a mount (front quarter) hanging on the wall, when you walk into the school. It is an unbelievably huge animal. One had been spotted on the edge of the village just three weeks ago. Not an animal you want to run into on a walk or berry picking, but pretty amazing to see. Oh and did I mention that a grizzly bear had also been spotted several times to the east of our village as well? Lucky us.
The first week of school was a big success. My students came in bright eyed and bushy tailed, but shy of course. We had a lot of fun and I pulled out my best acting skills to use fun voices, build trust with get-to-know-you activities and set the tone to what I know will be a fun and successful school year. I have 23 amazing, little learners in my class and I am so excited to see them grow. The kids know me as Mr. Matt or Mr. M., and Mr. Matt's class has many exciting adventures on the way.
I'll finish with this. Being here is bittersweet. I miss where I came from in Wisconsin, I miss the people I love, I miss my friends and I still have moments of loneliness which take my mind to places that I don't like to go. That's the bitter part. But I do have a new home, people who care about me, new friends, a priceless job that is helping countless children to have a better life, and I'm getting experiences that some people can't imagine and will never have.
Stay tuned...
