January in Atqasuk

Russ at work

Into the Night

January 27, 2007
After being “out” for almost three weeks, coming back to the village was hard. I once heard that the only people who talk of getting out are Alaskans and prisoners. Anyway we returned to very cold weather with a considerable wind chill. The temperature read
-40. Our arrival in Barrow was reunion time as all the teachers and their families who had gone out were returning. Hageland is the name of the small bush plane company that we usually fly with. It is always touch and go as to when a Hageland plane will actually leave the ground. Our party of teachers heading to Atqasuk was a full load, so they waited for us to get all of our luggage from the Alaska flight on which we had arrived. Finally the pilot called us to board. We had no sooner gotten on than we were told that our luggage hadn’t been loaded, so back to the terminal we go. Everything is outside on the tarmac and it was COLD. Back inside! We wonder what is going on. Here comes the pilot again and says it is time to load up. So off we go, all eight of us. Climbing the wobbly steps into these planes, always makes me wonder why I am carrying so much that I can’t hold onto the rope handrail. If you are over five feet tall, it is bend double. Glasses frosted over, where will I sit. All eight of us are on board. The pilot turns on the engine. It is very cold, as all the heat is directed to the window so the pilot can see out. It looks pretty frosted over to us. We are finally airborne and I am shivering. After about two minutes the pilot turns his head and yells over the engine that we have to circle Barrow to see if the gauges warm up and start working before we head to Atqasuk. This did not instill any confidence in us rookies at this “Northern Exposure”.
They must have warmed-up as twenty-five, very cold minutes later, we arrived in Atqasuk. There is no terminal here so it is back outside, standing around until a pickup arrives to get our luggage and us.
Finally, back at our “igloo” all seems well, and after a hot bath and drinks I begin to thaw. All seemed well until, bed-time, when our bath tub began to fill with grey water, to put it politely. It took awhile to figure out that our sewer line was frozen. The trial and error period caused more delay and problems, and soon some water was spreading out over the floor, carpet and anything else that was in the way. Three days later we were back in “business”. Russ now knows more than he wants to about thawing frozen sewer pipes at 40 below with wind. This is not a normal sewer system. Remember we are living in a place where the ground is frozen permanently hence permafrost, and the sewer lines are imbedded in this.
The winter solstice is long past, and the sun is back, if only for a few minutes. We are gaining daylight at a rate of about 30 minutes a day. You may wonder if it is getting warmer. No, the sun is not a warm sun except to the eye. We are grateful to be able to see the changing seasons in the Arctic. It gives us time to dwell on the meaning of life and our purpose. It gives new meaning to our daily life and new appreciation
for the little things that we tend to take for granted: my daily latte, Russ’s corn nuts.


January 30, 2007
MAP testing day. Measurement of Academic Performance. Everything is an acronym.
I have five third graders to take this online, test. This test determines how well the school is doing or more specifically the teacher. One computer worked! About ten minutes into the test one student fell asleep and plopped on the floor. Out of the five computers this was the only one that worked as designed. Finally after about 35 minutes of trial and error, all students are on line. Then two computers get knocked off line - start over - time is up - student number one is asleep again and two more computers are knocked off line. We’ll try this again tomorrow!