Back to the Tundra

September 15, 2007

How do I explain my absence from this Blog site? Is it writer’s block? Probably it is just “block” as I am really not a writer - just a writer wanna-be. Living here in the far north, has been and continues to be an incredible experience. Do not get me wrong! Living here is very hard. Just the isolation and the weather makes for times of deep loneliness. I am not even sure that it is a feeling of loneliness as much as a feeling of disconnectedness. Living here in a world that is so unfamiliar, and yet has its own familiarity. At times it feels like we dropped into this place from out of the sky with just a few of our “things” to let us know we really aren’t in a time warp.

During his summer stay here in the Arctic, Russ had some adventures or perhaps he would refer to them as misadventures. One situation that occurred turned into a lot of misadventures. Russ was head maintenance much of the summer, and of course that is when things seemed to get dicey. One of Russ’s employees, who was supposedly on vacation, wasn’t missed for about five days. Someone finally went looking for him. They had to break into his house. He was found him lying on the couch as though he had been watching television. It turns out that he had been dead for several days. It was never clear what actually happened to him. He had a history of lung cancer, and had one lung removed a few years ago. The story doesn’t end here. Having dealt with death as a more commercial entity, both of us have had much to learn about the actual process of disposing of bodies and final resting places. What has become a tradition in most of our lives concerning expectations around the burial process, have only been traditions encased in commercial brain-washing. Actually, the grieving process might proceed much more humanly and successfully if we were allowed to view the naturalness of death with less theatrics and more humanness. Anyway, this situation with Russ’s employee has made us both think about some of our beliefs. Getting back to the story, embalming is not an option here; there is a morgue of sorts. How much of our understandings are a direct result of television shows like CSI? This morgue is just an outside cooler. Here is where the story really gets weird! The cooler went down and there was no place to keep the body, so Russ was asked if it was okay to put it into the walk-in freezer at school. What else could he do, but “yes“? The body was encased in a body-bag, still it was all very eerie. We sometimes wonder about health inspectors, etc. and what they would have to say about this. The casket did not arrive in the village until the day of the funeral. It was over a week before the funeral as family had to travel here and a casket arrive: neither or these happen easily due to the isolation. There are two cemeteries here. The only head stones are crosses made with ten foot long two by twelve planks and then painted white. They need to be so long as they must be put far down into the frozen ground. It is quite a process to dig the grave. The city has a huge post hole digger mounted on tracks that is normally used to dig holes in the permafrost for power poles, but in this case it is used to dig graves. Multiple holes are dug six feet down and four inches apart then a ditch witch is used to saw out the frozen ground between each hole.

October 18, 2007
We are twenty some days into this school year. Perhaps you have read about the astro-turf that was “given” to Barrow so we could have football. I wonder what the longevity is for an item like that, especially in this unforgiving climate. Village kids get flown into Barrow for a few games. There is much controversy concerning the practicality of starting football here. Everyone has an opinion as to the cost effectiveness of such a venture. It can cost $30,000 to fly a team in as a plane must be chartered. Some woman in the lower forty-eight heard about this Borough wanting to start football, so she did a fund raiser and was able to buy the astro-turf. However, the cost of shipping was not included in this gift. I am sure that this cost was in the $10,000’s. To put this into perspective, right now at the end of the first quarter of school, there are no white board markers, no scotch tape, minimal construction paper. None of our orders from last year have arrived. Supplies that we were counting on are not here. We have been told that they are in the mail, but that was two months ago. It seems like a call to The Today Show would be in order especially since the astro-turf made national television.

We got our first hard frost on September 18. The river was frozen two days later and villagers were out on the river cutting holes in the ice to fish for grayling and burbot. There are some very large grayling in the river. These are not typically large fish, but some up to eighteen inches have been caught. They have survived a long time to get this big.

October 22, 2007

The sun is rapidly disappearing. The sun never gets very high in the sky, but now it just skims above the horizon for a few hours and then dips down. By the end of November there will be no evidence nof the sun except for a small amount of light as before dawn; then it is gone.

Days have slipped into a comfortable routine as I mentioned earlier. My class in great. Some of them are difficult, but they now have some buy-in with me, and are much more cooperative. They say some of the funniest things, I still think it has to do with them being bi-lingual and the cultural differences. For example we have been reading Charlotte’s Web. I had asked who wrote the book, perhaps it was how I asked the question. Anyway one boy said, “I don’t know, I didn’t“. Then someone else said the same thing. I can still see the serious look on their faces. We were studying vocabulary from the book, and one of the words was acrobat. I checked to see if anyone could tell the meaning from the usage, or had perhaps heard the word before. Joseph ducked his head as though embarrassed and said, “The only bat I know about is a regular bat”.

October 29, 2007

Dealing with the rapidly changing weather and the disappearing sun sometimes makes days difficult and I must make a conscience effort to keep the dark hand of depression away. We don’t have a lot of snow yet. I suppose there is someplace as it snows all the time, but the wind also blows most of the time. We are snug and warm in our little apartment, and in the school. Both are brightly lit. We play pinochle with the village cop when he is in town. He works on a two week rotating shift; so is here for two weeks and then in Barrow for two weeks. Once in awhile one of the new teachers plays with us so we have the added excitement of four handed cards.

October 31, 2007

The Halloween celebration here is huge. The whole village gets into the act. Costume contests, dances, pumpkin carvings, and a carnival. I think every kid in town came to our house trick or treating. I was asked to be a judge for the community costume contest. It was pretty exciting. There were some great costumes.


November 4, 2007

The last thirty-six hours have been a nightmare! Our situation can change from one of routine and boredom to spinning totally out of control. We are sitting here in Anchorage asking ourselves how this came to be. We go from laughing to crying, to lamenting, to wondering if we will be financially ruined. I must go back about thirty-six hours and try to explain how this situation occurred. And situation it is! Russ doesn’t know whether to be angry, laugh, or cry. I think the universe is getting mixed messages from me. I had been thinking about going someplace and getting my old life back in some form such as shopping, eating out, etc. Anyway, that opportunity has arrived.

I had been having a problem with what seemed to be an eye infection. Russ had been having severe bloating, there must be a better word, and distress for four days, so we both went to the health aide in Atqasuk. She promptly sent us to Barrow to be seen by a doctor. We were unable to get reservations out of Atqasuk until late afternoon. It is a short twenty minute flight, but you must get on a plane to make it. We got into Barrow at about 5:30P.M. I checked us into our motel while Russ got our bags. Our plans were to go to the clinic then have a dinner out at Peppy’s, the farthest north Mexican restaurant, stay over night, and go back to Atqasuk Saturday morning. All we did at the motel was roll our stuff into the room and catch a taxi to the clinic. Soon things began to reel out of control. My problem was easily fixed as I had a simple eye infection, as for Russ they ordered an x-ray, and promptly decided that he had a small rupture in his colon or somewhere in his intestines. The seriousness of this prompted the doctor in Barrow to suggest that we leave for Anchorage the following day. It was now approaching 8:30 P.M. and we had not eaten since lunch so I decided to go the Peppy’s and get take-out. As soon as I walked in the door there was a phone message for me informing me that Russ couldn’t eat, but that it was okay for me to eat. Thanks a lot!

After hurriedly grabbing a taco, I headed back to the hospital. By this time it had been decided that Russ needed to be medivaced to Anchorage. By now we are really getting concerned! He now has a I V drip and is being given strong doses of antibiotics just in case his condition worsens. We certainly found out how emergency transportation works up here in this remote area. A Lear jet came from Anchorage arriving here at about 12:30P.M. Russ continued to get sicker. To hear him tell the story it is an illness born of shear terror. Something that requires this amount of immediacy must indeed be very serious. He was wrapped up like a mummy, to keep him warm, then he was strapped to the side of the plane. There were two EMTs hovering over him. They let me ride along. I actually had the best seat. It was the only seat except for the cockpit seats. The EMT were perched on benches on the sides. The Lear jet is small, but quite fast. It makes quick turns that left me wondering which direction was which. It upset my equilibrium and made me feel quite sea sick. Russ missed all the fun of the flight as he was trying so hard to stay put. He was somewhat too long for the transit seat, so he kept slipping and had to be pulled back into position. This not only entailed a Lear jet trip, but two ambulance rides. We had to get to the airport in Barrow and then from the airport in Anchorage to the hospital. We were met by emergency personnel as soon as we arrived. Russ was examined and a CT scan was ordered. It took a few hours before this could all be sorted out. I must comment on all the kindness and concern that was shown to us. In the emergency room at Anchorage, I was given a room to rest for a couple of hours. Those beds are very hard! I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I sure had a shoulder ache after a short time. By 8:00A.M. the next day, the results were in, and it turns out that Russ was fine. His pain seems to have been of unknown cause. I am sure he will not be in a hurry to go to the doctor next time he gets a belly ache. One thing is certain, the next time he gets one there will be NO Lear jet ride!

We decided to see the sights in Anchorage since Russ had miraculously recovered. We rented a small car, ate out, did some shopping as neither of us had any clothes with us. Not having driven a car for awhile, Russ was in awe of the many features. While waiting at an intersection he noticed what appeared to be a totally new feature. He did not need to hold his foot on the brake and even tapping the gas failed to get the usual results. Russ in his infinite wisdom decided that the vehicle had automatic park. He discovered the fallacy of his thinking when he stepped on the gas and discovered we had been in a chuck hole. We then flew back to Barrow at our own expense.


12-3-07

Each day the weather worsens. There isn’t much snow as of yet except in places where it can collect. It snows all the time, but it also blows a lot so there are huge drifts against buildings and in front of our door. There is enough snow; however, so that muddy sand doesn’t track everywhere. It helps with the cleaning.

Our days pass rather quietly. We have settled into a routine of quiet with moments of terror. Let me explain further. Russ has fixed everything he can possibly fix so sometimes gets bored, but then suddenly there is no hot water, or a furnace in one of the teacher housing units decides not to work, or worse yet, the sewer pipes freeze. As for me it all depends on the day. My class goes well most of the time, but sometimes something will set one of my students off. Then watch out! Some of them have very poor coping skills. I think that some of the problem is the language barrier. These people have lived here and survived for 10,000 years. In the big picture, the anglo impact has only recently impacted these people that is especially true for people living in the interior far from a major river and far from major coastal hunting areas. They are traditionally a people who relied heavily on vision rather than words and their language seems to reflect this. I could be wrong as I really can’t speak or understand many Inupiat words. The translation of a verbal language into written using English letters, probably leaves much out. It seems like they use very few English letters, but repeat often the ones they do use. Here is an example of some Inupiat words, note that some words translate into a phrase.

They use only the vowels uu(oo) ii(ee) aa(aw)
Ilisauri (teacher) uuvalalaktaq (good morning) tutaaluk(grandson) tunnic(white person)