Week 2 Chewy: Is it raining again?

July 15th,

Our second week begins. Have I mentioned the mosquitoes? They are EVERYWHERE and so much worse then in Borneo. If I had know I would have bought a bug hat. Those ones that look so ridiculous but keep these critters from driving you mad. Even when I put on mosquito repellent everywhere they are tap, tap, tapping to get in. They are a bit befuddled by the smell of citronella so they don't bite but they still go everywhere with Amy and I. We walk around with gloves on and hoods pulled around our faces to hide as much bare skin as possible.

There are only 13 kids that we are working with here as opposed to almost fifty in Bethel. We are working in the upstairs of the city building which is nice but we have to try and be a bit quiet during the day which is virtually impossible when working with boys. The kids are much more quiet here and polite. They seem less troubled then in Bethel although alcoholism is a problem here as well.  Amy is attracting many here although she does nothing to encourage it. She had her gloved hand kissed the other day by a very charming albeit intoxicated man.  

 On Friday we had a dance party with the kids although it wasn't as successful as our "So you think you can Dance Bethel" party. The kids were more shy and reluctant to dance but the older girls were sooo excited to help us decorate. Kaylee and her sister Crimson helped us blow up balloons and hang them from the ceiling. Crimson dressed up for the event and looked so pretty in her earrings and Cuspuk (not sure how to spell that). The older boys like Joseph and Phillip sat underneath the table and watched as some others like DeShaun and Kaylee got up to try out for our dance contest. The room looked pretty with all of the balloons hanging from the ceiling. The girls covered up the windows to make it darker and we all filmed while groups got up. Deshaun ended up saving the day as he had an Ipad which had lots of good dance songs on it including my personal dance favorite, "You're sexy and you know it" .  Troy and Steven two energetic seven year olds got up to dance and Steven ended up wanted the spotlight the whole time. Well I get it...so do I.

I tried to get the older kids to dance by laying on the floor and doing "the worm" but it didn't happen. The big hit was playing limbo and pulling the balloons down to have balloon fights outside. Amy had used our left over food to make up snacks including pizzas with melted cheddar cheese on something called Pilot Bread (like a giant Ritz Cracker) it seemed to work. Much of the time everyone stood around the edges of the dance floor much like my junior high dances. Joseph, Philip and Kaylee ended up helping us clean up which was nice. They are 12 year old twins and the nicest boys. Both of them and Kaylee (age 10) hang around the house alot. They all stay out late and we can't decide if it's because that's normal here or they don't want to go home. We care for them and worry that they are okay out so late.

The Bethel census indicates that there are about one hundred people in town. All seem to be related to one another. Every time we talk to someone they tell us someone else is there sister, brother, auntie or uncle. We have been learning much about what the town is like including the fact that they only just got in running water about a year ago.  Before that it was transporting water on the back of an ATV and honey buckets for going to the bathroom. In addition to electric heat they use wood stoves as the temperature can go down to forty below here in the winter. People are given aid by the government but also practice subsistence living. That means they are doing a lot of fishing right now for Salmon as well as hunting moose and bear. The post office is right out of a Norman Rockwell portrait with one older white guy with missing teeth and a friendly demeanor. Strangely in a town full of Eskimos the mayor and head of tribal council is white and the chief does not appear to be working with the tribal council at all. Lots of politics in this small town.  

I always dreamed of staying in a log cabin but my dreams didn't exactly look like this. It is the Tribal Councils office so it has desks, computers and files. The walls and floor are plywood and sheet rock but they have these strangely plush area rugs that no one is allowed to walk on. They are beige which is not the greatest color in a town where it rains all the time and people are dragging in either dirt or dust. It's good for Amy and I since we sleep on them.

It's well.... more comfortable then Borneo but hot water and a shower would be nice. We finally took one at the washteria  and did wash which costs us $4.00 each. The major downside is that the office workers are in here at 7:30 am (apparently the only Eskimos that like to get up early) and Amy and I are forced to interact prior to caffeinating. We can't leave because the coffee pot is here and there's no other place to stay in town but it does have a nice view of the mountains. We had rice, beans and cheddar cheese which is our Saturday night meal here and we topped it off with Gatorade. Woo, hoo.
Yesterday it was rainy and cold (what a surprise) so Amy and I pulled up a movie on netflix and watched a very poorly acted movie of Pierce Brosnan pretending to be a Canadian Indian. The only up side was when he took off his shirt. Since the Internet connection was bad I had to keep hitting refresh well after Amy went into dreamland. I miss t.v.

Today two of the local guys took us to Mohawk Mountain which is part of the Russian Mountains about eight miles inland. We rode on ATV's sitting on the back. After dousing ourselves with bug spray we sat on the back and bounced along through the marshy landscape. There are no roads back there so we are literally riding on the spongy hills of moss that we are bouncing off and our two escorts - Robbie and Joseph carried shotguns in case we ran into any bears. The skinny pine trees became more plentiful filled in with small birch and many different kinds of bushes. It's very green but so different from anything I've ever seen. The ATVs kept overheating so we had to keep stopping and letting them cool. Harley, the local golden retriever and our new best friend followed us the whole way. We rode as she ran along beside us.

When we got to the bottom of the mountains we hiked up while the mosquitoes followed us. We went up this steep rocky outcrop which over looks a valley between the two mountain ranges. There was a river far below surrounded by pine trees. Mountains surrounded us. It looked like a movie set. Well except of course for Amy and I who were bundled up with long johns, rain suits, two hats and a hood completely covering most of our face to avoid the relentless hammering of the state bird in our faces.

As we sat there Harley snuggled into our laps. So loving this dog. She fell asleep as I patted her. It was so peaceful and far from the world. At one point Robbie shot his rifle and the sound echoed through the valley across the hill from us. Above the green the tops of the two mountains were rocky and barren. I searched with my binoculars for any sign of life and there was none. How could there be a place in this world that is so vast and empty of humans. To look at the valley from the cliff and realize it just keeps going and going with no one living there. The idea of that amount of wilderness leaves me breathless.

We rode back on our ATVs, bumping along the spongy tundra, hoping to see some animal, any animal. As usual the only one around were the mosquitoes which increased in volume as the day went on. It was pretty uncomfortable but I was happy to be out and about. Harley with her thick red gold fur kept following us back. She is sweet, sweet, sweet and we rewarded her with some beef jerky. In some ways dogs are lucky here because they can go wherever they want but people don't treat them like members of the family like we do back home. There are three that hang around us now (I suppose they heard about the beef jerky). One is called Cujo -a dog with a giant labs head and paws but small hot dog kind of body. The second is Penny a black puppy and our beloved Harley. They all sleep outside the house now. It can be upsetting as they are dying for some love. Amy and I give it to them.