27 | September | 2013 | Teaching on the Tundra

Well, I have been adventuring around and planning so many lessons that I have not posted on here for almost a month.

“Moose-Cutting”

Before I visited Bethel, the school secretary invited some of the teachers over to help her process the moose her son got. While I had been around a process like this before I had never readily jumped in. We processed right in the house. Cutting moose, as the locals here call it, is generally a female chore. The men go out and hunt, often dress the moose in the field (take out the guts cut out what’s not needed to be carried back, skin it), and the women do the rest. Women do go hunting–I know a few of my students went out to the wilderness to hunt. If it is a person’s first catch they may not keep it. It is tradition to give out the meat to the local people that are widowed, in need, or elder. I have also noticed that some young men often still disperse other game throughout the village after this.

Here are some pictures of moose cutting:

huh, yeah Kayla got a slush too…

we are picking off the hair.

a gruesome scene out of Dexter (that comment for Kayla and Dirk)

Cross-Country Meet:

Recently, I was also invited to travel along to a cross-country meet in another village. Two of the runners were my students. There were three young ladies in the Jr. High race that needed to be chaperoned. It was a real adventure getting to travel to another village–which around here is done by plane.

Here are some photo’s of the CC meet:

The other village school

Team Talk

some of the other runners

Start Line

—that is My friend Alan bent down taking a picture.

Walk to a slushy / video store at night with my three girls…saw a stellar moon.

Flight out of other village

Haunted School House

I don’t know if I have mentioned “jinxies” yet. They are part of the folklore that the kids talk about. A jinxie may be comparable to a ghost/boogie man in one. It is about a foot to three feet tall. They have red eyes. They live in very small holes. They live at the old school house. This I have gathered bit-by-bit from local children.

Well, yesterday while Caityln and Dirk were practicing fly fishing Kayla and I decided to go on an adventure. We started hiking out towards the old airport when I pointed out and asked what the giant red building was. Kayla said it was the old school and we both decided adventure meant visiting that building.

The kids think it is haunted and it has a bunch of jinxies inside.

Here are some pictures and comments of our adventures: