After spending a few days in Anchorage with two wonderful people, Jeanne and Harvey Dougherty, I have arrived in Kipnuk. The airstrip is smaller than I expected - it is a dirt path about ten feet wide, and if the plane doesn't stop at the right time, you'll end up in the water.
I am moved into my apartment and my classroom is just about set up the way I want it to be (pictures to come).
Unfortunately there is no hot water in my apartment, so I have to shower at the school. Luckily, the one shower at school isn't too bad. Still no phone or internet in the house, but the roommates and I can use the school phone and internet until someone decides to connect us to the outside world.
I went on a walk around the village yesterday and thought I'd post a few pictures. There are two stores in Kipnuk; the yellow store and the green store. The green store is a bit cheaper than the yellow store - but you're still going to spend $8.00 on a box of oatmeal, or $5.00 for a can of soup. I decided not to buy anything - next week we will place an order with SpanAlaska for bulk food which will get us through the rest of the year.
Picture descriptions:
# 1: Taken on the boardwalk which goes over the marsh, leading us to the post office. That big yellow machine hasn't moved in two years - so it's a permanent fixture throughout the winter.
# 2: The church. A few days before I arrived, a woman passed away. Taking a walk through the village, every child asked me if I wanted to see "the body." They do not embalm their deceased. The woman passed away while in the Native Hospital in Anchorage, and was brought back to Kipnuk to be buried - eight days after her death.
# 3: Receptacle for the "honey bucket." Usually a chore in the village for children is to take out the honey bucket when it is full. Luckily we have flush toilets in the apartment, so we won't have to deal with that.
# 4: The view from my back porch around midnight
# 5: Fishing boats on the water
# 6 & 7: Two children who walked with us around the village
# 8: Post Office
# 9: Alaska National Guard Office
# 10-15: Pictures from around the village
It's very cold, unseasonably cold for the summer I am told, and I need to get on the ball and get myself a warm winter coat. Winter comes right after a week of fall, so I have about three weeks to get myself ready for subzero temperatures. : )
3 comments:
So WHAT do they do with the bodies - pack 'em in ice???????
Great to see the Blog up and running and view some pics!
Awesome blog Brina! Thanks for linking me up. I was curious to see what things look like around your parts. My goodness it looks a bit chilly... to put it mildly. Oh and by the way your students are all absolutely adorable. Let me know if want some company up north. I've never seen a moose in person. :)
p.s. what do they do with their dead bodies??? It's been wracking my brain all morning.
If someone dies in the winter, they put the bodies in a coffin and bury them only a foot or so into the ground - so half the coffin is sticking out (because the ground is too frozen to get through). And then when the thaw comes, the coffin sinks down into the ground.
Different world up here!
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