Funerals and moon dogs.

Last Thursday there was a snow machine accident involving a man from the village. He was going too fast on his snow machine, flipped it, and he was killed. I play basketball with his wife, and she has four boys, the youngest is 6 months old. My roommate has one of her son's in second grade, and the kids made cards for him when he comes back to school. His wife and kids were in another village celebrating Slavik for the past two weeks, the Russian Orthodox Christmas, planning to come back last Friday, but were weathered and couldn't get back until Saturday. One of my Kindergartner's is the man's nephew, so he has been out of sorts the end of last week because he has been seeing his dad so upset (it was his brother).

My roommates and I just got back from the funeral in the church. The church was full; the choir in the front, all the seats filled, and the standing room flooded outside the church doors. We stood outside to let the family members in, and walked down to view the body after the funeral. Just a little information for how they store the body out here. There is no embalming done out here, so in the warmer months the body is kept on ice until the funeral. Since it's winter, the body is kept either in the family's home, or in the Sunday school which is right next to the church. The funeral was this Monday, and I just learned that the school is on what is called a "blue schedule". I don't know why it is called that, but we were on a shortened schedule because the funeral was at 2pm. If we didn't have an early release for the funeral, we would have to close the school anyway because the entire school would be at the church for the funeral.

After we found out about the accident, the kids (mostly the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders) would keep us updated on "the body". They would tell us where it was being kept and what they have heard. We tried to tell them to keep their comments to themselves, because you don't really know what is true and what's not - and you don't want them spreading rumors if a relative is nearby. They kept commenting about his head, and when we walked down to pay our respects, his head was covered by a hat and there was a sign that read, "Do not touch the head". In the accident, I believe there was a lot of damage done to his head. His face was also covered with makeup. I think the family does the makeup on the deceased if need be. There was an elderly woman who passed away this summer, and at her funeral she wasn't wearing any makeup. It might have been the severity of the damage to his face that made the family decide to use makeup.

From what I heard of the service, it was very nice. We couldn't understand much, because it was mainly in Yugtun, but there were a few songs that were sung in English. It was important that we were there for the funeral to show our respects. It shows the people of Kipnuk that we care about the kids, and their families.

It's a shame to hear about an accident like this that could have been prevented. My roommates and I were just talking about how even now, right after the funeral, you hear people whizzing by on their snow machines. I would hope that after something like this happens, you would slow it down a bit. In a couple hours we will go to the cemetery with the rest of the group. We overheard some people talking, and the family is going to go home and get ready for the next step. We're not too sure what that entails, but we are going to wait and look for the mass of people walking out to the Tundra - that's our cue.

We just got back from the cemetery and since the ground is frozen, they cannot bury the casket in the ground. They dug out an area, maybe a 6 foot square, in the snow, where they put the casket into a wooden box. There were a few words said in Yugtun, then the casket was covered by a tarp which was tucked down into the box, and lastly the cover of the wooden box was nailed down. At the top of the box, there was a place for the wooden cross, which is about 6 feet tall. They put the cross in, and the name birth/death dates are displayed on the horizontal of the cross. There weren't too many women at the burial, and that was because they were at the house preparing food for the feast. I didn't take any pictures because I thought it would be rude. I would like to go back out there and take a few pictures at some point, it's very interesting the way the cemetery is laid out.

My roommates and I were talking about this before break, when we went to the two year anniversary of the seventh grade teacher's mother. We heard about the feast through the grapevine (which is how you find out about most things around here). All the times we have heard about a feast, it goes something like, "Are you going to go eat at (insert name)'s house? You should go eat!" To some people, just going to a house, filling a plate with food and leaving might seem rude, and you might feel like a moocher. Here, that is not the case. Going to the house shows that you are giving respect to the person who has passed away. The times we have gone to a feast, we go into the house (there is usually a big line out the door) find a place to stash our coats, and walk through the line to get food. After we get a plate of food, we find a spot to stand, or if there is a seat open we sit down. The last time we went to a feast, at the teacher's house, we found a spot on the floor to sit. There usually isn't much seating room, and if there is, the elderly and the men usually take the chairs. It's an interesting experience, because when you walk to get the food it's not always on a table. Many times it will be in pots and pans on the floor, which has been covered with cardboard. You won't always find silverware either. It's a unique experience which I'm happy to have been a part of.

On a different note, there was a moon dog the other week. I didn't know that it was called that, but it's a huge ring around the moon that usually means a blizzard is coming. I got a few pictures of them and will post them in my next entry. We have been gaining about 5-8 minutes of daylight since we've returned from winter break. It gets dark around 5:30 now, instead of 4pm a few weeks ago. The sun still comes up around 10:00-10:30am, but that will start to get earlier too.

I planted a few tulips that I got in a kit for Christmas, and they are already sprouting! They are sitting in the dining room window, and one tulip bud is taller than all the rest. Unfortunately, I put them in the closet for a couple days because that's what the directions said to do (put them in a cool, dark place) and a couple of the bulbs got a bit of mold on them! That has gone away and they are healthy now, growing like crazy! It will be a nice bit of color to add to the gloomy winter! Next year I want to get little pots for all my Kindergartners and plant them so they will be in bloom for Mother's Day. I am using these tulips as a trial run to see how long they will take to start showing some flowers. The first grade teacher has done that in the past, and I think I will try it for next year.

I will get to posting those pictures now. I have to do them in a separate post because last time I tried to add pictures, everything I had just written was deleted. I've learned my lesson to be more patient with the snails-pace internet we've got here! I promise I will try to be better at updating this thing - it's one of my resolutions for the new year!