Scuba Steve comes to Kipnuk.

Liane with a student, Brent, and Voni

Seagulls behind me on the melting snow and ice. Seagulls aren't eaten because they don't taste good.

Voni, Liane, and student by drifts in housing. These drifts weren't the biggest, they got higher as we walked along. We have balloons because we were going to a birthday party for one of Voni's students.

Homemade seesaw.

The hotspot to hang out on Friday night in springtime.

Kipnuk Stonehenge.

Kituqing (Don't know if that's spelled correctly) - going over water on snow machines.

Scuba Steve getting ready to do some underwater welding.

Scuba Steve again.

Our new water tank, which holds something like 300,000 gallons of water, was filled with water from the reservoir, and then a bolt near the bottom of the tank broke off and started leaking water. So, they called in a diver to go down and weld the bolt back on. I didn't know they could do underwater welding, and I thought it was kind of funny to call in a diver for a water tank, but I guess it needs to be done. They did have to let a lot of water out of the tank though, which is a shame because it took a long time to fill it! I will put up a few pictures of Scuba Steve on the top of the water tank getting ready to do some underwater welding.

Spring has come to Kipnuk, and men are going to the ocean daily to hunt. Someone in the village has already caught a walrus. There were a few hunters in the boat, and one of them was the father of one of my students. The men split the catch equally among themselves. My roommates and I went to a birthday party for one of Voni's students last night. We walked to "Housing" and learned the layout of the housing from the two Mom's that were there. There is "New Housing," "Midtown", and "Downtown" depending on the placement of your house. There are still snowdrifts that are about 10-15 feet high, and it was fun to climb up and over them. We had a few children with us that led us to the birthday house, because we had no clue where to go.

This is the last week of school, and I can't believe how soon I will be out of here. I want to get to the ocean before I go, but the trail might be too messy by next week. I went out and about last weekend by snow machine and saw some swans, ptarmigan, lots of geese, sandpipers. It was exhilarating flying over the water on a snow machine. You've got to have a fast one, and be with someone who knows what their doing, which I was.

A few pictures are of a few people that were hanging out Friday night on the edge of the lake that was still frozen, and they were speeding across the water on their snow machines. Sometimes they don't make it all across so they rock the machine back and forth to make it to the ice, but if the engine gets wet, the machine can't go anywhere. After the engine dries out, they get right back to it. It's fun to watch, and it's the thing to do now because the snow is melting.

Right now people go by snow machine out to their boats, but when the snow is all gone, they'll just go by boat. I am hoping to get out by boat at some point as well, maybe when we come back in August. Time to post the pictures, which will take awhile!