Weathered in at Brevig Mission

This week has been a reminder to never put too much hope into plans made. I was scheduled to fly to Brevig on Monday morning, then on to Wales to overnight Tuesday, and then scheduled to take the helicopter over to Little Diomede and back to Nome today, Wednesday. Well, my flight Monday morning was canceled due to weather, but I did make it to Brevig then Monday night. Above are a couple pictures taken when I arrived, I was still in my snow pants. The one little girl was making a face when the picture was taken. I email with a school group in North Carolina and they sent me Hattie, the travel bear. Hattie is traveling with me and then we write and let the students know where we go and what we do. The students here really love Hattie! Anyway, last night my flight from Brevig to Wales was canceled due to weather, and here it is, Wednesday afternoon, and I am still in Brevig. There goes my plans for the rest of my travel, all because weather can be so unpredictable. The helicopter only flies to Diomede on Wednesdays. The ice there is not frozen enough yet for them to have the ice runway. They are hoping by the end of February now. The weather has been so strange this winter, so cold, then warming up, just back and forth. Right now I am just hanging out here in Brevig, hoping to make it back to Nome tonight. Guess we will wait and see. And, there is always another time to try and make it out to Diomede, which is only three miles from Big Diomede, which belongs to Russia! I just got back from taking a little walk and although it is still snowing, the sky looks like it is starting to clear up some. Hopefully...

Snow and Blizzards and Whiteouts, Oh My!

Wow, we have been having quite the weather the last while. Blizzards and whiteouts! But still we don't close up here, still had school. I was told today we have gotten between 12-14" of snow the last couple of days. Today I went out to my truck, started it, and discovered the heat/ac quit, so no air to defrost my windows. I tried to wipe them with my gloves, but that didn't work so well. I went back in my apartment and called my boss, Jeff. He said the police had said no one is supposed to be out on the roads right then anyway. He came in to town about an hour later and picked me up. We stopped at the store to pick up some groceries for our 24 Jr. High students. After we got things picked up, the store closed up. It is very rare things close up. Got out to school, and no electric. They said the electric was going off and on all day, and it finally shut off for good. Came back on then this even for around an hour, then the utility company stopped out and said they were getting ready to shut it off to work on some bad lines. They didn't know when we would get it back. Luckily I had picked up lots of lunch meat in case that happened. So, what a night we had, rowdy students and no electric. I was so on edge by the end of the night. I had brought along my overnight bag just in case I would get stuck out there, but thankfully one cab was running and he brought a worker out, so I took the cab back in to town so I could go home. Now for some sleep...

Iditawalk 2008

The Iditarod Dog Sled Race is 1049 miles from Anchorage to Nome. There is also an event Iditawalk 2008, where you walk 35 minutes a day for thirty days between February 1 to March 31, for a total of 1049 minutes. If you are interested in participating, here is the website: http://www.idita-walk.com/idw/index.asp

Cold in Nome

Temperatures here in northwestern Alaska have been freezing cold the last while. Saturday the low was -30 and yesterday the low was -27. On top of that, there was a little wind, which makes it feel even colder. I have really been noticing the cold, after arriving back in Nome from spending a week in Florida over Christmas, where temperatures were in the 80s. Right now I am sitting in my recliner, drinking a cup of hot tea, trying to persuade myself to go outside so I can go to work. We are expecting a blizzard tonight, to start sometime around midnight with near zero visibility. Don't expect for anything to be canceled though, it is very rare for something like that to happen. Well, I'd better go ahead and take off for work now.

BSSD In-service

We flew into Unalakleet this past Monday and will be here until Thursday afternoon. Bering Strait School District is having in-service this week. I thought it was cold in Nome when we left, but it is freezing here! The breeze is what really makes it cold. I was glad I had pulled out and wore my winter coat, snowpants, and boots. BSSD has fifteen different schools, plus us at NACTEC. There are a lot of people! The school is full of air mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags, and suitcases. I am in a workshop on blogging. Today is the second day and it has been a great learning experience! I am working on setting up a blog for NACTEC. I hope to have students write about their experiences at NACTEC on the website. After it is all set up, I will add the link to my blog. Monday evening we had a BSSD first. A friend of mine, Lisie, and her fiance, Ben, decided to get married at the in-service. So, we had a wedding! Lisie and I both moved to Alaska and started working for BSSD at the same time. She was my first BSSD friend. She had a special seat for me during the wedding, right up front. They both listed people out they would like to have sitting up front, and I was the only one on her list, made me feel very special and important! After the wedding, there was wedding cake and ice cream. They both teach in Savoonga, which is located on St. Lawrence Island. Last night I went with some friends to Peace on Earth, a local pizza place. We had ice cream while we were waiting on our pizza. It was pretty good. They also have a ping pong table there, so we enjoyed challenging each other in that. Most villages do not have a restaurant, but Unalakleet is a larger village which houses the BSSD district office, so there are a few more things here than you would find in the other villages. There was also a group here last night, Pamyua. They are a Yupik musical group. They describe their music as tribal funk and world music. They were fun to listen to and watch. Well, I had better start paying attention here.