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| Safety first |
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| The things you see in Nome... |
The Iditarod crowds are long gone, and I found myself back at school welcoming our first junior high students in nearly 3 months. I always appreciate the enthusiasm and pure energy this age group brings; it’s a much different program with the younger kids. I worked the evening shift, which allowed me to see the kids in a more social light. The first night I took the group to the swimming pool, and I witnessed pure jubilation as students took to the water, some for the very first time in their lives. Even those that were initially tentative were hard to drag out of the pool at the end of open swim. As an added surprise, two students that have previously attended snuck in their applications and were back for another round! As a rule, junior high students are only able to attend once per year, but the low enrollment permitted reacceptance and I relished in the familiar faces and their prior knowledge of the routine.
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| Small, but delightful group! |
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| Quick on-the-spot challenge while dinner finished cooking |
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| Pool for the first time! |
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| My two repeat students |
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| Last evening t-shirt signing - it's like summer camp! |
Junior high sessions are fast and furious– they fly in Tuesday and are out on Friday. Except of course, if Mother Nature has other plans. We typically experience a storm once per session, but it usually occurs at the beginning of the session delaying arrivals, or in the middle causing some wicked walks over to the pool. For the first time this year the storm rushed in on Friday morning, cancelling all departing flights. Thankfully this group was a great bunch, and having teacher chaperones from each of the three schools lessened the load on our teaching staff.
My favorite part of the session came while waiting to hear whether the “on hold” flights would depart. Students always go shopping on the Thursday before they leave, and all of their goodies (usually candy and pop) are locked up in the closet overnight to prevent snacking messes and extreme sugar binges. I handed back all of the purchases Friday morning so that students could pack them to enjoy back in their villages, however the delayed and subsequently cancelled flights pushed some over the edge of temptation. Needless to say, I caught one student frantically eating all of his candy, wrappers strewn about him like fallen leaves. As a natural consequence, I assigned him the most dreaded cleaning chore of all – bathroom duty! Him and a friend grabbed the cleaning totes, and had so much fun donning rubber gloves, polishing mirrors, cleaning the sinks and toilets that they begged to clean all four of the bathrooms! Yes, begged. Only during a junior high session!
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| Mopping is the favorite chore! |
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| Moving furniture - an impressive amount of dust bunnies collect daily |
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| Chop to it! |
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| Dishwasher duty includes heavy lifting |
Despite the new energy and vigor, this was a difficult week for me. I watched an independent movie made in Barrow (very similar to Nome) starring, filmed and produced by an all Alaskan Native cast and crew. This movie depicted a tragedy involving high school students, and the gut wrenching impacts on the families and larger community. On the Ice was an incredible and accurate movie that I’m glad I saw, however I was steamrolled into an existential crisis involving my purpose and value to this region, my profession, and my life.
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| A still from On the Ice |
I am still worshiping the continually increasing hours of daylight, but the unrelenting cold and snow is taking its toll on my psyche. Seeing pictures from home is an exercise is enduring torture; the grass is green, the sky is blue, the sun is shining, and it’s 70 degrees and higher. In Nome, the ground has been locked under snow and ice since October, and I haven’t experienced a week with temperatures that all range above zero since November. I’m ready to go back to wearing my warmer weather attire. I’m ready to see any color besides white again. I’m ready for the snow and ice to melt to allow for safe jogging outside. I’m ready to be done with winter, but I’ve got a couple more months of it coming my way.
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| Hard to tell the sky from the ground, 3/23/12 |
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| Picture from a park near where I grew up, 3/23/12 |
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| A coworker came back from Hawaii (so jealous) and brought these! |
