Adventures in Grocery Shopping

I stopped at the main grocery store, The AC, after school today to pick up some supplies for a lab that I want to do in my 8th grade science class on Thurday and Friday. It was complete chaos in the grocery store. First thing I noticed was that The AC must be the after school hang out for half the junior high kids in town. They were everywhere. All hanging out drinking slushies from the little store inside The AC. The store is a complete mess. They are remodelling and rearranging the entire store. I can't find ducttape. Nobody knows where it is. Then I can't find matches, the guy I talk to says he knew where they were a few days ago...try by the bbq stuff. There are kids everywhere. A little boy about 3 or 4 is on the ground rolling through the isle...no adult in sight. I go upstairs because that's where they tell me they've moved the markers to...half the stairs are blocked off with brand new, bright orange street cones. The stairs are being recarpeted. On the way through the store, I see so many items on sale, but I dont have my wallet, only the pcard(the school credit card). That's when you have to buy things...when they are on sale, otherwise you buy some ridiculously outrageous price. The have these carts all over the store with items with 50% off stickers. Usually 50%off makes it about normal "back home" price. There are people everywhere, many of them visiting rather than shopping. This is the place to hang out at 5 oclock on a tues evening. Who knew?

I finally make it to the checkout line. There are four lanes open..all are packed with people. They are equally long, no one line looks more promising then the others. I get in the first line, the one I'm closest to. Now I start an interesting balance...keep myself and my cart out of the aisle so the crazy people dont run me over, but dont push my cart too far forward and run into the guy in front of me. There are two construction workers in front of me(unfortunately neither are very good looking) and in front of them are two women, one with a baby and a small child. They are from a village. All of their groceries are being packed in boxes and sealed so they can be taken back to the village either by boat or plane. They will use snowmobiles in winter. These women are obviously using food stamp cards. First they pay for some stuff with the card, then more with a check, then more with cash. One of the women run to get a different item, when she leaves the cashier just looks at her with this, "what the heck is she doing" look. The two men in front of me have moved to other lines now. The woman with the kids purchases some chips and dip, two pops, candy bar, gogurt and a whole case of carnation condensed milk. I am looking at the milk wondering if she feeds this to her baby. He is fat with huge round cheeks. She buys half of her items, but cant afford the rest. The other woman comes around to pay for the additional items.

Finally, it's my turn. The cashier apologizes for the wait. As I stand there waiting for her to ring up my stuff, i see a kid about 5 years old swinging like a monkey from the metal scanner thing by the entry doors. you know...the thing that picks up any stolen items and then flashes and makes noise. He is swinging on it so hard that it is almost swaying to the ground. The mother yells at him to stop. He smiles real big like he has just done the most amazing thing and follows his mother into the store. There are more of the junior high students standing by the ATM machine. They look like they are vandalizing it...noone seems to notice. I finally get out of there. I drop my bags in the truck and walk next door to the UPS store. They have box for me. It's wine from the wine club i signed up with...ah...relief.

I've had three glasses by now!

Before and After

These are pics of my classroom from what it looked like when I first got it and what it looks like now. They will be remodeling my wing this summer, so if I stay next year, I will be in a completely remodeled classroom. At least it gives me incentive to stay next year. My room is really musty smelling, so I burn a candle every now and then. Whenever I burn a candle, the kids notice right away...it seems like their sense of smell is better than the kids back home. I have lots of storage space and two sinks, but one of them doesn't work. There is some lab space in the back of the room but I don't have any stools. The classroom is okay as far size goes, but I have 28 desks in the room, so that pretty much consumes all of the space and makes it seem very small. My biggest class is 27 students. 27!!!! That's so huge. The kids here are much more respectful than the kids back home and I've only heard about 3 cuss words in almost a month of school. They dont even cuss when they're in the halls. I really like my students. My classroom is pretty good. My coworkers are really great. Everyone is so nice, helpful, and just plain happy. The only real complain that I have is about the technology. The whole computer situation is extremely dissapointing. Realatively no tech support either. Stacie, I MISS YOU! You want to come work in Bethel?

BEFORE

AFTER

Fish Camp

On Labor Day weekend, we were invited out to fish camp by my principal and her husband. They were going for the whole weekend to camp...we only stayed for the day. Their fish camp is about 25 minutes up river from Bethel. So what is fish camp? Basically, it is a place you go to clean and prepare your fish because you dont want all that mess at home. Only native people are allowed a plot of land to use as fish camp. The fish camp we went to belongs to a native friend of theirs, and they let our friends use it too. Our friends mostly use it for camping and a getaway. Some of the land used for fish camps is owned by the people and some of it is leased from the Native Coorporation. The Bethel Native Coorporation is the name of the agency that holds land near Bethel.

This is the boat parked at the harbor waiting to leave Bethel. I was happy that their boat was covered because it was pretty chilly out...in the high 50's...and it was sprinkling too. Most of the other boats we saw out on the river that day were not covered. When they first called to invite us out, I asked, "What should we wear?" He said, "Oh, you know, just your basic polar fleece, it is kind of cold today." I guess I'm going to have to buy some polar fleece!

Here is Avery and my principals two boys. The three of them get along extremely well. They had a good time at fish camp. This is Avery's second time going out with them. I had to skip the first trip because I was just getting over being sick and did not want to risk getting sick again.

If you look closely you can see that this sign is the BNC (Bethel Native Corporation) Fishcamp Permit sign. You can click on the picture to see it enlarged. There were several of these signs stapled to trees near the fish camp.

This is a view of the Kuskokwim tributary that their fish camp is on. You can see another fish camp set of on the bank of the river across the way. The fish camp we were on would be down the beach about 200 meters or so behind me.

In this picture you can see the amount of erosion that takes place on the banks of the river. The boys are playing on the bank for scale.

I am walking along the beach back to the fish camp. If you took a left when you got up to the boat and walked inland about 25 meters, you would find their fish camp. You can see that there are actually trees in this area as opposed to plain tundra.

This is the actual fish camp. We sat around the fire all day and just hung out. This was wehn we first got there so we hadnt set up chairs yet. It was wonderful to sit around a fire and drink a couple beers. They were the first beers I had had since leaving the lower 48. All my clothes smelled like fire when I got home...oh, good stuff. They are not allowed to build permanent structures at fish camp. The space under the tarp has a large wood table were they would cut, clean, and prepare their fish; mostly salmon.

This was an open space that the boys took me to. They called it Seven Hump Lump. I dont know why.

Yes, Avery in a tree. Shocking, I know!

Later in the day, when it warmed up a bit and had stopped raining. The boys decided to play wild indian tribe. They painted their chests and faces with mud. They used sticks shaped like swords and rifles and ran around screaming IIEEE YIIIEE YIIEE, like wild indians. It reminded us of something from Lord of the Flies. It was very fun! I even got my throat slit by one of those renegades!

Dirty laundry

These are Avery's socks. He wore them outside playing in the mud. He did have on mud boats and still managed to get his socks this dirty. He apparently doesnt realize that the boots only go up to his knees and if he steps in mud deeper than that, he will get mud in his boots. You can see the white at the top where they were folded under and didnt get dirty in that spot. This is how dirty everything is here. All of his socks look like this now. Nobody seems to mind, that's just the way it is. Even dirty, I think Avery is one of the best dressed kids at school. When I was packing to come here, I sorted through all of our clothes and got rid of things that were stained or ragged. Now, I wish I would have brought that stuff and left the nice clothes back home. Avery got invited by one of his school friends to a sleep over birthday party this weekend. He seems pretty excited about it. I'm happy to see him making friends and fitting in. They are measuring caribou antlers for part of a math project. In social studies, they are studying frontiersmen and are going to load a backpack with supplies and see which of them can carry it on their backs. Life is good! What a different world we live in!

On the trampolene...

Did I spell trampolene right? Well...anyway...this is Avery and his friend jumping on a trampolene. This was the second Sunday that we were here back in July. Notice that the boys have on long sleeves and pants in mid-July. You can also see the stretch of tundra in between our friends house and the main part of town. That is the city in the background. I hope the video works...we'll see. I have a new digital camera on the way that I will be able to take video clips with. I'm hoping to post video clips more often.

Leave your comments and let me know you are reading this blog. I miss everyone...take care...call, email, leave blog comments...let me know you're all still out there!

Avery says, "I like BooBoo fudge and monkeybutts, don't you?"

What I miss

paved roads
listening to the radio
being able to "pick up a six pack"
unlimited water
space
the moon
grass
trees
being able to guess what time it is by looking at the sun
sidewalks
selection at stores
nice clothes/shoes
shorts, tank tops, and sandels
driving out of town
cleanliness
being in the same time zone as most businesses
mcdonalds and other similiar restaurants
friends
being able to go to the store to pick up whatever you need
mail delivered straight to the house
trash pick up at the house
going out on saturday night
vantage
things working the way they're supposed to, when they're supposed to

What I dont miss
uptight people
superficial people
unfriendly people
mean people
always feeling like i'm in a rush
pollution
people who only care about themselves or their "stuff"
two faced people
being judged by your appearance
designer brands
not feeling like I have the time to relax
disrespectful students
not knowing the names of all my neighbors
sweating on a hot day
living in someone elses house
corn fields, bean fields, or any other similiar crop field
unfounded and unneccesary laws and regulations
tornado drills
traffic
noise
gossip

Whatever's Available

Basically people just use what's available in town. Including paint colors. Some of these colors might also have been on sale. It's pretty common to see houses of all colors throughout Bethel.

Paved Roads?

That's right. We have a brand new paved road in Bethel. This is Chief Eddie Hoffman Highway. It runs about three miles from the airport to the main part of town. It even has a bike lane on the right side. Alot of people walk in the bike lane. It took them the ENTIRE summer to repave this road.

Grand Canyon Mule Riders!

On our way to Las Vegas this summer, we stopped at the Grand Canyon. I have always wanted to see it. It was grand...that's for sure.

Here's Avery, Taboo, and I at the top!

I have always wanted to ride a mule down the canyon, but when I visited the website before leaving Ohio it said that you have to make your reservations about a year in advance. The day we got to the Canyon, I called the mule riding place on a whim and asked if they had any slots available for the next days ride. They did! Doesn't Avery make a good lookin' cowboy?

Here is Avery getting a lesson on how to whip his mule right. His mules name was Cricket.

In the pic above you should be able to see the silhouette of an ancient indian cheif who watched over the Canyon waiting for his daughter to return.

This was the cabin we stayed in at the bottom of the Canyon. The resort is called Phantom ranch and they told us that only 1% of the people that visit the Canyon actually get to the bottom. The price of the mule ride included this cabin, plus a lunch on the ride down, steak dinner that night, and breakfast before leaving in the morning. They also had several programs put on by the park rangers. One about bats and the other about scorpions. They took the kids around with black lights to hunt scorpions. It was very cool!

This is the view from the bottom of the Canyon. My mules name was Lilly. Riding down was much harder than riding up. We were there during the summer solstice and it was so hot. Hotter inside the canyon, than up top. It got to almost 110 degrees inside the Canyon.

This is the bridge that the mules cross to get over to Phantom Ranch. This is the only place in the US where the mail is still delivered by mule only. All the supplies to build this bridge were carried down by mules. They are amazing creatures.

Here we are crossing the bridge on our way back to the top the next morning. That is Avery in front of me and our guide in front of him. Her name was Penny and she was a great guide with passion for mules. She's from Ohio, too, and had spent some time riding in Denali Park in Alaska. We had lots to talk about.

This is our group coming up one of the last switchbacks. We had a great time! What an experience. I would highly reccommend it to anyone who likes to ride. It was a great way to see the Canyon, because the mule was the one watching the trail so you got to enjoy the view.

Beautiful Bethel

There are many things about Bethel that are very beautiful. This picture is a good example. This is a picture of fireweed along the river. You can get a glimpe of how beautiful the river is and how big! When we first arrived, the fireweed was in full bloom, like in this pic. Nowadays, the blooms are gone and are replaced with white feathery seeds that are carried by the wind. These last few days feel like fall. The air is cool and crisp. It smells clean and fresh. Inhaling it is invigorating. I took my students outside for a short five minute break during last weeks classes and had them take deep breaths. "In through your nose and out through your mouth." I did it with them...as I exhaled, I felt a sense of calm wash over me. This is a good place to be. I'm glad I made this journey, I'm glad Bethel chose me!