Yesterday, I received an offer to continue working in Kotlik for the following school year. I signed and returned the contract, indicating my acceptance. Celebrate for me... And this summer, when I'm back for three months, please celebrate with me...!
~~Pam
Hello to everyone! I know it's been a really long time since I've sent an update, and for that I apologize. So, if this message jumps around, please understand. But I wanted to send an update about things here, so I'm just going to write what comes to mind.
As of today, there are 108 days until school ends, including weekends. Seems like a long time, but this time is just going to fly! Wait until you hear my plans for right after school is out... I became good friends with a woman who teaches in another village, Nunam Iqua. Her name is Bryn, and she is in Alaska with her gem of a daughter, Lorna, who is nine years old. I wish Bryn and I were in the same village, but we do the best we can to stay in touch. Although we don't talk really often, we always connect right away. I would like to plan a visit to her in Nunam; it will depend on money. Anyway, Bryn wants to do a driving trip back, and she asked me if I'd like to join her and Lorna. Another of Bryn's daughters will also fly up and come back with us. We will leave from Anchorage and drive the Alcan Highway through Alaska and Canada, into Minnesota and Wisconsin. I don't know the details yet, except to say that we are planning this, and we plan to be back around the end of May. Does that sound like a blast, or what! We will camp along the way.
The word on the street is that new contracts will come out on February 1st, and we will have a month to decide whether or not we are going to sign and come back. I would say that, at this point, I plan to return here for another school year. I'll elaborate, but here's the bottom line. I like it here, I like my job, and financially this continues to be a good move.
There are two things that I would change about being here. Are there things I miss? Sure. But things I would change??? Only these - I would add trees - there are none here, and I miss them terribly - and the time difference. By the time I am settled for an evening and want to talk on the phone to someone back home, you are all either in bed, or close to it.
It's amazing to me how much less I miss some of the things I thought I would miss. I do fine without being able to jump in the car and go shopping. I do fine without restaurants. One interesting development has been in the area of cooking. I think of all of the times I'd come home from work, tired, and not feeling like cooking. So, I'd opt for a convenience choice - stopping at the store for something, stopping and picking up something carryout... Well, I could stop at the store for something, but a frozen pizza here is anywhere from $8 to $14. So, you think twice before doing something like that. What I've done instead is a lot more cooking. I've found that I still love cooking things that take some time and effort, but I've also gotten good at creating some nice meals at the end of a long day, so I'm eating decent, healthy stuff. I'm actually kind of proud of myself...
I thought the dark would be much harder to take than I've found it to be. We are gaining six and half minutes a day of daylight, so the days are getting longer quickly. But, the latest the sun rose was at about 11:30 with it setting at about 4:45. I think if the sun set earlier here, that would have been more difficult than the late sunrise. But, one of the things I've liked most about being here is twilight. Let me explain. In Wisconsin and Illinois, you have that pretty twilight period - where the sky is that beautiful shade of blue - for a bit of time at both sunrise and sunset. But, that doesn't last too long. Well, here, that beautiful blue sky lasts an hour on both ends of the day. So, I'll be looking out the window while I'm at work, and I get to watch the sky change! It's really pretty. I haven't seen the northern lights yet; my understanding is that if they are out it's at 2 or 3 in the morning.
And, yes, generally speaking, it's colder here. But, you've had just as much cold weather in the lower 48 as we've had here. My walk to school takes me less than five minutes, and one of the two stores in the village is five minutes away as well. So, when it's really really cold, I walk to school and then back home. If I want to walk to the further store - the one with the better produce - I'll still do it, but I dress for it. Because we're in and out of cars typically, in WI and IL, we don't dress the same way there that you dress here to walk somewhere. So, when I do walk somewhere, I'm seldom cold, once I get all the gear on that I will wear.
My job - boy, I wear a lot of hats! I do scheduling, I supervise all testing (achievement, Terra Nova, etc.), I see kids individually on a scheduled basis, I see kids individually on an as-needed basis, I see kids in groups, I work with the juniors and seniors on graduation plans, college applications, and scholarship applications, and I do crisis intervention. I see, in the larger picture, my job continuing as it is, of course, but I also see my role here - and this will be a short version of a very long description - as an agent of change. There was an interesting article in one of the papers recently that talked about how the success of kids in the bush villages - educationally speaking - is measured in terms of whether or not they leave their villages for post secondary education - and this usually means they wouldn't come back. The writer believes that there are other ways to measure success of education, and I agree with him. Many of the kids that do leave for post secondary education - and there aren't many - often don't enjoy success in their endeavors for a myriad of reasons. Well, then this means, in my mind, that the current "goal" of education isn't meeting the needs of most of the children in this community. How should things be different? Heck if I know. But that's where my interest lies in terms of the future of my job as counselor here.
The staff here isn't as close-knit as I would like them to be - for my personality, anyway. And I have a roommate, and that's been a challenge because Sue and I aren't very well suited to one another. But, there is one friend in particular, Robin, who I am very glad I know and who I believe will be a friend even after I leave Alaska.
I've done a lot of writing here, and I'm beginning to rework some things to include in my journal. My writing hasn't been for the purpose of sharing in a journal, and that's why I want to rework it, but I am aiming for writing for publication, at some point.
Now that I've finally written this email, I'll make a point of writing short updates more often. In the meantime, please write when the spirit moves you - I love emails from home - and you can always call - 907-899-4099.
Pam
