New teacher inservices started the day after I arrived. I am one of 53 new teachers to the district - out of 350 teachers total. We are told that this turnover rate is good for rural Alaska districts. Most of the new teachers are from the northern of the lower 48 states, a few from Arizona or California. Those from Minnesota are not hard to come by. Apparently we think that our winters are no different than the ones here. I am starting to question that assumption.
After three days of inservices I flew out to Tununak with the two other new teachers at my school and our principal. We flew out on a Cessna 207, a single prop plane that seats six. This truly is a fantastic way to travel - 500 feet above the green tundra potholed with meltwater lakes and ribbons of blue water going here and there. At one point a small group of musk ox inspired our pilot, knowing that this was our first flight, to circle back, getting low to the ground to get us a better look. This act of kindness acted on my stomach more than anything. In about an hour we landed on a gravel strip in Tununak. We walked along the beach to our housing arrangements that are a converted BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) school. Our housing sits less than one hundred yards from the water and at the bottom of a hill that has our school, Paul T. Albert Memorial School, at the top. Not a bad spot at all.
That night, without any of my boxes having arrived yet, I went out cast netting with one of the teachers who grew up in a village nearby called Newtok. I watched him throw the net bringing up one, two, and even three whitefish at a time. In about ten throws I netted one. Apparently fishing is more than luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment