Sunday, November 29, 2009

It's a small world after all

On Thursday I am scheduled to leave Tununak with one other teacher and twelve junior and senior high school students.  We are coaches of the robotics team - an academic extracurricular activity involving Legos and computers that culminates in a competition in Bethel.  This trip marks the first time leaving Tununak since September 26th.  A month and a half in once place.  About 55 days.  And this place is small.

When thinking about moving here I tried to think about what life would be like.  I had thought that I would get incredibly bored and watch a lot of movies.  So far I haven't watched a ton of movies.  I thought I would get sick of the people I work with and with my students.  At this point I am no more sick of either as I probably would have been anywhere else.

I knew that I would miss everyone who reads this.  My family and friends.  And because I knew that I was able to prepare myself.  It doesn't cure the longing to see everyone, but it makes it bearable.  What surprises me the most are the things that I am missing that I hadn't predicted.  They are a strange collection of things.  And some of the following things are things I didn't even realize that I valued.

Things I miss...
Grocery shopping - being able to go into a store and look at fresh food and then being able to buy it and immediately eat it.  A two week plus delay in payment to food delivery is a constant aggravation.

Options to do things I wouldn't do anyway like whether or not to shop on Black Friday for example.  I enjoy not buying anything on Black Friday - anything I can do to prevent from trampling someone to death over a DVD player.  It doesn't have the same feeling protesting something when you know that you didn't have a choice anyway.

Ice cream.  Okay, this I probably could have predicted.  But how I miss it.  And Eskimo ice cream is not a substitution.  There is no cream and no ice.  Instead, with the main ingredient Crisco, it is little more than greased berries.

Meeting people my age.  I quickly met my peers (as in the other teachers) in the first week of residence.  Since then it's been slim pickings.  I'm afraid that I am going to get stuck in some hypnotic trance at the sight of the first attractive girl my age I've seen in months.

Talking for an hour without mentioning school or students.  When you live and socialize exclusively with the people you work with your professional life never leaves.  I have always enjoyed the chance to escape work.  Here it is an impossibility.

On Thursday I fly to Bethel, population 6000.  In my previous life, 6000 is a small town.  Very, very small.  But 6000 is nearly twenty times the population of Tununak.  And Bethel has two(!) grocery stores with frozen sections.  So while Bethel may not cure all my longings, I've never been able to complain while eating ice cream.      

Saturday, November 14, 2009

It better get colder than this. Or as George Bush once said, "Bring it on."

I walked to the post office today. It just snowed about three inches yesterday and the temperature was hanging out in the teens with a light breeze from the north. I decided to try out my new winter kit. Cabela's has some nice gear. I happily own some sweet black overall snowpants and a real parka complete with a coyote ruff hood. Oh yeah, I felt Alaska-y. I also felt hot. I knew before leaving my home that I was probably pretty overdressed, and I was. Point being, it better get colder. I want to be able to use my new stuff and not be sweating excessively. If any of you only needed one more reason before you start doing your part to stop global warming let it be this - that I want cold weather so my new stuff isn't a complete waste money. Get those CFLs and turn them off when you are not in the room. Turn down your thermostat at night. Walk somewhere. Bike everywhere else. Give me a reason to wear my gear.

Monday, November 9, 2009

NY Times - blowin' minds

"The solar sail receives its driving force from the simple fact that light carries not just energy but also momentum — a story told by every comet tail, which consists of dust blown by sunlight from a comet’s core. The force on a solar sail is gentle, if not feeble, but unlike a rocket, which fires for a few minutes at most, it is constant. Over days and years a big enough sail, say a mile on a side, could reach speeds of hundreds of thousands of miles an hour, fast enough to traverse the solar system in 5 years."
Published: November 10, 2009

"Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas."
Published: November 10, 2009

"Every Sunday morning, the deep, melodious voice of State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. rumbles across the congregation at his Bronx church. On weekdays, it echoes across the Senate chamber as he rails against Medicaid cuts or abortion. Earlier this year, it enthralled thousands at a boisterous rally against same-sex marriage.

But ask him about the gay people in his own life, and Mr. Díaz’s voice grows quiet. His smile vanishes.

Two of his brothers are gay, he murmurs, one of them recently deceased. So is a granddaughter. There is an old friend who works for him in the Senate. And a former campaign aide.

“I love them. I love them,” says Mr. Díaz, who grew up one of 17 children in Puerto Rico. “But I don’t believe in what they are doing. They are my brothers. They are my family.”

His voice rises again. “So how could I be a homophobe?""
Published: November 10, 2009

Monday, November 2, 2009

A case for indigenous languages

"Wherever a Yup'ik comes from in the southwestern region of Alaska, he or she can communicate orally with other Yup'ik speakers from other areas (whether from St. Michael or Togiak) regardless of those slight differences in pronunciation and in vocabulary which occur from place to place. Likewise a person who can read and write in Yup'ik can communicate visually with other people in other places without any difficulty. Language unifies people.

Language is not merely a vehicle of communication, however. It is the nucleus or core of the people's culture. Language is one - perhaps the most important - thing that distinguishes one people from another. The distinctive culture which has developed from the days of the people's earliest ancestors is to a remarkable extent deposited and reflected in the language, as is the environment in which they have lived. Many things, feelings, and concepts specific to the Yup'iks could not be accurately expresses in any other language than Yup'ik.

Of all aspects of culture, language is the most resistant to change and loss. This implies that, when the Yup'ik language is lost, the distinctive Yup'ik culture will be totally and irretrievably gone. Once the Yup'iks are culturally and linguistically deprived to the marrow of the bones, all Yup'iks will be lost in the mosquito-like swarm of Kass'aqs and will be no more than additional few Kass'aqs, even if they do not look white. The people's identity could be kept and consolidated most effectively through language.

Like the other Alaska Native languages, Yup'ik had been moving dangerously close to extinction for almost a century especially because of the federal policy of "English only in American schools". But the tide is now changing. With a resurgence of interest in the language and culture among the people, Yup'ik has been slowly regaining viability since the start of bilingual education which was launched in 1970 in the Kuskokwim area."

Preface to Yup'ik Eskimo Orthography by Osahito Miyaoko and Elsie Mather in 1979