We arrived in Gambell, Alaska August 5, 2011. We got off the plane greeted by villagers on four-wheelers (except they call four-wheelers Hondas – even when they’re a Yamaha)! We were the first teachers to arrive! We loaded our bags in the trailer being pulled by a Honda, hopped on the rack, hung on, and we were off to the teacher housing…crossing our fingers. We got to our apartment and were happily surprised with how huge our apartment was. It’s a two bedroom, 1 bath, furnished apartment. Check out our video on youtube…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgWF3Esy8fk
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| We're just going to assume the water is not safe to drink... |
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| Luna, trying to keep herself entertained in Gambell |
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We would probably have an ocean view from our apartment, if the windows weren’t boarded up:/ Our first night we took a walk towards the water and saw lots of whale bones, one whale carcass is still decomposing – and smells super bad! But it is amazing to stand on the beach and see all the flocks of birds skim the water and seeing a burst of the ocean water from a whale’s blow hole, and then sometimes a flip of their tales! See our video….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DIQ5waepVA
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| Found on the beach in Gambell... |
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| It's nice out. |
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| Yay! |
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| on the beach |
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| Who knew there were flowers here?! |
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| old seal-hide boats |
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| This is the six-plex we live in! These four boarded up windows are our living room and bedroom! Yay! |
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| This was a nice rainy day |
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| Gambell Rodeo! I'm so happy to have Derek with me:) |
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| Good view of the sunset from up here |
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| August 19th at 11:30pm |
Since Derek and I were the only teachers to arrive for the first couple days, we had to entertain ourselves. I think everyone had the wrong idea before we left; everyone thought Derek would do just fine entertaining himself, because he always has so many projects and toys to keep himself busy and happy – except here, he doesn’t have any projects or toys – so for the first time in two years, I saw Derek bored. I was the one who could handle this isolation; because I was more content with doing nothing; playing Sudoku, cards and just hanging around; but Derek CAN’T do nothing. He was going a little crazy, and we’ve only been here 2 days at this point; I got a little worried. But Derek came through and created some games for us: balancing on a slack line he bolted into our walls, he got a boomerang...we started timing each other on every activity to make it more fun. Derek can fly his remote control helicopter for 2 mins and 1 second, can balance on a slack line for 8 seconds, I can finish a Sudoku puzzle in 7 mins 12 seconds, the list goes on...then we started making videos...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3zjlYTr-0o
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| Derek is getting so good... |
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| Slack line swing! |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXHI4VQs_kg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI76pAm9oWo
A few more teachers flew into Gambell that we quickly became friends with. We had a training in Unalakleet that we had to fly into, and would meet the rest of our new staff! We had a ton of fun sleeping in the school on air mattresses in the couples room, and eating every meal in the cafeteria – Derek didn’t eat. The teachers got together one night and played the local high school volleyball team. We played three games. I was very impressed with the teachers’ volleyball skills and we actually did really well. Derek injured his ankle sitting on the bench – but he did play well, he was relying on his undergrad intramural volleyball skills, where I hear he “practiced safe sets”
!! The last game was 26-26 and we let them win, they wanted it more than we did, so we let them have it – seriously. We had such a great bonding time with everybody that Derek and I were inspired to write a song about our adventure to come in Gambell….You'll have to check it out on our album, coming Spring 2012!
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| Salmon in Unalakleet, AK |
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| Donna and Tyler, Ty and Brittany!!!!! Our new Married friends, they're great! |
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| Beach at Unalakleet. |
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| SPED training after hours |
When we got back to Gambell August 12, Derek immediately went to cross country practice, where six students anxiously awaited their coaches return. Derek happened to find sneakers, women’s, two sizes too small, in his classroom. He still wears them for practice, and he says, “After cutting my toenails, they are breaking in quite nicely.” Derek is an awesome cross country coach, and now has 11 students showing up on a daily basis. I ran with the team after my return from a special education training where I was all last week August 15-18; Derek works them so hard, making a point to do everything that he asks of them – well maybe more because he is running back and forth between the front runners and back cheering them on. He is so wonderful and the kids love his enthusiasm and energy.
Our first shipment of boxes just came in after 18 days (10 days later than the post office predicted). We are so thankful that Derek’s Aunt Cathy and Uncle Pat gave us coats, mittens and socks (and so much more), because Derek and I didn’t plan ahead – weird – and did not carry-on any of these items, but Derek did carry on his three guitars – priorities. The weather has been good and bad. It’s so windy and cold on a bad day (40 degrees, 20 mile an hour winds) and good days are 40, sunny and 10 mph winds – and this is summer. Kids run around in t-shirts and all the teachers wear facemasks, and they lower-48-winter-gear. Derek says, “It’s the damn wind that gets ya.”
We started work this last week at the school. We were assigned our rooms and class lists. Derek and my classrooms are right next to each other – we love it! Me especially because I hear him singing all day long. Derek has 15 students in his 1st grade class, he will teach 8 subjects with no prep:/ I have 8 students on my caseload! and I am excited to work with the younger students as the Elementary special education teacher. Derek’s classroom looks so cute and he is doing so well getting it ready. Our friend and 3rd grade teacher, Brittany, found an autoharp in her classroom and handed it over to Derek, he jump on that like a kid on a trampoline, and sounds fantastic! He got all the student pencil boxes ready with little anchor nametags and is really working on his hand writing – to set a good example;) Next door, my room is a mess where I have spent all my hours at my computer trying to figure out service hours, IEP’s, schedules for students, paraprofessionals, and myself. We go to a training the week of August 21-26 in the other village on the island, then start our first day of school August 29. We have a few Saturday workdays on our school calendar, including Derek’s Birthday, Saturday September 3rd.
The Bering Strait School District is made up of 15 schools and 1,700 students. We hear the student attendance is always a struggle; that it is not common for a student to only come to school once every 10 days. This then leads to poor graduation rates. The superintendent said only 1 in 10 students receiving special education services graduates from high school; that out of all students only 10% of take some type of college credits after high school; and only 2% graduate from college. We know this is going to be a tough year, but we’re staying positive and with 14 of the 18 staff being new hires, we think we can create a fresh, new, atmosphere. We love the staff and have enjoyed our game nights and get togethers. I think we really are a nice group:)
We've heard and read about some of the culture here in Gambell and St Lawrence Island. Derek read the book Lore of St Lawrence Island: Echoes of our Eskimo Elders, and the author spoke to the elders on the island to find the history of the island, where they said the Siberian Yupik population has been on St Lawrence Island for 12,000 years. We also learned that "eskimo" is not PC because it is too broad of a term to describe all the different tribes in the area. St Lawrence Island and parts of Russia are the only ones who know the Siberian Yupik Language, then on the main land our district has schools who speak Inupiaq and Central Yupik. Here's a link to a map of the different languages:
http://www.uaf.edu/anla/collections/map/anlmap.png
PS we're testing different methods of posting videos on our blog. they all seem to take forever. I had no idea the amount of time, effort and frustration loading pictures and videos that goes into blogging. Derek might have to take over soon...
