1st Week of School

So far, Puffin and I are really having a great time.  We are really liking it here.  I am very tired and busy with starting a new year, but things so far are going well.  Here are some pics.

This is the "road" around the lake.  I take Puffin on this 5 mile walk on the weekends.

This is Max the one eyed dog - she follows Puffin and I around on our walks.

This is the view of the mountain during one of our walks:

Puffin got tired so here she is in my backpack.  This was a long walk usually she is fine, but it was really foggy and cold and rainy so we weren't able to take the most direct way around the lake.

The final part of the walk around the lake is on the runway.  It is soooo nice to walk on pavement.  The military paved this runway so it is on of the few paved runways in the bush.

These bones are ruminants of the whales that the people on the island hunt for food.  

This is a mini-4 wheeler.  All of the kids drive these - I think I would look awesome driving one of these :)

Here is what some of my boxes looked like when I FINALLY received them.  David tried to send me some Vegetables in 3 day boxes, but instead I received some liquified grossness in busted up boxes!

The first day of school was also my birthday.  These are some pics from that day.  

This is outside my kitchen window.  The sun is rising behind the presbyterian church.

This is the sunrise on my way to work.

The Kindergarten came into my classroom and sang to me for my birthday.  They were soooo adorable and here I am with a sticker they gave me after my wonderful song.

The kids collect "sea food" off the beach.  Some of my students found these and were bringing them home for a salad.  They stopped and asked me to try some and I was really impressed with how good it tasted.  It was like a cross between a cucumber and lettuce.

Puffin and I like to take a walk down to the "beach" sometime.  The beach is of course made of rocks and not sand but the water is amazing.  When the waves crash on the rocks, it is so loud.  There are giant piles of rocks everywhere.  

One of the students and I hiked up the mountain the day before school started.  

Here I am starting the hike up the mountain.   

This is the view just before I started the hike.

These rocks mark the best path up the mountain.

These are some of the rocks that we climbed over to get to the top of the mountain.

Those two large rocks sticking straight up mark the graveyard.  Here they can't bury the dead because the land is all permafrost.  Instead, they place the wooden caskets on top of the rocks and mark the sites with crosses.  
I am part of the way up the mountain and this is the view of the village.  

This is a bird rookery where some birds land and hangout while they rest up after their long journey from Russia.  That is a real Puffin on the rocks.  We tried to walk down these rocks here, but Puffin got scared and wouldn't let us.  

Far in the distance, those mountains are Russia.

This is the only other village on the island - Savoogna.  It is about 40 miles about through the mountains.  

These are some of the other teachers.  Tyler is the guy - he teaches second grade.  The other two are my roomates.  Ashley is the preschool teacher and Amy is the science teacher.

Here are all the new teachers on a plane to Unakleet for in-service.  

This is the view from the plane.

These men are building a walrus skin boat. This boat is used to hunt whales.  Gambell is one of the very last villages that still uses skin boats.  

The skin is stretched over a wood frame and tied down using rope made out of the skin of whales.  

Women prepare and dry the skins then they sew them together and the men put them on the boats.

These men are using ivory tusks to tighten the ropes.

First pics of Gambell

Here are some pictures of my first few days in Gambell. So far, my thighs are killing me from walking, but it sure is a good workout!

This is the view form my backyard. I have no idea why there is some grass just here, but this is the only place there is any grass at all in the village. That is the Bering Sea and you are looking at tomorrow.

Here is the Post Office. It is a blue trailer, but is completely redone on the inside - VERY nice!

This is the National Guard in case you want to join up :)

This is the view as I walk to school. Straight ahead is the mountain and way off to the right is the lake.

This is my apartment complex. There are 4 different apartments in this building.

Solar Panels! Savouga even has windmills. If St Lawrence Island can figure it out, what is wrong with the Cape!!

This is the school:

More pictures to come soon....