Returning to Middle-Alaska

Day 5 - Leaving Wales - April 18, 2014
I decided to leave Wales on Friday evening, instead of Saturday morning, because the weather was finally breaking towards the end of the week. It's been snowing and blowing all week, leaving snow drifts along the houses in the village that reached to the roof and were nearly as large as the house itself. On Thursday evening, I had taken a walk along the beachfront, wearing all of my cold weather gear in order to stay warm enough to battle the wind chill. The walk in the wind was worth it, because I saw a cross-fox run across the ice towards the village, only to be thwarted by a miniature yippy dog. I left Wales on the 6pm flight back to Nome, along with the visiting artist, who was heading back to Anchorage. She told me that she was heading out to Kobuk the following week to complete another mural for their school. The eye doctor and her apprentice were hoping to return to Anchorage today, but were sent to Diomede Island instead, without any prior notice. There was also a principal and his wife from Diomede trying to get into Fairbanks with a group of students on a field trip, but they were probably going to be laid over until Sunday.

The school itself served as a place to gather, to sleep in (for out of towners), for medical and dental visitors to hold office, and as a school. The building was one of two in the village that had running water. The teacher housing was the only other building that had running water. I discovered a Washateria on the other side of the village, where the residents washed their laundry and took showers. I think it would be difficult to adjust to the lack of running water, if I couldn't stay in the teacher housing. The only drawback of the teacher housing was that ALL of the teachers and the principal live in the same building and worked together all day in the school. It would be hard to have any privacy. I enjoyed being in the village, a small, rural place, where it would be easy to get to know almost everyone. I like the idea of living in a close-knit community, but I would also crave a bit more privacy in the long run.

This is a video of the sunset looking west, towards Russia. I love this image because it shows how beautiful the arctic is, stark, but very alive!


I arrived in Nome on Friday night and tried to go standby on the flight to Anchorage, but it was full, so I spent the night at the Golden Nugget Hotel and ate an excellent pizza from Milano's restaurant. I'm glad I went to Wales and I would go back. I enjoyed the students and the village, but I can see why it's difficult for teachers to spend many years in the same village.

Day 4 - Thursday, April 17, 2014 - Kingikmiut School, Wales, Alaska

Me and my Journey to Wales, Pop-up Journal!

The following pictures are of the students at Kingikmiut working on Journey journals, some with pop-ups ands some without. Each class, with mixed grades created different variations of the journals or a project about taking journeys in their daily life. I talked about journeys and journals, and how our lives are full of journeys every day. And that we can preserve and share our journeys with others  by verbally talking, telling stories, writing about them and letting someone read them, or by drawing images and letting someone see the story of our journeys. All of the students at all grade levels told a story about their journey in a journal or a one-page drawing, depending on the grade level.

6-12th grade - made 8-page, pop-up journals, with writing, drawings, and cutouts.

3-5th grade - made 4 page, pop-up journals, with writing, drawings, and cutouts.

1st-2nd grade - made 9x12, fold-out, journals, with writing and drawing.

Pre-K and Kinder - made single-page drawings of journeys and verbally told the story in their drawing.

6-12th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

6-12th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

6-12th grade

1st-2nd grade

1st-2nd grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

3-5th grade

Pre-K and Kinder

Kingikmiut, Alaska (Wales) - Click on Read More to see photos!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - Day Three at Kingikmiut School
Today I worked with the third, fourth, and fifth grade class, all in one class, about 13 students total. This was my first time with this class. We created journals with pop-up pages in them, but a slightly smaller version of what the 7-12th graders made yesterday. Tomorrow and Friday, I'll be meeting with all of the students again to help them start writing and drawing in the journals they made and to add the pop-up parts. I also met with the combined class of Pre-K and Kindergarten today. We talked about journeys, drew pictures of our journeys, and then told each other the stories of our journeys that we drew. That was wonderful! They love to talk about themselves and it just brightened up my day. This class had 6 students in it and their journey pictures were really great.

The visiting artist taught a lesson in atmospheric perspective to the school staff today. The students went home early for a weekly staff meeting, but we painted instead of having a meeting. I was able to sit and talk to the teachers while we all painted, and have gotten to know them a little better now. They asked me questions and shared some insights on their experience here in Wales. Interesting, only two of the teachers here now are staying for next year. They have a big turnover every year. The longest any of them have been here is three years and the rest have only been here one year. I really like the small school atmosphere. It would be great to work in a small K-12 school.

The highlight of my day was sitting and talking with the cook and her twin sister, who also works at the school. During the early afternoon, I was sitting at a table in the gym, working on blogs, because all of the classrooms were busy and the library smelled of paint, due to the new mural on its wall. We were joined by another woman at the table for a while and I asked questions of them, about their life in Wales. We talked about family, friends, food, health, children, grandchildren, loves, and losses. This conversation was special to me because it gave me something that I was afraid that I wouldn't get while I was here for such a short time. I really wanted to know the people here, at least a little bit. So personal and precious to share such common cares. They helped me see the people of Wales, even though I may never get to meet them all or even a small number of them. I will have to think of a way to thank them before I leave.

I'm looking forward to working with all of the students for a second time. I'll be helping them write and draw about their personal journeys. I taught this lesson to a group of elementary students last month in the Fairbanks district. The journeys that students in Wales have taken in their lives is very different from most students in Fairbanks, yet the value they place on specific personal journeys are very similar. I love that the students are really thinking about their journey in life and are very able to express it, whether verbally, in images, or through writing.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - Wales, Day Two at Kingikmiut School
I woke up by 7am in order to clean up the classroom and get out of the way for the teacher and his students. I had taken a shower last night in the school locker room, so I could relax a bit this morning. The teachers come into the school by 8am and the students arrive by 9am. There's a school-wide meeting at 9am in the lobby every morning during which the principal greets everyone, makes announcements, and has each teacher, visiting elder, staff members such as the cook and maintenance workers, and visiting artist, and myself say a few words and reminders to the students. Most of the teachers say good morning and welcome the students and mention what they will do today, but there is always a special announcement by someone. Today's special announcement was that one of the high school students was traveling to Naknet, a technology school, to learn how to weld for two weeks. The student will get credit for attending the welding training in order to graduate from high school, and he would also learn a job trade. The science teacher helped explain what welding is and asked the students if they could give some examples, and they did. The teachers and the principal take every opportunity they can to encourage the students to continue their education both in K-12 and in college. They asked me to explain why I am in Wales and talk about where I go to college and why I wanted a college education.

I was able to coordinate with most of the teachers today to start the journal project with their students sometime today or tomorrow. By tomorrow I will have met with all of the students in the school. Today I met with the combined classroom of 1st and 2nd graders for the second time and for the first time with a combined class of 7th through 12th graders. There are five classrooms in the school. Pre-K and Kindergarten are together, 1st and 2nd grade are together, grades 3, 4, and 5 are together, 6 and 7 are together, and 9, 10,11, and12 are together. I also spent some time today observing the teachers while they taught. The teachers use similar discipline and classroom behavior techniques that I have seen and used in Fairbanks, and the teachers here seem to be using the same techniques in all of the classes, as if they had coordinated the discipline standard. I think this really helps the students understand what the teachers expect of them and are able to respond in an acceptable manner. The teachers and staff all work closely together here, talking to each other often and comparing ideas and concerns on a daily and even hourly basis. Like most small communities, it's difficult to hide anything from anyone, and even more so when they are coordinating their vigilance.

The eye doctor is also still here and seeing patients all day and into the night, in the school lobby. Hopefully the gym will be silent tonight, but I doubt it. I'm going for a walk tonight, around the village and to the store and then back to take a shower and go to sleep early again. The wind has been howling across the roof of the school all day and giant snowflakes are falling, but this landscape is so peaceful, even with the noise of the wind.

Monday, April 14, 2014 - Arriving in Wales and my first day at Kingikmiut School
I left Nome on a Piper airplane at 9:30 in the morning and arrived in Wales by 10am. I was the only passenger, but the rest of the plane was filled with cargo headed for the stores in Wales. As I buckled myself into the seat, I asked the pilot if we were taking the scenic route, and he replied "only if you clean off your glasses." A cryptic remark, but I soon discovered what he meant, because as soon as we were off the ground and into the cloudy cover, the only thing I saw were the dirt spots on the windows of the plane and whatever dirt there was on my glasses. It was a thankfully smooth ride crossing the bay and heading north to Wales along the western coast of Alaska.

Now, I've been in Nome, Kotzebue, and even Shishmaref, which is slightly north of Wales, but those ares were relatively flat compared to what I finally did see amidst the occasional parting of the clouds which teased me with glimpses of the earth below me. The coastline in this area was rocky, mountainous, and had cliffs jutted out into the Bering Sea, which is what separates Alaska from Russia. Wales is on the western-most point of the continent where the Russian coastline is only about 60 miles away, across the Bering Straight. The most striking thing I saw were the islands, including Diomede Island, visible from the plane as we landed in Wales, along with the icebergs, and the broken ice fields out on the Straight. It was beautiful; windswept, white, mystical and extended far beyond my sight, like a fog that gradually covers everything as you travel into the distance - leaving no horizon line. The funny thing is, though, I hate the winter and I hate being cold, but I love the tundra in the winter.! To me, it's a realm of endless possibilities, full of surprises and hidden life. It's a place that demands your attention, for survival and fulfillment. Have you ever laid down, flat on your back, between two snow drifts, closed your eyes and just listened? I imagine it feels similar to what a mouse might feel sleeping under the snow, waiting for summer. You know something is out there, and it's probably dangerous to you, but you feel mostly safe, for this small moment, and the things you have around you at that moment are all you will ever need in the world.

As we descended into Wales, I saw a man standing on a snowdrift looking up at the plane and I had to wonder what he thought of me. After landing, I caught a ride into town on the back of a snow machine, with someone who had come out to the runway to meet the plane and haul in cargo to town. I couldn't help but grin and chuckle on the way to town, the smell of the two cycle engine, the wind and snow, and the reckless abandon of the driver knowing exactly where the bumps in the trail were - well, he drove fast, AWESOME! I didn't realize how much I missed the north country.

The principal met me at the door of the school and showed me where I'd be sleeping, in the special education room. The special Ed teacher hauled out a mattress and a cot for me - very thoughtful. The school was nice and warm. I immediately dumped my gear in a corner of the classroom and met with an elementary teacher. We decided that we would make the journals with her class that afternoon. In the meantime I ate lunch with the school students in the gym, pizza-best lunch ever, according to the students, lucky for me to show up today.

There is an artist in residence at the school this week also, who's working on a mural of the town in the library, but is sick with the flu that she caught here. I found out that the other grad student coming to Wales was stranded in Anchorage last night, the flight from Anchorage to Nome was canceled due to weather. So I'm on my own tonight. My phone is getting reception, but when I call anyone, I get a computer saying that the number is invalid. I cooked dinner in the hospitality room, which doubles as a science and math room, and went to bed at about 9pm, but I didn't get to sleep until after 11pm, because there was an open gym night at the school - the entire building shakes with the bouncing basketballs. I had planned on going for a long walk on the ice field along the shoreline, but the clerks at the store told me that I should watch out for polar bears and wolverines, which were prowling around on the sea ice. So I went for a shorter walk, closer to town and then back to the school to eat some dinner and get some sleep.

Rural Practicum in Wales, Alaska - April 13-19, 2014
By Diane Hunt

April 13, 2014 - Going to Wales
I left Fairbanks, Alaska at 6am on Sunday morning, April 13th and flew to Anchorage and then to Nome by 11am. I was very tired by the time I arrived in Nome, because I had not slept much the night before. I had packed and repacked my bags at least four times, because I just didn't know what to take or what to expect in the village of Wales. I wanted to make sure that I had enough food, winter gear, and files of homework loaded into my iPad in order to do homework during the week. I waited in Nome for about 6 hours for the plane to arrive. I had flown from Fairbanks to Nome via jet, but the flight to Wales from Nome would be on a Piper, which seats about 12 passengers and/or cargo and mail for the village.

While I was waiting in the Era/Ravn Airport terminal, it was invaded by a very large group of high school students from Dillingham and Bethel who had been in Nome for the past week for a music event, in which they all played together with a guest conductor/director and competed for the state solo contest. They he chartered a plane form Dillingham for 15,000, yes, dollars! I talked with the Dillingham music teacher for quite a while about chaperoning, traveling, raising money for travel, teaching in the village and his education background. He told me that he had a friend, who had a friend,  who worked at the Diomede Island school, who was stranded in Wales for the past two weeks, because the helicopter company that had a contract to ferry to Diomede Island had bailed out for the month, so no one was going to or coming from Diomede Island.

The plane finally arrived into Nome, but the flight to Wales was canceled due to the weather. Wales was surrounded by clouds and the plane couldn't fly in today. So, I booked a room at the Golden Nugget Hotel, which is just down the block from the business that Wyatt Earp once owned on Front Street in Nome. I walked to the Polar Cub Cafe and had a grilled cheese and ham and fries and then considered my options. I immediately decided to go to sleep in the nice fluffy bed at the hotel, since I would likely be sleeping on the gym floor in Wales. I was scheduled to go out on the morning flight tomorrow. So, day one of the great Journey ends.

The best thing I saw today was the Episode I Star Wars soda machine in the airport terminal, which made me feel right at home!