Knife-Wielding Eskimo Girl

Who is this knife wielding Eskimo girl
Cutting the frozen chunk of maktak before her?
She sharpens her ulu,

And jokes of cutting her finger.
Her hair is as black and fluid

as the oil that is extracted from the land her ancestors are buried in.

She pops a piece of whale blubber into her mouth,

Like a piece of bubble gum,
And says:
This is lunch
Caught from last spring.

a walk on the strait

Adrienne.

The trash dump. The polar bears like to look for munchies around here.

The dead walrus.

I just felt like taking a rest. 

 

Cuties. 

island living. valentine's day. oogruk!

Well, I wasn't able to go to Brevig Mission. Weather wasn't good on Friday, so the flight was canceled. Adrienne was supposed to return to the island yesterday with eight students, but we had bad weather again. And it doesn't look so good today either. Something I am learning about traveling in Alaska: don't plan on traveling unless you are in the plane and up in the air.

Mail is so slow even though we have plane service now. I am still waiting on stuff to arrive that I ordered a month ago. Speaking of plane service, we've had some strong south winds which have pushed the northern ice even farther north. I wonder if our ice runway will last long, if we keep getting these south winds. Apparently, a few years ago the ice runway floated away. And how appropriate -- I read this verse this morning: "Around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns" (Ecclesiastes 1:6).

This semester is going to fly by. February is already almost over, and I can't believe it! During March, I will be going to Nome as a middle-school chaperone for a week at NACTEC. We will also have a visiting teacher come give lessons in geography and art to the students. And if the sun shines, the school will go crabbing one Saturday, which I am really excited about. In April we will have state testing and then our big student trip to Anchorage and Fairbanks. Once we come back from the student trip, we'll only have 5 weeks until the end of the semester. Of course, on all of these activities, there is a big fat label that says "weather permitting" stamped on them.

 In January our school had its annual Island Living celebration.

 Writing a story.

 The students were able to make their own monster pillows, which they had a lot of fun doing.

 Dance contest!

 

We also had a few races and competitions.

 You can see the road that leads out to the ice runway.

 Polar bear meat! Yum.

 Going to school early one morning.

 Snow...so...much...snow...

 At religious education class, we made Valentine's Day cards.

 Speak from the heart.

Roses are red. Violets are blue. U are sweet like hard candy.

One of the teenagers caught an oogruk -- bearded seal.

Walrus Hunt

Finally! After a month of trying to upload this video, I prevail. As per my mother's request, I am to warn all viewers of gruesome, bloody, or gross videos or pictures. So here is the official warning: This video that Adrienne and I put together is a little gruesome, bloody, or gross. (But also just really awesome.) Many thanks goes to Louis, who gave us permission to post this video and who also gave us some clams from the walrus' belly and part of the walrus' liver. It was not bad eatin'. Enjoy the video!

swimmers between the island

A few weeks ago, several filmmakers from the Dominican Republican came to Little Diomede to film Marcos Diaz swim between Little and Big Diomede. Although I didn't get to meet Marcos, I did get to talk to two of the filmmakers. Their project is called Swim Across the Continents. I enjoyed talking to these amazing guys. Their documentary is meant to "unite the continents in favor of the Millenium Development Goals." You can learn more about this project at their website. The documentary should come out in December.

Marcos Diaz isn't the only one who has been swimming between the islands. About a week ago a herd of walruses was swimming towards the south. After school I received a Skype message from Joe: "Big herd of walruses outside!" Adrienne and I ran outside and headed to the helipad to watch with the others from the village. Some of the men grabbed their guns, but most of the men called to the walruses, which sounds like deep husky hooting. The next day one of my students came to school without any voice because he called for the walruses all evening. Walrus calling brings them closer to the rocks, making it easier to shoot them and pull them up with a lasso around their ivory tusks.

I have a video which I hope to post later this week. Until then, here are some pictures. I can't wait to see the walruses floating on ice floes. The way time flies here, it will be soon...