True North

Back to School

2009-09-14T17:03:00.001-07:00

We have been in school for a whole month now. It is hard to believe that this is my third year teaching! I am no longer a new teacher. I have to say, I really enjoy coming into the year with some experience. It is nice to know a good share of my students, know my co-workers, and understand how the system works. It has been a much easier transition into the new year. My mom was asking me for some stories, but the year has been relatively uneventful. (Which is a good thing.)

I am really enjoying teaching my high school chemistry class. I think am supposed to be a high school teacher. It has been good to start in middle school, but now that I have a little experience I wouldn't mind teaching high school full time. Maybe next year.

Chevak is pretty much the same. We have enjoyed seeing people and visiting with friends. We were welcomed back warmly and people seem to see us more as community members this year. Ryan has been able to go moose hunting and I even made it "out by boat" for an evening.

I have enjoyed spending time with some students that are no longer in my class. This is the first time I have been somewhere where old students can come and visit me. They come to my class after school and hang out and have even showed up at my house a few times. It is fun to get to know the kids without having to teach them.

Everyone always asks about the temperature and the light, so for your information:
Today's temp is 54. The sun rose today at 8:23 am and will set at 9:22 pm. The days are getting shorter by 5 min 42 sec each day.

As always, thanks for the all the encouragement and support!

Photos

2009-04-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

Spring in Chevak

2009-04-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

Last week was Chevak's annual "Cultural Heritage" week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we did not have regular school, instead the students participated in cultural activities. The middle school and high school students spent the mornings in sessions with Native speakers discussing culture and language. In the afternoons the students were able to choose an activity to participate in. They did basket weaving, fishing, beading, ivory carving, wood carving, and a few other things. I went to the ivory carving. I worked one afternoon on making an ivory ring and a few minutes before school was out I discovered a crack in the ring. I showed it to Pat, the expert on hand, and he just smiled and handed me a new chunk of ivory. So, I worked on it again the next day. I thought it was looking pretty good and I was fairly pleased. I showed it to Pat and he sort of smiled and said, "Do you want me to finish it?" Apparently I was not finished.

The evenings during Cultural Heritage/ Winter Fest are all about eskimo dancing, ya'raq. Wednesday and Thursday nights they began with the Head Start kids and went grade by grade all the way up to high school. This lasts from about 7:00 to midnight. Teachers traditionally dance with their students, so I joined in. I just pick a kid to follow and try to keep up. All those years in Destiny are coming in handy. It is fun to dance with them. Each song tells a story and I really enjoy it when someone can explain to me what the story is about. (My middle schoolers don't know the stories, they just laugh when I ask and say they just dance.)

Just in the last couple weeks I have started to feel like I am connecting with people outside the school. It is hard to get to know the adults, especially when they don't work in the school. Community activities like dancing give me a chance to see people. I am also getting better at figuring out the family units. (Believe me its not easy to master) It has been a good few weeks.

Today it was close to 30 degrees! Thats warm! I am excited when I can downgrade to my ski coat and leave the parka at home. Actually, this afternoon all the teachers and teacher kids were outside sledding off of the teacher housing roof. We were all out without coats. Is amazing how much you acclimate. 25 is like Hawaii. It is supposed to get to 40 this week. It should be interesting to witness the melting. There is so much snow! We are going to have a mess! It is also staying light much later now. I am writing this at 10:45 and it is still completely light outside. Its strange, but a nice change from the darkness of winter.

We have 4 weeks of school left. I can hardly believe this year is coming to an end. But like any teacher, I am counting down the days and looking forward to the summer!

Happy Spring!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T12:16:00.001-08:00

Last night around 3:00 am, as I was holding on to Ryan's coat, flying across the tundra, I thought I should probably update my blog. Last night was my first night helping with the Hooper Bay "Late Night" youth center. The church opens the center from 10:00 pm until 2:00 am for teens and young adults to come and hang out. They sell ice cream, milkshakes, popcorn, and pop. Most nights the cook is there and they sell burgers as well, but the kitchen was closed last night. I ran the cash register behind the counter for most of the night. It is so great the the kids have a safe place to be.

The last few weeks have been busy in Chevak. We had a middle school basketball tournament two weeks ago. Somehow I ended up being in charge of running the gate for the weekend. But, the middle school student government made quite a bit of money off of it, so the kids were excited. Then last weekend we had HoopFest, which is a high school basketball tournament. When a tournament happens, the teams (boys and girls teams) show up on Wednesday or Thursday and live in the school for the rest o the weekend. During the tournament the teachers had an inservice. The trainer for the inservice didn't make it in on Thursday because of weather, so we had to work on Saturday as well. So after a long Saturday of work, I chaperoned the high school dance. I have got to learn to say no. :) It was a crazy couple of weeks, but I have a feeling the rest of the year is going to be fairly hectic.

This Friday I leave for technology conference in Anchorage. There are 6 teachers and 2 high school students from Chevak going. I am looking forward to a break, though I wish Ryan could come with me.

Speaking of Ryan, this is our 6th Valentine's Day together. That doesn't even seem possible! Our first Valentine's Day, Ryan took me to Lawry's in Chicago. It was the fanciest restaurant I had ever been to. Neither of us knew quite what to do at the restaurant and we were so nervous on top of it all, but it was a great night. There will be no Lawry's tonight, but I am thankful for my Valentine!

Once again...check Facebook for pictures!

Thanksgiving and Turning 25

2008-11-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ryan left on November 21 to fly to Anchorage. He spent four days shopping and shipping groceries before his family showed up. Dean, Suzanne, and Kyle arrived in Alaska on Tuesday evening. Ryan flew with them out to Chevak on Wednesday. It was very exciting to see them all arrive at my door on Wednesday night.
To make the day even more exciting, our snow machine (yes, it is the same as a snow mobile) came in! Ryan has been working on getting it for a long time and finally it arrived. Needless to say, Ryan, Kyle, and Dean enjoyed the machine immensely.
On Friday we bundled up and headed over to Hooper Bay to show the Walkers the airplane project and ministry happening in Hooper. It was a cold day, but we made it. While we were there we were able to go to the restaurant that the church runs on Friday nights. It is a treat not to have to cook! When we got home Friday night we celebrated my birthday. It was a great blessing to have family around to celebrate with.
Yesterday I turned 25. For some reason 25 seems significant to me. I have never really struggled with a birthday yet, but I've been thinking about this one a lot. 25 puts me in my "mid-twenties" and makes me reflect on where I have been, where I am now, and where I am headed. I am so thankful for where I have come from and the opportunities I was given. Working with my students here makes me realize just how blessed I have been to have grown up in a loving home, in an awesome church, and going to wonderful schools. Now that I have left home and I can look back, I can see how blessed I was.
Currently, I am thankful for the life I am leading now. Not many people have the chance to do what Ryan and I are doing. We are so blessed to be able to work here in Chevak and to have all the crazy adventures we are having. I am so thankful for Ryan. We have been married for almost two years, but these last couple months have been a major growing time. Being removed from family and friends has forced us to rely on each other and we are enjoying it. He continues to encourage me, challenge me spiritually, and make me laugh daily.
It is hard to know where the next year will take me. A lot has happened since I turned 24 and honestly, I'm hoping this year is a bit less eventful. But the Lord is faithful and He holds my hand no matter what tomorrow brings.
Sorry if that post was a little heavy. Birthdays and holidays make me a bit sentimental. As we move into the holiday season, may the Lord bless your time with family and friends. And remember the real reason for all the celebration!

October means winter

2008-10-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

It is finally Friday afternoon! It has been a long week and I am looking forward to a quiet weekend. The kids and I seem to have a roller coaster of good days and not so good days. They are good kids, but don't like to be challenged. This makes it hard to teach them! Plus, there seems to be a group of them that are into bullying each other. This shows up mostly in my last period class, which sometimes means I leave school discouraged. For the most part though, things are going pretty well.

It got to a muggy high of 37 degrees today. Yesterday as we were taking our daily walk to the post office we saw some signs of snow. It won't be long now. I am already wearing my ski coat that usually sees me all the way through the winter. Honestly, I'm worried about the cold. I'm going to try not to be a wimp, but I don't really like being cold.

We have been enjoying our time with the other teachers. I don't think we would be making it without their support and friendship. Last weekend Ryan and I hung out with two different couples and both nights were enjoyable. Our single friend Misty comes over to watch Palin politics with us and she is always entertaining.

Ryan and I are now both Liberty University graduate students. I am going to be starting a Masters in Education with a specialization in school counseling. I start class on October 20. I have to admit it was exciting to order textbooks. I even ordered a Liberty sweatshirt. What can I say? I'm a nerd and I'm glad to be back in school.

Earlier this week I was making a mental list of things I was missing...
slowly changing weather
changing leaves
Target
Thursday morning staff meetings at Frontier (limited to 30 min)
my cute red fall coat (I wore it once here and it wasn't warm enough)
neighbors and their new babies
jogging in the country
church
Subway for lunch on Thursdays
Friday's off
the mountains
Indiana festivals
book stores
"The Office" parties
Dazbog coffee
the Loft
family
traveling
Walker Mowers
football games (never thought I would say that)
Red Robin french fries
Vanilla Lattes

On the other hand, here are somethings I've been enjoying here in AK
evenings with my husband
our cute apt
reading novels
being a 2nd year teacher
online shopping
packages (you are all so generous!)
Netflix
baking
magazine subscriptions
the treadmill (sometimes)
reduced cleaning time in the apt
Bible Study on Sunday
game nights with the ladies

Eventually I'm sure the lists will balance out. :) Until then...

Labor Day

2008-09-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

I meant to write yesterday, but I never got to it. Things are in full swing here. We are now into our third week of school. Last week didn't really count, however. It was "Sea Week." So we spent three days out on the tundra, walking, fishing, and berry picking. It was a good couple of days getting to know the kids better and interacting with them outside the classroom.

In class things are going pretty well. I am having to adjust to the kids learning styles. They have a hard time synthesizing and analyzing anything on their own. It makes things difficult and I have to do more hand holding than usual. But, I will get used to it and they will get used to me. If I didn't have sixth graders I would be happier. :)

This weekend Taylor and Angela Hayden came to visit us. They are a SEND couple that live in Sleetmute, AK. They are both pilots and have their own plane, so they flew over for two days. It was great to see them and have a diversion. They also brought us enough salmon to get us through the winter! On Sunday morning, the four of us flew over to Hooper Bay for church. The plane only holds two people, so we had to take to trips to get over there. I was the "cargo," which means I just made the cargo weight limit and I sat in the back without a seat. Thankfully the ride was only 15 minutes.

It was great to be able to go to church. The service was two hours long! We sang for about an hour. One of the elders prayed in Yu'pik. It was a good service. We had lunch with some of the other SEND missionaries that live there. It was nice to see them and they are doing some exciting things in Hooper. We are going to try to get a Bible study started here fairly soon.

It is continually an adjustment here. It is strange getting used to a simpler, quieter life. With no church, no places to go, and no family, there are many evenings and weekends at home. I am thankful for Ryan and for his company. Ryan and I are both applying for grad school to fill some of the time. :) I am sure things will pick up as we get to know people and take on responsibilities.

Thank you for your prayers and support! I'll try to post some more pictures soon. Until then, Ryan did put some on his facebook that you can check out.

Pictures

2008-08-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

So it begins.

2008-08-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

School started on Friday, with much disorganization. Things are certainly different here. Its kind of a fly by the seat of your pants mentality. But, we got through the first day and school really started on Monday. It is going to be a challenging year. The kids are fairly typical middle schoolers. However, there are some definite differences. One strange thing is that most of the kids come to school with absolutely nothing. They go from class to class with no books, no pencil, no backpack, no folder, nothing. I think it isn't so much a money thing as it is habit to expect the school to provide everything for them. I gave them homework and they folded it up and put it in their pocket. I might try to do something about, but the other middle school teachers seem to have just excepted how things are. Its a hard balance between trying to improve things and realizing that it isn't going to be Colorado.

My kids have been giving me a hard time about wearing "nice clothes" and were asking me why I change clothes everyday. Another kid said it was because "thats what gussiks do." (The kids wear jeans and the same sweatshirt everyday.) It is different being the minority.

Ryan is currently packing to go moose hunting. He is going with our neighbor Ulrich (the mayor), Ulrich's son Aaron, and another teacher Matt. I am glad he has the opportunity to go. He has been looking forward to this for a long time. I'm sure it will be an awesome experience for him. However, it might be a lonely weekend.

Keep praying for me as I teach these kids. Today during class I was praying that the Lord would help me learn to love them and to desire to teach them. Also pray for me as I deal with a new way of life. I was missing Target today. :)

Chevak

2008-08-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

We have now been in Chevak for five whole days. We were supposed to fly from Anchorage to Bethel and then from Bethel to Chevak on Thursday evening. However, when we got to Bethel, our plane had left for Chevak without us. So, we got a taxi and found a bed and breakfast in Bethel. Bethel is a town of about 7,000 people. They even have restaurants and a Subway (restaurant). We stayed at the Brown Slough, which turned out to be a really nice place.

Friday morning we sat in the airport for almost two hours before we finally made it on to a plane to take us to Chevak. I missed the morning new teacher inservice, but got right to work on my classroom. Apparently the thing up here is for teachers to order as much stuff as they possibly can and cram it all over the classroom. Needless to say, I had quite a bit of organizing to do. I have things in pretty good order, but the room will continue to be a work in progress.

Our apartment is also a work in progress. The teacher before us moved out in May and four men lived in the apartment through the summer. So you can imagine the condition we found it in. After cleaning and unpacking it is also looking much better. We are waiting on the key to our connex so we can store all our boxes. Also, my mom is kind enough to send some slipcovers, which will much improve the couches. It is a new challenge to figure out what to eat with only part of our groceries here. Today we got our pans, which helped the cooking considerably. I am looking forward to the arrival of our coffee pot. (There is a coffee shop here, but I have only seen it open once.)

I am learning that every school has its challenges and this one is no different. It is interesting trying to navigate my way through the new teacher process. Each day I overhear something new that is required of me that I didn't know about. Someday, hopefully soon, I will get to be at one school more than one year so I can feel like I know what is going on!

The people and the teachers here are nice. I am a both excited and nervous to meet my students. School starts on Friday!

In Alaska!

2008-08-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

Well, we are in Alaska! On Sunday evening we made it out of our house with four suitcases, one gun case, and four carry-ons and onto the plane to Anchorage. The last two weeks in Colorado were not quite what we anticipated, but the Lord is good. With the help of my parents, we were able to ship the rest of our things to Alaska and pack up our house. It was a crazy time, but we were able to see many family members and friends and to say goodbye.

After a night in Anchorage, a SEND pilot came and picked us up and we flew to Glennallen, AK for the SEND Alaska Annual Conference. (Ryan actually got to fly the plane) Every year all the SEND Alaska missionaries get together and so for the last two days we have been meeting missionaries from all over the state. There are some really nice people and it has been good to meet them. We have especially enjoyed getting to know a few other young couples, some of whom are teachers. Sadly, even though we will be in the same state as they are, we will probably not see them until next year at Annual Conference.

Tomorrow we are driving to Anchorage with some veteran shoppers to stock up on supplies. On Thursday we are flying to Chevak...finally! We are getting anxious to be there and to get to work. It has been a long journey thus far and we are anticipating many more challenges ahead.

Please keep us in your prayers as we head into this time of transition.

(also I tried to post pictures, but the internet connection isn't so great, so I'll try again later!)

Getting ready

2008-07-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the silence! The reason we started this blog was to be able to keep everyone updated on our work with SEND international in Alaska. Now that we are soon heading out, I will try to be better about keeping the blog current.

The last two weeks we have been in Farmington, MI in the "Member Orientation Program." We have been in classes all day, learning about the organization, discussing cross-cultural issues, and preparing for departure.

We are flying out of Denver on August 3 and heading to Anchorage. We should get to our village on Thursday, August 7, just in time for me to begin new teacher training on Friday. It is hard to believe that we are actually going to be in Alaska in a matter of days! It has been a long process to get there and we are excited that we are finally going to make it.

Once we get to Alaska I will hopefully have some fun and interesting stories to share. Until then...

"Approved Candidate"

2007-06-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

We had an email from SEND today that after our interview last Friday, the SEND Personnel Committee has moved us to "approved candidate" status. That means that they want us to finish the application process and its a pretty good chance we will become official members of SEND. And that means we are going to start preparing for Alaska!!! We will update when we know for sure...but it looks like we may be heading north.

Alaska Preview

2007-06-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from SEND Alaska.

2007-06-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Currently Ryan and I are at the SEND International Candidate Orientation Program. We are in the process of applying and interviewing to work with SEND's Alaska Program. If all goes as planned, Ryan will be a pilot and I will be a teacher in a small western village of Alaska. Things are going well and we are increasingly excited about the opportunity God is giving us to serve in Alaska!! Ask us how you can get involved in our team!

Just the beginning!

2007-06-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

We now have a blog spot. This way you can keep up with the ever changing Walker plan!