Inservice Training

This Thursday and Friday the teachers in our school have gone to Mountain Village for training. It was quite the adventure just getting onto the plane to leave our village for our training village. About seven teachers headed down to the runway to get on to the first plane leaving and I was supposed to be on the second plane leaving. We got a call that they needed two more teachers on the first plane. Lore and I went out to the plane by way of "Honda." Well a Honda in the Bush is not a car, it is a quad. So Lore and I were bogged down with our stuff sitting on the back of a quad, getting raced to the runway. We were making good time, which meant our pants were getting soaked. The rain had just stopped minutes before we left, so the boardwalks were covered in rain and mud. The back of my pants were completely coated in mud when we arrived at the plane.

Here is a good picture of my muddy pants!


The pilot announced that he could only take one more person, not two. So Lore decided to wait for the next plane so she could fly with her husband. I got into the plane and we took off. The Bush pilots are very nice, but our pilot seemed to be doing everything but actually looking out the window. He was filling out forms, cleaning up the floor on the plane, and taking pictures of me flying the plane with my camera! He was very good-humored. He explained all the different things on the dashboard and what they do. He demonstrated some of the functions of the things on the dashboard by flying up and down and side to side. It was great fun for me, but unfortunately some of the other passengers got very sick feeling.

Here is our pilot hard at work, filling out paperwork while flying a plane.

Our happy crew flying into Mountain Village, Alaska!

Here is the photo the pilot took of me flying the plane, while he was supposed to be flying the plane.

I will post more later about our adventure...
Jaki :)

Wow! I need to catch you up!

Hello!
    I can't believe I have been so busy that I have not updated my blog since I started packing!  Well we made it safe and sound to Kotlik, Alaska.  We had a wonderful trip leaving Las Vegas and moving up here.  We spent time with a lot of our family.  We spent a week in California with Glen's parents and family.  We got to visit some friends, some of which gave me guff for not updating my blog!  Then we took off on a train to visit our family in the Seattle area.
    The train trip was very fun going from Los Angeles, CA to Tacoma, WA.  It took almost 40 hours to complete the trip but we got to see some beautiful countryside.  I love traveling through Oregon, the forests are so beautiful and the vegetation is gorgeous!  After spending a week with family in Washington, we left early in the morning for the airport to fly to Anchorage.  Well apparently I turned off the rental car's headlights at the gas station on the way to the airport and we ended up getting pulled over by the police!  Needless to say, Glen was not pleased.  The police officer was very nice and understanding and he let us go without a ticket.  Whew!
    The week of training in Anchorage was fun but intense.  I was in training for 4 days with 1 day for shopping.  The kids ran around with Glen and explored Anchorage while I was over-stuffing my brain with WAY too much information. We went shopping at WalMart in Anchorage and had the items shipped out to our new location through the Bush Mail system in the back of the store.  Alaska is one of the few places that probably still does C.O.D.'s.  Poor Lore, our new counselor, was stuck shuttling everyone around to different locations all day so we could shop.
    Our flight to the village was planned on a Sunday, but the school district pulled some strings to get them to fly us our on Saturday.  I don't know if that was helpful but it was another adventure.  I was in the first few to get dropped off at the airport on Saturday morning and when I went to the counter, they said we did not have a flight scheduled!  I argued with them for a while, then called the new principal.  He made some calls, we got on our flight after about 2 hours of craziness arguing back and forth with the airline.  We ended up having a layover in St. Mary's, which is a shed and a runway (I wouldn't call it an airport).  After waiting for a while, we didn't know if we were going to be able to fly out that day because of heavy fog.  The fog lifted a little, then we all had to run out and jump into 6 person planes before the fog settled again.
    We made it to our village in one piece, with quite a story to tell about the troubles and trials of actually getting to the village.
    The village was much nicer than I expected.  It is small but there are TWO grocery stores.  Well they aren't lower 48 grocery stores, they are more like large gas stations but still they have food.  Sure, the food is WAY overpriced, but if you are craving a can of olives and have $8 to spare, you are in luck!
    The villagers have been very welcoming and inviting.  They had an Eskimo dance for the new teachers and we were invited to stand up and participate.  And you know I can't turn down an invitation like that, so I jumped in and did some dancing.  It was a ton of fun and I cannot wait until the next Eskimo dance!





By the way, I'm the one in the UNLV sweatshirt!

I had so much fun Eskimo dancing. I had to really watch the woman in front of me so I wouldn't mess up! She was a beautiful dancer, very elegant. All the Eskimo dances mean something, like they are about a hunt or an animal or something. I will try to figure out how to post videos on here so you can really get the experience of the drummers, singers, and dancers!

Till later!
Jaki :)