Shop 'til You Drop!

Today I set out to buy some items for a dinner and game night I am hosting for staff next weekend.  I had ordered some items online from Amazon, but wanted to see what I could get locally well in advance in case I had to make a last minute desperate plea to Mark to send me things from Wasilla.

It was a very windy morning, but not yet raining.  I couldn't leave too early, because the stores don't even open until 10 am, and if you get there within the first couple of hours there may not be anyone there to check you out. I couldn't have gone shopping yesterday, because the stores and post office were closed for the wedding!

On my way, I ran into three students who were more than happy to pose for a photo! I love their faces!

 

There are two main stores in Toksook Bay - the NYC (Native Yupik Corporation) and Bayview. The NYC gives a 10% discount on the 15th of each month (teacher payday!) so I hit that one first.

 

NYC Store

The complete "PRODUCE" section of NYC.  Unfortunately, all of these potatoes were mushy :(

These shelves are pretty stocked (not always the case)!  I was able to get salsa and a few other items here - but they had no butter or eggs (or many of the other items I was looking for) in stock today, yet I seemed able to spend $27 on the couple of items I did buy! . . . So I packed up my backpack and headed to Bayview.  On the way I saw a barge had come in this morning. Apparently it was bringing our winter fuel for the school:

 

 

At Bayview, I was able to get my 25 potatoes for baking - for $28!!  I even found a canned ham, nacho cheese, and a couple of cans of Diet Dr Pepper!

 

Bayview Store

 

This photo (below) makes Bayview look like a Walmart practically.  The pickings are very strange - but there seems to be at least one of most things you'd need in a pinch!

 

I was home from my whole outing in about an hour, very wind-blown, and about a hundred dollars poorer - but happy with my purchases,  having hit all the highlights of the Toksook shopping community! 

 

A Yupik Wedding

On Friday, half of our staff left school for a wedding in the village.  The Yupik women approached the principal and said, "We are all going to this wedding - after all, we are all related to the bride in some way!"  The nuptuals occured at 1 pm in the Catholic church - so I was not able to attend that part.  But I had been invited to the feast that was afterwards.  I was not planning on going since I did not know the bride, but was told that since I had been personally invited by the aunt of the bride (a special education aide at our school) it would be an insult if I did not show up.

I was told to bring my own plate and flatware, since they often run out - so I did just that - a plate and a fork.  I arrived at the community center to find chairs lined up on either wall, with long sheets of red butcher paper spread out on the floor.  Children were running all around, and people were busy putting bowls of food out on a long tables.

The Buffet Line

Seal-Blood Soup

Soon, an elder relative of the groom stood up and said a blessing, then asked everyone to join the feast.  Elders are to serve themselves first - which put me somewhere in the middle of the pack, since there were quite a few older people. I watched them pile their plates and bowls up high! I had always said that I would try anything once - but was a little reluctant with some of the proffered delicacies.  The first was Bird Soup - a very popular dish - where the actual heads, beaks, webbed feet, and wings are all floating luxuriously around in the broth.  I wish I could have gotten a photo of that (but would have had to stop the line and stir around the pot a bit - and I didn't want to make a scene!).  The next was seal-blood soup - at which point, I was grateful I had not brought a bowl.

Akutaq

Thank goodness, someone brought spaghetti!
I did enjoy the dessert - akutaq  (pronounced ah-goo-duk), also known as Eskimo Ice Cream.  It is a mix of Crisco, sugar, and berries.  This one had crowberries, salmonberries, and blueberries, and was actually delicious.  (I had had two other versions earlier this week with just the local crowberries that were a bit too tart for my taste).

Once you have your food, everyone just sits down on the ground, using the paper strips as the tablecloths.

Mary eating bearded seal ribs

As I mentioned, people were piling their plates up high. Well, it wasn't long before the foil was being passed around and everyone wrapped up the leftovers to take home!

 

 

 

 

We all went home around 6:30 pm when it appeared everyone was cleaning up and leaving, but by 7:00, a fellow teacher was knocking on my door saying the dancing had started, and to get back over to the community center! 

 

Dance Fans

 

 

 

 This is my favorite photo: These men were having such a great time singing and playing the drums!!





Just a catch up - - -

Not a whole lot of news. Just spent the week in Bethel at an all-district in-service. I had a great time staying at my best friend Connie's house along with a couple of teachers from her school in Eek (yes, that's the real name of the village!).

I was very happily surprised with a birthday dinner last Monday - and it's not very easy to surprise me (just ask my husband). Many of the staff joined us for a spaghetti dinner and combo - confetti-brownie cake - that we had great difficulty getting out of the pan!

It tasted much better than it looked!

After the in-service, on the way home from Bethel, I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat which was great fun until about halfway to Toksook, when my stomach climbed up to my mouth and I just prayed for the last twenty minutes for the plane to land!

 

I took this because I thought the algae (or whatever green swamp thing it was) looked so cool making a perfect arrow in a circle (to the right).  Photo doesn't do it justice, of course - the swamp stuff was very green.

I know I've posted a lot of sunrises, but they never cease to amaze me.  This was the view out my living room windows this morning:

 



Birthdays and Blackberry Festival

Every morning I write the birthdays of the day on a white board at the front of the school. No problem, right? Well, we are a dual language school - so on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I must write it in Yupik! My birthday falls on Labor Day, and this next week students have no school while all the teachers fly to Bethel for professional development, so we covered the whole week:

"The Language of the Day Today is Yupik"

Happy Birthday - oh, look, there I am on Pekyun (Monday) - Mrs. E!!

 

We also have the Blackberry Festival going on in our gym this weekend.  Two bands alternate sets, playing, basically, country two-step music.  The most popular dance is the snowball dance where two people start out, then when the singer yells "snowball" those two go get two new partners, then when he calls it out again, those four get new partners, etc., until the dance floor is full. 

 

I loved the people watching, but couldn't stay too long, because the gym was hot and crowded.  My favorite part is seeing how the two cultures have entwined.  Most of the women there were wearing traditional kuspuks (but out of modern patterned cotton fabric), with regular blue jeans.  I watched a group of small brown-skinned children in their tiny kuspuks, huddled around an iPad (unfortunately, my photo came out blurry)!  It is very important for them to hold on to their culture, and they'll tell you that daily.  Whenever they introduce you to a relative, they will first tell you how they are related in their culture, but then explain what we would call the relation.  For example, in Yupik, first cousins are called "teasing cousins." Nephews and neices call any older male relative "Upa," for grandpa. An aunt would also be called "mom," and any other number of relatives may be called a sister or brother (then clarified with, "that's in our Yupik ways.  YOU would call them a second cousin, or great aunt, or whatever they may be).

 

There no blackberries at the festival.  In fact, there are no blackberries here in Toksook.  We have crowberries - a small bitter black berry that has come to be known as a blackberry.  There were no traditional foods served at the festival - nachos and pretzels with cheese were the hot sellers. But boy, was this town hopping with people from all over all weekend.

 

 In March there will be Cama'i - a traditional dance festival that I will be anxious to see!

 

Rainbows and Running . . .

Yesterday morning we hosted a cross country meet where four other schools flew in to run in the mud.  After a delicious breakfast of french toast, we walked out of the school to a beautiful double rainbow! 

All of the runners came back covered from head to toe in goey brown but seemed to have a good time.