Plans Change

The initial plan was to finish out my 8 years in Shishmaref, and move back to Washington to continue my life. After four months in Washington, I started getting homesick for Alaska, and I was also discouraged with the lack of job opportunities in Washington.

On the 5th of September, two weeks after the school year started, I received a phone call from the principal of Akiachak School, in Akiachak, Alaska. The call came in at 2:15. She called back at 3 for the interview, and at 5 I received a call offering me the job.

Early on the morning of the 6th, I flew back to Alaska. It's been a bit of a whirlwind, and I'm still receiving some of my grocery orders from my first week.

Enough talk, onto the pictures!

Akiachak is a Yupiik Eskimo village in south-west Alaska. There's about 750 people here, and the school has about 180 kids. This makes it pretty much exactly the same size as Shishmaref. The biggest difference is that while Shishmaref was on an island, we here are on a river, and there is plenty of room to spread out, so we did.

 This is the school. The gym, offices, and Hall of Elders (cafeteria) are in the big round side, and you can see the high school on the left there. The elementary side is on the right, behind the dome.

That tiny window on the right is the one in my room that I can open. I also have a row of windows up high, which are covered in blue curtains. The other window that opens is the Social Studies room, and farther down is the mechanics room and the wood shop.

 This is the old high school, which is now used for storage, and is next to my current house.

I took this picture of the mud pit I walk through on my way home, not realizing that my new house is a tiny slice of brown on the left there, behind the trailer. See how spread out everyone is? That's nice.

 This is the washeteria, which I don't have to use, as I am on running water, and have a washer and dryer in my own house.

The river, from the road. It actually has flooded in the last couple days, and is much, MUCH higher right now.

 Cop truck. Not broken, but they needed the wheels for the SUV they also drive around.

Native store. It's pretty much like every native store.

 Yup, $6 for a box of HoHos and I think that's $8 for some cinnamon rolls. They've been there since I got here. I'm not trusting them.

Just a sign on the cash register.

Okay, I'll post more later.