Newtok ALMOST!

It's Thursday as I'm posting this blog and I had a very eventful Tuesday and Wednesday travelling out into the bush for the first time.

Well the last two days were full of travel out to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and beyond it turns out. We spent the morning trying to get out of Anchorage as our tickets were reserved but never bought. Part of the group made the correct flight but Janet, Jennine and myself were left high and dry waiting to fix the travel snafu. We got to Bethel finally in the mid-afternoon. The airport has signs in both english and Yupik which is the regional Native language spoken there. See the photos of the restroom and exit signs below.

After getting into Bethel, we headed on down to the Frontier/Era airline terminal to get on a MUCH smaller plane the one out of my window is like the one I'm sitting in.

We took off to head to Newtok hoping to catch the meeting in time. Along the way I took some photos of the landscape which is comprised mostly of water and muskeg (floating vegetation)

In the photo below is the village of Atmautluak (At-MOUTH-Luck) it looks almost as if it is going to float away!

More YK Delta, lots and lots of water!

We flew into Newtok, but the approach wasn't a good angle for taking photos. We discovered the meeting had already taken place and that the other members of our party were going to leave! We had to scramble to figure out if there was enough room for us on the plane. Thankfully we were all able to continue on the same plane which took us on a roundabout to Mekoryuk which is on the Bering Sea. I got some pictures of the sea ice which hasn't moved far offshore yet.

We landed for a few moments so we could off-load passengers and cargo. The same as we did in Newtok. Then we took on more cargo and passengers and we were off to Toksook Bay which is located on Nelson Island.

As we were flying in, you could see a barge delivering goods and lots of fishing boats in the bay as the herring were running. My intrepid leader, Janet Hall, decided to have myself and Jennine stay with her in the village. I found this out by the pilot announcing that three of us were staying. Janet had jumped out to chat with a local Rural Cap Headstart employee who was about to get on the plane. So Jennine and I jumped off the plane and waved good bye to the rest of our group as they took off. We caught a ride into town by loading our gear up into a small wagon/cart behind an ATV and jumped in ourselves for the ride. I have no photos of this event as I was holding on for fear of bouncing out onto the road. ATV's are the main form of transporation in the summer in the village.

We settled into the Rural CAP Headstart buildings and started to walk around the village. Children were coming up to us and asking all sorts of questions and generally just wanting to hang out with the strange ladies. I was yet again called Miss Lee (its a theme in my life) and asked if I was going to be their new teacher. The kids asked to have their photos taken and did not disappoint in their enthusiasm for posing.

This little girl is holding a bottle full of little bait fish. That she said they don't eat this kind until they get really big.

The little boy in the picture was very into posing with his gun that had gunshot sound effects. The kids all wanted to show us their tricks on their bikes.

We also stopped to talk to some local ladies who were in the process of preparing herring for drying. They age the fish in tarps underground for 3-4 days, then braid them into sea grass to be hung on drying racks. Subsistence is a way of life here and the summer is the time for gathering anything and everything concerned with food to be put away for the winter.

Yes. It did smell.

We also passed several other drying racks in the village belonging to different houses. The red meat is fresh salmon which has been sliced to make drying the flesh faster. The dark mystery meat is either seal, strips of musk ox or possibly rabbit. I couldn't make out the original shape of the carcasses.

We ended the evening with a swing by the bingo game going on in the community center. Bingo is the major form of entertainment in the villages. Kids are not allowed into bingo.

The end of the night was cozying on up in the Headstart office and making hay until the next morning when we started travelling back to Anchorage. Here's a video of the airport strip as we were leaving the next day.

In all, this was a great trip and I'm sure I could write in more detail about all the things we did and saw. But I will be returning to the area again so I don't want to bore you with photo overkill.

Enjoy!

Lee