Day Twenty-Two: A Rainy Day Off

Week one of program is over and I slept almost twelve hours last night. Let me apologize for the week-long absence... I've been meaning to post for a couple of days, but never got around to doing so.

The kids love jumping off the dock, like I have mentioned, and they are always on the look out of jellies. Jellyfish may be 90-something% water, but they will still ruin your entire week.

I finally jumped off the dock two days ago. I'm not sure I like ocean water. I could still taste salt several hours after programming had ended. Yuck. I think that me finally jumping in helped me to connect with the kids. I sure hope so haha.

We take lots of hikes, most of them without meaning to. Everywhere you go, it's a hike to get there. 

Wednesday, the village had their first catch of the season. The fishermen caught around 125 salmon. 

Chris and I were given three pods of salmon eggs, and four full salmon fish. 

It's been interesting watching the tides come and go. Here are a couple of photos of the dock and the main beach at low tide, which was around 9:30pm. And as you can see, the sun is still very, very bright. 

Friday night, we had a camp-out/sleepover that turned into a camp-IN. 

I think the kids went to sleep at around 4am. I, however, was out by 2:30. The kids slept til 11:15am and then left to go home and sleep some more. There is still sleeping bags and pillows in our program room.

I'm sorry that this post is so sporadic, and not very meaty. But here's a photo of a s'more!

And here's one of my favorite photos of the beach by the new ferry dock:

Day Fifteen: Tatitlek, Alaska

Yesterday, we flew from Anchorage to Tatitlek. I got to fly co-pilot during the 45-minute flight. It was pretty awesome, but also equally terrifying.

According to our contact's daughter, there are about 60-ish people living here right now. We gave our contact's family some walnut chocolate chip cookies and a bag of coffee, and in return they gave us a mason jar of fresh smoked salmon. Holy cheese and crackers, guise, that stuff is good. My uncle Kelly would be so jealous. I hope we get more. (: If not, I wonder if some of the villagers would be willing to trade...

We are staying in one of the apartments of what I think is the tribal council office. It's rather cozy and nice, but I'm not a fan of the cold linoleum floors haha. Luckily, there are rugs next to the beds, but it does get cool rather quickly in here.

Our food boxes were flown out with us (whereas our food boxes for Illiamna/Newhalen and Chenega bay will [hopefully] be there when we arrive), so we spent a bit of time yesterday unloading them and organizing our kitchen. 

We have a refrigerator (yay!), but the stove doesn't work. After a bit of tinkering, Chris came to the conclusion that the gas wasn't on and that the pilot light was out. Whatever that means. So we used our camp-portable-stove-top-thing to make pancakes this morning.

After breakfast, we walked around the village. It only took about 15 minutes of walking to see the entire place. We stopped and hung out with some (if not most or all) of the kids who were jumping on a trampoline. The ages of the children that we've met so far range from two years old to fourteen. After a bit, the kids went their own ways and Chris and I went back to the apartment. We weren't back for an hour when one of the boys, M, came looking for us. He asked if we would jump off the dock with him and some of the other kids.

Chris did. I didn't. Why? Jellyfish. And the fact that, according to Christopher, "it's only like jumping off the high dive at the Y". Yeah... I never did that. So... no.

After the kids got tired of jumping off the dock, one of the littlest girls, K, and I walked along the beach looking for broken glass and porcelain. That lasted for about an hour or so and then Chris and I came back to the apartment for a lunch of macaroni and cheese, and to watch A Few Good Men, one of the few movies that are in the apartment. Well, Chris watched the movie. I took a nap. And then after my nap, I decided to fill out most of the paperwork that we'll be doing while we're here. 

Program officially starts tomorrow. I asked the kids if they were gonna come, and a few of them either said yes or that they didn't know yet.

There was a mama bear and two cubs spotted by the airfield several days ago, so the entire village is on guard for bears. This makes planning hikes and camp-outs difficult. However, movie nights, swimming, and arts and crafts are still doable. 

And of course, as my mind is always going a million miles a second... I'm also thinking about my upcoming wedding and all that has to be done to get ready for that. I know I have about a year before the big day, but still. I was looking at wedding gowns today and found one that I immediately fell in love with. This is going to be, by far, the most stressful event of my life.

And now my hunny is making a dinner of mashed potatoes, chili, and something else. (: I'm pretty lucky. Working in Alaska, with my fiance, getting paid to play with kids. I love it. 

Day Thirteen: The Final Preparations

Today has been a whirlwind of paperwork, packing, and cleaning. The past two days (not counting today) were spent at the Alaskan Native Heritage Center learning about the different cultures and learning about the ways of life for many of the native Alaskan villagers. It was super cool.

During our lunch break (I had a reindeer hotdog - and oh boy are they absolutely delish!!) on the first day at the Heritage Center, I watched some Alaskans performing dances from their culture.

On the second day right after our lunch break (for lunch I had an avocado and reindeer sausage sammich!!), we went on a tour of the different native buildings that had been recreated at the Heritage Center. 

The above and below photos contain the jawbone of a bow headed whale. Such a huge animal that the native Alaskans would hunt!!

The above photo is an example of what families would store their food in. They wouldn't store their food in their houses because bears and wolves would smell out the food and come in during the day or night and destroy everything/everyone. A single family unit (an extended family unit, usually consisting of 20-ish people) would have about 10 to 12 of these storage units. During the time before snow machines, when families used teams of dogs pulling a sled as their main mode of transportation, enough fish would have to be stored to feed both the entire family and their dogs. 

OH!! And because I feel bad for not posting every day like I did last week, here are some photos from Camp K on Kenai lake. (A little fun fact: The "K" in Camp K stands for Kushtaka, but there is a native legend that the Kushtaka are stealers of children, so that name was changed rather quickly.)

This is me and Skoobie, the only other 20-year-old in the program. We are the second youngest (there are two 19-year-olds). The following photos were taken the afternoon of my engagement day. 

I think I shall wrap this post up with the following.

My name is Kayla Frost.

I am 20 years old.

I am currently in Anchorage, Alaska.

And by the end of next summer...

I will be Kayla Parker.

Day Eleven: Training

Christopher James Parker proposed to me on June 11th, 2012. I, of course, said yes.

And now, here is a photo of me holding an Alaskan husky puppy!

Camp K really messed up my biological clock (as if being three hours behind my "norm" hasn't messed up my biological clock as it is). Therefore, I have no idea what day it is and the only way that I could remember what day Chris proposed to me was the fact that it was Brandon Elliott's twenty-fifth birthday.

So, I am very sorry about this short post BUT I am so exhausted and excited about my future!!

Day Seven: Off

Several of us went downtown and to the market today. After Chris and I had done all of our shopping, we set out to find the UPS store. Took us forever, as always, because Anchorage's setup is dumb. 

I didn't know that Alaska used to be called Alyeska. Interesting little tidbit. 

Chris found a pretty flower!!

I did too!!

Salmon jerky is so good, but I can only handle little bits at a time. My stomach seems to disagree with me no matter what I do. Oh well.

Chris and I, along with a few others, were going to go to BeniHana for dinner, but the "few others" backed out, so we didn't go. :( Chris asked me if I didn't want to go on a date with him while we were here in Alaska. As much as I wanted so badly to go, I said that it didn't make much sense to take the van into Anchorage when it was only going to be the two of us. And I really, really wanted to have a date with my wonderful boyfriend, because we haven't gotten to have any "couple" time while we've been here. But whatever. We're looking at our schedule for next week and I'm hoping that we'll be able to go sometime next week. 

The rest of the day will be spent deep-cleaning the Anchorage House because we all leave for Camp K on Kenai Lake in the morning. Yippee. It's supposed to be very, very pretty. And the water is going to be very, very cold. 

I doubt I'll have internet at Camp K, but I promise to blog about it when we get back Tuesday evening.