kibbutzing in Kotz

Waiting on the airstrip for a Bering Air plane.

I have been on the phone and skype for a few hours getting in contact with some collaborating teachers and my son and husband, so I must be in the big city. Deering was great! Great hospitality, some meaningful conversations, smart kids and of course, beautiful scenery. It was so nice there that I stayed an extra night! (Thanks Steve and Kim for feeding me). I asked one of the kids "what happened to the 'pet' muskox that always hang out near the end of the runway?" and he acted like I was crazy. Visibility was so bad that I didn't see any, but an Elder on the plane told me that they were about a mile away. He said that the wolves run them down from the hills and they run so much that blood drips from their noses.

JB's comment about hyperlinking to an interactive map of where I am is a good one. I'll be searching for one worthy of my blog. Unfortunately, some of the places I go are pretty small and don't show up on very many maps. The above link is to an informational site that was accurate. I'll keep looking.

In Kotzebue, I went to the Empress Restaurant for dinner tonight. It is run by a hard working Korean family, including Hyung Hee. She let me sample 2 sesame seed desserts that she made. They were excellent. A coworker described them as crispy treats. She said that in Korea they are not so sweet but she made them sweeter for Americans. One guy working there just came up from California, just outside of LA. He saw an ad in a Korean language newspaper there. He is trying to save money by living and working here where he lives and eats nearby the restaurant and doesn't have many places to shop. When he called about the job, he asked if there were any malls. The owner said there was just ACs (Alaska Commercial- the grocery store) and he thought he said Macy's so came up anyway. He says that he expected Kotzebue to be cold, but not so small. (Small! It has an AC store!)

Back to school talk- I have had many discussions with people about how many students does it take to make a high school. I don't mean legally or financially. I mean enough to give the students a high school experience, including the social and intellectual challenge of a peer group. I'm not giving my opinion (in the interest of diplomacy), but I'd be interested in the opinion of others. The Molly Hootch case determined that a high school must be provided for any community that had an elementary school and any high school students. Some would argue that a building, a student and a teacher alone doesn't make a high school.

Some of the coastal villages that I go to have wind generators. There are some in Kotzebue and Toksook Bay with links to Nightmute and Tununak. Although it was disconcerting to see power poles strung across the tundra, one change I noticed immediately in coming back to this area after 27 years is that they are much quieter. Home generators are very loud and really were the sound of villages for many years. I understand that there is an issue with windmills interfering with natural bird migrations though, so in such a rich birding area, I hope we aren't sacrificing birds for lights.