There's No Place Like Nome

I've been in a cyber-abyss, roughing it with no blog, no skype, no gmail or acsmail and no phone access most of the time. It doesn't mean that I haven't been "wired" in a manner of speaking. I've been to Kotzebue, Deering and Buckland and everyone there, including me, is working hard. There's a weeklong Spring break next week for them, so they'll have a well earned rest.

In Kotz, the weather was good and basketball is over, so it's gearing up for the test. There's also the annual Spring hibernation of the seniors- "we're too cool, we rule, so we don't have to go to school." I silently snickered when the staff agreed that the phone calling system that will be enacted will call parents hourly if their child is not in school. When my children were not in school, they deleted the phone messages before I got them.

In Deering, the staff is planning an excursion to Perseverance (?) Hot Springs with the kids, so they'll be checking it out next week. We had a wonderful staff dinner together- lots of great, opinionated discussion.

In Buckland, they had the fire marshalls, the Title III evaluator and the water/sewer people out this week. Their boys team is headed to Anchorage for the state b-ball championship against the Anaktuvak Pass wolves. The senior class is selling t-shirts for $10 towards their trip to Orlando. I went over to Matthew's house for dinner and a visit. Shauna made some great akutaq- lots of berries and tart and sweet. There was also lots of laughs and conversation. It made me feel right at home.

As usual, no trip is complete without a cancelled plane, rerouting or something. The Frontier Flying plane that was supposed to pick me up in Buckland and take me to Kotz then Nome was cancelled. Fortunately, I was able to hitch a ride on Bering (I actually had to pay), then the plane to Nome was upgraded so seats became available.

Bernie picked me up at the Nome airport and drove me around downtown. A dogteam had just come in under the burled arch of the Iditarod Trail. There were obvious signs of partying, but houses are decorated with Christmas lights and the streets were full and well lit at 10:00 pm.

In Atmautluak in the 1980s, they had an annual dog race on the Pikniktalik River, right out front. We all got dressed warm and stood around on the river for a while, stomping our feet to keep the blood circulating, while the mushers took their time. Then, the gun went off and the dogs took off- no paced start there. Everyone went to houses for tea and to get warm. Two hours later we went back out and cheered them in. Great fun.