last night reflections

      I’m sad to leave the village and all the friends I have made over the trip and going four-wheeling. The biggest thing I will miss most is all the dinners we had all together, having funny conversations, bonding with one another and also the food that we got to try. From the beginning I was super excited to go back to the village and look into the different cultures such as, the weather change, the language, the food and the different personalities all around. This experience made me feel more comfortable traveling away from home because I usually really like to travel anyways, especially in groups of people because while everyone is traveling and waiting for our next flight that time is just bonding time whether it feels like a person is a complete stranger in the group or if it’s with a person you know really well, you bond with them.

Something I thought I could never do is just ball all 5 days that we were there, in our free time that’s all me and Calista did. We also did have a couple games with Napakiak, but still, we played horse a lot, played with the other high schoolers. While we played horse we always tried to do far shots, it was mostly half court or maybe a foot closer. After a good game of horse my shoulder hurt a lot because of those made/missed half court shots from putting too much power in. Besides from playing basketball all the time I also thought I would never go on the ice again and go ice fishing too.

ice fishing

    I wouldn’t say I was “nervous” I was more excited to go out on the ice again. It reminds me of when I lived in Point Hope because I used to go out on the ice to go hunting for belugas, seals, walrus and humpback whales. We never really did any ice fishing during the winter because all the sea animals would eat most of them and it was rare to catch a lot of fish, so we did most of our fishing in the summer. I definitely had fun on the ice, trying out ice fishing for the first time was an experience. It was really exciting the second time we went because just having adrenaline and trying to patiently wait for a tug on the hook. I’m pretty sure I caught 14 of the pike but they were really small, I didn't get any big ones, Sheridan caught most of the big/huge ones. There was a point where I was kind of competing with Calista to see how much we can catch, for a while we were tied from 1-12 and after Calista got way ahead of me by like 8 more and after that I only caught 2 more.

dinner with an elder- alice andrews

    I really admired how excited Alice was to eat with us and tell us all about her own culture and explaining how she used to teach her daughters how to cut the fish. The second thing I admired was when she had connected with all of us by letting us tell a little bit about our culture whether it was 5,000 miles away or close enough to walk to.

local food

    The best food I have tried for the first time was definitely the moose jerky and the soup. The food that surprised me was the moose jerky and the dried pike fish because I thought the moose jerky was gonna taste like caribou jerky which was the only kind of jerky that I’ve had. Also the agootuk (mixed berries, sugar and crisco) was sweeter than I thought and I wasn’t expecting it to be that good. I liked all the food I got to try.

first night

The first night of the exchange, I’m pretty excited to meet new people and be back in the village. I’m ready to get back on the ice and tryout ice fishing and learning about the Yup’ik culture and maybe the language. I’m also curious how they get water nowadays and compare it to when and how they did it way before. The biggest thing I have admired from today was the enthusiastic vibe of the kids and people, for an example. The kids kept waving and smiling at us and if they weren’t too shy they would welcome us to Napakiak. I really like how welcoming everyone is and the vibe in general, all the teachers are really nice and gentle. Walking around town and just enjoying the kind of cold weather and seeing the smoked fish either in the smoke houses or drying in a shed. The ice is everywhere, little kids riding four-wheelers to get to other places and then the nice flat cold tundra. Napakiak really brings me back to when I lived in Point Hope Ak, cold, icy, tundra everywhere and the people that look like me. So far, I’m not really uncomfortable or nervous about anything because just from having a good vibe all around.

SSE Blog

On our way to the small village we have traveled from Sitka to Anchorage, Bethel then to Napakiak. The early morning of leaving Sitka was a little rough to wake up at 4:10 am to catch our 6:00 am flight on our way to Anchorage. We finally reached Anchorage on time, we thought we were done sitting around. We got to our gate thinking we are going to go to Napakiak on time but the flight attendant announced that our flight got delayed because of the bad fog in Bethel. We were waiting for the next update which was around 12:00 pm, no luck, Bethel was still foggy, then our next available flight was at 6:00 pm. After our sweet sweet sighs, we went to a nearby restaurant in the airport to get some lunch together. We ordered our food then after all we did was talk and talk about how excited everyone is to go to a small village to meet the Napakiak kids and learn new things.  We stayed in Anchorage from 10:30ish am to 6:00 pm. Eight whole hours of doing nothing in the Ted-International Airport, maybe we walked around some, but after an hour and a half we were all exhausted and bored.

Last Night Reflections

I will definitely miss it here along with the kids in the community. Having so much to do in a little village was a blast. We went to a birthday party and then cut some more fish when we got back to the school. My last night a couple girls asked Jojo and I if we wanted to go four wheeling, we said yes. We went all around the village and on some of the back trails and hung out with them a little bit after.

Ice Fishing

Ice fishing was very fun and definitely something I would love to do again. I was a little nervous every time I would look back and see how much farther we got away from land. How they would drive cars, four wheeler's and snow mobiles was kinda scary to see because I'm not used to being on such thick ice. I had a lot of fun though catching so much fish and bonding with the other students that went. Other people from the community joined us and I thought it was cool having others join us too. After we were done ice fishing, girls that were a part of SSE and from the community, helped show us how they cut their fish and how they prepare it down there.

Dinner with an Elder - Alice Andrews

I really enjoyed hearing all of Alice's stories she had to tell us about how she had so many trial and errors learning how to make stink egg's by herself. She had a lot to say about her culture, but she also had some questions for us and how we prepare some of our dishes and asked us to speak some Tlingit to her. She was a very soft spoken person, who had a lot of things to say and stories to share. If I had the chance to go back again and hear more of her stories, I would take it.

Local Food

I really liked the soup that they made. There was potatoes, broth, half smoked salmon and carrots. The caribou was very good as well, there was garlic and butter for the flavor. Another thing I really enjoyed was the fry bread. All of their food was really good. I was glad I got to experience a different dish from a different culture.

First Night Reflections

Our first day was the most exhausting from having to over night in Bethel. When we first got to Napakiak, the students greeted us at the run way and helped us with our bags. We made our way to the school to change for a walk around the village. I like how there are four wheeler's all around, fish almost everywhere we look and how close everyone is. I am nervous about the kids not opening up to us here, but as time goes on and both schools open up, we'll be more comfortable.

Last night reflection

This trip to Napakiak, has been one that I will never forget. I am very proud of the five students I brought here, they represented Sitka High School very well. All week I received many compliments from teachers, aids, parents and the principal about how well they all behaved, spoke, and interacted with the people in the village. 

My favorite part of the trip was ice fishing, this was not my first time ice fishing but it reminded me of my childhood in Maine. I loved seeing how excited everyone got when they had a bite and the friendly competition was fun too. 

Traveling to and from the village in the small airplane was something that I was not looking forward to. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the flight was and actually did not mind it at all. I am looking forward to more trips in the future!

last night reflection

i was definitely ready to go home but i enjoyed this experience very much i would do it again for sure. my expectations were exceeded for sure compared to the second day. i'm definitely more comfortable to travel away from home after this trip.

ice fishing

During the schools 4th period we went ice fishing only two fish were caught but i still enjoyed getting the experience and learning the different ways to fish. it was also fun going that far out on the ice.

Dinner with an elder

the dinner with Alice Andrews was fun i enjoyed listening to her talk about how they prepare they're fish and how much hard work it is to take care of so many fish. we also cooked some of our local food including halibut octupus.

local food

we had the local food dinner which was fun and the food was great. My favorite part of the meal was the caribou but i also enjoyed the dried pike and half/baked salmon and also the agouda. the difference in food between southeast and up there is great. 

First night

 First day in Napakiak, The village is kinda how i imagined i didn't expect it to be on a island in the river and the weather is close to what i expected.

Meeting with an elder

We ate dinner with alice Andrews an elder here and she told us how fish is prepared and she told us to watch it carefully

Ice Fishing the first time

During the 4th hour of school we went fishing on the kuskaquim i caught nothing i thought it would be more fun but it was boring to me.

New Foods

I liked the food. I really liked the caraboo and oddly the dried pike and seal oil. I did not like agooduck. I also learned about how the pike is prepared

First Night

1. My first night here is going good.
I like how close everything is.
Im nervous about if any animals come to town that could harm us

Meeting with an Elder

Today we hosted dinner for the exchange group and a local elder named Alice Andrews. We asked her many questions and she told us stories of her life, how she learned things, and growing up in Napakiak. She was over joyed to have some of our halibut and salmon, we even brought some smoked octopus up too. I think the other kids really liked our food too. Alice was a really nice treat to talk to and I was happy to meet her.

First Time Ice Fishing

The locals here brought us out to a spot on the big frozen river. There, we found multiple holes that people had been fishing through. Here, they call this practice Manuqing. We used a stick with a long amount of string tied around the top with a hook at the end of it. I caught the first fish of the day! It was a pike. For us in southeast I would've thought it was a very small fish, but they said it was a larger pike. I have done lots and lots of fishing in many different ways, but I had never ice fished. It was a blast and I am so happy to cross it off my bucket list.

Trying the Local Food

Today we were invited to one of the nicest houses in the village! Us Sitkans had a nice homemade meal, in potluck style, of many different types of fish and meat that the locals here eat daily. We each made ourselves a big plate with as much of what was offered as possible. We tried Pike that was cooked and pike that was dried. My least favorite was taking a big bite of the smelt fish, it was baked whole! We had two different types of Aguduk, which is local berries mixed in crisco. They made us some smoked and half dry salmon, which, coming from southeast we were very familiar with, but to my surprise it was quite different here than at home. Lastly we had the greatest thing of all; Caribou meat! That was definitely my favorite. The meal was great, although seal oil is not what I prefer to dip my food in. It was exciting to try some new things.

First Day Reflections

            The trip up here in total flying hours was not as long as I expected, although we spent the day in anchorage at the airport. We got to see little more of Bethel after we spent a night there. I was feeling very excited to get to Napakiak and get settled in to be little more relaxed and be done moving all our stuff around.

            After making it to Napakiak, I was feeling exhausted but happy to be settled in for the next few days. So far I liked how everyone drives their four wheelers around. It reminds me of my second home called Cruz Off where we bring our quads out in boats and the whole island is a tent city and a quad playground. I am pretty uncomfortable with my first shower in the school locker rooms, they were in an open setting and the water started way too cold and got way too hot!
             Overall, I can't wait to see what the rest of the trip will be like.

Photos

Standing in front of the Napakiak School

Standing on the ice for the first time

Hunter ice fishing "manaqing"

Calista's first pike 

Jojo using two poles

Margaret's huge pike

Sheridan's large pike with all of the other one's she caught

Dinner with an elder 

Both teams from Sitka and Napakiak in front of departure plane

Our Journey to Napakiak - First Night Reflection

After months of preparing for our travel to Napakiak, our travel date is finally here. We left nice and early Saturday morning at 6 am on the jet. We had a full day of travelled planned already and then the plane from Anchorage to Bethel got delayed and then cancelled due to fog. We were able to fly into Bethel later Saturday night but had to spend the night there. On Sunday morning we got a cab to the airport and checked in. There were so many people at the airport and we ended up waiting over 5 hours for our flight. Calista, Jojo, Hunter and Margaret went on the first plane to Napakiak and then Sheridan and myself flew on the second flight. We are all happy to be in Napakiak after a full day and a half of traveling. Tonight we walked around town a bit. Tomorrow we will sit in on some classes and then have dinner with some locals. For the rest of the night I am just going to sleep.