There aren't too many true "Villages" that I have been aware of before I moved from Michigan to Alaska. I've seen cities, counties, and grew up in a charter township (Texas township, MI, go figure), but none of these really prepared me for what true "village life" would be like.
After graduating with my teaching degree and not knowing what else to do with myself, I went to a job fair to try out the suit my parents gifted me with - that's it: I felt like I should get some use out of the thing. My resume and I stopped at some 20 booths - everywhere from California to Washington D.C.. Long story short, I wound up with a job offer for Newtok, Alaska and decided to take it. Like I said, I had nothing better going at the time.
I was fortunate to be able to meet three other teachers from this site - our district does a lot of recruiting from Michigan. I was able to ask questions, get tips from people who had been there, and meet and chat with fully half of the certified staff I would be working with. Still none of that could prepare me for the true experience, just like reading this can in no real way truly make you understand what it is like out here.
Newtok is one of a few dozen small villages established along major river routes in the Yukon/Kuskokwim River Delta -one of the world's largest. Our school district is roughly the size of West Virginia and contains +/- 10,000 people. 6-7 thousand of these people live in the "big" city of Bethel, which I have been told operates Alaska's one of Alaska's top 5 busiest airports. Otherwise, the other few thousand people live in villages like Newtok.
Newtok is located about 30 miles east of the Arctic ocean directly north of Nelson Island. Our village contains roughly 350 Native Yu'pik Eskimos. There are also 9 of us white folks from "downstates" and one man from Hawaii who runs the post office. Talk about being in a minority!
The land is uniformly flat and treeless tundra. During the summer, (since we are in a river delta) the ground is wet and squishy, like walking on a waterlogged feather mattress. Otherwise, practically seven months a year, the ground is frozen. Temperatures range from the 70s in the summer (very hot days, they say) to days like today that are -25 F. With the windchill, temperatures easily drop below 40 to 60 below zero at times.
There are no roads - only wooden boardwalks throughout the village. Without a boat or snowmobile, the only effective method of long distance travel is by bush plane. I don't think twice anymore about getting in a 6-seater that weighs about as much as my Saturn back in MI. It's the only way in or out. If the weather is bad, they do not fly - we have gone 9 days in a row without a plane in: no one and no thing in or out (mail included).
There is no true running water except in the school. Teachers are fortunate enough to have "Incinulates" which are essentially electric incinerator toilets. The village folk use what they have used for decades - honey buckets. I fill up gallon jugs of water from the school (where it comes out salty and looking like weak tea) and distill it at home for drinking, cooking, and for my humidifier. There are showers at the school for the faculty, but we are limited by our water production to two showers a week per person.
The town is powered by two diesel generators - one for the school and one for the rest of the village. Only a handful of people have satellite television. I do not, nor do I miss it. I do have lots of video games (I am not embarrassed to admit, I have been a gamer for over 15 years) and many, many books.
Not many people could live here, and not just because of the weather - that's the easy part - or the lack of plumbing - you get over that really quick. The hard part for many people is the social isolation. My closest friend or family member is over 2000 miles away. It takes a minimum of 17 hours to travel from Bethel to Kalamazoo (usually over 20!). Cell phones do not work here. Unless you are fortunate enough to have close friends on your staff, you are pretty much to yourself. No movie theaters; no restaurants; no bars (all villages in AK are dry, by the way); no weekend getaways, unless you want to pay the 600 dollars to get to Anchorage and back. I feel fortunate to be able to come on here and meet new people.
It's an experience unlike any I ever thought I would have , and I feel blessed to be able to be here where fewer than 100,000 will likely set foot within my lifetime. It also makes me doubly grateful for what I DO have: food, shelter, work, and a hefty paycheck! On top of that, it has helped me to appreciate all of my friends and family - some new ones from this site too! Bless you all!
If you ever feel like talkin', drop me a note! Nothing creepy; nothing to commit to. Just good old fashioned talk and the chance to meet someone who has been somewhere that, let's face it, you'll never get to see (This is not Anchorage, Juneau, or Fairbanks here!). You may end up with a new appreciation for what You have, and it'll help give me something to do.
Hope to hear from you! Let me know what life is like where you're at!
Mark
There aren't too many true "Villages" that I have been aware of before I moved from Michigan to Alaska. I've seen cities, counties, and grew up in a charter township (Texas township, MI, go figure), but none of these really prepared me for what true "village life" would be like.
After graduating with my teaching degree and not knowing what else to do with myself, I went to a job fair to try out the suit my parents gifted me with - that's it: I felt like I should get some use out of the thing. My resume and I stopped at some 20 booths - everywhere from California to Washington D.C.. Long story short, I wound up with a job offer for Newtok, Alaska and decided to take it. Like I said, I had nothing better going at the time.
I was fortunate to be able to meet three other teachers from this site - our district does a lot of recruiting from Michigan. I was able to ask questions, get tips from people who had been there, and meet and chat with fully half of the certified staff I would be working with. Still none of that could prepare me for the true experience, just like reading this can in no real way truly make you understand what it is like out here.
Newtok is one of a few dozen small villages established along major river routes in the Yukon/Kuskokwim River Delta -one of the world's largest. Our school district is roughly the size of West Virginia and contains +/- 10,000 people. 6-7 thousand of these people live in the "big" city of Bethel, which I have been told operates Alaska's one of Alaska's top 5 busiest airports. Otherwise, the other few thousand people live in villages like Newtok.
Newtok is located about 30 miles east of the Arctic ocean directly north of Nelson Island. Our village contains roughly 350 Native Yu'pik Eskimos. There are also 9 of us white folks from "downstates" and one man from Hawaii who runs the post office. Talk about being in a minority!
The land is uniformly flat and treeless tundra. During the summer, (since we are in a river delta) the ground is wet and squishy, like walking on a waterlogged feather mattress. Otherwise, practically seven months a year, the ground is frozen. Temperatures range from the 70s in the summer (very hot days, they say) to days like today that are -25 F. With the windchill, temperatures easily drop below 40 to 60 below zero at times.
There are no roads - only wooden boardwalks throughout the village. Without a boat or snowmobile, the only effective method of long distance travel is by bush plane. I don't think twice anymore about getting in a 6-seater that weighs about as much as my Saturn back in MI. It's the only way in or out. If the weather is bad, they do not fly - we have gone 9 days in a row without a plane in: no one and no thing in or out (mail included).
There is no true running water except in the school. Teachers are fortunate enough to have "Incinulates" which are essentially electric incinerator toilets. The village folk use what they have used for decades - honey buckets. I fill up gallon jugs of water from the school (where it comes out salty and looking like weak tea) and distill it at home for drinking, cooking, and for my humidifier. There are showers at the school for the faculty, but we are limited by our water production to two showers a week per person.
The town is powered by two diesel generators - one for the school and one for the rest of the village. Only a handful of people have satellite television. I do not, nor do I miss it. I do have lots of video games (I am not embarrassed to admit, I have been a gamer for over 15 years) and many, many books.
Not many people could live here, and not just because of the weather - that's the easy part - or the lack of plumbing - you get over that really quick. The hard part for many people is the social isolation. My closest friend or family member is over 2000 miles away. It takes a minimum of 17 hours to travel from Bethel to Kalamazoo (usually over 20!). Cell phones do not work here. Unless you are fortunate enough to have close friends on your staff, you are pretty much to yourself. No movie theaters; no restaurants; no bars (all villages in AK are dry, by the way); no weekend getaways, unless you want to pay the 600 dollars to get to Anchorage and back. I feel fortunate to be able to come on here and meet new people.
It's an experience unlike any I ever thought I would have , and I feel blessed to be able to be here where fewer than 100,000 will likely set foot within my lifetime. It also makes me doubly grateful for what I DO have: food, shelter, work, and a hefty paycheck! On top of that, it has helped me to appreciate all of my friends and family - some new ones from this site too! Bless you all!
If you ever feel like talkin', drop me a note! Nothing creepy; nothing to commit to. Just good old fashioned talk and the chance to meet someone who has been somewhere that, let's face it, you'll never get to see (This is not Anchorage, Juneau, or Fairbanks here!). You may end up with a new appreciation for what You have, and it'll help give me something to do.
Hope to hear from you! Let me know what life is like where you're at!
Uhmm...well, very interesting. I live in Louisiana. I am right in the middle of it. I am from a small town of 40,000 people. It gets hot hot here. I feel that Louisiana is just like a small country within the United States. It has its own language, food, celebrations, it's pretty unique. I lived in Houston TX for about 8 years, but I came back home to Louisiana. Louisiana is an impoverished state, and there are many poor people who live here, none-the-less, it has places of beauty. Life here can be boring though. Not alot of places to go for fun, unless you travel. People, over here, hunt alot, fish, and most of us here are atleast 10 years behind, when it comes to music and most definately fashion. I think it is cute. Ofcoarse my perspective is an unfair one, I am comparing Houston to the lil town of Ville Platte. Lots of people here have thick country accents and are country at heart. One thing that was a pleasant surprise, was what Texans say about Louisiana. They say if you want a beauty, go to Louisiana. Nice! I live a stone throw away from our state park 'Chicot.' I love the rolling hills, swamps and trees. But if you camp there set up camp where you won't get your rear snapped off by a gator. They are sneaky lil butt munchers. Love them though. There eyes glow at night, it's spooky. There is a pub I started going to, it is small but cute and they have lots of live music, mostly country though. I have to find me an 80s dance club. I guess that makes me 20+ years behind.
Uhmm...well, very interesting. I live in Louisiana. I am right in the middle of it. I am from a small town of 40,000 people. It gets hot hot here. I feel that Louisiana is just like a small country within the United States. It has its own language, food, celebrations, it's pretty unique. I lived in Houston TX for about 8 years, but I came back home to Louisiana. Louisiana is an impoverished state, and there are many poor people who live here, none-the-less, it has places of beauty. Life here can be boring though. Not alot of places to go for fun, unless you travel. People, over here, hunt alot, fish, and most of us here are atleast 10 years behind, when it comes to music and most definately fashion. I think it is cute. Ofcoarse my perspective is an unfair one, I am comparing Houston to the lil town of Ville Platte. Lots of people here have thick country accents and are country at heart. One thing that was a pleasant surprise, was what Texans say about Louisiana. They say if you want a beauty, go to Louisiana. Nice! I live a stone throw away from our state park 'Chicot.' I love the rolling hills, swamps and trees. But if you camp there set up camp where you won't get your rear snapped off by a gator. They are sneaky lil butt munchers. Love them though. There eyes glow at night, it's spooky. There is a pub I started going to, it is small but cute and they have lots of live music, mostly country though. I have to find me an 80s dance club. I guess that makes me 20+ years behind.
I grew up in a family of 11. My mother's choice. I was third in the mix of nine. It was a little like a village. Everybody was expected to pitch in, but we had two toilets...
I grew up in the LA basin but live in the high desert now. I love the no humidity part, as well as the sky. We get snow now and then (4 times this year! so far...) but it's gone by noon. Summers normally get into the triple digits but my home is well insulated. Kind of the opposite from you, eh? ...except that not much grows here.
I was intrigued by your blog. You describe your environment well. I had a friend when I was a kid whose parent's were missionaries in Alaska. He actually lived in igloos and went on seal hunts with the native inhabitants. I think he had you beat with the primitive living conditions but then, it was the 60's. He had such good stories. He lives in San Diego, now.
Julie
Wow, sounds cool. Literally.
I grew up in a family of 11. My mother's choice. I was third in the mix of nine. It was a little like a village. Everybody was expected to pitch in, but we had two toilets...
I grew up in the LA basin but live in the high desert now. I love the no humidity part, as well as the sky. We get snow now and then (4 times this year! so far...) but it's gone by noon. Summers normally get into the triple digits but my home is well insulated. Kind of the opposite from you, eh? ...except that not much grows here.
I was intrigued by your blog. You describe your environment well. I had a friend when I was a kid whose parent's were missionaries in Alaska. He actually lived in igloos and went on seal hunts with the native inhabitants. I think he had you beat with the primitive living conditions but then, it was the 60's. He had such good stories. He lives in San Diego, now.
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