Manaqing: Take Two

I don't work 5-day workweeks. That would be much too stressful.

The past three weeks, each time Thursday rolled around, I was asked to chaperone the following day's manaqing trip. The first time they asked, I was flattered and excited. The second time, I started to wonder if they wanted me in the classroom at all, since they continued to send me either to district trainings or out with kids into the wilderness in subzero temperatures. Frozen and bruised after week two, I almost turned down week three, but am so glad that I didn't. I figure there are worse things than to be asked to hang out with kids. I even gave up an early release day to spend it fishing. What else would I do with my time off?

Week Two
I woke up to much colder temperatures than I thought I would. The trip to Horseshoe Lake is about 30 miles, so by snow-go, it can take at least an hour. It was below zero, and I assumed the trip would be cancelled. 

Nope. 

A parent lent me his snow-go so I could drive his daughter, but warned me that the fuel injector was acting up, the brakes didn't work, and it needed a quart of oil before it could go anywhere, and, oh, he didn't have cash, so could I take care of that real quick? [Sigh.]  

Well, between the principal, myself, and another teacher we got the thing running. I didn't have a great feeling about it, but the trip out was fairly uneventful. Chilly, but we made it. So far so good.

I caught my first three fish this day! I was super excited. I can barely feel my hands and feet in these photos, but I did learn a trick: briefly stick your hands in the freezing water and about 30 seconds later, they're perfectly warm! Counterintuitive, but it worked.

My first pike catch. I'm told they are decent
enough for fish tacos.

The lil' guy on the left I should have thrown back.

The trip back was, in fact, eventful. Our snow machine just stopped about halfway back to town. Just. Stopped. Going. My student and I waited for the others behind us to stop, and Jacob, the Yup'ik teacher, investigated it but thought it was a lost cause. Two other snow machines showed up, one with two of my high school seniors, and they troubleshot for a bit, getting the thing to roar to life once or twice, but eventually identified the necessary parts and took off to get them and take care of it. We rode back to the village in the sled pulled by Jacob, along with Math Teacher, another student, an ice auger, and an orange Gatorade cooler. We felt every pebble we went over and were coated in a nice layer of the snow by journey's end. Because of the jostling, I was sort of laying on my right shoulder, feet flopped over Math Teacher, holding my head up by my hood with my left arm. I pretty much served as a backrest for one of my students; I didn't mind because at least my right arm was warm. I returned with a bruise slightly smaller than the size of a checkbook on my shoulder blade. Mary took the following shot as we stumbled into the school around 6:00 pm. Around 8:00 or so, my toes and fingers began to regain feeling. By 10:00, they were completely returned to normal. See, Mom, I told ya - no worries!

Bruised and frozen, I was thoroughly unimpressed with
having my picture taken at this moment, but now I see
why Mary laughed hysterically upon our return.

Week Three
I almost said no, but I knew the temperature would be in the 30s and that we would have direct sunlight, so I knew I wouldn't freeze. Also, it was decided that there would be no more people riding in sleds. (Whew.) In fact, our greater worry was that we would hit open water and swamp with the snow machines. I drove the school's snow-go and towed the ice auger this time. This trip would turn out to be the most memorable, for a few reasons.

We went back to Suggarpak, the site of the first trip. It was quite warm and sunny, and brought absolute peace. With the beautiful scenery and opportunity to just sit and think, manaqing is a form of therapy. Also, another two firsts occured: along with catching another three fish, I ate fresh fish eggs right out of the fish and went across open water on a snow mobile. Never a dull moment, I tell you.

I never would have believed that this could work, but the students kept asking me to go across open water. One particular student persisted and eventually asked with such earnest innocence that I finally gave in, but on one condition only: I gave him the very serious warning that if he dumped me or killed me in the freezing water, I would most assuredly fail him. After a few seconds of terror on his face, he laughed. Of course, we made it across several times with no problems. I'm not generally a fan of jet-skiing, but this was similar to it and was actually pretty fun. We tore up the ice a little bit, but the river breakup is happening so quickly that we probably didn't do too much harm.

Here is Mount Pilcher from the back side again, but notice the bare tundra peeking through. I couldn't believe how much snow had melted in just two weeks. Driving this day was a bit interesting, as we tried to keep the snow machines on snow as much as possible. We took some roundabout ways in this endeavor. Below is just another shot from the snow-machine. 

I have no pictures of the fish eggs, but a teacher's husband gutted one of his catches and pulled out the "fish stomach," as they called it, and sliced it into chunks. He threw a little salt on there and offered me a piece. I surprised a couple students by asking for seconds. It really was good! I did, however, turn down the fish liver. Liver just weirds me out regardless of origin. 

I returned refreshed. I easily could get accustomed to this whole four-day workweek followed by Fishing Friday. I think it has made the kids more productive as well. We are well into April now and have survived state testing, which is no small feat. Thankfully, the remainder of the year should be fun and breezy. Thanks for reading!

Manaqing

This week I had the opportunity to go manaqing, or ice fishing, two days in a row. I caught a total of zero fish, but the past two days were like a mini vacation. I'm sore from the snow-go rides and my face is burnt like I've been on Lewis & Clark lake for far too long, but it feels like weeks since I've been in my classroom.

It's amazing what some fresh air and sunshine can do to a person. It can change one's whole perspective on life and make you think crazy thoughts, like signing your contract to come back next year. That's right, I will be coming back for another year up here on the tundra! I can't imagine not coming back. I'm sure once the light leaves next year that I'll be questioning the whole rationale of this decision, but it's too beautiful and there is too much left to do here before leaving. I'm getting great experiences in the classroom and in extra-curriculars. I don't want to boast, but I think some kids are starting to trust me, and I don't want to take that for granted. As of right now, I'm the sole returning high school teacher for next year. We started the year with three new-to-the-students teachers, so I'm sure they'll survive another round next year. The comical thing is that, with just one year of teaching under my belt, I'm considered the veteran upstairs? That's a scary thought, not only because I feel that I know next to nothing about successful teaching, but also because I know how much I depended this year on teachers who had been here for a couple years to survive. Next year, those first year teachers will be coming to me for advice (for the upper grades at least) and I'm just not sure how I will handle being in that capacity. Probably like I handle most things: with some sort of irreverent joke and a piece of chocolate to ease everyone's nerves. I really should look into some other coping skills.

But anyway, back to manaqing! Friday, we took the 7-12 students out fishing, and there is nothing like being outdoors with kids who were born to be outdoors. We went northwest-ish of the village to Suggarpak, pronounced [Joe-(hoothroat-clearing sound)-buck]. (This one is tricky. Say "hook" but instead of the -k sound, make the throat-clearing sound. I still don't have it.)

First off, I didn't have a ride and thought that I would go with another teacher. When the time came to take off, however, of course that's not how it worked out.

Gloria, the head cook, came outside to investigate the situation, reliably clad in her short-sleeved t-shirt and hair net and, in her Scuttle-squawk-like voice from The Little Mermaid, commanded, "You take mine! Donald! (her son) Donald! You go gas up, Susan needs the snow-go." Donald, not a fan of school, smiled and obediently went to follow her orders. I should state here that few people ignore Gloria's commands, lest they suffer the consequences.

I tried to tell her that I'd never been on a snow-go, let alone driven one, but she said, "It's easy! You drive, have fun." Ooohhhhkaaaay.

Well, it turns out I was too nervous to drive, partially because I didn't know where we were going, so a student drove and took excellent care of me. Just like on the camping trip, the kids were so helpful and kind and fun and relaxed, and really, angels to be around. Donald dutifully ice-picked manaqing holes for his younger sister and her friends. Sitting around with our manaqing sticks, joking all day, with kids sharing their snacks almost uncontrollably, was a grand way to end the week. I returned from that trip sore and a bit burned but pretty much enthralled by the whole experience. I was a bit frozen, but not too badly.

Ice-picking the manaq (muh-nuck) hole.

                                  

                                          Mount Pilcher, from the back side, northwest of town.

                                                   

                                                                      Just chillin' with a student. Notice he has his ever-present earphones in.

Turns out I couldn't get enough of it. The next morning, a parent of one of the students offered to take Nichole, Mary, and I to a different spot southeast of town, this time without the kiddos. I had kinda had my heart set on relaxing, blogging, and recovering, but decided I better take advantage of this chance and geared up for another day of riding on the snow-go and sitting in the sun on the snow. It takes some effort to plan and get going, but once we were out there, it was so peaceful. It makes me wonder why I even thought that spending the day on the couch could even compare. I drove the school's snow machine out there, which, as you'll see, turned out to have mixed results. It's probably a very good thing I let the student drive that first day.

Take a look:

Getting ready to go! 

Nichole and I heading out to the river. Little did I know, this would be the

most success I would have driving the snow-go.

The ride out to Horseshoe took us across the main Yukon, which was absolutely gorgeous. Parts of it, like this one and the one below, reminded me of the Black Hills.

The willows off to the right reminded me of wheat fields from home peeking through in the
spring. Moose snack on these in the winter. They've been hard at work!

Susan crashing the school's snow-go into some trees. Oops.

The damage to the trees from my little incident.

Nichole fishing; Nick, the head maintenance guy snoozing/sunbathing.

I would soon regret my own sunbathing on the tundra, though it's nice to
have a little color on my face. 

Even though we could have stayed out there for another 4 hours, and the daylight would have allowed us to do so (it's light out until 10 pm now), we headed back about 5:30 to celebrate Nichole's birthday. My face is in pain, but I can't tell if it's due to windburn, sunburn, or the perma-smile that's been on my face for two days straight. The discs in my back are probably squashed to smithereens, but those snow-go rides were pretty amazing! My arms even hurt from holding on so tight while Nichole drove, as she's a bit of a thrill-seeker.

Before heading back to the village, the girls decided to squish me. Shortly
after this, Mary, on the left, tumbled off.

Explanation: there was a very steep hill coming up and an experienced
driver told us both to get off so he could tackle it himself. Of course, I
completely fell into the snowbank. Snow down the pants and up the coat.
I have an annoying habit of doing this.

My leg is straight down. As you can see, my face is beet red already. Yes,
I do have an impressive farmer's tan going due to the hat and sunglasses.
No, I'm not going to put a picture of that on here.

It was during this second day that I truly came to appreciate the way that these people live with such abandon. Debbie, the school secretary, happened to be along on this trip, and she kept saying over and over and over how she "LOVES to eat outside! I eat and if 15 minutes later it's time to eat, I eat again! I LOVE to eat outside! Always, always!" And she rolled with laughter, as did we. For about 10 minutes, she kept this up. As Nichole started to say that we should get going for her birthday dinner, Debbie screamed out, "dinner can be whatever time you have it! Stay out! Look there's sun! Stay!" And another bout of laughter. As much as this attitude can drive me crazy during school hours, it's truly good for the heart.

This next week is the start of testing. I anticipate some squirrelly kids who would rather be outside in this gorgeous weather, and I can't blame them. I keep hearing that those of you back home are melting in the heat or enjoying the lake, but it's been about in the 20s to mid-30s here, which is perfect for the spring outdoor activities.

Only 7 weeks left! My goal is to post a few more stories of the semester this week. I've got tales from Academic Decathlon, getting stuck in -60 degree weather, tundra badminton, and more skiing to share with you. Thanks for reading!