Misadventures of a Midlife Married Couple

Happy New Years (eve)!

WOW… Holiday break… MUCH NEEDED! I have definitely gone to work and dealt with work issues, the arrival of three new teachers tops the list! YAY!! But I have also taken some down time with Marty and honestly it has been wonderful, and easy, to sleep in and really rest (the fact that we have nothing resembling daylight until around 11:00 am reallllly helps with that sleeping in part!)

This holiday has most assuredly been “in with the new” as far as traditions. This is the first ever Christmas Marty has spent away from Caleb. My first ever without seeing either of my boys. That was the sucky part. We got the fixings for a small Christmas dinner, a ham, some sides etc., and wound up not cooking after we returned from the village feast. It turns out the Christmas feast is much smaller than the Thanksgiving feast, but we were warmly welcomed (as usual) and enjoyed ourselves. We also got to try some new foods. 

This was the first year since 1981 that there was no frozen trout served, it seems that no one donated any. However we did get to try whale blubber in seal oil…. the flavor of the blubber was smokey and I think the seal oil had an odd, light flavor. It was difficult to really differentiate what was what. The texture of the blubber was chewy… and I do mean chewy… almost gristle like really. The challenge we both had was not the flavors, it was the smell. It was STRONG, and for me, it smelled like curdled milk. One of the villagers actually teased me about trying it, she thought I wouldn’t, she filmed me and THEN told me she can’t stand it…LOL. I DID manage to get it down without a grimace… it is definitely an acquired taste, but I can see how the high fat content would be beneficial when so much of the traditional diet is so low in fat. We had caribou soup (yum), the aforementioned blubber and seal oil, fresh yeast rolls, and Eskimo ice cream. True Eskimo ice cream consists of whipped caribou fat, sweetened condensed milk, and fruit (typically local berries…. salmon, black, and blue). Marty in particular really enjoyed the ice cream. It is very rich!

The Saturday night prior to Christmas Eve was the Christmas program at the Church. It is a HUGE event for the community. EVERY single child in the village has a part to play/preform in the program. The youngest children are held up by relatives with only their faces showing above a curtain. They are introduced by their parents/family members and we learn who they are named after and who their family is. The older kids all have a small speaking part, a line of scripture or poetry that they individually recite as part of a larger group of same age kids. Some of the larger families get up and sing together, friends choose to sing or recite scripture or poetry together. It’s very inclusive.

The program is also very LOOOOONNGGG… it started at 4pm and ended around 2am (which was EARLY). The church itself has no bathroom, so nearby houses are left open and serve hot coffee, hot chocolate etc., and offer bathroom privileges. Families come and go in small groups to rotate babysitting for the younger kids, or just to get up, get some air, and move around. At the end of the evening gifts that have been brought to the program are brought out for distribution to the community. 

It is interesting to me, I grew up in a small town, where it mattered which church you attended, where people gathered to show the superiority of their version of Christianity and judge others more than they gathered to embrace the actual teachings of Christ. As I became an adult I became more and more aware of the weaponization of religion and more and more disenfranchised with the majority of organized churches. This was especially true when I would hear self-proclaimed Christians, those who actively push their religious view points down your throat, be the most judgmental, non-accepting, and least empathetic people. Anyway, to say that by the time we arrived here I had lost faith in the idea that people are inherently good…well it is a gigantic under-statement. I say this because here, in this small place, removed from mega churches and a societal need to “keep up with the proverbial Jones’,” I have seen far more evidence of true faith and true Christian practices. This really hit me as we sat in this church, where pews were spartan, there were no stained glass windows, no fancy pulpit, no choir… just a group of people celebrating their faith and embracing everyone. 

After the holidays were over the traditional games began. Every morning this past week has seen groups of people gathered “downtown” for the games and races. A multitude of foot races took place daily. Again they were divided by age groups and sometimes gender groups. There were relays, straight races, sideways races, races pulling sleds, races carrying babies… alll the races. In the evenings the community gathered at the gym for more traditional games. We saw finger pulls, ear pulls, nose pulls, leg wrestling, “bull fights”, hair pulls, a more entertaining version of duck duck goose, stick pulls, wrist carries, and more races. It was great to watch the kids participate in the events for them and even better to witness the joy on the faces of their parents and family members who got to assist them. It truly is the simple things that bring such joy. 

As we spend New Years Eve reflecting on the past year I am in awe of how much has changed for us. The adventure we have undertaken has blessed us in ways I never thought it would. We are at home here, in this remote little village. We love it. We love our lives. I love my job. And most importantly we recognize how much we love one another (we knew this going in) but how lucky we are to be doing this together. 

May we all exit 2023 realizing that no matter what we did or did not accomplish we all have something to contribute. We are all valued, we are all special. Everyone is everything to someone. 

Let us go into 2024 determined to be open minded, non-judgmental, empathetic, non-assholes. 

And let us all vote for anyone but Trump or Ryan Walters. (Hey, new year, same me!).