Misadventures of a Midlife Married Couple

It has been quite a while since I have blogged so please forgive the randomness of my anecdotes and memories. I’m sharing as they pop into my head.

It has been a HECTIC few weeks! I had to attend principal’s meetings in Anchorage, and returned home to help plan and host our village’s basketball tournament (it is, from what I hear, the longest running basketball tournament in AK).

We have survived our first “dark” period and the sun has returned, with it have returned the awe inspiring sun rises and sun sets. That said, when it was dark, it wasn’t fully dark dark all day, we had several hours of what seemed like twilight every day. The days are still short, but getting longer every single day. 

The last couple of weeks have brought the real winter. Our temps have been as low as 50 below 0. That has brought some unique challenges. It slowed our water supply so that the village was on water conservation for about 10 days, limited showers, laundry, etc. It was exacerbated by a local home that has a leak that seems to be a challenge to get repaired. I refer to it as the “grow your own glacier project”. Snow-machines and Honda’s (the generic name for ALL 4 wheelers) are freezing and people are using hair dryers to warm the engines. The most inventive, and one of the more common ,tools for unfreezing engines is actually an air popcorn popper. 

I know I have mentioned that the village uses VHF radio as a common form of communication. Almost all homes have one. Marty and I now have one in the house and it is the first time that we can really listen to it. I have one in the office at school and we use it for community announcements etc. quite often, but Marty hadn’t really listened to it. If there is any ONE thing that really shows the strong sense of community and the kindness and generosity of our village it is listening to the VHF. 

Every morning someone gets on the radio to just say good morning to the village ad most mornings someone sings hymns. If you listen you will hear parents call their kids home, people who cooked too much food announce for people to come make a plate, community events are announced, birthday invitations issued, people searching for help, advice, or assistance, and prayers said and sent. But what may be my favorite is that every night, around nine, the same man gets on the VHF and says “goodnight Noatak”. 

When I was in Anchorage I treated myself to a spa day. Pedi, much needed massage (Marty actually insisted), and a loooong overdue haircut. One thing I battle here that was never an issue before is the absolute lack of humidity. We are the frozen desert, keeping skin moisturized is a battle and my hair had gotten really dry… so I chopped off about 7 inches. One of my elementary students was agast… she picked up my hair, gasped, and said, “What happened?”.. I said “I KNOW! She cut a lot off huh?” the little kid standing next to her said “I hope you didn’t pay for that!” 

Marty got to go ice fishing this week! He was so excited and I think he had quite a bit of fun. It was in the 20’s so honestly it was pretty pleasant weather. He and the spouse of another teacher went out with one of our 7th graders as their guide. They didn’t have much luck catching fish but they were able to hear the party of older women from the village who were across the river and down a bit, THEY caught a boat load. We will be recruiting Tina as his next guide :). (Tina’s husband David is actually originally from Enid!). Marty is looking forward to spring and duck season, he is also studying up on trapping small game. One of my teachers plans to have her son, who has grown up here, teach Marty how to cure the hide and she thinks she is going to teach me to sew hides…. yea… LOL.

One of the fun things we are doing right now is having a contest for the village. There is a cafe space in the school that we are turning into a coffee shop. We are running a contest to name it. Some of the names are great, some not so great, but everyone is enjoying it and looking forward to it.

We have some big excitement coming up. In the midst of basketball season, with spring break approaching, we are hosting a guest artist. Meredith will be coming to teach art to our kids for two weeks. Teachers and students alike are excited, and I am so excited to get to share a piece of this little slice of heaven with someone who has been such a central part of my life for so many years. 

There are so many little things that we want to remember to tell you, and so many things that slip our minds when I sit down to write. Thank you for sorta coming along on this journey with us. I can’t believe that we are over half way through our first year. We are so incredibly lucky to be on this adventure together.

Until next time!