When -1 is your high temperature for the day...

We woke up to -18 ambient temperature and -38 windchill this morning. It has been around zero or colder since Monday night. I am writing this at 9:10 and it is still pitch black outside. I guess this is the Alaska winter everyone warned us about. The good thing it isn't that bad. This is really the first week it has been a nuisance, the first time I got bone chilling cold, the first time I really longed for more daylight. The bad news is it isn't even December yet, but this cold snap will not last forever. From what I have heard February is the worst month, but then it starts to warm up, and the days are much longer, and you can look forward to spring.

Jamie is doing fine. He has his play this week, so he has been busy with rehearsals every night. I think we were right when we predicted that he would have a future on the stage, I think we are in for at least 11 more years of this. The kids at school are starting to get squirrely from being indoors. A lot of the families live in pretty small houses, so I think the kids can start to feel pretty cooped up. Lets just say the time out room has been a little full this week.

We are house sitting this week. It is a really nice house with a nice view of the tundra. They have a wood stove, and furniture that isn't over twenty years old (like in our furnished apartment) and they also have a great kitchen to cook in. They also have a garage full of boxing equipment, so James is loving it. I will post some pictures later. -Megan

Mittens...

I want to thank Terrence's parents for sending us a whole bunch of mittens. When the weather started getting cold I was worried about all the kids who didn't have any mittens or gloves. We tossed around the idea of a mitten drive, Terrence's coworker Kari tried having one a few years ago at the court house here in Bethel, not surprisingly there was a whole lot more taking than giving. I gave out the new mittens yesterday, it took about two minutes to hand out all of them and they had sent us a lot. A lot of the kids wanted to take home a pair to their younger sibling, which is really sweet, but didn't help me in my mission to cover every bare digit in sight. It is really upsetting to see how many kids do not have gloves. Especially, on days like today when the windchill is -28 degrees. In these temperatures your joints, including those in your fingers, really start to ache, not to mention how cold your skin feels. I am going to look online and see if I can find some bulk mittens. If anyone comes across some real cheap, like at a Salvation Army or Big Lots go ahead and buy them and I will reimburse you the cost and shipping. It is just too cold for hands to go uncovered.

Thankfully, most of the kids have jackets. I ordered James' new jacket yesterday, it is supposed to be good for temperatures down to minus twenty and has some kind of fancy windproof shell. Even with his super new jacket he will still have to wear long underwear and several layers on cold days. The cold isn't so bad as long as you have the right kind of clothing. Even I, who am wimpy in the cold, am managing. -Megan

Law of the Tundra

I have not written for this blog in some time. What can I say, I’ve been busy. I have a lot of clients now, and I’m busy learning to be a trial lawyer. Taking on something new is always tiring, and this has been no exception. So far so good.

As for being a lawyer in Bethel, it has been a unique and humbling experience. The majority of my clients live in small villages scattered across the tundra. Towns like Napakiak, Pitkas Point, Goodnews Bay, Akiak, Kwethluk, Hooper Bay, Akiachak, and so on. Whenever I can’t find a client for a hearing, often because their VHF or telephone is out of service, I can call the tribal headquarters or town offices and ask about them:

##########

Ring….ring…. “Hello, town administrator.”

“Hi, have you seen John Doe?”

“Hmm…I think he’s staying with his cousin Bill.”

“Oh, ok, do you have that phone number.”

“I don’t think they have a phone, but I’ll pass along the message.”

“Great, thanks.”

Click.

#############

Invariably, the person calls back after a while. It would be like me calling the mayor of your town to have her find you. When she does, she’ll take you down to the town hall to call me back.

On the other hand, it can be pretty uncomfortable to be an outsider and a lawyer here. I am often reminded of the famed Chief Justice John Marshall, who proclaimed in a Supreme Court decision 175 years ago that “conquest gives title which the courts of the conqueror cannot deny.” John Marshall would have had no idea how expansive the boundaries of the United States would become. Today, the conquest of which Marshall spoke has expanded all the way to the Alaskan Tundra, and to the lives and homes of the peaceful Yup’ik Eskimos that have inhabited this place for thousands of years. It should be uncomfortable I guess.

Here are some pictures borrowed from around the web of some of the villages in Southwest Alaska.

Saint Mary's

Napakiak

Goodnews Bay

Kwethluk

--Terrence

Finally, Some Cute Halloween Pictures

Nathan in the middle (I think)

Hard to believe he's usually so sweet looking.

His pilot's union is the scary part.

Meg, Addison and Grandpa George

Daniel, Timothy and Michael and friends.

Angelic indeed



Thanks everyone for sending pictures. It was fun to get to see how everyone dressed up. Sorry it took so long to get the pictures up, I wasn't able to do it on our home computer.
-Megan

Snow and Ice

I took these the week before Halloween (notice the scythe). The ponds and the river are completely frozen. We won't go out on the river, but lots of people are, including snowmobiles. It is much easier for people to get around in the winter, as snowmobile trails connect many of the villages. We are beginning to accept that winter is just the norm around here, summer seems to be just a short intermission connecting the regular season of snow and ice. -Megan

Like Manna From Heaven- Farm Fresh Veggies in Bethel!

Jamie and I went to the store yesterday to get milk, (now paying over six dollars for half a gallon because the whole gallon spoils in 2-3 days) and vegetables. I just needed some vegetables. I was craving rutabaga and brussel sprouts, which I suppose is a strange combination, but I was. We arrived at the store, no brussel sprouts, looked around some more, no rutabaga, looked over the carrots, old and flaccid, the lettuce was turning brown. The only vegetable that looked good were artichokes and they were seven dollars each and I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much.
Deflated, James and I started walking home with our groceries which did include a bag of frozen broccoli. What do we see through the frozen snow? Terrence carrying a large box of farm fresh vegetables! Organic onions, beets, potatoes, cabbage and incredibly sweet carrots all grown here in Bethel. I don't know how the guy does it, we have been below freezing since the end of September but somehow he has performed this garden miracle. I had carrots and beets for dinner last night and it was delicious. Apparently, there is an organic farm right here in Bethel and he hopes to keep having vegetables throughout the winter. I don't know how he does it but when I find out I will post more. I know the Yupik were able to live on fish, greens and berries, but I am so grateful that we have some other options.

Not in my Town

".. at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time. "
-Barack Obama
As most of you know I work at one of the local schools. I have enjoyed getting to know the kids, they are bright, kind and trusting. However, some of the conditions in their lives give me great sadness. Everyday I see kids who are hungry, kids who wear threadbare sweatshirts instead of jackets in negative zero temperatures. Some of them have told me about things that have happened in their lives, stories that are so disturbing that I wonder how I am going to get through the rest of my day. It is shocking to me that in this day in age, in this country that children have to live this way.
Today I feel more hopeful than I did yesterday. Even though I do not expect any president or party to be able to solve all of the problems in this country I am heartened that we are now going to have a president who understands what the problems are.

All Souls' Day

Cemetery in Bethel Alaska
"It was a remarkable aesthetic... Some graves had shrines with niches peopled by saints; some looked like botanical gardens of paper and silk; other had the initials of loved ones spelled out on the mound in white stones. The unifying principal was that the simplest thing was done with the greatest of care. It was a comfort to see this attention lavished on the dead. In these families you would never stop being loved." Excerpt from the book "Animal Dreams" by Barbara Kingsolver

Take care- Megan