A Bethel Christmas

James Made This Eskimo Finger Puppet In Yup'ik Class




James' Class At The Christmas Show...They Represented Jamaica

More Christmas Show...These are Yup'ik Dancers

James Gave Santa Some Cookies At A Holiday Sing Along. He was very excited!

Thankful

Wow... so far I have given out almost eighty pairs of mittens. Everyone has been so generous in sending them in. The kids have been delighted over them. I want to thank everyone so much.

Here are some pictures of my family on Thanksgiving. I can't believe how big Addie is, or how grown up Patrick, Nathan and Reilly look. It makes us miss you all the more to see how fast everyone is growing up. - Megan

Weather

Another week begins in Bethel. Nobody in my household wanted to get out of bed this morning. It was not because we went to bed late. I think we could just sense that it was freezing outside, and we knew the sun would not rise for another four hours. However, because our alarm clock read 6:30 am up we went. Long underwear, clothes, snow pants, face mask, hat, gloves, boots we emerge out into the cold dark night, only it is technically morning.

The weather report tells us that it is –1 degree, and – 23 wind chill. The prediction for today's weather says the wind chill may approach –15. This kind of weather report is frustrating when you are trying to figure out whether to wear regular balaclava, or polar balaclava. I swear Jamie could probably make better weather predictions thanthe ones we get around here. It is unsettling not to know if or when it is going to get warmer, or just how cold it is going to get by the end of the day.

Most places in the US where you can get minute by minute accounts of the weather any time you want on The Weather Channel or on your computer. Not here. There really isn't any point to reading the predictions, they are almost always wrong. Itisn’t anyones fault that they are so bad, there is too much empty barren space, without enough weather stations and too few people to really bother with. It is a bewildering experience not having reliable weather reports, but I have gotten used to it and have begun devising my own way of predicting the weather. We know it is going to be cold until May, so that does simplify things. It probably won’t be warm enough to rain, so that leaves the possibility of snow. As far as the temperature goes the only accurate one to go on is the current temperature, and if it is night you can generally predict it will get colder before it gets warmer. Without much daylight the range of temperature is pretty small so their probably won’t be too many dramaticfluctuations. The most important factor of course, is the wind. Which is not even predicted, so you have to go on the current report. If it is windy at all, then we know we need all of our warmest gear and you better gird your loins because it's nasty out there. -Megan

James' Play

Here are some pictures from James' play. It was really fun to watch the kids work so hard and have such a good time. James loved it, and was quite good at it, drama must run in the family.

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