Alaska Daze

Easter in Bethel
Neither 20 below zero wind chill nor snow on the ground prevented Bethelites from turning out in mass to scramble for easter eggs in hopes of scoring the ultimate prize - a new bike.

Easter traffic jam - worse than after bingo!  Dressed to keep warm.

Warm and bright……………………..like the eggs!

It was over in mere minutes.

Faces in the crowd…

Hoping all of you had a happy Easter - celebrating however you do, with family and friends.
Love,
Vikki

I just got back from the monthly “Saturday Market” where anyone can rent a table for $5 and sell, well, anything. I sold photo cards and actually did well. I had many requests to sell at the annual dance festival March 28th which makes me feel good. Camai is the largest sale of the year with many people coming in from the villages to both buy and sell.

I recently received pictures taken last year by Rebekka Halseth, my former co-interpreter. They are so great that I wanted to post some.

These are from our visit to Tuntutuliak last May. Rebekka, her husband Tom and I took advantage of some free tickets to visit the home village of one of our students. In the first picture I’m chatting with a couple of youngsters. In the second, we were looking for a store and the girl had pointed it out to me several times, and when I just couldn’t see it, she grabbed my hand and led me there. It was a small building make out of plywood without any markings or signage. I kept looking right past it because it didn’t look like a store. A perfect example of cultural bias (or preconceived expectations?). I couldn’t see it because it didn’t match my schema. The next two pictures show the outside and inside of that store. Mini mart?

These next two pictures are of a <slightly> larger store in Tunt.

People in the villages have steam houses. It’s the traditional way to bathe. The women and girls steam together and the men and boys steam together. Husbands and wives steam together. Unmarried adults do not bathe with the opposite sex.

Love to all
Vikki

Happy Spring - in the lower 48 at least. I’m back from spring vacation and it’s back to snow and freezing temperatures. There is hope, however. Today I drove along the river and saw that scaffolding has been set up on the Kuskokwim River - it’s used to measure when the river breaks up. Now that’s wishful thinking! Break up won’t happen until May, unless we get really warm temperatures. Everyone is feeling tired from the spring time change coming on the heels of a week off. The next event to look forward to is Camai, the annual dance festival that will be held March 28th to the 30th.
Before spring break we were having clear sunny days. I chanced upon this eye catching sunset and the snow machine blazing across the tundra. I barely had time to focus my camera.