To the village

I went on my first trip to the village this week. It actually was GREAT! I met a wonderful woman who is now an awesome friend! We flew out together and she is the special ed teacher for the villages around Kodiak. We had a wonderful time. I brought some gifts for the new teachers and staff at the school like candy and coffee. The kids remembered me from my first trip in May and we played some games. My friend Mary and I hiked around Ahkiok and took some pictures. We actually walked around the village (it's not that big) and walked down to the dump and around back to the school. When we got back, we were told there is a huge bear roaming around down there and to not walk alone. Oops! I am going back in October and hopefully will be able to do some Uduk hunting. I guess Uduk's are little crustacean shells that are all around and are very tasty! I may also get to go octopus hunting too! I am planning more games for the kids when I come and I already have art projects planned. Here are some pictures I took from the plane and from the ground



Pic of the Ahkiok School



Some houses and Russian Orthodox church in background




Russian Orthodox Church (the little house beside it is where the priest lives.)


Village street sign


Graves at the church


Good work is hard to come by apparently


The village of Ahkiok


The dump where the bears frequent


Fishing boats in the village


Some pics from the flight







Back of the plane

Coast guard base






The plane that I flew in.

A Beary Good Summer!

September is here which means back to school and fall weather will be rapidly approaching! School started for me so I am back into the swing of things with my job working at the two elementary schools and being back on call at the hospital for psych emergencies. It has been slow and steady so far with everything which has been great. Jonathan and I have started to attend a bible study/small group. We just started reading the book that we are going to be studying which is called "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God" by Francis Chan. So far the study and book have been great!

Jonathan is finished with his actual one on one training for his job now and is out on his own. It's weird when he drives up for lunch/dinner breaks in a police car, a Ford Expedition. He's been busy making arrests and chasing bad guys.

The other day, we went out for a drive when it was beautiful and sunny and ended up seeing about 8 bears total throughout our drive! It was crazy! And they were all along the road system! So I have attached some pictures of the bears that we saw. Hope you all are doing well! We were so fortunate to have guests this summer and had a wonderful time showing them around and taking them fishing! Come up and visit next summer and we'll show you the bears!






On a side note; The fishing stuff belonged to a fisherman who had higtailed it back up the road away from the bear. He took his fish with him (priorities apparently when you see a bear!) and then began yelling at the bear who was sniffing at his waders! I then proceeded to yell at the fisherman to let me take a picture before he scared away the bear! It was a pretty funny scene overall and I don't think the bear took off with the guy's waders.