Wow, I didn’t realize it’s been so long since we’ve blogged! I’ve been having lots of conversations and even taking notes so that I can share all of the information with you, although it’s going to be kind of disjointed so please bear with me.
About two weeks ago, another hospital employee offered me a try of her husband’s pickled salmon. I was willing to try a piece, as it’s something I hadn’t heard of before. The salmon was firm, much like chicken, and didn’t have any flakiness you might expect from fish. At the first taste, it was like a firm, yet soft, sweet pickle, but after the initial pickliness, then you taste a very very mild salmon flavor. I would say it was pretty good and since I only like sweet pickles, I could see eating them more. That’s the only native food I’ve tried so far though. I imagine there will be more later.
All last week, there was flooding up north in Crooked Creek where the broken ice created an ice dam. All of the buildings in town were flooded and/or moved off of their foundations, and some residents were even surprised as water flooded into their homes last Sunday night. Luckily there were no fatalities and all of the residents were evacuated by helicopter and boat to a mine camp a few miles away to wait it out. A week later, the ice dam finally broke and they were able to go in and inspect the damage.
While the dam was blocking up the river, villages down river were preparing for the worst. South of Crooked Creek in Aniak, people were moving their cars, snowmobiles, and apparently even dog sled teams to the highest ground in town, the high school to protect them from the water.
In Bethel this week, the Kuskokwim river broke and Bethel had the “2011 Ice Classic”, a party along the river bank celebrating the breakup. This is the time people can start using the river for travel again and go to the fish camps for the next few months. At the party, they had a live band on the back of a flatbed pickup truck and free hotdogs. It was incredible watching the ice flow down the river, and at some point I will show the video I took of the ice. It had good speed and we could actually see the end of the ice, about 1000 feet up river, where there was no ice. Within about 30 minutes, the end of the ice came and we went home.
I’ve also learned that because we’re only about 50 miles from the ocean, the Kuskokwim river in Bethel actually has tides, that rise and fall with the ocean.
The fish camps I talked about earlier are where the natives families go for the summer months to fish and have enough for the winter. The fish camps are passed down through families, one generation to the next. One of my co-workers inherited his fish camp from his brother who inherited it from their dad. He actually said he might consider taking me and Jeff to their fish camp for a weekend so we can see what it’s like. It’s a lot of work, but it’d be such an Alaskan experience! This co-worker said a few years ago, he shot a Musk Ox (spelling?) while out hunting, and then traded the whole thing with another family for 3 gallons of pickled Pike. Instead of using money, they trade goods.
These days, the sun comes up around 5:30 and it stays out light until 11:45 at night. It’s nice to have more sunlight for longer, but I think my body clock isn’t liking it too much. I’ve been struggling to get myself to go to sleep around 11 but it’s not working yet. We’ve been closing all the curtains around 9ish in the hopes that we can trick our bodies into thinking it’s time for bed. We’re still waiting to see if it works.
I don’t know if it’s a Moravian church thing in general, or just up here in Alaska but up here, 40 days after a loved one has passed away, they have something called the “40 day”, which is a huge feast where all of the family and friends get together and celebrate the life of their loved one. After the first 40 days, they do it every year on the anniversary of the death. They told me that after awhile, you have a lot of celebrations to go to every year as people continue to pass away.
