Friday, August 24, 2012

What an amazing day!!!  My students were wonderful, as usual.  But after school was over one of my students wanted to take my berry picking.  We went past the reservoir and tried to find berries out there but fortunately didn't.  Since we didn't find any berries by the reservoir we went past the airstrip to where I had gone a few days ago.  On the way there, one of the mothers in the village passed us and offered to bring us to far into the tundra on her 4-wheeler because she was going to look for tundra tea.  

Tundra Tea

Kipnuk!

Of course we said yes!  We drove for half an hour or so bumping along on the tundra until the tea was so dense I could smell it!  I told her that we were close cause I could smell it and she was very impressed!  LOL  As we were picking tea I got a phone call from another teacher informing me that there was going to be a seal party in 15 minutes!  I told the student that I was with and the woman that was driving us that there was a seal party in 15 minutes and we all jumped on the 4-wheeler and booked it back into town.  I was almost thrown off a few times but managed to stay on.  I also figured out that when we got stuck I could just hang my leg off the side and push off the ground and that would help us get unstuck!  The tricks of the tundra!  

Women gathering for the seal party

We made it to the seal party just in time!  One of the teacher's sons had caught his first seal!  So family celebrating buys a ton of stuff and invites the all of the women of the village over to their house.  They find someplace where they can stand above everything else and throw the things that they have bought at the crowd!  What an experience!  40 or 50 women fighting over things flying in the air.  They threw everything from hair ties and q-tips to 5 gallon buckets and metal ladles!  One of the teachers got hit in the head with a few things.  I learned that at a seal party (also known as a throwing party) you never look away from the throwers.  Usually there were several people throwing at the same time too!  So crazy!

AND... it looks like I'm going to get to go to Tooksook Bay for the Blackberry Festival next weekend!