Saturday, August 18, 2012

I can't believe that it was just a week ago that I arrived in Kipnuk!!!  Everyone has been so welcoming and I have come to know so much about this village that it feels as though I have been here for months!  So crazy!

We finally got a taste of coastal weather today.  It was overcast and windy all day today and rained on and off.  The grass is beautiful when the wind is blowing though.  Everyone from Kipnuk has been telling me that their entire summer has been like this.  They only had a week or so of summer, which just happened to be the first week we were here.  I am so lucky that my rain boots arrived yesterday.   I would have been stranded without them!  Today was mostly a lazy day with the weather being so dreary.  A few of us ventured outside to make a trip to the post.  We tried to take the main road but realized that it was flooded.  The walking boards were underwater and the mud suck you in at times if you aren't careful so we walked all the way around the village to get to the post.  I was almost blown off of the boardwalk a few times on the way there the wind was so strong!  Even just walking to the post can be an adventure!

I forgot to mention yesterday that on Fridays the students get to leave after lunch so we usually eat lunch with them so we can spend some time getting to know them outside of the classroom.  A few of the students that I ate lunch with told me about the "mountains"... they are only 700 ft tall... that are close to Kipnuk.  They were telling me about the little people that live there.  They are demons that will take you and keep you for years and you will never know it.  They said that if you ever travel in the tundra or around the mountains you have to always leave something outside your tent for them or they will come into your tent and take you.  Another teacher was jokingly asking questions about the little people and my students very seriously said that you should never joke about them or they will come and get you.  I think the combination of folklore and Western religion... the Moravian church has a very strong presence in the community... is very interesting.  Kipnuk seems to be a place where the past lingers and the present slows.  Almost everyone in the village speaks both Yu'pik and English, goes to church but also believes in folklore, goes to the clinic when they are sick but also take traditional remedies.  It is such an interesting place.  So different than what I am used to.  And you wouldn't believe how nice it is to be able to wake up and look out the window and not see ANY concrete!  I love it!

My last subject for the night... WE GOT TO MAQII (steam) tonight!  What a relaxing experience.  The women usually Maqii first and then the men do.  Since no one in the village has running water except the teachers and school all of the villagers maqii instead of shower.  An extended family will usually share a Maqii (steam house) which is separate from their house. There are two parts of a maqii, the outer room which is where you keep clothes, towels, and toiletries and the inner steam room.

The out buildings in front of the houses are maqii (steam houses).

Maqii is a time for rest and reflection.  It usually happens in cycles.  Everyone begins in the steam room at the same time.  Someone pours the water onto the lava rocks to make it hotter.  With each pour it gets hotter... and I mean HOT!  Much more intense than the saunas we have in the Lower 48.  Once you can't take the heat anymore you leave the inner room and go sit in outer room until eventually everyone comes out.  Usually us kass'aqs are the first to leave.  Once everyone comes out, we all go back in.  This usually happens 3 or 4 times and then you bring your wash basin and toiletries with you and bathe.  When you're done you are relaxed and clean and ready for an amazing nights sleep :-)  GOOD NIGHT!