Share My Alaska Experience: Cama-i

Hello Everyone!

I'm sure many of you think that I had forgotten about you. Not true! I have been busy with a lot of different things and my mind has been in so many different places. Thankfully, everything has been resolved and I can let you all know what the new plan is.

I have officially transferred to the high school in Bethel for next year. Regretfully, I will be leaving Kipnuk :-( which I will miss dearly but I will be back to visit often :-) I'm not sure where I will live but I'm sure something will work out.

Also, my mom will be visiting on our spring break. We hope to spend a few days in Anchorage and then I hope to show her around Bethel and Kipnuk. It should be a fun time... we're hoping for good weather.

Last night I got back from Bethel. The district paid for the new teachers to go to Cama-i which is a Yup'ik dance (yuraq) festival that is held in Bethel every year. Dance groups from villages all over the region attend and dance throughout the weekend. There were also many vendors there selling beautiful Yup'ik Crafts. I bought a Qiviut Smoke Ring which is a cowl made of musk ox. It is beautiful and incredibly soft. In the words of one of the teachers that felt it "it's like feeling a cloud". LOL!

I had a great weekend visiting friends, watching the dancing, and buys beautiful things :-) Here are a few pictures that I took of some of the Mekoryuk and Quinhagak Dancers.

Mekoryuk Dancer

Mekoryuk Drummers

Mekoryuk Dancer - most dancers wore gloves if they weren't holding dance fans.

Quinhagak Dancers - men usually dance on their knees

Quinhagak Dancer in traditional Yu'pik head dress, kuspak, mukluks, and dance fans

I'll end with the story of my flight to Bethel. I hadn't seen Baby Girl and Ethan in awhile because they had been in Bethel so after school got out I went over to their house to visit while I waited for my flight which was supposed to leave at 6 and get me into Bethel at 6:40 p.m. 20 to 5 we hear over the VHF that the Era night flight will be there in 20 minutes. Great! I think. The flight will be ontime and I will be able to see go to Cama-i for a little while that night. Hahaha! Yeah right! After waiting by my phone to hear from the Era Agent I finally called to see if I needed to head to the airport. I was told that all the Kass'aqs were put on the second flight and that I would hear back as soon as my flight was close. Alright... no problem. If there is a second flight it usually gets to Bethel quicker anyways because it goes straight there instead of making an additional stop. An hour passes and around 6:40 I hear on the VHF that the second Era flight is 20 minutes out. Wasn't hoping for the long wait but at least the flight flew. I impatiently wait by my phone hoping my agent will call. I don't want to bother them because I already called once but finally I give in to my impulses and call. No one answers. Great! Do I go the airport and stand outside and freeze hoping I'm supposed to be on this flight or do I stay in the warmth of the house and potentially miss my flight? I decided to call Hutson (another teacher who is going into Bethel too and is good friends with the agent). He tells me that he was given the job of telling all the Kass'aqs that our flight was coming in and he had forgotten about me. Great! That was 15 minutes ago. Luckily, the Martin's are a wonderful family and take care of me very well and Dolly volunteered to give me a ride to the airport on the 4-wheel :-) Thanks, Dolly for saving the day!

I wish that was the end of my story but it isn't. After saying goodbye to Dolly I got on the plane okay but when we took off I noticed that we weren't taking our usual route to Bethel and were not headed to Chefornak, another common stop on our route, either. I wondered where we were headed. We finally landed at what I recognized as Tunt. We taxied to their airport where we found nothing and no one. Usually there are packages waiting or people waiting. We knew all of us on the plane were going to Bethel so no one was getting off the plane. The pilots waited a solid minute... looked around and then started taxing back down the runway and took off. Then they banked around Tunt and landed again... only in bush Alaska! Thankfully, as we taxied to the airport again someone emerged from behind the building. We picked them up and finally arrived in Bethel around 8:30. It's always an adventure :-)