I have had an amazing and eventful last couple of weeks. There is so much going on my memory is starting to fade haha
Well I guess I'll start off by telling you all about my ride to the hot springs. If you can recall my blog about Rosemary than you can kind of picture how far I had to travel to go to the hot springs. It's only 10 miles but it takes over an hour to get there by 4wheeler. The trail is rough… very rough. I would say there is maybe 2 miles of trail thats ok and not too bumpy but the rest is filled with eroded paths and dangerous trail that threatens to tip your 4hweeler over and makes you hang on for dear life.
It's getting colder in Elim these days. The ride up to the hot springs was a bit chilly. Even with gloves my hands were cold driving. The fall colors were an absolute treat to see. Before I got this 4wheeler I never realized how much I was really missing out on in the Bush. There are so many cool places to go and see and the views are just astonishing!
Anyway, I went to the hot springs with Amanda, Gus, Michelle and Levi. The same people I traveled with to Rosemary about a month ago. It's crazy how much the land has changed in such a short time. The blueberry fields have turned brown, the blackberries and cranberries were still out, but dwindling. The fireweed has turned brown and many trees and bushes orange and brown as well. Sometimes I look out and my brain tries to tell me that its November or late October. There's that chill in the air, that fall feeling and the clean, fresh, cold air hits your nose and you can just smell fall. Elim has had lows in the 30's already. There has been frost on the ground and few fall storms a brewing in the Bering Sea. It's a beautiful time of year.. but also saddening because I know that our wonderful, WARM summer is already fading away.
Now back to the hot springs. This time in order to get to the hot springs we had to cross 3 rivers. One river thats not so bad to cross and then the Moses river, which runs all the way out to Moses Point. This river splits in two and so therefore you must cross it twice. The water is much deeper and for a split second I almost thought we'd be carried away. As the smoke rose up from my 4hweeler from the ever rising water I screamed to Amanda "lets go! let's go!" My hands shaking, I realized we survived. Needless to say we had many moments such as this on this journey into the bush. There were several moments where I had to stop, turn the engine off and just take a break and breath. I could have sworn I was going to have a heart attack climbing back up the hill from hot springs. I 'm just a silly gussuk of a woman… trying my best to ride these rough trails and not freak out haha
This week at school was long. We have a lot going on lately with our new curriculum, goal setting, assessments, mandatory trainings and never ending staff meetings. This week was also my last week of coaching XCountry. On top of everything I got sick last week and had a sore throat and stayed home on Thursday. I got word that my cross country team would be leaving to fly to Noorvik on Friday morning and that I would need another sub to cover me. I got up super early, packed my bags, organized the kids and their permission slips, packed up our gear and overnight items and we took off to wait for the plane. After a few minutes of sitting there we realized that something was just not right. We called the school and they confirmed that we had been told the wrong flight time and actually we'd be leaving Sat. morning instead. So, after all that work, sub plans and running around nonsense, I had to go back to school and work … oooof
Noorvik was a really great time. There were all of the schools in our region there. My boys raced against 82 other high school boys and our best runner placed 32nd out of 82. Not too bad if you ask me. The boys were just excited to be there and I was excited to be with them as well. I even ran with them for warm ups… hell must have frozen over or something hahahha
Noorvik was colder than Elim. There was snow visible on the mountains. The people there are all really nice. They always ask where you're from and they cheer your team on which is nice. The pilot who took us to Noorvik was actually from Hungary. He started talking and we all started laughing. I asked him how in the heck he ended up here. He said he could ask me that same question. Fair enough, fair enough… well played sir.
Today was exceptionally great. The morning started out really lazy. The weather is beautiful here and the sun was shining all day today after a fairly large storm late last night. I told myself that if I don't get out of the house and go for a walk with my dog I might as well be called the laziest person alive. Mark, Amanda and I, plus our two dogs, went on a walk down and back the whole beach. We sat on the rocks for a bit and relaxed. There's nothing better in the world than the sun shining on your face and cool breeze blowing in from the water. As we were headed back I noticed that there was a little commotion on the beach. Some people had started driving up talking to some men in a boat. I heard them say that they had caught some beluga in a net and that they were going back to get them. I told my teacher friends and some of us headed down to the beach to watch them bring the beluga in. To my surprise we actually got to help pull in the beluga. There were 5 total that were pulled in. One was lost on the way in and got unattached from the net when they were being drug in.
How can I explain this to you…. it was phenomenal. It was amazing. I absolutely love the culture of this place and the spirt of the people here in Elim. It was so surreal. We watched a huge amount of people gather at the beach to help pull the beluga in. It was really a big event. The kids were all going nuts. I'm sitting here like "aww what a beautiful creature" and the kids are over there punching the beluga and walking on it and jumping over it and poking it… very strange but that's curiosity for ya. I was able to touch the beluga for myself. They feel very cool, squishier than I thought they would feel.
There were two big ropes and people from who were down at the beach were able to grab some rope on one side or the other and pull. We worked together as a team and from the guidance of one of the elders we heaved and hoed the belugas onto shore. Boy, were were sure laughing. Pulling 4 beluga onto the shore is not an easy job to do. They are a lot heavier then they look. I had to turn to Amanda at one point and say, "can you really believe it? There are really whales here in front of us. We really just pulled them in.." Very surreal. I truly live an awesome life.
One of the ladies in our village was cutting pieces from the whales tale to give to kids and adults to eat. They call it mungtuk. They gave me a little piece and I chewed and chewed but it did not go over well with me. It smells sort of fishy but doesn't really taste like much. The texture is what will get you. As I was chewing I just couldn't help but think that I was eating beluga whale right, fresh out of the sea. Freaked me out a bit I must say.
We stayed for a while and watched them lay out the tarps to get ready to cut. They started cutting up the first beluga and it was really interesting. They cut it right across the bottom and then make vertical cuts in slabs across the whale's body. They pull the slabs off the whale and then you can just see the bare meat and muscle of the whale after they have pulled off the slabs of skin and blubber. They also cut the black meat off the whale to eat and then they flip the whale over and start again on the other side of it. The smell is like something out of this world…. even fresh it affected me. We watched for a bit and then headed home. I did not stay to see all 5 whales stripped down.
All in all it was a really great and interesting experience to be a part of. I am blessed and overjoyed to be here. I just can't believe that I get to be a part of all this. How many people get to see the things I do? I am one lucky lady.
Pictures posted below. Animal lovers VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED
On the way to the hot springs
Do not look below this if you have a weak stomach….
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