We had one of the local guys, Jonathan, take us out in his boat. We've said this before, and it perhaps is more true of this than of some of our other experiences, but the pictures simply do not do it justice. Speeding along in our little motorboat, flanked by mountains on both sides that stretch endlessly to the horizon, as far as our eyes are able to make them out in the distance, the sky stunning, the air clear and fresh and whipping our hair all about, the experience was exhilarating, the scenery beautiful.
We boated a couple of miles down the river to where Jonathan said were some of the best holes for salmon. We started by fishing from shore, but we ended up getting more snags than bites.
I have this reputation among my family as the bear magnet, a distinction I maintain with pride. While I haven't seen any bear yet, I have come across sign, including this set of tracks here along the river bank. I also saw a fisher, a pair of eagles, and a beaver on this trip.
We got back in the boat and anchored offshore. It wasn't long before Brad had three or four nice salmon. Finally, I felt a gentle tug on my line. I set the hook and suddenly my pole was alive, quivering, bent almost in half. I was able to reel the fish in alongside the boat, where Jonathan was able to bring it aboard.
These fish are about 30" long and are too long to lay flat in the 20 gallon tubs we brought.
After securing the salmon, I told Jonathan that it was the biggest fish I've ever caught. He proceeded to give me a puzzled look and then laughed. It was hard for him to believe that fish are not as large and plentiful everywhere as they are in Alaska.
These panoramic shots come the closest to capturing the awe of the views up here.
The proud owner of a pair of Alaskan silver salmon.
In about a 45 minute stretch, I ended up with 5 salmon on my line. I managed to reel in 4 alongside the boat, but we were only able to get two safely aboard. The 5th salmon I had on took my lure, half of my line and cracked my new pole in a brief two or three second struggle. A few minutes later, a massive fish began jumping about 20 feet in front of our boat- and to our amazement we saw my lure in its mouth! This fish was so large that it never fully surfaced when it jumped- even Jonathan said it was a pretty big fish. I yelled at the fish for mocking me and tried to catch it again for the next half hour or so, but we never did see that fish again.
This is Ben, who is also new at Rocky Mountain School, taking over the 3rd and 4th grade classroom. We all had a great time fishing and I think we entertained Jonathan pretty well as he spent most of his time laughing. He said that we were the first teachers he has ever taken fishing. We responded: "Hopefully not the last!"
At one point, we got caught in a pretty heavy downpour. This rainbow extended unbroken from horizon to horizon. It was so big we couldn't get the whole thing in one shot. But it was pretty awesome to see.
Salmon in the fridge. We cut the fish in half, wrapped them in garbage bags, and put them in the freezer.
The next day, we decided to try to make fireweed jelly. Fireweed grows everywhere here in Goodnews; there are fields and fields of it across the tundra. We heard that another new teacher in Nepakiak was planning on making fireweed jelly, and we thought that sounded fun, so we ordered our jars and pectin and started collecting blossoms.
Getting enough blossoms to make jelly is a tedious process. You first have to cut off the tops of the fireweed plant where the blossoms are and collect enough to fill a garbage bag about 1/4 of the way full. Then, each blossom needs to be picked off the tops. We boiled the blossoms in water to make fireweed tea, a brew that was at one time quite popular here.
Lots of sugar and some pectin later....the final product.
The color is a pinkish purple; we were surprised by how tasty it is, too! Much better than grape jelly.
We also experienced our first funeral here in Goodnews. We were told by many since taking these jobs that bush villages will shut down whenever someone dies and that often, the funeral will take place at the school. At least for this funeral, we found most of that to be true. The funeral was scheduled for 2 PM this past Thursday at the church; accordingly, we let our students out early after lunch at 12:45. There are many instances of students missing school for non-academic related issues, but more on that in another post.
Even the store shut down for the funeral.
After the funeral, which lasted about 2 1/2 hours, and included elders telling stories in Yupik about the deceased, everyone relocated to the school gym for a potluck feast. A number of the teachers ended up serving for the feast, which included many traditional Yupik dishes.
This is the famous "Eskimo Ice Cream," better known up here as its Yupik name, Akutaq. It is made with crowberries and includes crisco and sometimes fish. The first few bites were a little bitter (it is not sweet like ice cream is), but once the palate adjusts, it's actually pretty good. Everybody here loves akutaq. It's probably the most popular native dish.
I didn't catch the name of this dish, but it is comprised of herring eggs on kelp. It was actually pretty good, and tasted like the ocean.
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