Kotlik R2D2 (lol)

Waqaa!

I know I said yesterday that it was warm, warmer than I remember Kotlik to be, well today, today I take that back. I woke up this morning snug in my warm sleeping bag but knowing that when I crawled out it would be freezing. Looking out the window it was cloudy and overcast but still daytime. After much contemplation on staying warm and in bed for forever I eventually got up and started my day.

Unfortunately today was not a very eventful day, perhaps it was the cold, perhaps it was the clouds, maybe its that the internet is down and I have no phone service, but you need days like that sometimes especially when you have the weight of an impending project looming over head and still have to set up times to sit down and risk boring the elders with lots of nitpicky questions before letting them tell their stories. Maybe I’ll ask them to tell stories first. But then if they go on too long I wont be able to ask my questions and what will I have to show for my grant money… ah questions. Questions, the things everyone tells you to ask, no one wants to answer, and I always have too many of.

Anyways I began the day by going to the store to buy food, and wow is food expensive in Kotlik, forget about the prices in Hawaii, Kotlik is double that. On my way I stopped and talked to several people I knew from last year and met some new people and talked to them about what I am doing here. The people are still as nice as I remember them being and love to joke around, but as I am obviously an outsider I still get asked, “what are you doing here?” by everyone I meet and multiple times by the kids.

After lunch I pulled out my GPS device and began walking around the village making waypoints at various intervals (i.e. randomly but “edge of town,” “school,” ect…). There really was no point to this activity except to do it and figure out how the GPS worked and how to get it to know I was in Alaska and not Hawaii. Eventually I would like to do some map work with the elders and mark points of interest, or where stories take place, or how they interact with the land, but that may not happen or not happen extensively on this trip, but eventually.

I think I spotted nusurtarlicungaq but he didn’t recognize me if I did, and if that was nusurtarlicungaq then wow has he grown! He was following some other people around so I didn’t get to go up to him today but I’ll find him again. There are also a couple of new and really cute puppies in town and a lot of really fluffy and beautiful dogs that have grown up since last year. I really need to get a husky they are just so awesome.

Other than that I read a bit of my book, which started to put me to sleep (it is actually an interesting book though), so I pulled up my recordings from last summer and continued my work with those files and notes in preparation for this summer. And then began working on figuring out what I want to ask for my first session with the elders this summer. But I’ll talk about what my goals and objectives are for this trip another day because they are really cool but a bit more complex and directed than my more general goals last year.

So that was pretty much my day, it seems the main power just went off again, so I’m going to go make dinner and then read in the dark!

Piuraa!