Trip 3 - Day 20: A day of Food

Maqinermi (On Saturday)

Nothing much really happened today. I woke up and did some writing for the sake of writing. I did some reading because why not. I went over to the internet and talked to J and re-downloaded a video game which thankfully the internet was able to do. After leaving J I returned home and played the video game until my computer died because there are no outlets upstairs. So, I read and fell asleep. That is all. That is all that happened.

Agasanermi (On Sunday)

Today was nothing out of the ordinary, but I've eaten more food today than I have in the past three weeks combined. I woke up and went to church went was fun. On my way home I ran into a couple skinning a seal which was caught last night, they had already removed all of the meat but were in the process of removing the blubber from the skin. The blubber is about 2 inches thick. So they had caught a Mukluk “bearded seal,” but they told me there are four types of seal they hunt out here; (1) Mukluk “bearded seal,” (2) Nayiq “Spotted seal,” (3) Issuriq (I hear her say iguriq, but...) is either Ring seal or the other type, and (4) some other word for the remaining type. The lady using the uluq “skinning knife/woman's knife” didn't remember the last type or which kind of seal it is. She told me that what they catch in the river is given back to the river and what is caught on land is given back to the land. So last night they took the guts not used, flippers, head and throw them back with prayers for the seal to return fatter next year. Over night the blood drains. Then the next day they skin it. They use the skin, fat, heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, and meat at least. After talking to these guys I head back and spent some time playing a video game I downloaded and reading. I went to use the internet and ran into the science teacher who offered me lunch to which I agreed. She cooked homemade bread and gnocchi and fried some nayiq that had been given to her. Nayiq is delicious but has salty, fishy overtones to the meat. I was then invited by the councilor to join him and some other teachers for dinner later, so I talked to J then went over there. We had spaghetti and they also had bratwursts. And cookies for desert. Good conversations, good food, good new friends, a possible new place to stay so I wont get locked out ever, and a possible lead or two for my work. Then I headed back home. Once I got there I found that the lady I talked to earlier had also brought me dinner. So she brought me rice and green beans. And Mukluk. She baked (you can bake, boil, or fry it) her mukluk and gave me a potion of the heart, flipper, kidney, blubber, and meat. It was even more delicious! Mukluk is what I remember from last summer and I still love it. It does not have the seafood overtones, its meaty and tastes more like deer, I mean it does not taste like that and its hard to describe what it tastes like, but deer is as close as I can get. The heart was pretty good, the meat was wonderful, the fat was better than most fat I've tried, it falls apart in your mouth. The flipper was chewier but still good. The kidney was very dense and not my favorite especially because of the... artery/tube/something thing running through it. So ultimately delicious and wonderful and I am very grateful for her kindness in thinking of me and bringing over some fresh mukluk and different bits of the mukluk for me! And so that was my day and my meals. All in all, pretty full day.

Piurra!