Trip 3 - Days 16-17

Aipiritmi (On Tuesday)

Well, the freeze has begun. There's about 6-12 feet of ice on each bank of the river now. It's getting colder and colder, Even these guys have begun to put on Coats. I'm excited to see the Yukon (Kwikpaq “big river” or “Yukon”) freeze over.

Not much really happened today. I called some elders and got the same 'Oh we're really busy, call you back later” excuses. Huh, huh. But I did talk to one new elder who was excited to hear from me and said what I was doing was important, but he can't really walk so if I can find a way across the river to where he lives I'd be more than welcome! So the hunt for a boat and a willing driver is on.

Otherwise, I finished my book, went to the school, did grant stuff and talked to J. Played solitaire. Bed.

Pingasiritmi (On Wednesday)

The river is still freezing but not as much ice anymore, most of it is flowing down with the current. They keep saying that the river is taking longer and longer to freeze. I Think its only partially due to the weather but also to the boats. These new motor boats make a big wake behind them and people stay out hunting on the river as long as they can. So every time a boat goes by the wake washes up onto the ice along the banks and causes stress fractures and the ice breaks apart and thus even though its cold enough for the river to be freezing, between the current and the boats it takes longer now days. This wouldn't have been a problem when Kayaks (Qayaq “Kayak.SG” Qayak “kayak.DU” Qayat “Kayak.PL”) or other wooden, paddle powered boats (angsaq “boat.SG”) were still being used. But all of the little creeks have completely frozen over and the water has stopped flowing from the main river (Kwik “river”) to the lakes which have also frozen over.

As such I took a hike along the banks of the river today, where I usually can't walk because its to muddy and swampy. Its really quite pretty. The ice is still paper thin and crystal clear and its a bit frightening to walk on in some places. There's ravens and small birds flying all over the place and some white birds which have migrated over from Russia for a short period. Thus everybody is out in camouflage with rifles and heading out to hunt as its easier to walk on the tundra now, its moose season, and these new birds are hanging around. I don't know when these kids actually go to school, the teachers are there but sometimes I wonder if they ever have any students...

I met another elder-ish guy and talked to him. His grandfather was a polyglot and spoke a bunch of languages so we talked about Kotlik Yugtun and how it is different and we talked about his time in the war (sounded like WWII, but he doesn't look that old) and the Aleutian campaign against the Japanese and His service in Europe. I gave him my card and told him to call me and that I would like to work with him sometime on the language. So again here's to hoping. I stopped by another elder's house whose son last week said “yea yea we'll call you next week” but still hasn't. But they didn't answer the door or were out. I did find a guy who is willing to give me a ride across the river tomorrow though, which is exciting! So tomorrow afternoon I'll be headed across the river to work with my first elder, who's at least somewhat interested in this work!

The rest of my day is routine so you can probably guess at what I am going to do. I just have a new linguistics book to read! Well, Never mind, I'll be doing dinner with the science teacher here in a moment and she's making Moose-burgers and fries! So definitely excited for that! And then back to normal

Piurra!