Delays.

Well,

It is 8am Alaska time. I'm awake. We're staying at the condo of a friend of the ministry, Arctic Barnabas. They are the ones who are coordinating this trip in the Alaska bush. Specifically Craig is the one who is coordinating it. He works for Arctic Barnabas. Arctic Barnabas is a ministry based about 90 miles south of here in Kenai (90 miles as the crow flies, but 140 miles if you want to drive it on roads). They support the pastors that are in the Bush. This trip fits into what they do because it builds great goodwill in the community, and they coordinate these shows with the pastor in the village and the pastor gets the benefit of this goodwill. They need "all the goodwill they can get, often." I don't remember the percentages, exactly, but the villages are mostly native and the pastors are mostly white.

They are treated perfectly well, I guess, but typically it takes longer to become A PART of the community. I guess there was a pastor once who died in the village, and he was elevated to sainthood among the people there. You can live us, fine, was the sentiment, but until you are willing to die with us, you aren't one of us. Which, actually, seems reasonable to me. So Arctic Barnabas supports these pastors in any way they can.

He is going to be going on this trip with us. So are two girls from the Covenant denomination. I think they received a grant, which is partially funding this trip, the chartered plane, etc. Jessica and.… I'll have to update her name later.

We were supposed to meet them this morning when we flew out at 9am to go to Unalakeet for the first show, but both Bob's and my dad's flights were delayed. My dad got in this morning at 2:30am finally, but Bob is supposed to arrive at 12:50 this afternoon.

So, it looks like we'll have to cancel one of the day’s events. We'll push Monday to Tuesday, and then probably cancel Tuesday's village. This was an INCREDIBLY hard decision for Craig who has been coordinating this whole thing. Which village do we NOT go to? But you can't do five events in four days.

Craig said he has been really trying to nail down the details for this week. Places, times, meals, etc. But he cannot seem to do it. Things keep changing and some of the things are just hard to nail down for sure, I guess. The upside of this is that when they went to a few villages two years ago (I think I have the time right?) the villages were VERY understanding if weather changed there plans, or if they were late, or if they had to cancel, or if they showed up and they weren't expecting them.

One of the specific things that changed is that Craig was told, "there is no way that Golovin is going to state." But it turns out that Golovin's highschool volleyball team IS going to state. Way to go Golovin! But THAT means that out of the 20 or so kids that go to the secondary school there, that 14 of them will for sure be gone because they are on the volleyball team. So that may make it difficult to do an assembly there. But, who knows, maybe if 14 kids are on the volleyball team, and a few more fine a way to tag along, and here are only a couple of kids left. Maybe those kids REALLY need to hear Bob's message.

Anyway, so if you could pray about scheduling, and that Bob actually does get here today, that there are no more delays.

I'll post what USED to be our schedule, and make notes to it.

Last night Craig and I had dinner with Clara and Scott two friends of Bob from the last time he was up here. It was really wonderful. They are great people and helped me get a good sense of "what a white girl should know going into the villages."

Of course we talked about how we may get Gusek food when we get up there (see Glossary of Terms below) and we may get native food. If we DO get native food, it would be considered a special treat. And whatever you do, do not snub your nose at it, as this would be highly insulting. Which, really again, is just common sense. This is true of so many cultures. I think that is true even in white America, but we're just so willing to be rude to our mother's, or someone else's poor mother that we say, "Oh, ew, no. yuck."

Granted, steamed spinach seems somewhat mild compared to muktuk or white fish and seal oil, or... stink fish? Is that what it is called? It is a dish that, so I hear, even people who LOVE IT and smack their lips at the idea of it, still can't stand the smell of it.

Scott loves most of the native dishes. He goes back for seconds. It was really fun to hear him talk about the food. I'm actually ecstatic that we may eat some native food. I'd be disappointed otherwise. I love to eat local food.

We also talked about which villages were Honey Bucket Villages and how, don't worry, the schools all have running water.

So far I've met two pilots (ok, one is a former pilot, but he WAS one, and he will be again once has some extra time on his hands), two commercial fishermen (ok, one was a woman), and three people with freezer's full of salmon they caught themselves. And I've only met three people so far.

Granted, this is slightly above the average for Alaska but hunting (or even just owning a gun), fishing, and flying these are all very common activities here.


8:45 am. The sun is nowhere near rising. When I arrived yesterday at 3:45 pm, it was twilight.

This is getting to be more and more random as I keep remembering details to include.... I should run. I may post more before we leave our internet today. I hope to be able to keep posting, since the schools should all have internet access.


Glossary of Terms:

Alaskan bush/ the bush: Anything that doesn't have roads to it. There may be roads between one small village and another. People may use snow machines in the winter to go to a closer village. Sometimes people travel via the waterways in the summer. But primarily you fly in and out, or you don't go anywhere.

A gusek: The native word for a white man.

muktuk: Whale blubber.

honey bucket: a five-gallon bucket with a garbage bag inside and toilet seat on the top.

honey bucket village: Villages without running water.