New Years Poems

Sunrise:	8:39 AM AST
Sunset:	3:30 PM AST

19F Mostly cloudy


A Navajo poem, via Josef Olsen on a spirituality walk through Totem Park.

As I Walk with Beauty

As I walk, as I walk

The universe is walking with me

In beauty it walks before me

In beauty it walks behind me

In beauty it walks below me

In beauty it walks above me

Beauty is on every side

As I walk, I walk with Beauty.

Inspired by the poem above, I wrote the poem below with love for my JV Sitka community:

Our Journey Together

We journey on a muddy rooted path.

Rain falls indiscriminately,

on us,

on verdant moss,

on the red flesh of decomposing stumps,
seeping deep into the humus

like breath into our hungry lungs.

I look ahead and beauty walks before me:

under a red hood, under a black jacket.

I turn around to see how beauty walks behind me:

in swishing navy blue, in robin hood green.

To my left are cedars, trees that know

just where we are.

To my right is the mountain that knows

just where we are going:

Up the path together, with hope for a view

Of the world

Just,

As it should be.


Our most recent spirituality night we came up with New Years resolutions under the categories of Personal (I want to camp outdoors in a tent overnight here in Alaska), Spiritual (I want to experience a sweat lodge), Kitchen Concoction (I want to cook a four dish veggie meal without burning anything), and Community (I want to do an energy fast. More on this when we do it!). I'm looking forward to all of these- I'll keep you posted on how they go.

Merry Christmas!

Sunrise:	8:39 AM AST
Sunset:	3:22 PM AST

34F Sunny in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon.

Merry Christmas from Sitka!

The photo above is of Meg, Whitney and me on our winter wonderland hike two weeks ago when our male housemates were out of town. The three mountains in the background are the Three Sisters that I can see from my office window-- we decided to adopt a Sister each. :)

So. Christmas season as a JV in Sitka; the paucity of recent posts may be proof of the business of the season, but that may indeed be universal. Yesterday afternoon I was standing over the sink, doing dishes, listening to Charlie Brown Christmas music and wistfully reflecting. 

How is Christmas different this year? Let me count the ways.

1. I'm in charge of the side dishes for Christmas dinner. Eeeep.

2. My housemates and I hand made most of our presents, and the wrapping paper (crooked candy canes galore! All these crafts bring back my childhood, it's fantastic.) 

3. It snowed on Christmas Eve. :D I now wear long underwear like it's a second skin.

4. This past week I've been skating outdoors on the beautiful Swan Lake (about the size of three football fields) under the clear starry sky framed by snow capped mountain peaks.  They put up a big Stadium style light so we can skate after the sun sets (at 3:15ish, mind you). I love what a community activity it is: parents pulling their infants around in sleds, people skating with their dogs, friends tossing around hockey pucks. Every time I've gone skating some of my friends have been their, enjoying the "rink" while the freezing clear weather holds. 

5.  At Midnight Mass last night, the entrance hymn had an extra accidental "practice run" until they realized the priest wasn't ready, so they got to do it again. 6. Most of my Christmas wish list came from REI. 

7. I'm not with my biological family, but with four wonderful people that I have come to love like siblings. 

8. We have a real Christmas tree! Hand cut by Josef and Andrew the legal distance off the Crosstrail.  Apparently we're turning a blind eye to the environmental impact of "topping" a tree in a National Forest. Hrmmm. Not a shining JV moment, but I guess an example of how when you're living in a community, the value for community sometimes out weighs other values like environmental social justice.

One thing that has remained the same is how much Christmas music makes the season for me. A brass ensemble comprised of members of the San Francisco, Seattle, Boston Symphonies came for the annual Christmas Brass Concert in Sitka High School's new auditorium. The venue is gorgeous and the brass were fantastic. I was on cloud nine. I felt like I was in a metropolitan area again! And it brought back all my trumpet playing band nerdiness from high school. They even played a quartet I played in high school! I almost jumped from my seat and grabbed one of their horns and joined in. You know I wanted to. But the mambo finale took the cake, and after bopping in my seat the whole song, I swore to myself that I would get to know the organizer of the concert. He also organizes the Sitka Fine Arts Camp every summer. This town is small, but it contains some amazing cultural gems.

I hope Christmas day is lit by simple love with friends and family. Peace be with you all!

Polar Dip 2008

It’s in the twenties today, and Sitkans are officially crazy. Annually, Sitkans gather at a boat ramp on Japonski Island, strip down to their bare skin and swimming trunks. Brrrr! En mass, they run to the 40F water for some shock therapy, emerging from their plunge with big grins. Andrew claimed to feel very “rejuvenated.” Here’s a picture of Whitney and Andrew feeling very refreshed.

 Another friend Shari beamed at me in her dripping bikini and gave me a quick run down on hypothermia research conducted by “Dr. Popsicle” at the University of Fairbanks. Funny that would come to her mind at that moment. Our friend David brought his Frisbee into the water with him and tossed it back and forth with his brother. Locals. They keep one-upping us on insanity. 

A Buck

December 12, 2008. Last night was our first snow!

Sunrise:
8:29 AM AST
Sunset:
3:19 PM AST

36F and clear.

A week ago I was outside of my office in the dark, and cold, in a quest for better cellphone reception. What I did find was a buck grazing in the quasi forest behind our office. I was surprised to see it only had one antler and reported this to my coworkers. Well. This got quite the response. As three of us women creeped back outside to investigate my claim, Becky whispered to us that she was particularly interested as she was going hunting that weekend. If the bucks had started losing their antlers already, she had less chance of getting one with a nice big set. Hrm. Hadn't thought to worry about that myself, really. At this point the buck was not facing us and Becky started calling it with this funny kazoo like noise, in attempt to get a better look. It was not having any of it, and and we eventually lost patience squinting at the buck in the darkness and got to chatting about Becky's hunting exploits. Eventually she said something that cracked me up, my laugh startling the buck, and his head whipped our direction, uni-antlered and everything.
So. Need a good look at a buck? Tell me a joke and I can turn heads.

Fast forward one week. Over that weekend, Becky has gotten her first buck. No antlers on this one, but the crazy thing is, she made Fox News online for it. Check it out at the link below. Ha!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,465144,00.html

Journey to Yakutat

December 9th and 10th I had the opportunity to travel to the fishing town of Yakutat, AK.  Our agency is setting up substance abuse services there and I was sent to create connections with the Yakutat magistrate and police. 

Yakutat is one of the farthest north towns in Southeast Alaska: its weather is slightly colder, and even in the summer the population is only a third the population of Sitka. Without the draw of summer fishing, the winter population is further dwindled to 550. However, before Russian colonization, it was a commercial hub at the crux of many rivers. Sitkan mountains are around 2,000-3,000tf, but Mt. Elias looms behind Yakutat at an impressive 18,000 ft. The biggest surprise for me was that Yakutat is becoming a surfing mecca, with surfers coming from far and wide for the 20ft swells. Sounds like quite a ride if you can take the chill. I was a little disappointed the ocean was calmer than that when we were there.

After hearing my housemate Meg's stories of traveling to Angoon for a work trip, I was prepared to expect the unexpected. So sitting in the boarding area at Sitka's airport at 5:30 am and hearing an announcement that the weather in Juneau may result in our being rerouted through Ketchikan and Anchorage to get to Yakutat, I took a deep breath and got ready for what life was offering us that day: 13 hours of flying. 

7 flights--from Sitka to:

Juneau, whoops, nope-- the visibility is too poor, not Juneau. 

We are then rerouted to Ketchikan,

Wrangell

St Petersburg

Anchorage

Cordova 

Juneau again

and finally, Yakutat.

Phew. 

Fortunately I had my journal, Collections of Poems by Wendell Berry, and a nice deficiency of sleep to keep me in dream land.  

The Tribal Social Services were our hosts and are our partners in service delivery in Yakutat. The women that work there are very committed to their community and wonderfully hospitable. I was amused that our plane got in almost an hour early, but since Cindy heard the plane fly in, she came on over to the airport to welcome us. On our way to the apartment we stopped at one of the two grocery stores for dinner (no restaurants-- unless you count the bar).

I got to explore a little bit in the morning. The town is more raw and industrial than Sitka. Four wheelers, miles and miles of roads (originally laid down for the logging business)....  My favorite part was visiting the beach during our lunch break. Beautiful, open, black sand beach. If it wasn't for the chill and hail I could have been in northern California. 

I left truly hoping that our agency can provide the substance abuse services needed for that community. However, the time and monetary cost of the journey there and back is considerable, so if its not us, someone else. The importance of having someone that is local providing behavioral health services is something we've been discussing since our trip and hopefully a local person can be hired. I don't think I will be returning to Yakutat soon, but I'm thankful for the glimpse into small town southeastern Alaskan life. Sitka has never seemed such a booming metropolis.

Kuspuks!

In October, Sharon, invited us over to a friend’s house to learn to cut out a pattern to make a Kuspuk. Beautiful calicos spread smooth, the slice, slice sound of the shears… the seamstress Rachel was cutting the shapes of the pieces from memory, sizing things relative to basic lengths like the length of the arm, and from shoulder to hip. I reminded me of watching and helping my mother sew… so imagine my joy when Rachel offered to teach us how to sew our own if we brought our own fabric.
What’s a Kuspuk? It’s a traditional Inupiat summer top, approximately like a sweatshirt with front pockets and hood, but with a little frill skirt around the bottom. and made out of calico or cotton and . I first saw one at Jesuit Volunteer Corps Orientation, worn by our Alaska area director, Sarah Kinsel. Here in Sitka, the dominant native tradition is Tlingit, different from the native groups of central and western Alaska. The only Kuspuks seen in Sitka are worn by the Mt Edgecumbe Native Alaskan boarding school students. Many Mt. Edgecumbe students are from Yupik, Inupiat, and Aleutian backgrounds and wear them proudly. I'm hoping I'm using quasi-correct terms here, I'm probably not, please forgive me.

The time spent creating the kuspuks was very pleasant. Rachel is very hospitable, and a good teacher. I don't think I'll quit my day job, though. Meg was a pro, and I'm absolutely certain my sister would have taken to sewing the kuspuks like a wiz, but I'll admit I got a little flustered when time and time again I kept forgetting to put the sewing pedal down to secure the material and the needle. Fortunately, Rachel was very patient with me.

The most priceless gift of our time sewing was a little nugget of wisdom Rachel shared with us. When I sewed the trim on my hood I realized that my stitch meandered wave-like across the trim, and I got a little sad that I hadn't been more careful. Rachel heard my squawking and assured me that every native artist leaves a mistake on purpose, to show it was made by a human, not a machine. I made sure to leave lots of mistakes all over the kuspuk, just in case anyone was wondering if I am human or not.


I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and got many compliments when I wore it to work on Monday. I also got many comments on the color. The fabric I chose is a pink Indonesian batik fabric with ribbon trim, not native alaskan at all. I don't think anyone has ever seen a pink kuspuk before, and I know I have never seen a blonde person wearing one (though I'm sure I'm not the first). So in my our own way, we've given birth to a modern Alaskan creation, and have made some good friendships in the process.

Gogo JVs??? Oh no....

Well, Meaghan Elizabeth Baier and Eileen Clare Sisk are the last JV’s standing in Sitka—our housemates are taking early holiday trips to visit family before we all hunker down to celebrate Christmas together here in Sitka. Meg and I had lots planned to do together this weekend to keep from dwelling too much on how much we missed them, but little did we know how exciting it would get. Or how embarrassing!

Tonight it was the monthly grind that brought new excitement into our lives—this week when we ran into the Grind organizer and asked how we could help as volunteers, he replied, “Oh, great! You guys can help model the wearable art!” and proceeded to introduce us to the wearable art designer from Ketchikan. She sized us up, asked us if we owned any gogo boots, and told us to meet her the next day to try on the hip huggers for size. For some reason, the words “No thanks, actually, I have some self-pride to preserve,” had slipped my mind... too bad. Our fate was set.



So tonight as the Grind commenced, Meg and I stood at the back looking out over the audience of 100 fellow Sitkans, counting how many coworkers and friends we were about to make total fools of ourselves in front of. As one of them put it after the show, they were about to “see a totally different side” of us. Ah yes. So imagine some great disco music in the background, accented with clapping and cheers, and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. One important note: the "fabric" is made out of wonder bread bags. It was wonderful to say the least, har har...

You know you live in Rural Southeast Alaska if:

1. You have a running shopping list for your next trip "Down South."
2. Your brother comes to visit and accuses you of sounding like Sarah Palin.
3. A central piece of a December dinner is fish you helped catch in August. You love this refrigerator magnet: "Mad cow. Happy salmon."
4. Your biggest household pest is mold fed by the condensation pooling on your windowsills.
5. Your coworker hangs her rainjacket on a set of antlers- from a buck she shot herself.
6. Your body practically purrs under the strange blue glow of the Seasonal Affective Disorder light.
7. Getting ready to leave the office at 3:30pm to run an errand involves pulling on rainpants, wool socks, neoprene boots, rainjacket, your hat and helmet, waterproof gloves, and most importantly, a bright red blinky blinky light so no one runs into you on the pitch dark dirt road you will be biking down.
8. Avocadoes are worth their weight in gold.
9. You ask for Smart Wool socks for Christmas. You may have even opened this Christmas present early because you are so excited about them.
10. Opening your front door to see the morning light hit the misty mountains and harbor takes your breath away, time and time again.