Looking back

I have been back in Fairbanks for a while now and keep thinking a lot about my experience in Noorvik.

The visit was really enlightening, I had some idea of what life was like in rural Alaska before, but now I have the first hand knowledge what life is like there.

What stands out was how warm and inviting the students and staff at the Noorvik school were.

Every time we walked down the hall, or down the street kids would come up to us curious to ask us questions or show us things.

The teachers were just as graceful opening up their classrooms for us and answering all our questions even the silly ones with a smile.

Life in Noorvik was different from what it is in the "big" city of Fairbanks. The best and the worst with life in there it is a small close knit community, everybody knows one another, you can walk from one end of town to the other 20 minutes.

The size and the location is also the challenging thing. Jobs are hard to come by, supplies are expensive and unfortunately some of the students struggled with challenging family life.

But still what stands out are the warm welcomes that we got, once again thanks one and all that made us so welcome!

ORV-IAN-OTZ-OME-ANC-FAI

Finally on the way back after having to spend the night in Anchorage. 25 hours to travel from one spot in Alaska to another, yeah!

Lesson on Bush travel

This trip has been full of learning experiences.

This morning we had another one, this one was on bush travel.

It goes like this: the plane that is supposed to be here at 11:05 will land and go again at 10:00, when the airline office tells you first, no no it is on schedule, expect the next conversation to be oh, it is gone already and then when the agent tells you, oh it will stop again on the way back from the next village and pick you up, that means it will go straight to the hub and not stop here at all!

So there we were two sad students standing out on the frozen runway with the ravens eating the newly arrived groceries...

Trying to reschedule, but we probably won't make it back until tomorrow.

Moon over Noorvik

Took one last walk through town, interesting just walking alone.
The sun was setting, the ravens were calling, dogs howling in the
distance.

Got really cold with the wind, feel like those pictures
capture what was going on.

Basketball obsession

If there is one thing that the kids here like, it is basketball. The gym is open before school and it is full of kids playing basketball. It is open during brakes, and it is full of kids playing basketball, it is open during lunch and it is full of kids playing basket ball. There is open gym at night and it full, well you guessed it kids playing basket ball!

























I even talked to a kid that taking an additional year as a senior more or less to play on the team.

Like the saying goes, practice makes perfect, the kids are incredibly good as is evident in Noorvik winning a number of state championships through the years for both boys and girls.

I had a great time playing even though I got my butt kicked; those 6th grade girls know what they are doing.

At least I got selected for the team, first it was we’ll take the old guy, but after a while it was we’ll take the tall guy, that is improvement right?

Student of the Week Assembly

Hey those guys should not be in kindergarten any more!

Animal, vegetable, miracle

In Icelandic there is a special term "matarás", that would translate to food love, that is you love somebody for the food they give you!

Here it is the two ladies in the cafeteria, give us double servings without asking and today we were running late so they sent out a messenger to fetch us so we would not go without.

Thanks!