(It's not really that cold, but that's a common expression around here, and lyrics to an old song...)
Well, it's been more than a month since I wrote anything here. Spring has come to Nome, kind of. It was 26*F today, but 17 yesterday. It is still snowing and the Bering Sea is still covered with ice.
The sun came up at 6:33 this morning. It will go down at 11:29. So we're getting about 17 hours of daylight, and the summer solstice is still almost two months away...
Temperatures were above freezing for a couple of days because of cloud cover during a really stormy weekend, so that actually cleared snow from parts of the street and revealed pot holes and puddles. Most of the streets are dirt, but it's not really dirt even. It's more like walking on a thick, muddy sponge. I hadn't really seen the ground since October.
They call it "break-up" when the snow and ice melts for spring. I'm not sure how long it lasts, but so far it is worse than winter -- more wet and less consistent. I miss walking on solid, even dirt.
I see in the national news every day that gasoline prices are reaching record highs across the nation -- up around $4/gallon in some places. It has been twice that high in the villages in Alaska for years. I guess somehow Alaska doesn't count as part of the nation when they talk about statistics and rising costs. Milk here is around $6/gallon, and has been since I got here in September. When we hear the Lower-48 lament on ABC National Radio News it is kind of funny, and kind of insulting.
***
In other news, I got a part-time job at the Nome Youth Facility -- it's the juvenile detention center in town. So I start on-the-job training this weekend.
At KNOM we have a call-in show on Thursday called Sounding Board. We take turns choosing a topic and hosting the show. It is on a 7-second delay in case a caller slanders anyone. I hosted the show last week. The subject was Bypass Mail -- one of those peculiar things we have in Alaska -- where mail carriers can fly mail straight from sender to recipient, bypassing the post office. Anyway, they're thinking about changing some mail hubs, which could change who gets money for shipments, and some people are up-in-arms. We got a caller from St. George. It is an island WAY down south, about 700 miles.
That's like someone in Seattle listening to a radio station in Sacramento, California.
***
A couple of recent news headlines from around Alaska:
"Without Running Water, Illness Rates Soar, CDC Finds"
(A lot of villages lack running water and sewer. The study says, basically, if you don't wash, you get sick... thanks for the tip CDC. I can see why they pay you guys so much)
"Avalanche knocks out hydro power"
(Juneau -- Alaska's capitol city -- lost all it's hydro power and is on back-up diesel generators. Repairs will take at least three months. It's causing all sorts of environmental issues, and the rate is going from 12 to 56 cents per kilowatt-hour. Electricity use has already dropped 30 percent. Just shows how much power we probably use when we don't have to...)
***
Our neighbor, Sarah Hanson, had her CD release over the weekend. You can find her songs on iTunes. She was born in Nome, went to WWU, lived in Fairbanks, and is back in Nome. Really good stuff. One of my roommates also has a song on the CD, and opened for Sarah on Sunday.
***
I took part in a short story writing contest on Saturday. They e-mail contestants the story theme or idea on Saturday morning, and writers have until Sunday morning to submit a story, so naturally it wasn't my best work ever.
Well that's about all I have for now. Sorry it has been so long since I wrote last.
Take care and God bless,
Jacob
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
All Alaska Sweepstakes turns 100
In about an hour, the All Alaska Sweepstakes Sled Dog Race will end, and either Mitch Seavey or Jeff King will have set a new record.
The record was last set in 1910 when "Iron Man" John Johnson finished the race from Nome to Candle and back in 72 hours 14 minutes. This year, the winning time will be about 60 hours -- quite a difference...
This is the commemorative centennial running of the Sweepstakes. The last time it happened was in 1983.
I have posted two stories about the race on the Alaska Public Radio Network Web site, to keep the state up-to-date on the mushers' progress. 16 mushers started the race on Wednesday morning. The roster is basically a who's-who of champion dog sled racers...
The Sweepstakes is a winner-take-all, $100,000 race. The Web site is www.allalaskasweepstakes.org
Here are the links to my stories on APRN:
Thursday's story
Friday's story
I will post photos later.
The record was last set in 1910 when "Iron Man" John Johnson finished the race from Nome to Candle and back in 72 hours 14 minutes. This year, the winning time will be about 60 hours -- quite a difference...
This is the commemorative centennial running of the Sweepstakes. The last time it happened was in 1983.
I have posted two stories about the race on the Alaska Public Radio Network Web site, to keep the state up-to-date on the mushers' progress. 16 mushers started the race on Wednesday morning. The roster is basically a who's-who of champion dog sled racers...
The Sweepstakes is a winner-take-all, $100,000 race. The Web site is www.allalaskasweepstakes.org
Here are the links to my stories on APRN:
Thursday's story
Friday's story
I will post photos later.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Iditarod 2008
Howdy,
I haven't posted in more than a month.
Quite a bit has happened, I guess. I've been out hunting for ptarmigan a few times, but still unsuccessful. The best hunting is in the early Fall and Spring, and it takes a couple hours to walk out to the spots with decent hunting.
We are currently in "Iditarod mode" at KNOM. I work 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Kristina works from 10 to 10 during the day, and Laura and Dave work 10 to 10 overnight. Lance Mackey won the Iditarod this year, for the second time in a row. Last year he was the first musher to ever win the Yukon Quest and and Iditarod in the same year. He did it again this year, so it was pretty exciting. Here is a video of the finish. It was at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday:
I do my regular duties for the news department in the morning, then I'm on duty to interview mushers as they come into town. It has been pretty exciting, but exhausting too.
I have been starting work at 6 a.m. instead of 9:30 since the race started on March 1st. Paul and Amy were on the trail following the mushers, so I had to make sure we had enough news for our casts every day.
At the house, a couple of different people loaned us snowmachines for a while last month. So I got to actually leave the city limits without being in an airplane. It had been a while. We went a few miles out onto the sea ice, and we saw a fox that was caught in a snare. It hadn't died yet and was bleeding and stumbling around, so that was kind of sad to see.
And my parents came up to visit in February. It was nice to have them around. They ended up cooking and cleaning for us, but they also got to see Nome and experience the "thrift store fashion show on Saturday night."
I will keep the posts more regular from now on. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to. Earlier this week when I was out hunting, I saw the back of what I think was a moose moving through the brush away from me. I got some pictures of the tracks and droppings, but I never got a better look. The tracks led up the frozen river:
I'm such a bad hunter that I'm just going to start saying I'm "hiking with my shotgun." At least the scenery isn't half bad (minus the rusted-out machinery near the airport).
I still haven't killed anything with my Mossberg, but there's a big difference in power between #4 birdshot in a 3-inch Remington Nitro Magnum, and #7 1/2 birdshot in a 2 3/4-inch Federal shell.
I haven't posted in more than a month.
Quite a bit has happened, I guess. I've been out hunting for ptarmigan a few times, but still unsuccessful. The best hunting is in the early Fall and Spring, and it takes a couple hours to walk out to the spots with decent hunting.
We are currently in "Iditarod mode" at KNOM. I work 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Kristina works from 10 to 10 during the day, and Laura and Dave work 10 to 10 overnight. Lance Mackey won the Iditarod this year, for the second time in a row. Last year he was the first musher to ever win the Yukon Quest and and Iditarod in the same year. He did it again this year, so it was pretty exciting. Here is a video of the finish. It was at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday:
I do my regular duties for the news department in the morning, then I'm on duty to interview mushers as they come into town. It has been pretty exciting, but exhausting too.
I have been starting work at 6 a.m. instead of 9:30 since the race started on March 1st. Paul and Amy were on the trail following the mushers, so I had to make sure we had enough news for our casts every day.
At the house, a couple of different people loaned us snowmachines for a while last month. So I got to actually leave the city limits without being in an airplane. It had been a while. We went a few miles out onto the sea ice, and we saw a fox that was caught in a snare. It hadn't died yet and was bleeding and stumbling around, so that was kind of sad to see.
And my parents came up to visit in February. It was nice to have them around. They ended up cooking and cleaning for us, but they also got to see Nome and experience the "thrift store fashion show on Saturday night."
I will keep the posts more regular from now on. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to. Earlier this week when I was out hunting, I saw the back of what I think was a moose moving through the brush away from me. I got some pictures of the tracks and droppings, but I never got a better look. The tracks led up the frozen river:
I'm such a bad hunter that I'm just going to start saying I'm "hiking with my shotgun." At least the scenery isn't half bad (minus the rusted-out machinery near the airport).
I still haven't killed anything with my Mossberg, but there's a big difference in power between #4 birdshot in a 3-inch Remington Nitro Magnum, and #7 1/2 birdshot in a 2 3/4-inch Federal shell.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Island Life
Savoonga, Alaska, population 642
Gambell, Alaska, population 646
According to the last census
I just made another village trip this week, to St. Lawrence Island between Alaska and Russia. Those are the two biggest communities. Googlemap can give you a pretty good perspective. The Bering Strait School District includes quite a few of the communities in the region, and they had a board meeting on the island on Tuesday, so KNOM decided to send me out on Bering Air. I was happy for the chance to get out of Nome!
I'll try to put up some pictures when the internet connection cooperates. I had some time to walk around in each of the villages. In Savoonga I met a man named Julian at the village "gas station." It's the bulk community fuel storage farm. He carved ivory and told me he grew up in Savoonga and didn't want to leave any more. He must have been more than 50 years old. Said the last time he was in Anchorage was 4 years ago, and he said he was the only person around the village who had been to Spain. He said it was in 1975. I didn't ask why he made the trip.
I didn't see a single car or truck on the island. There's no need for them. Everyone gets around on snowmachines and 4-wheelers.
I caught a glimpse of a fox running by outside the school, but I didn't realize what it was until I was talking to the school board members at lunch and they mentioned that a fox had been living under the school.
In Gambell I climbed a little bluff that overlooked the village. Then I climbed down, walked across the village, found the IRA and interviewed the general manager, then walked out the other side and down to the beach. I looked at my watch, and it was a little more than an hour.
Every few minutes someone would come by on a 4-wheeler and ask if I needed a ride, who I was, what brought me to Gambell. I told one man my name was Jacob and I worked for KNOM. He said, "Jacob Buckenmeyer! Yeah, I know all of you from the radio." Then he asked me why some people weren't on the radio any more. Mostly past volunteers I didn't know.
I met Edwin. He was one of about seven or eight men on 4-wheelers circling the village coast with their rifles looking for seals. The water isn't completely frozen over on the shore, and big chunks and floes are moving through the current. I saw birds, and Edwin tried to point out a seal, but he knows what to look for I guess. Said he was 33. Took his first polar bear when he was 22, with a 7mm. He was carying a .338 Ruger and let me take a shot at a bird on the water. No luck. He said if I waited long enough I might see a walrus. He said he's seen the weather change over the years -- "global warming," he says, "is for real." Good guy.
Later I took a ride back to the school with a man who said someone spotted a polar bear out on the ice. Said he hoped it would come in off the ice by tomorrow where someone could take it. As soon as we got back to the school I checked in with the flight agent to see what time my flight was coming in, then started walking out toward the beach again.
I spotted four or five men on snowmachines and 4-wheelers speaking Siberian Yup'ik (I think that's what it was). One was standing up and his hands were covered in blood. The others were looking out at the water, talking. I stood apart for a few minutes, then moved down for a better look. The man was cleaning a small seal, but he was just finishing up. I could see a small pile of bright red with what looked like a spine. On the side he had set apart two sides of meat. Later he came over and introduced himself: Nikolai. Said he came from "over there" and motioned toward the mountains of Russia across the water. Moved here 12 years ago and now had 5 kids, I think, he said. It was well below zero, but still a warm day for the island this time of year. Nikolai cleaned the seal with bare hands and rinsed the blood in the water.
So I never saw the bear. I told them I'd heard they saw one, and then laughed and said, "Now we've heard that from you!" I waited around, then headed back to the school and waited for my plane.
Another man took me out to the airport when the agent called the school to say my flight was getting close. As I was putting my bag in the back, one of the members of the school board -- a Native man named Aaron -- said good bye and joked that he would give me my "Eskimo name." He conferred with a woman standing by and then said, "Awkmalook" I'm not sure if that's how you spell it, but it sounds like "awk-MAW-luke." He said it means "One who wears a backpack," because I had my big pack on all day, back and forth across the village.
So then I got on the plane, fell asleep and woke up in Nome. Two days, two villages, and back to Nome.
Gambell, Alaska, population 646
According to the last census
I just made another village trip this week, to St. Lawrence Island between Alaska and Russia. Those are the two biggest communities. Googlemap can give you a pretty good perspective. The Bering Strait School District includes quite a few of the communities in the region, and they had a board meeting on the island on Tuesday, so KNOM decided to send me out on Bering Air. I was happy for the chance to get out of Nome!
I'll try to put up some pictures when the internet connection cooperates. I had some time to walk around in each of the villages. In Savoonga I met a man named Julian at the village "gas station." It's the bulk community fuel storage farm. He carved ivory and told me he grew up in Savoonga and didn't want to leave any more. He must have been more than 50 years old. Said the last time he was in Anchorage was 4 years ago, and he said he was the only person around the village who had been to Spain. He said it was in 1975. I didn't ask why he made the trip.
I didn't see a single car or truck on the island. There's no need for them. Everyone gets around on snowmachines and 4-wheelers.
I caught a glimpse of a fox running by outside the school, but I didn't realize what it was until I was talking to the school board members at lunch and they mentioned that a fox had been living under the school.
In Gambell I climbed a little bluff that overlooked the village. Then I climbed down, walked across the village, found the IRA and interviewed the general manager, then walked out the other side and down to the beach. I looked at my watch, and it was a little more than an hour.
Every few minutes someone would come by on a 4-wheeler and ask if I needed a ride, who I was, what brought me to Gambell. I told one man my name was Jacob and I worked for KNOM. He said, "Jacob Buckenmeyer! Yeah, I know all of you from the radio." Then he asked me why some people weren't on the radio any more. Mostly past volunteers I didn't know.
I met Edwin. He was one of about seven or eight men on 4-wheelers circling the village coast with their rifles looking for seals. The water isn't completely frozen over on the shore, and big chunks and floes are moving through the current. I saw birds, and Edwin tried to point out a seal, but he knows what to look for I guess. Said he was 33. Took his first polar bear when he was 22, with a 7mm. He was carying a .338 Ruger and let me take a shot at a bird on the water. No luck. He said if I waited long enough I might see a walrus. He said he's seen the weather change over the years -- "global warming," he says, "is for real." Good guy.
Later I took a ride back to the school with a man who said someone spotted a polar bear out on the ice. Said he hoped it would come in off the ice by tomorrow where someone could take it. As soon as we got back to the school I checked in with the flight agent to see what time my flight was coming in, then started walking out toward the beach again.
I spotted four or five men on snowmachines and 4-wheelers speaking Siberian Yup'ik (I think that's what it was). One was standing up and his hands were covered in blood. The others were looking out at the water, talking. I stood apart for a few minutes, then moved down for a better look. The man was cleaning a small seal, but he was just finishing up. I could see a small pile of bright red with what looked like a spine. On the side he had set apart two sides of meat. Later he came over and introduced himself: Nikolai. Said he came from "over there" and motioned toward the mountains of Russia across the water. Moved here 12 years ago and now had 5 kids, I think, he said. It was well below zero, but still a warm day for the island this time of year. Nikolai cleaned the seal with bare hands and rinsed the blood in the water.
So I never saw the bear. I told them I'd heard they saw one, and then laughed and said, "Now we've heard that from you!" I waited around, then headed back to the school and waited for my plane.
Another man took me out to the airport when the agent called the school to say my flight was getting close. As I was putting my bag in the back, one of the members of the school board -- a Native man named Aaron -- said good bye and joked that he would give me my "Eskimo name." He conferred with a woman standing by and then said, "Awkmalook" I'm not sure if that's how you spell it, but it sounds like "awk-MAW-luke." He said it means "One who wears a backpack," because I had my big pack on all day, back and forth across the village.
So then I got on the plane, fell asleep and woke up in Nome. Two days, two villages, and back to Nome.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Like clubbing baby seals
The temperature rose to 30 degrees, then fell to -20 in less than 30 hours earlier this week during a blizzard. The Nome police chief came in to the station a few times that day to give the public live updates. Then in order to repair the power lines, then had to shut off power to Icy View (a "suburb" of Nome) for a couple hours. Not very serious, unless you depend on electricity for heat, and to keep your water pipes from freezing...
I walked out on the Bering Sea (Norton Sound, to be more specific), and I took a video, but can't find the two hours or so it would take to upload it here.
The first big sled dog race of the season happened last weekend: the Kuskokwim 300 from Bethel up North of Aniak and back. That was when temperatures were up around 34, and the dogs were pretty much swimming.
Two big air carriers are merging in Alaska: Frontier Flying Service and Hageland Aviation. KNOM broke the story last week, and then we ran a followup story with audio this week. APRN picked it up, so I'm on statewide radio again!
Have a listen: http://aprn.org/2008/01/24/
Scroll down the page to "Merger to Create New Alaskan Aviation Service"
Another story on that page talks about how some hunters want to bring back the practice of killing wolf pups in their dens. Sounds pretty horrible, but it's supposed to sustain moose and caribou populations as well as keep the wolf population from getting so high that they run out of food. Pretty controversial, especially now with advertisements in DC subway stations aimed at ending the aerial wolf-kill program:
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/291477.html
Some of the other traditional wolf control techniques include wiping blood on a knife and sticking it upside-down in the ground: the wolf comes along and starts licking the blood off the knife, cuts its tongue, keeps licking, and bleeds to death through its mouth.
That's the brief overview for now. I'll have more soon. It's a busy time of year at KNOM. Thanks for your prayers. I hope all is well.
Take care and God bless,
Jacob
I walked out on the Bering Sea (Norton Sound, to be more specific), and I took a video, but can't find the two hours or so it would take to upload it here.
The first big sled dog race of the season happened last weekend: the Kuskokwim 300 from Bethel up North of Aniak and back. That was when temperatures were up around 34, and the dogs were pretty much swimming.
Two big air carriers are merging in Alaska: Frontier Flying Service and Hageland Aviation. KNOM broke the story last week, and then we ran a followup story with audio this week. APRN picked it up, so I'm on statewide radio again!
Have a listen: http://aprn.org/2008/01/24/
Scroll down the page to "Merger to Create New Alaskan Aviation Service"
Another story on that page talks about how some hunters want to bring back the practice of killing wolf pups in their dens. Sounds pretty horrible, but it's supposed to sustain moose and caribou populations as well as keep the wolf population from getting so high that they run out of food. Pretty controversial, especially now with advertisements in DC subway stations aimed at ending the aerial wolf-kill program:
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/291477.html
Some of the other traditional wolf control techniques include wiping blood on a knife and sticking it upside-down in the ground: the wolf comes along and starts licking the blood off the knife, cuts its tongue, keeps licking, and bleeds to death through its mouth.
That's the brief overview for now. I'll have more soon. It's a busy time of year at KNOM. Thanks for your prayers. I hope all is well.
Take care and God bless,
Jacob
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Nome in 2008
It's been a while since I posted; Happy New Year!
I'm kind of sitting down to write this without having anything to write about. What a way to start 2008...
Well, here's the update on my life for now: the holidays went well for me, I had at least a couple of days off each week, so tomorrow begins my first full week since mid-December. It seems like a long time ago, so I'll have to get used to 40 hours a week again. The winter solstice on Dec. 22nd marked the end of my third month in Nome -- one quarter of my year here.
Sled dog season is underway. That means we'll be busy here at KNOM. A lot of the races pass through or end in Nome. The season will peak in mid-March (I suppose) with the Iditarod. I've been out walking and shooting in the tundra on my days off, and I've seen mushers and their dog teams working out. I've also seen them out on the Bering Sea -- it's completely frozen now I think. At least frozen enough. I haven't worked up enough courage to actually step out onto the Bering Sea. But I'm working on it...
The temperature is below zero pretty regularly now. Every now and then it warms up to 15 or 20 above, but today it was minus 13 and I went for a jog (my first in almost a year). My snot was frozen, and so were my lungs, by the time I got back.
We're gaining about 3 minutes of daylight every day now, but it's getting colder, so I spend a lot of time inside, in front of the television. That's getting old fast, so I'm finally starting to read again. I'm remembering how much I like it. I bought "Mila 18" by Leon Uris at a used book sale. It's just as good as "Exodus" and "Trinity." Any book by him comes highly recommended from me. Good historical fiction, and he does his research.
One of the news stories I'm following now deals with the Bethel Police Department. They're down to three (3) officers now. Bethel is the tenth largest city in Alaska (pop. 6,000) and they budget for 12 officers. The ones who are left are working 12-hour days, six or seven days a week.
I may have omitted an event from one of my previous posts:
The City of Nome recently abated some structures in the area. For one house in particular they gave the owners until April to clean it up or have it condemned. It doesn't always have running water, and people are always moving in and out.
So I was walking at around 10:30 one night in early December, and swung by that house. I heard yelling, and a girl about my age came out screaming and ran down the street with a much larger woman calling after her. I gave her some space, until she calmed down, then I approached her and asked if she was OK. We ended up walking around town for an hour or so just talking. Said she was from Anchorage, it was her 21st birthday and she just found out that she was adopted, and her sister hit her.
I'm not sure how much of it was true, but just another of the interesting experiences I'm having in Nome. I should have written about it sooner; I've forgotten the details.
I'm afraid that's all I have. It's been fairly quiet here I suppose. I promise to walk out on the Bering Sea before I write next; wish me luck!
Jacob
I'm kind of sitting down to write this without having anything to write about. What a way to start 2008...
Well, here's the update on my life for now: the holidays went well for me, I had at least a couple of days off each week, so tomorrow begins my first full week since mid-December. It seems like a long time ago, so I'll have to get used to 40 hours a week again. The winter solstice on Dec. 22nd marked the end of my third month in Nome -- one quarter of my year here.
Sled dog season is underway. That means we'll be busy here at KNOM. A lot of the races pass through or end in Nome. The season will peak in mid-March (I suppose) with the Iditarod. I've been out walking and shooting in the tundra on my days off, and I've seen mushers and their dog teams working out. I've also seen them out on the Bering Sea -- it's completely frozen now I think. At least frozen enough. I haven't worked up enough courage to actually step out onto the Bering Sea. But I'm working on it...
The temperature is below zero pretty regularly now. Every now and then it warms up to 15 or 20 above, but today it was minus 13 and I went for a jog (my first in almost a year). My snot was frozen, and so were my lungs, by the time I got back.
We're gaining about 3 minutes of daylight every day now, but it's getting colder, so I spend a lot of time inside, in front of the television. That's getting old fast, so I'm finally starting to read again. I'm remembering how much I like it. I bought "Mila 18" by Leon Uris at a used book sale. It's just as good as "Exodus" and "Trinity." Any book by him comes highly recommended from me. Good historical fiction, and he does his research.
One of the news stories I'm following now deals with the Bethel Police Department. They're down to three (3) officers now. Bethel is the tenth largest city in Alaska (pop. 6,000) and they budget for 12 officers. The ones who are left are working 12-hour days, six or seven days a week.
I may have omitted an event from one of my previous posts:
The City of Nome recently abated some structures in the area. For one house in particular they gave the owners until April to clean it up or have it condemned. It doesn't always have running water, and people are always moving in and out.
So I was walking at around 10:30 one night in early December, and swung by that house. I heard yelling, and a girl about my age came out screaming and ran down the street with a much larger woman calling after her. I gave her some space, until she calmed down, then I approached her and asked if she was OK. We ended up walking around town for an hour or so just talking. Said she was from Anchorage, it was her 21st birthday and she just found out that she was adopted, and her sister hit her.
I'm not sure how much of it was true, but just another of the interesting experiences I'm having in Nome. I should have written about it sooner; I've forgotten the details.
I'm afraid that's all I have. It's been fairly quiet here I suppose. I promise to walk out on the Bering Sea before I write next; wish me luck!
Jacob
Friday, December 21, 2007
More videos and some photos from my Black Hawk flight into St. Michael, AK on Wed. December 19, 2007.
It was quite an experience. Kristina flew in the Black Hawk on Tuesday to Buckland, and on Thursday, Laura flew to Shishmaref...
We got a little closer to the ground a couple times, but we mostly stayed at about 500 to 2000 feet, I think...
These kids were all related: grandkids of the woman whose hand is in the upper-right corner. Tyler is the bearded man in the background. He plays a mean guitar and lays out the ads for the Nome Nugget, our weekly newspaper, so he came along and took some photos...
Quite the view from the side seat in the Black Hawk...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Black Hawk
So, earlier today I went for a ride in a Black Hawk helicopter. We left the National Guard hangar in Nome at around 10:30 this morning and got into the village of St. Michael just after sunrise at about 12:25.
I'll be posting some more videos this week, but this one is of the approach and landing at St. Michael. The trip was part of the National Guard's annual "Operation Santa Claus" in which they collect donations of clothes and toys and fly them in the Black Hawk out to remote villages for the kids.
I'll let this video do the talking. I have much more. I'll post it this week:
I'll be posting some more videos this week, but this one is of the approach and landing at St. Michael. The trip was part of the National Guard's annual "Operation Santa Claus" in which they collect donations of clothes and toys and fly them in the Black Hawk out to remote villages for the kids.
I'll let this video do the talking. I have much more. I'll post it this week:
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Bering Sea, December 7, 2007
Greetings from Nome.
Some of you got a chance to listen to my "news radio voice." Don't feel bad if I sound different, even my roommates have been telling me I sound different when I'm on the air. It's still a work in progress...
The weather warmed up a while back. It was in the mid-30s during the day, and it rained, then froze at night. So a lot of the snow was washed away and replaced by smooth, solid ice. Then it got back down to -12 with wind chill and poured snow, so everything is just about back to normal... yeah, normal.
My prayers are with everyone in Western Washington. With I-5 shut down, the storms there were the number one story on the ABC national radio news broadcast we play here.
Last weekend was the Firemen's Carnival in Nome. Each year the Nome Volunteer Fire Department holds one fundraiser. They raffle off a snow machine, Alaska Airline tickets, an ounce of gold, heating fuel, and a number of other items at one dollar a ticket. I think they sold 25,000 tickets this year. They had bingo at a dollar per card, and a 10-dollar plate of ribs. The Rec Center was packed. Somebody told me they violated the fire code.
We had winds gusting to 65 mph last week, and the internet didn't work. Neither did cable TV. So when I got home I finished reading "The Impossible Journey of Earnest Shackleton." It's the true story of his crew's struggle to survive after their trip to Antarctica goes wrong in 1914. Good book.
Then at around 1 am I knew I'd fall asleep if I went upstairs to pray my rosary, so I took it for a walk. I walked along Front Street out toward Nome-Council Hwy. East of town and watched the waves rolling in from the Bering Sea. It was high tide and I could see just the shadows of the waves before they rose up and broke on the rocks to send spray up about 12 feet. Orion was on my right to the Southeast, and The Great Bear was Northeast on my left. A guy was walking along the road toward me, and he stopped to ask what I was looking at.
He was a slight native man, probably in his late 50s, missing five or six teeth, and wanted to know if I smoked. I told him I didn't. So we stood there and looked and the waves for a while, and then I asked him about the sea ice and when the sea would freeze over. So we chatted about global warming, or at least Alaskan warming. He said his name was Robert, and a few minutes later he kept walking into town, and I continued out.
I went out that direction again a couple days ago, and the sea is covered with snow. I added a video to the end so you can see for yourself.
We had another fire a couple weeks ago. It was a fuel truck at the mine this time. NovaGold and AMI run the Rock Creek Mine outside of town. Fortunately NVFD put out the fire before the fuel in the truck ignited. Paul and I drove out there, and then the mine security guys led us to a room to sit and wait. Then we left about 20 minutes later. They didn't really like us being there it seemed, but we have our job to do, and they have theirs. If there's a fire in a small community, there will be rumors, and it's our job to set the story straight.
Then two days later a truck tipped over of the road on the way to the mine. They're not getting any breaks up there it seems. A month or so before I got here two miners died in a accident, and last month one died in a house fire.
Father Sean left for the next five weeks, so the only Sacraments we'll be getting until mid-January are the Eucharist at Sunday lay services, and then a Christmas Mass with a guest priest who's coming for that weekend.
I've been experimenting with what's left over of our food before we go to the store next. In a big frying pan: two cans of tuna, one can of corn, one can of green beans, hot sauce to taste. That was my latest recipe, and it didn't turn out too bad.
Alright. That's all for now. I'll write again before the holidays, but Merry Christmas anyway!
Take care and God bless,
Jacob.
Some of you got a chance to listen to my "news radio voice." Don't feel bad if I sound different, even my roommates have been telling me I sound different when I'm on the air. It's still a work in progress...
The weather warmed up a while back. It was in the mid-30s during the day, and it rained, then froze at night. So a lot of the snow was washed away and replaced by smooth, solid ice. Then it got back down to -12 with wind chill and poured snow, so everything is just about back to normal... yeah, normal.
My prayers are with everyone in Western Washington. With I-5 shut down, the storms there were the number one story on the ABC national radio news broadcast we play here.
Last weekend was the Firemen's Carnival in Nome. Each year the Nome Volunteer Fire Department holds one fundraiser. They raffle off a snow machine, Alaska Airline tickets, an ounce of gold, heating fuel, and a number of other items at one dollar a ticket. I think they sold 25,000 tickets this year. They had bingo at a dollar per card, and a 10-dollar plate of ribs. The Rec Center was packed. Somebody told me they violated the fire code.
We had winds gusting to 65 mph last week, and the internet didn't work. Neither did cable TV. So when I got home I finished reading "The Impossible Journey of Earnest Shackleton." It's the true story of his crew's struggle to survive after their trip to Antarctica goes wrong in 1914. Good book.
Then at around 1 am I knew I'd fall asleep if I went upstairs to pray my rosary, so I took it for a walk. I walked along Front Street out toward Nome-Council Hwy. East of town and watched the waves rolling in from the Bering Sea. It was high tide and I could see just the shadows of the waves before they rose up and broke on the rocks to send spray up about 12 feet. Orion was on my right to the Southeast, and The Great Bear was Northeast on my left. A guy was walking along the road toward me, and he stopped to ask what I was looking at.
He was a slight native man, probably in his late 50s, missing five or six teeth, and wanted to know if I smoked. I told him I didn't. So we stood there and looked and the waves for a while, and then I asked him about the sea ice and when the sea would freeze over. So we chatted about global warming, or at least Alaskan warming. He said his name was Robert, and a few minutes later he kept walking into town, and I continued out.
I went out that direction again a couple days ago, and the sea is covered with snow. I added a video to the end so you can see for yourself.
We had another fire a couple weeks ago. It was a fuel truck at the mine this time. NovaGold and AMI run the Rock Creek Mine outside of town. Fortunately NVFD put out the fire before the fuel in the truck ignited. Paul and I drove out there, and then the mine security guys led us to a room to sit and wait. Then we left about 20 minutes later. They didn't really like us being there it seemed, but we have our job to do, and they have theirs. If there's a fire in a small community, there will be rumors, and it's our job to set the story straight.
Then two days later a truck tipped over of the road on the way to the mine. They're not getting any breaks up there it seems. A month or so before I got here two miners died in a accident, and last month one died in a house fire.
Father Sean left for the next five weeks, so the only Sacraments we'll be getting until mid-January are the Eucharist at Sunday lay services, and then a Christmas Mass with a guest priest who's coming for that weekend.
I've been experimenting with what's left over of our food before we go to the store next. In a big frying pan: two cans of tuna, one can of corn, one can of green beans, hot sauce to taste. That was my latest recipe, and it didn't turn out too bad.
Alright. That's all for now. I'll write again before the holidays, but Merry Christmas anyway!
Take care and God bless,
Jacob.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Jacob's Voice Online
You can listen to me online.
Alaska Public Radio Network is the state-wide equivalent of NPR up here, and KNOM is an ex-officio member station. We download their stories now and then, and we contribute when we can.
On Friday I recorded and sent them one of the stories I produced for KNOM. It's about two villages on St. Lawrence Island (maybe THE most isolated in the region, I mean, there's Bush Alaska, and then there's BUSH Alaska on the island...) that are getting wind turbines to offset their fuel consumption.
It's featured in the APRN "Alaska News Nightly" program for "December 3, 2007"
Here's the link. My story plays at about 13:30 into the cast:
http://aprn.org/2007/12/03/alaska-news-nightly-december-3-2007/#more-1475
Enjoy!
Alaska Public Radio Network is the state-wide equivalent of NPR up here, and KNOM is an ex-officio member station. We download their stories now and then, and we contribute when we can.
On Friday I recorded and sent them one of the stories I produced for KNOM. It's about two villages on St. Lawrence Island (maybe THE most isolated in the region, I mean, there's Bush Alaska, and then there's BUSH Alaska on the island...) that are getting wind turbines to offset their fuel consumption.
It's featured in the APRN "Alaska News Nightly" program for "December 3, 2007"
Here's the link. My story plays at about 13:30 into the cast:
http://aprn.org/2007/12/03/alaska-news-nightly-december-3-2007/#more-1475
Enjoy!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
The Real People
After I finished this blog, I figured I'd throw in a recent picture of me... so there you are...
Yup'ik, Inupiaq. Both names for mankind in different Native Alaskan cultures and languages. Both mean "the real people."
Thanksgiving marked the end of my second month living among the real people, and I've been trying to pick up on to the cultural as much as I can. Following are a few random thoughts, verbal snapshots and conjectures, as usual.
Before I came to Nome, a priest who had lived and ministered in Western Alaska for 50 years told me the people's lives here are centered in their hearts. In the modern world he said he noticed that our heads are at the center. But here feelings are often more important than thoughts. Attitude is more important than knowledge.
I recently read of a linguist in Alaska who is struggling to write a dictionary in "Eyak," a native language with only one living speaker. She's 90 years old. Only Central Inupiaq, just one of the 60 Native Alaskan languages, is still spoken by children. All the others will be gone in a generation if nothing changes. The language is the way a culture communicates itself, and it's disappearing.
Stories and presentations here aren't usually linear. Ideas don't move from "Point A" to "Point B" to "Point C." The thoughts flow, and they branch out. Real people expect tangents when they listen. But the tangents are really the meat of the story. Eventually it comes full circle -- in its own time -- and then you realize the tangents weren't a distraction. If you ignore them, you miss the point. Instead of communication tools, they should call them instruments here. And from what I've seen, the stories and their audience are felt so that they draw words from inside the listeners.
In Bush Alaska, the real people live a subsistence lifestyle in a consumer economy. That's the conflict. Hunting for your meat and gathering berries, but to do that you use expensive equipment like a truck, a snowmobile, hunting rifle, refrigerator, motor boat, $5.50/gallon gasoline.
People talk to each other. Strangers and kids here talk to you on the street. Last Friday I was walking through the locker room at the gym. I was the only one there, and an 8-year-old boy walked in from his Tae Kwon Do class and told me it was his birthday. I didn't know him. Then he said someone gave him 10 dollars for his birthday and he spent $1.75 and gave a quarter to his friend. I told him it was my sister's birthday and started to walk away. He said, "Yeah, that means I have eight dollars left over. Maybe seven-seventy-five... Goodbye, I'll see you later."
I have conversations like that every now and then. Maybe it's just the small community, but I don't remember having little chats like that with anybody, even kids, back home. Opening up just makes more sense than ignoring people you don't know. If I told a stranger it was my birthday, I think people would say, "Why should I care?" The answer you can't really give is, "Because I'm your brother. We have these things in common. We're the same. We're both real people."
The stories people tell have conclusions in the middle and at the beginning. They have middles at the end and beginnings in the middle. Somehow it makes sense.
I have a conjecture about public schools. I think one reason so many people drop out of high school is that they don't feel it. I mean if a kid wants to pass high school, he can. But if they don't see the point, then they're not going to do it. The system is supposed to teach kids how to think, not what to think. And maybe even more important is teaching how to feel, how to create, how to be real, I think. It's too many tests of knowledge than don't take a bearing on who we are.
Well that's about all there is to say about that. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. It was great up here; Ric and Lynette had a 25 lb. turkey, a ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, wine, cranberry sauce, five or six pies, all the usuals.
I got my small game hunting license and went out after ptarmigan with no luck on Friday. Then Father called me up and we drove around looking for caribou with his .338 Winchester bolt action. No luck there either, but we did manage to get the parish truck stuck in the snow and had to use the shovel.
Pictures from hunting (I didn't take many; not the kind of shooting I was after...):
I hope all is well, thanks for reading. I've been trying to keep up with everyone as much as possible. Sorry if I haven't been in touch as often as I'd like.
Take care and God bless,
Jacob
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Thanks
Howdy all,
Thanksgiving is next week, and I'll be spending it in Nome. I'll be giving thanks for all of your prayers and to God for bringing me here to the "envy of the third world" to work at possibly the best small organization on the planet.
It's been a while since my last real blog entry. Nome has suffered two residential fires in the last few weeks. One killed a man, and another (Wednesday night) only injured someone. The fatal fire was started by kids playing with a lighter. The other was a candle left burning.
I was in Unalakleet last week, as my video post indicated. I covered an elementary and junior high wrestling tournament and cheerleading contest. As I mentioned in one of my live reports by telephone, standing 12 feet away from 100 elementary and junior high cheerleaders is quite an experience. Physically, I can only describe it as feeling like someone is yelling at you, all day long. Pretty exhausting. But they have great pizza in Unalakleet. Only about 700 people, but better pizza than La Fiama in B'ham. No joke.
"Into the Wild" is coming to Nome this week. So I'm planning on seeing that this weekend. The movie last weekend was "30 days of night." It's set in Barrow, which is way up north (by that I mean, yes, even farther than I am right now). That movie was a joke. No joke.
In other news: I'm famous! Almost. Okay, so really I'm just featured briefly in our newsletter, The Nome Static, for November:
http://www.knom.org/static/507/index.html
Long-time KNOM-er Tom Busch tells me I'm the 295th KNOM volunteer since the station began broadcasting in 1971. He also says that with only a few exceptions, his life has been enriched by each and every volunteer in those 36 years.
I highly recommend applying to volunteer here if you're not sure what you should be doing. Especially if you're interested in one or more of the following: journalism, communications, music, helping people, traveling, Alaska, cold weather, learning new things or seeing new places. If you have a good heart, this is the place for you. Apply and see what happens. I'm telling you.
The artificial harbor is frozen over and the Nome Nugget has pictures of people fishing through the ice. The whole Bering Sea will be ice soon.
I stopped by the Nome Outfitters store today and talked to the guy there about rifles and hunting. He gave me a hunting regulations pamphlet and recommended I take my .410 outside of town where there are ptarmigan and rabbits to be had this time of year. A non-resident hunting license is about 20 bucks for small game. I might just do that if they ever get in a new shipment of .410 shot.
.22 long rifle ammo is about $3.60 per box of 50, and the price is set to go up in the next few weeks. Last time I shopped in WA, it was $0.88.
The sun rose at 10:34 am, set at 4:58 pm. That's six hours and 24 minutes of daylight, a loss of six minutes 21 seconds from yesterday. Nome's RECORD high on November 15 was 36 degrees in 2000, record low was -15 in 1975.
Take care, stay warm and God bless,
Jacob
Thanksgiving is next week, and I'll be spending it in Nome. I'll be giving thanks for all of your prayers and to God for bringing me here to the "envy of the third world" to work at possibly the best small organization on the planet.
It's been a while since my last real blog entry. Nome has suffered two residential fires in the last few weeks. One killed a man, and another (Wednesday night) only injured someone. The fatal fire was started by kids playing with a lighter. The other was a candle left burning.
I was in Unalakleet last week, as my video post indicated. I covered an elementary and junior high wrestling tournament and cheerleading contest. As I mentioned in one of my live reports by telephone, standing 12 feet away from 100 elementary and junior high cheerleaders is quite an experience. Physically, I can only describe it as feeling like someone is yelling at you, all day long. Pretty exhausting. But they have great pizza in Unalakleet. Only about 700 people, but better pizza than La Fiama in B'ham. No joke.
"Into the Wild" is coming to Nome this week. So I'm planning on seeing that this weekend. The movie last weekend was "30 days of night." It's set in Barrow, which is way up north (by that I mean, yes, even farther than I am right now). That movie was a joke. No joke.
In other news: I'm famous! Almost. Okay, so really I'm just featured briefly in our newsletter, The Nome Static, for November:
http://www.knom.org/static/507/index.html
Long-time KNOM-er Tom Busch tells me I'm the 295th KNOM volunteer since the station began broadcasting in 1971. He also says that with only a few exceptions, his life has been enriched by each and every volunteer in those 36 years.
I highly recommend applying to volunteer here if you're not sure what you should be doing. Especially if you're interested in one or more of the following: journalism, communications, music, helping people, traveling, Alaska, cold weather, learning new things or seeing new places. If you have a good heart, this is the place for you. Apply and see what happens. I'm telling you.
The artificial harbor is frozen over and the Nome Nugget has pictures of people fishing through the ice. The whole Bering Sea will be ice soon.
I stopped by the Nome Outfitters store today and talked to the guy there about rifles and hunting. He gave me a hunting regulations pamphlet and recommended I take my .410 outside of town where there are ptarmigan and rabbits to be had this time of year. A non-resident hunting license is about 20 bucks for small game. I might just do that if they ever get in a new shipment of .410 shot.
.22 long rifle ammo is about $3.60 per box of 50, and the price is set to go up in the next few weeks. Last time I shopped in WA, it was $0.88.
The sun rose at 10:34 am, set at 4:58 pm. That's six hours and 24 minutes of daylight, a loss of six minutes 21 seconds from yesterday. Nome's RECORD high on November 15 was 36 degrees in 2000, record low was -15 in 1975.
Take care, stay warm and God bless,
Jacob
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Friends and journalists
To friends and journalists, regarding my present occupation:
Radio is quite a bit different from print media. I read the news live four times every day, so I have three more chances to slander someone than I would have to libel someone working for a daily paper.
On top of slander, there’s also good, ole embarrassment. Today I read a story about sled dogs to our listeners. Unfortunately, it ended up being about a “dead slog” race.
I get five minutes between the last song of the hour and ABC national news at the top of the hour to announce the news. So I’m shortening stories in my head as I read them and hoping they still make sense. If I’m still reading at the top of the hour, ABC starts anyway, and FCC says I have to announce “KNOM, AM-FM, Nome” just before the top.
So it’s always a balancing act and a guessing game of last minute cuts and no take-backs. But that’s kind of nice because I don’t have to see my mistakes in print. I just have to know that everyone heard it real-time in Nome’s two grocery stores and one bank…
We have about 70-90 percent listener-ship. So it’s tough to hide mistakes. I’ve been changing my facial hair every couple weeks so I’m not as obvious around town.
In Western Alaska they LOVE acronyms. Here are a few I read on-air on a regular basis in stories (you may have heard some before, others, I doubt): PFD (this means both personal fund dividend AND personal floatation device here), NVFD (Nome Volunteer Fire Department), BSNC, PPT, ARC, ATV, ACES, (cr)AP – this one was coined by my news director to show his distain for the Associated Press on which we rely for our state news (without getting too deep into it, the AP content here is “garbled, vague and incorrect,” to quote Paul as he showed me around the newsroom. He was right from what I’ve seen. My theory is that the Associated Press sends their worst reporters to Alaska as punishment: stories don’t come across until noon or so, they’re missing information, have buried leads, etc. etc.) – MURK, ANWR, VA, VPSO, LIHEAP (no joke), ANCSA, BLM, BIA, PSP.
I’ve been here a month, and I’m still working on our “Western Alaska pronunciation guide.” Spelling doesn’t matter on-air, I’ve discovered. I’m a master of the pen, so I’m having to adjust.
Tikigak, Anningayou, Aketachunak, Ahnangnaoguk, Angnabooguk, Chmeilewski…
Some of those are places, some are people’s names… I think…
Interviews are easier for me. I’ve always preferred to tape my interviews. Here the phone streams right into the system and I can write down how many seconds have gone by when I hear the quote I want. Then I go back and edit that section for a sound cut in my story. It’s easier than transcribing. Much easier.
I’m going to investing pencils. Pens don’t work in extreme cold, and it’s down consistently to the 20s now.
On the up side, I work for a private, award-winning radio station that is flying me across the bush to all kinds of interesting villages. Everybody is super-cool. It’s a completely laid-back environment, but I’m also constantly aware of my responsibility to “feed” the news folder with new stories. I’m on the school board, land management and alternative energy “beats” so far.
We have four studios from which to control our signal, which is amazing. I'm writing this blog entry on a new MacBook the station purchased for me last month...
Despite the difficulties, I might be converting from print to audio media. One month down, only the next 11 will tell.
Take care and God bless. Jacob.
Radio is quite a bit different from print media. I read the news live four times every day, so I have three more chances to slander someone than I would have to libel someone working for a daily paper.
On top of slander, there’s also good, ole embarrassment. Today I read a story about sled dogs to our listeners. Unfortunately, it ended up being about a “dead slog” race.
I get five minutes between the last song of the hour and ABC national news at the top of the hour to announce the news. So I’m shortening stories in my head as I read them and hoping they still make sense. If I’m still reading at the top of the hour, ABC starts anyway, and FCC says I have to announce “KNOM, AM-FM, Nome” just before the top.
So it’s always a balancing act and a guessing game of last minute cuts and no take-backs. But that’s kind of nice because I don’t have to see my mistakes in print. I just have to know that everyone heard it real-time in Nome’s two grocery stores and one bank…
We have about 70-90 percent listener-ship. So it’s tough to hide mistakes. I’ve been changing my facial hair every couple weeks so I’m not as obvious around town.
In Western Alaska they LOVE acronyms. Here are a few I read on-air on a regular basis in stories (you may have heard some before, others, I doubt): PFD (this means both personal fund dividend AND personal floatation device here), NVFD (Nome Volunteer Fire Department), BSNC, PPT, ARC, ATV, ACES, (cr)AP – this one was coined by my news director to show his distain for the Associated Press on which we rely for our state news (without getting too deep into it, the AP content here is “garbled, vague and incorrect,” to quote Paul as he showed me around the newsroom. He was right from what I’ve seen. My theory is that the Associated Press sends their worst reporters to Alaska as punishment: stories don’t come across until noon or so, they’re missing information, have buried leads, etc. etc.) – MURK, ANWR, VA, VPSO, LIHEAP (no joke), ANCSA, BLM, BIA, PSP.
I’ve been here a month, and I’m still working on our “Western Alaska pronunciation guide.” Spelling doesn’t matter on-air, I’ve discovered. I’m a master of the pen, so I’m having to adjust.
Tikigak, Anningayou, Aketachunak, Ahnangnaoguk, Angnabooguk, Chmeilewski…
Some of those are places, some are people’s names… I think…
Interviews are easier for me. I’ve always preferred to tape my interviews. Here the phone streams right into the system and I can write down how many seconds have gone by when I hear the quote I want. Then I go back and edit that section for a sound cut in my story. It’s easier than transcribing. Much easier.
I’m going to investing pencils. Pens don’t work in extreme cold, and it’s down consistently to the 20s now.
On the up side, I work for a private, award-winning radio station that is flying me across the bush to all kinds of interesting villages. Everybody is super-cool. It’s a completely laid-back environment, but I’m also constantly aware of my responsibility to “feed” the news folder with new stories. I’m on the school board, land management and alternative energy “beats” so far.
We have four studios from which to control our signal, which is amazing. I'm writing this blog entry on a new MacBook the station purchased for me last month...
Despite the difficulties, I might be converting from print to audio media. One month down, only the next 11 will tell.
Take care and God bless. Jacob.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Bear tracks, Shishmaref, priests and U.S. Senators
Week three in the Great Land. When I arrived here, the sun shone for 12 hours that day. Today it's less than 10. We're still losing 6.5 minutes every day, and snow is on the ground now for good I think. I'll see dirt in seven months...
On Wednesday I flew in a Navajo (airplane) to the village of Shishmaref, population 600. It was a last minute decision by Paul (my boss, the news director). We got a call at around noon from the president of Kawerak (a big company in Western AK) saying there were two seats open on their plane to Shishmaref, so we left at 4:30 and were back in Nome by 8:30.
"And what was going on in Shishmaref?" you ask? Well, of course two U.S. Senators, a C-130 and an Air Force Colonel were flying in to tour the place.
No joke. I met Senators Ted Stevens and Mary Landrieu and Colonel Wilson. They came with their assistants and toured the sea wall Shishmaref is building with federal money to keep the village from washing away. It's built on a sand bar, and the last two sea walls have washed away so they have a pretty big operation going on.
Flying in the bush is a different experience. Waiting in the Bering Air lobby, a scruffy looking guy with a foot-long beard and a baseball cap came over and told the clerk at the counter, "I'll take this one" (Yeah, he turned out to be our pilot). Then he came over to us and said, "So, I'm dropping you guys off to stay the night in Shishmaref?"
I laughed nervously, and the mayor of Nome (who was also on the flight) politely corrected him:
"No, you're waiting for an hour. We're coming back tonight."
"Oh, OK. Works for me."
I love the organization. At least we got it cleared up BEFORE we took off.
The flight was beautiful. I'll put the pictures up when I get a chance. It was Paul and I, the mayor (Denise Michels), the VP of the Bering Straits Native Corporation and the president of Kawerak: all big names in Nome and on the peninsula.
Shishmaref was nice. It's build on a sand bar. Again, I have pictures. A couple dirt roads and some houses. Two stores and a school. That's Shishmaref. Apparently film crews from all over the planet have been there to document the impact of global climate change on humans. They've been thinking of moving the whole village before it washes away. I've been told Shishmaref is home to some of the best ivory carvers anywhere in the world.
So we interviewed the senators and walked around town. They have some serious equipment on the shore.
We finished, and the pilot was still there when we got back. We came back to Nome heavy one passenger. Apparently someone in Shish had been trying to find a ride into Nome. We had an open seat, and Kawerak, who paid for the flight, didn't have a problem, so he hitched with us.
***
Other than that, I'm working on a few news stories. I'm on the school board and alternative energy beats, plus I'm hosting an hour-long call-in show next week where we're going to talk about Chris McCandless, Treadwell and the trend of people biting off more than they can chew in the Alaskan wilderness. So I'm doing research for that. I'll be calling experts to get sound bites. Next week I'm going to try to call Sean Penn about the movie "Into the Wild." Because, hey, I have to at least try. Wish me luck or get me his home number if you have it.... :)
Reading about McCandless has been a little disconcerting. Apparently he just roamed the United States and parts of Mexico as a bum trying to experience life. Sounds like something I'd actually be interested in doing. Although he did take a few more risks than he needed to, and the odds caught up with him in the end...
KNOM doesn't play commercials, so we rely entirely on donors to keep our signal going. Some very generous people keep this station going, and I hear from people who know about radio that our station is way more advanced than a lot of others. I'm not sure about the details, but I know we have at least four studios we can broadcast from and control the signal. All the equipment is up to and above par. And the staff is just about as laid back as you could ask for. Everyone takes their work seriously and does an amazing job, but at the same time, everyone here started off as a volunteer. So when I completely foul-up the reading of the news and play the sound cuts on top of one another and mispronounce five names in four minutes, no one says anything because they know what it's like to be new and not know what you're doing.
Getting back to the generosity of our donors: at our weekly staff meeting on Thursday, Ric read us all a letter from a donor. Her name is Mary, and she is 12 years old. Her parents are on our mailing list and she sent us a check and a letter saying, "This check is all the money I have, and I will send more when I get some."
Wow. I think everyone in the room just froze. It sure reminds you who you're working for and where your paycheck comes from. So if I'm ever thinking of doing less than my best up here, I can always remember that that would be like robbing 12-year-old Mary's piggy bank...
Our priest has been out of town for the last two weeks. That means no Mass. We had lay services last week and today. I guess this is the norm, and next week we only have a Saturday Vigil Mass because Father is headed out to another village on Sunday. Such is life in the bush until God sends us more priests.
Kristina was telling me that a woman from Diomede called the station and asked if we knew when the priest would make it out to her village. Then she asked if it was bad that she hoped he would get weathered in and have to stay. Life as a Catholic without the sacraments. Wow. Sometimes the weather will keep people in Diomede for as long as six months. No joke: a guy goes there for a weekend trip, the weather turns and he's stuck there until the spring. No way out.
Yesterday I missed Nome's one home wrestling match of the year. Teams from all over the region were here but I just didn't find the time to make it out. We drove out on the Nome-Council highway today and saw the "train to nowhere." We got out to walk around a couple of times and saw some huge bear tracks in the snow, but -- alas -- no bear. I'll put up pictures when I have time to wait for the download...
Take care and God bless. More to come soon. Jacob in Alaska.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Reindeer vs. Caribou
Tonight marks my fourteenth night in Nome, Alaska. Two weeks in the great state, and a lot has happened since my last dispatch.
A week ago Tuesday I witnessed the skinning, gutting and quartering of a reindeer on the gymnasium floor of the recreation center in town. It was during a weeklong cultural conference and all the teenagers gathered around to see how it was done. Two men with knives just started cutting and talking as they did it. They pulled off the hide and then pulled out the guts in one heap.
The smell saturated the whole building, and it didn't help much when they turned on the fans.
I have ventured out into the tundra a few times, seen a couple herds of caribou, eaten reindeer tongue soup and made a fool of myself on live broadcasts while reading the news in front of thousands of western Alaskans. So it has been a productive week, as usual, in the life of Jacob Buckenmeyer.
I'm settling in well. Nome was dusted with our first snow of the year this morning just before sunrise. I'm still looking for a parka online... if anyone knows some good Web sites for discount parkas, let me know. I already checked out Sierra Trading Post and LL Bean...
"Isolated snow showers becoming rain showers after midnight. Lows around 35. West winds at 15 to 20. Your regional weather forecast from the National Weather Service."
I read the weather on air every day now. It's kind of important around here, so we try to keep people up to date in case they're flying, hunting, driving or out doing whatever. That's kind of how the station works: we provide what people need, and that's our ministry.
I'm still learning the pronunciation of the places here: Kuskokwim Delta, Kobuk, Romanzof, Unalakleet, Anvik... That's mostly how I've been making a fool of myself reading the news...
The culture here is different from the lower 48. The elders in the villages have the decision making power. Everything starts and stops with them. Many of the families rely on subsistence living, which means they gather berries and go hunting during the summer to get food and supplies to survive the year. It's simple.
In the lower 48 people have pop radio stations and the weather channel and comedy central and CNN, but up here there are two stations, and the other one plays only Christian music. We're pretty much it for a lot of people in the villages. We become all things to all people. We announce high school sports results and flight advisories and happy birthday hotlines (listeners call in with messages and we read them over the air. Sometimes it's "Happy Birthday Joey from your family in Teller," but sometimes they're more serious, like "To Dave in Unalakleet, call your family in Anchorage, Mom's in the hospital") .
KNOM isn't much like Catholic radio down in the lower 48, but it's of use to the people in western Alaska, so it's exciting work and it's worth doing.
As far as music goes, we play everything from Gwen Stefani, to Crosby, Stills and Nash, to "Hey there Delilah," to Third Day to the Everly Brothers. We try to mix it up too, so sometimes groups like that are played back to back. Only on KNOM.
Then people need weather and local news, so that's my department. We let them know what the conditions are like so they can decide whether it's safe to go hunting or boating or fishing or whatever. I'll be working in the afternoons and evenings mostly, going to meetings and announcing weather and news at noon, 1, 5 and 6.
The living situation is a blast so far. The three other volunteers are in the "production" department, preparing spots for broadcast and deejaying. I'm a "newsy," so I spend my hours downstairs in the news "room" (extended closet with a window), while they lounge upstairs in the production pad.
Here are the characters: (and yes, they all might read this, so I'll keep it short...) David is a Harvard grad and is in charge of producing our "inspirational spots" which are like public service announcements, only about the saints and sacraments and various feast days, among other subjects. He does the morning show at 5 a.m. Mon-Fri.
Laura is from Virginia and is our music director. She reviews all the promotional CDs that the labels send us and deejays in the afternoons/evenings
Then there's Kristina. She's the production director and does a little bit of everything, or maybe a lot of everything...
I'm going to be deejaying Monday and Friday afternoons for the next month while Kelly is in Nebraska getting married.
Jesse Zink, my predecessor in the news department, was superman. He was here for two years, and from what I gather, he was just about the most popular guy in Nome. He was a volunteer EMT and now he's in South Africa working in a medical center. So I have some big, insulated boots to fill -- 'mukluks' are the native boots here, so some big, insulated mukluks....
I hope that gives you a better idea of what life is like up here! I'll keep posting. Take care and God bless. Thanks again for your support. I would write more to you individually, but the connection just takes so long and I have so little time. I will keep trying. Jacob
A week ago Tuesday I witnessed the skinning, gutting and quartering of a reindeer on the gymnasium floor of the recreation center in town. It was during a weeklong cultural conference and all the teenagers gathered around to see how it was done. Two men with knives just started cutting and talking as they did it. They pulled off the hide and then pulled out the guts in one heap.
The smell saturated the whole building, and it didn't help much when they turned on the fans.
I have ventured out into the tundra a few times, seen a couple herds of caribou, eaten reindeer tongue soup and made a fool of myself on live broadcasts while reading the news in front of thousands of western Alaskans. So it has been a productive week, as usual, in the life of Jacob Buckenmeyer.
I'm settling in well. Nome was dusted with our first snow of the year this morning just before sunrise. I'm still looking for a parka online... if anyone knows some good Web sites for discount parkas, let me know. I already checked out Sierra Trading Post and LL Bean...
"Isolated snow showers becoming rain showers after midnight. Lows around 35. West winds at 15 to 20. Your regional weather forecast from the National Weather Service."
I read the weather on air every day now. It's kind of important around here, so we try to keep people up to date in case they're flying, hunting, driving or out doing whatever. That's kind of how the station works: we provide what people need, and that's our ministry.
I'm still learning the pronunciation of the places here: Kuskokwim Delta, Kobuk, Romanzof, Unalakleet, Anvik... That's mostly how I've been making a fool of myself reading the news...
The culture here is different from the lower 48. The elders in the villages have the decision making power. Everything starts and stops with them. Many of the families rely on subsistence living, which means they gather berries and go hunting during the summer to get food and supplies to survive the year. It's simple.
In the lower 48 people have pop radio stations and the weather channel and comedy central and CNN, but up here there are two stations, and the other one plays only Christian music. We're pretty much it for a lot of people in the villages. We become all things to all people. We announce high school sports results and flight advisories and happy birthday hotlines (listeners call in with messages and we read them over the air. Sometimes it's "Happy Birthday Joey from your family in Teller," but sometimes they're more serious, like "To Dave in Unalakleet, call your family in Anchorage, Mom's in the hospital") .
KNOM isn't much like Catholic radio down in the lower 48, but it's of use to the people in western Alaska, so it's exciting work and it's worth doing.
As far as music goes, we play everything from Gwen Stefani, to Crosby, Stills and Nash, to "Hey there Delilah," to Third Day to the Everly Brothers. We try to mix it up too, so sometimes groups like that are played back to back. Only on KNOM.
Then people need weather and local news, so that's my department. We let them know what the conditions are like so they can decide whether it's safe to go hunting or boating or fishing or whatever. I'll be working in the afternoons and evenings mostly, going to meetings and announcing weather and news at noon, 1, 5 and 6.
The living situation is a blast so far. The three other volunteers are in the "production" department, preparing spots for broadcast and deejaying. I'm a "newsy," so I spend my hours downstairs in the news "room" (extended closet with a window), while they lounge upstairs in the production pad.
Here are the characters: (and yes, they all might read this, so I'll keep it short...) David is a Harvard grad and is in charge of producing our "inspirational spots" which are like public service announcements, only about the saints and sacraments and various feast days, among other subjects. He does the morning show at 5 a.m. Mon-Fri.
Laura is from Virginia and is our music director. She reviews all the promotional CDs that the labels send us and deejays in the afternoons/evenings
Then there's Kristina. She's the production director and does a little bit of everything, or maybe a lot of everything...
I'm going to be deejaying Monday and Friday afternoons for the next month while Kelly is in Nebraska getting married.
Jesse Zink, my predecessor in the news department, was superman. He was here for two years, and from what I gather, he was just about the most popular guy in Nome. He was a volunteer EMT and now he's in South Africa working in a medical center. So I have some big, insulated boots to fill -- 'mukluks' are the native boots here, so some big, insulated mukluks....
I hope that gives you a better idea of what life is like up here! I'll keep posting. Take care and God bless. Thanks again for your support. I would write more to you individually, but the connection just takes so long and I have so little time. I will keep trying. Jacob
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Bearded man in Nome
Greetings from Nome.
I flew all night Thursday and arrived in Nome on Friday at 8:40 a.m. My trip was already getting interesting before I left Seattle. The guy I sat next to on the flight into Anchorage looked about 60 years old, gray, medium-length beard, weathered face and hands, winked whenever he caught someone's eye. Other than mumbling to himself, the only thing I heard was his name: "Just Bill." Dirt under the fingernails and an old denim jacket. He struck me as being somewhere between a street person and a mountain madman. Like looking into a mirror 40 years from now.
During the four-hour layover in Anchorage, I met the parents of a bush pilot from Nome. They were on my flight with their grandson, Mikey, who spent the summer with them in Montana. Apparently their son, the pilot, is also a master bow hunter who gets invited all over the world to go on promotional hunts -- places like Africa, hunting wild pigs. Figures.
Also at the airport I overheard the Montana couple talking to a 57-year-old man who travels around the world doing extreme sports. The guy cracked his ribs and tore his shoulder skiing, white-water kayaking, snowboarding, doing the luge, and biking on multiple continents. Name's Butch, which seems a little unbelievable, I know, but he said he started traveling a few years back and went to Costa Rica for two weeks, then ended up staying for a year and a half. He lived and biked in New Zealand, Thailand and just about everywhere else.
He also said he was "partying with some Cricket players in the Himalayas" when they asked him to be their coach. He didn't know how to play, but he stood there and looked serious and ended up traveling with the team to Singapore, then meeting the governor of the state on television when they won the championship.
Basically I met Alaska's Forest Gump.
After Anchorage, everyone on the plane seemed to be hunters. Camoflage baseball caps were the norm. We stopped in Kotzebue (north of Nome), then made it to Nome as the sun was rising.
I had a welcome party waiting for me at the "gate" with a "Welcome to KNOM" banner. I got the tour of western Alaska's "urban growth area" (Nome), then unpacked in my room at the volunteer house.
Nome is a small town, not unlike what you'd find in rural Whatcom County: small houses, seven streets, four places to eat, two grocery stores, pretty basic stuff. In those ways, it's not unlike other places I've been, but there's something completely different about this town and the community. I've sensed but haven't seen it yet. I'll let you know what it is when I figure it out.
Laura and Dave, two fellow volunteers, found out about KNOM and the volunteer opportunity from a book called, "Delaying the Real World." Apparently it has a bunch of ideas for things to do after college before you instead of getting a steady job and settling down. That sounded like something some of my Western friends might be interested in checking out, so I figured I'd give a plug for the book...
Friday night Kristina, Laura and Dave gave me the tour of Nome's outskirts using the company 4runner. We went out to eat and then to a birthday party for some people across the street.
There were 15 people at the birthday party, and (no joke) I counted six guitars, one mandolin, one acoustic bass, a keyboard and a guy using what looked like a violin bow on the back of a saw blade. They were all going at one time. Just whatever song someone felt like playing, and they all joined in.
So we had humus, bread, goat cheese, pie, cookies, wine, beer, and then everybody just started playing the closest instrument they could find. You'd never know it, but a lot of very talented people end up here in Nome.
A lot of the folks up here are former volunteers, or so I hear. Just about everybody knows and loves Bellingham. I met one Western grad from 1998: Sarah, who is Phil's (the birthday boy) wife. Sarah owns a guitar shop, and Laura and I went over on Friday afternoon and played some tunes. Sarah is hosting a night of songs about the moon on Oct. 26 because it's a full moon that night, so I agreed to play Harvest Moon if no one else signs up for it.
The guy fixing our water heater (yeah, it's busted...), Marty, is from Sprague, Wash. and knows the Harders: no doubt relatives of my fellow Western Front copy and news editor from Sprague, Amy Harder.
Marty came up to Nome 15 years ago after an engagement-gone-wrong and has loved it here. Married a native woman and raises a family. Works, hunts, fishes, boats. He said his 13-year-old daughter killed her first moose recently.
Tyler was at the birthday party. He's from Anchorage and manages the advertisements for the local newspaper, the Nome Nugget. He plays mandolin, and his girlfriend, Erica teaches Spanish at the local high school. I told her if I have an opening in my schedule I wouldn't mind doing a little tutoring in my free time. It turns out they both went to college in Tacoma. PLU, I think.
Saturday morning at 4 a.m. I got a call from Kristina, who had rushed next door to the station when Nome's power went out. Yeah, that's right. The city of Nome had a power outage. When was the last time the city of Bellingham's power went out? Fortunately, generators keep KNOM's signal going even when we lose power, so everything was fine and we went back to bed.
I would have posted my blog earlier, but the internet connection isn't the most reliable here. Logging on is an experience somewhere between the flow of molasses and sharing an old car with 12 other people: sometimes it doesn't start, and sometimes it's just not there.
On Saturday I went to the Vigil Mass and met Father Sean Thompson, again. He's from Edmonds, Wash. and was ordained four years ago for the Fairbanks Diocese. Now he's the priest in Nome and the surrounding villages. He was a deacon at Mt. Angel in Oregon during my year at seminary, so we'd met before and I knew who he was, but it took him a few minutes to place me. As far as I could tell from what he said, he spends two weeks here each month and two weeks in another village that he flies to by plane. Sunday Mass is transmitted over the radio from Nome.
Kristina, David, Laura and I saw The Bourne Ultimatum on Saturday afternoon. Movies come here one at a time about two months late and stay for one week, playing at the single-screen movie theater that doubles as a Subway sandwich shop. Later on we went to Hanson's, one of the two grocery stores and then played Balderdash until midnight or so before shuffling off to bed.
Other than that, we've been listening to copious amounts of Bob Dylan on the record player downstairs. Sweet.
The power went out briefly again on Saturday night while we were sleeping.
The equinox is today, so I haven't really noticed the change in daylight, but I hear that we'll start losing 5 to 7 minutes of sun every day from now until January. That's almost an hour difference every week. Today the sun came up at about 9:00 a.m. and went down at about 9:00 p.m.
Local time here is one hour behind Seattle, but geographically, we're about three hours behind. Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas, but it's all one time zone, and we're out on the western tip.
I start my two weeks of training tomorrow morning, then I'll begin news reporting and announcing.
I was doing fine being away from home, until I logged on to facebook last night and saw the news feed with everything going on in everyone's lives. I'll admit it was tough to go because I'm missing some big events in the lives of people I care about, and pieces of my heart are certainly spread across the great state of Washington (and now portions of DC as well). Those pieces will remain there, and so I'll still be with you all. Since I have arrived, I haven't doubted that God has led me here for a reason. I'm confident that I'm where I should be. This is going to be an awesome experience, and I already feel it beginning to change me.
Take care and God bless. Thank you once again for your prayers, which support me and on which I rely each day. Stay in touch, I'll write more soon.
Jacob.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Knee-deep in nature.
Howdy all,
I graduated from college! I guess it's been coming for a while, but now it's official: no more classes, no more tests.
It's nice to know that I still exist in the minds and memories of people in Mount Vernon after being away. I saw my high school wrestling coach outside Haggen and my middle school baseball coach in Fred Meyer last week. Our wrestling team is going to have an alumni match this year against Burlington (cross-town rivals), and my coach seemed pretty bummed that I'll be in Alaska and unable to be on the MV team. That' something I would have liked to do; maybe next year.
Last week I spent four and a half days alone on the Pacific Crest Trail here in Washington's North Cascades. I hiked 75 miles north from Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass. Getting away from everything is good now and then. It helps me put things back into perspective. All I have is the gear on my back, and my only concern is making it to my campsite in time to cook dinner before dark. The simple life.
I think I may have pushed it a little too far, though. I probably should have planned for a full five or six days of hiking. I wasn't moving as fast as I thought I would, and it took me 12.5 hours to hike 23 miles on Day Three. My feet had blisters starting on Day One that just got worse as the trip went on.
I had a dream my first night that something about the size of a cougar tore through the side of my tent and was standing over me. It was one of those dreams where you never fully fell asleep, so it's half-dream, half-delusion and when you wake up you're still not sure how much was real. If I hadn't been so tired I might have been spooked.
The real killer for me was climbing up switchbacks to the top of a ridge every morning, then down the other side and back up another ridge. The monotony started to wear me down. It's been a while since I've done the prolonged backpacking thing.
In the movie "Cool Hand Luke," there's this scene where the prison guards punish Paul Newman's character by making him dig a hole and then fill it back in, over and over. That's kind of what climbing and dropping felt like by the last day.
The trail showed me who was boss. Clouds came in and blocked the view, and I think I only kept walking because I was out of food and didn't really have any other options. I actually started to imagine a dialogue like in the movie, only between an exhausted me and the uncaring trail:
"Hey Jacob, what are you doing down in that valley?"
"I don't know, Boss."
"Well, you better get up on that next ridge."
"OK, Boss."
Then, 2 hours later: "Hey Jacob, what are you doing all the way up on this ridge?"
"Just trying to get out of that valley, Boss."
"Well, you better get back down into the NEXT valley."
"OK, I will, Boss."
And another 3 hours after that: "Hey Jacob."
"...yeah, Boss?"
"I thought I told you to get up out of that valley?"
And you can imagine the rest... it got to be a little too much by Day Five.
But overall it was a great trip, and I didn't have much else to do last week anyway. I got to navigate with my maps and plan my campsites every night.
And if any of you thinks a rosary takes a long time to pray, it only took up 1/20 of my hiking time each day. The rest of the time I was just thinking about life, pondering my mortality, cursing the bugs, fantasizing about Olive Garden soup, salad and breadsticks, wondering at God's will, singing entire Bruce Springsteen albums from memory.
You know, basically I did all the things we've all been meaning to do but just haven't found the time (or privacy) for, right?
I briefly met two "through hikers", which means they're guys who are hiking the whole Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada this year. They made it up from Mexico to Dalton Pass, I think, then took a break and started coming down from Canada to complete the last sections of the trail. I can't even imagine hiking it for seven months straight like they do.
I saw a ton of frogs, crickets, butterflies, marmots and even a family of deer one morning. It was really a great trip. I'm not sure why I did it, and I don't really think the photos make it worth it. I remember a lot of pain and frustration, but coming back from hiking trips like that is always kind of a rebirth. Everything looks a little different, and the changes aren't always the ones I expect. I should do it more often.
OK. That's everything from here. I have 18 days (including two weekends) until I leave for Alaska. The pictures from my hike are up on facebook. Hopefully I can post them to my blog as well. Take care and God bless!
Jacob
P.S. For some reason, I'm starting to remember how much I love Willie Nelson and Neil Young. Those guys are great. Harvest Moon is on repeat tonight. Great song. I say give it a listen if it's been a while.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)