Uutuku

I believe I previously posted a picture of the little 24 hour restaurant and convenience store next door to my house, but for you personal reference.

This is the Uutuku.  When I read it, I said oo-tOO-koo, accent on the 2^nd “oo.”  I have since learned that this is not correct, and everyone will look at you like you are ignorant for not being able to pronounce such a simple word correctly.  It is suppose to be OO-tuh-koo, accent on the 1^st “oo,” and the second syllable has no “oo” at all.  What is an Uutuku?  Is that like an Eskimo thing?  I’m glad you asked.  According to Wikipedia, an Uutuku is a spirit.  It can be good or it can be devilishly mischievous.  The word actually comes from Somerian mythology in the Middle East.  So, I’m not exactly sure how they came up with it.

On Monday, I was looking at all the food I have left.  I packed all my food in my suitcases to bring up here, in case I haven’t mentioned that yet.  Everything is so expensive here that it was cheaper to bring it with me.  So, I was counting the number of lunches and dinners I have food left for.  For those of you who know me well, this will not come as a surprise and will, in fact, seem like a mundane task in Abby’s everyday life.

I counted all the meals and saw that I have more than enough food to get me through the end of my stay.  Now the important thing is for me to try every restaurant in town before I leave.  There are like seven restaurants here in town, most of which are owned by Korean people and serve some sort of Chinese food.  I decided to start close to home with the Uutuku.

I walked into the tiny convenience store and placed me order: Orange chicken, Steamed rice, and an Egg roll.  I took it to go and made the 50 yard trek back home.

I opened the promising little containers to find immaculate presentation.

Look at those perfectly round rice balls and orange slice garnishes.

This was definitely enough for two people.  So, I served myself up a rice and some chicken plus my Egg Roll. I love Egg Rolls! 

It was tasty-taste.  The rice was perfectly sticky.  The egg roll could have been crispier, but it was good.  The chicken was good.  The sauce was good and zesty but a little too sweet for me.  I will be comparing to the other local joints.  We will see who is victorious.

Yearning for Yarn

I have joined an unofficial sort of club that meets at the library every Saturday afternoon.  They call themselves Yearning for Yarn.  In essence, it is a knitting circle, but they do so much more.  During my incredibly interested and not the least bit sleep provoking orientation, the lady leading it mentioned that she was in a knitting circle.  “What, knitting!  I’ve always wanted to learn to knit.  I can crochet, but I would love to be able to knit.”  I believe she was shocked by my enthusiasm for her hobby.  I am sure when she told me when and where they meet she was thinking, “This girl is never actually going to show up.”  Never invite people that you don’t want to see, because if they are invited, they can come.  And come I did. 

They meet in a lounge area in the Kotzebue Library / University of Alaska-Fairbanks Chukchi College. 

They mostly knit, but each one of them has their crafting strength.  Christina, Jane, Kristin, and another lady really just knit.  Some of them have crochet hooks but don’t really know how to use them.  I told them I could show them how I crochet, but that I did not assert my methods officialness seeing as how I was taught by 7 and 8 year old Bolivian girls.  Mila, who is from Peru, is a beautiful cross-stitch emboiderer.  And, Elaine does ribbon-embroidery. 

Jane taught me the basic stitch and a pearl stitch so I did what is called a knit-pearl, which is the basis for most knit clothing.  Look really closely at the shirt you have on.  Well, first, if it’s not a knit, this won’t work.  But look at it.  Then, flip the fabric over.  See how the rows run differently on each side?  That’s because one side is stitched and the other is pearled.  Cool, right?!  After about an hour of stitching and pearling this was my product. 

I am going to have to keep practicing, but I think it’s a good start.

This past Saturday I went back.  I think they were surprised to see me again.  I’m still not sure why people are surprised when you show up to things they invite you to.  This week Elaine was there with all of her super cool ribbon-embroider tools.  She taught me to make flower petals, leaves, roses, and French knots (or Freedom knots if you prefer.)  This was my final product for the day. 

I think I could make something really pretty with the right material and ribbons.  And, some practice, maybe.

I guess the moral of this post is, Beware friends and family.  You will be receiving homemade gifts as I am able to complete them.

Fry'em In a Pan

I’m not really sure we I had to freeze the fish, because I was planning on cooking them the next day.  But, everyone told me to fill the bag with water and put them in the freezer.  Overnight, it froze into a big solid block of ice.  The fish were suspended in it like they were swimming through the water.  I put the whole bag in the fridge when I left for work Wednesday morning so it could thaw.  I was a little uncertain about leaving the bag in the middle of the refrigerator.  “What if it melts and leaks out into the fridge,” I thought, “That would be super smelly, and I do not want to deal with cleaning that up.”  Solution: I put the bag in one of the drawers in the bottom of the refrigerator.  So, if it did leak, I only had to clean out that bin and not the entire fridge. 

Why is the word “fridge” spelled with a “d” and the work refrigerator isn’t?  I know one is short for the other, but why not spell it “frig,” or if you want to change the letters, “frij.”  When people say “fridge” and “refrigerator,” the sounds are the same.  No one says “friDge.”

So, I was telling the other assistants at work about my fish and that I wanted to cook them.  One of them, Lauren, offered to come by after work and show me how to cut them.  I had a fish-filleting lesson from the deckhand on our deep-sea fishing trip last summer.  While Tyler, Louisa, and Mike kicked back on the boat, I learned a useful skill.  Normally, up here, they use a knife called an Ulu to cut fish, seal, and whale.  I do not have an ulu yet, but I will be purchasing one.  I will post a picture when I do so you can see what it looks like.  But Principal did not leave me an ulu in the kitchen so she did her best with the knives I had.  The fish were so skinny and the bones were so small and we did not have an all-powerful ulu.  So, filleting the fish was not extremely successful.  As a result, we filleted one and cooked the other two whole.

I seasoned them with the delicious seafood spice mix that I go when we were in Charleston last summer.  I just baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes, and they were perfect.  The one we filleted still had a few little bones in it.

And I decided that I preferred just eating it off the bones rather than wasting part of the good meat by filleting it.

Yum!

Reelin'em In

Tuesday night Stephanie’s husband Ray took me out fishing.   

This is Ray: hunting, trapping, and fishing extraordinaire.

Two other boys came with us.  Brinn is twelve and his mom works with me at the clinic, and Austin is 16 and his parents work on the medical side of the hospital.   

This is Austin helping tie a new lure on my line.  Gracias.

Ray loaded up our fishing poles, and we headed off down the coast.  We went a few miles south of the airport to a beach where there were a good many people fishing.  Ray scouted us out a good spot and we parked the truck.   

I started out using a reel that you had to flip the release and hold the line with.  I don’t think my fingers are big enough to reach all those levers and hold the string at the same time.  So, I think I do something funny when I cast with that kind of reel.  Either way, my left forearm was really sorry for a couple of days afterwards, because I was using it as leverage when I cast.  Again, I have no idea what I was doing.  At first we were just using lures like last time, but then Brinn caught the first fish of the day.  It was a trout.  I asked if the trout here in Alaska were different from the trout in Alabama, which I knew they were.  So, I guess what I wanted to know was how are they different.  Ray said, “Yes, they are different.   These live in the cold ocean.”  So, I’m still not sure how they are different, but they are.

After Brinn’s catch, we used some of his fish as bait.  Even with bait, I would reel my baited lure right by a school of fish and they would just watch it swim by.  It was amazing that I saw them right there, and they would not bite me hook.  Btdub, we were standing in the water on the beach with what I would call rain boots on.  

So, after being snubbed by a few fishies, one finally latched on.  I reeled him in.  I don’t know if people in Alabama do this.  I’ve never done it or seen it done.  Maybe we’re just cruel, or maybe it’s just an old tradition up here.  But, when they catch a fish, they hit it in the head right behind where its eyes are to kill it.  So, Austin handed me a fish bobbin’ stick, and I gave his noggin a few good whacks.  

Note stick to my right.

After a little while, I think Ray noticed that I was wrestling a little bit with the manual style reel and switched me out for an automatic (push-button) style.  Now I was cookin’ with grease.  I caught two more trout and a monster fish.  

Hello monster fish!

 I kept the trout, but not the monster fish, because they are no good to eat.

When we finished fishing around 10:30pm.  Yes, all of these pictures were taken that late at night.  It still amazes me!  We went back to Stephanie and Ray’s house and Austin showed me how they clean the trout in the yard.  I cleaned mine then headed home.  When I got home, I still had to wash all the sand and rocks off of them.  Then I put them in a big ziplock, filled it with water, then put it in the freezer.  I know they will be tasty-taste!

Shoot Out

My parents called me the other day asking about a big shoot out up here that was on the national news.  It wasn’t actually big by anyone’s standards except Kotzebue’s, but it was a rare and intriguing occurrence around town. 

On Sunday morning, during prayer request time at church Ruth said to pray for the troopers that had been shot on the bridge that morning and that they would catch the shooter that was still on the loose.  This was the first I had heard of it, and from the way she said it, I assumed this lone gunman was just walking the streets.  I thought it was kind of odd that someone could shoot two policemen and escape in a town as small as Kotz.

Later Sunday afternoon, I walked down to the bridge to investigate.  Just about everyone in town had lined their cars up along the side of the water to watch the scene unfold. 

They had blocked off both bridges and there were police and trooper cars surrounding another truck.

The next day, I found out that the man was sitting in his car stopped on the bridge when the troopers pulled up.  After he shot them, backup was called in.  They even called the SWAT team from Anchorage.  One of the troopers was treated here at Maniilaq, but the other had to be flown down to Anchorage.  He is ok though.  So, the guy was sitting in his truck surrounded by law enforcement all day long.  His friends came to try and talk him down, but he stood his ground.

The standoff ended Sunday night.  The shooter ended up killing himself.  The whole thing was tragic and the talk of the town for most of the week.

I was personally sad, because I was supposed to go hunting Sunday afternoon, but we couldn’t get across the bridges and out of town.  They kept the bridges closed all day Monday and part of Tuesday to finish investigating.  This is a rare occurrence here, so I guess they wanted to make sure they handled it thoroughly and correctly.

So, sad blog.  Sorry.

  

Teaser:  more fishing has occurred.

Caribou Ribs

Saturday evening my friend Stephanie had a cook out at her house.  We ended up cooking out and eating in because it was still cold (as previously discussed).  Everyone brought yummy food.  I brought Broccoli Salad:

            Broccoli

            Bacon

            Pecans

            Raisins

            Feta Cheese

            Coleslaw Dressing.

But the highlight of dinner was the Caribou Ribs.  Stephanie’s husband Raymond is a native of this area.  He is actually from a village called Kobuk near Kotzebue.  He has been a fishing guide and many other things.  Now he teaches Hunting and Trapping at the High School.  Wouldn’t that be a super cool class!  Anyway, this was one of his Caribou that he got last fall during the big Caribou season.

He cooked them in the oven wrapped in foil for a long time, then put them on the grill for a little bit.  They were Very Tasty.  They tasted similar to beef ribs and had a lot of meat on them and not much fat.  Yum.

As a side note, I took the left over ground beef that I took to the cookout for hamburgers and made some really delicious wraps for my lunch.

First I soaked some dry black beans I brought with me while I was at work all day.  Then boiled them until they were good and soft.  Then I put them in a mixing bowl and went to work mushing them up.  I added the uncooked ground beef to the mushed black beans and added some mustard, Italian dressing, salt, and pepper.  I mixed it all up really well then formed them into a log kind of kebab shape that was just a little shorter than the diameter of my tortillas.  I baked them for about 30 minutes at 375 then put them in a tuberware in the fridge so I could pack them for lunch.

I just rolled one in a whole wheat flour tortilla.  If I were at home and fresh veggies didn’t cost an arm and a leg, I would probably add some avocado, tomato, sprouts, cucumber, or lettuce.  I did put some mustard on the tortilla, but some taziki sauce would have been even better.

Who Gave that White Girl Wheels

One of the dentists here went out of town last weekend and offered me the keys to her four-wheeler.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but there are a lot more people up here that have cars than I expected.  But, most of them also have a four-wheeler for the summer and what they call a snow machine for the winter.  I’ve always called them snowmobiles.  The dentist didn’t ask me if I knew how to work a four-wheeler or if I’ve ever even ridden one.  She just handed over the keys and told me where it was parked.  Lucky for her, and me I guess, I grew-up riding four-wheelers and was even the target of a neighborhood ordinance against them, woops.

So, after my underwhelming attempt at fishing, I took off into the tundra. 

My first stop was cemetery hill. 

You can see down the side of the hill where some kids that were playing around Friday afternoon started a fire that went from the end of the runway halfway up the hill.  See the big black spot.  They had to get the planes to drop retardant on it.

There are a couple of small cemeteries in town, but this one has a view.

I spotted a really pretty looking pond off in the distance, so I turned off of one dirt road onto a smaller one that informed me to be ware of oncoming traffic.

I have heard that there can be caribou, elk, bears, lots of mosquitos, and all sorts of critters at in the tundra; but I figured they wouldn’t really bother me.  (Big, innocent, squinty-eyed grin here.)

Come to find out, this pond is the main source of drinking water for the city of Kotzebue.

They call it Devil’s Lake, and apparently it is a big place for “snow machining” in the wintertime when everything is frozen over.

I do not know if I have yet mentioned how cold it was on Saturday. Cold.  I had dressed for standing on the banking and fishing which was a little chilly.  I had not prepared for the frigidness of four-wheeler riding.  I had on a turtleneck, a half-zip, a windbreaker, and gloves.

I know it's upside-down.  I took it myself and forgot to turn it right side up before I uploaded it and the internet here is too slow to do it over again.

But it was like 30-something degrees with a west wind of the freezing ocean on top of the wind from going 25mph on the four-wheeler.  I was cold.  Then I started to get hungry.  I had a granola bar in my pocket, but then I would have to stop and take my gloves on, and I was too cold.  So, I just kept on riding.  The loop road that I was riding is about 7.5miles long which takes a while at 25 mph.  I got to a point where I was like enough is enough, and I looked to the horizon to see how far I had left to go.  This  is what I saw.

When the airport finally came into view, I was so excited.  To get back into town you have to cross over both the plane and the jet runways being extremely cautious to look both ways of course. 

I don’t know if anyone has ever been so excited to see Friends Way!  I ran immediately inside and heated up a big bowl of soup!

Later that afternoon, I was walking to the store and saw this.  It was far too cold to be washing anything outdoors.  But you know Baptists, they'll do anything to raise money for youth camp!

Gone Fishin'

I made my first fishing attempt Saturday morning.  I met up with one of the Dentists here and her husband.  He not only lent me his brand new pole, he let me fish in his spot under the second bridge. 

Apparently they got the money for these bridges through Senator Ted Stevens.  I know Tyler will be like, “Man, I need a bridge named after me.”  And then, "I better I get a better memorial sign out in front of my bridge."  He even had some fancy, shiny, feathery lures. (Is that the right word, lures?  I wanted to spell it lewers, but the computer didn’t like that.) 

I was doing pretty good casting and reeling, until I got hooked.  For a brief moment, I thought I had a fish, but it wasn’t really pulling on me as hard as I was pulling on it.  It was no fish; it was a whale.   Hahaha, no.  I was stuck on the burlap from the cement bags that they used to build up the sea wall under the bridge.  My friend had to cut the line and tie me on a new lure.  (I just can’t get over this word.  I say Lew – er.  Is that just southern?  Does the word really only have one syllable? )  After this happened twice more, I started to get the hang of reeling in faster so the hook wouldn’t have time to sink and catch the bags.

I don’t believe I have yet expressed to you our fishing conditions.  It was like 37 degrees and windy.  Apparently this was a west wind off the freezing cold ocean that was making it so cold.  It was bearable to me, but clearly the fish were none too pleased with the chill.  I think they were all in hiding.  Well, I got a picture of my first attempt anyway to prove that I tried.

See, these are the pesky bags I kept catching.  Except I caught the ones that are under the water.  I'm not that bad at fishing.

On the Job

As I said, I work at Maniilaq Association.  The association is actually run by a board of directors that represents Kotzebue and the surrounding villages with cool names like Kiana, Noorvik, Noatak, Selawak, Kivalina, and Salugnak.  Each village has a small clinic of its own, but for most things they have to fly to Kotzebue.  Maniilaq encompasses medical, dental, mental, and elder care plus other educational resources for people around here.  If there is stuff too big for us here in Kotzebue, people have to fly all the way to Anchorage, which is like a $500 round trip flight.  In dental, that includes things like ortho and endo.  So, as you can imagine, a lot of times people just can’t afford to travel to get some procedures done.  Medicaid does pay for some trips though depending on what they need to have done and what alternatives we can offer in Kotzebue. 

The hospital and dental clinic here are super nice!  Everything, from the equipment to the facilities, is really great.  

I am working as a dental assistant.  The other assistants are very nice and friendly.

They are all from Kotzebue or one of the villages, and they think I’m weird when I ask a million questions about stuff that they’ve done since they were born.

The doctors and ladies that run the office are great, too.

I think working as an assistant is teaching me a lot about the behind the scenes of how a dental office works.  There are things they don’t teach us how to do in dental school, because we’ll never have to do them.  But we do need to be able to train people to do those jobs, know how we want or need them done, and be able to know if they are being done properly.

It does make me glad that, one day, I will be the dentist and not the assistant forever though.

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 o’clock

I have discovered where I will be every Tuesday and Thursday at 8pm here in Kotzebue.  ZUMBA!!!  There is a lady here in town named Angie that is the local masseuse and Zumba instructor.  She is friends with Stephanie and just happened to be walking by when Stephanie came by on Sunday to make sure I was getting settled in.  She said she taught Zumba.  I said, “I love Zumba.”

So, Tuesday afternoon before I left work, Stephanie drew me a little map of how to get to Zumba.  She teaches it in the children’s rec room of the Church of Go.  It is, in fact, the Chuch of God, but the “d” fell off.  The dentist made sure I was aware of the sign change so that I would not be mistaken. Thank you.  Stephanie also made sure that I knew to get there early.  Because, it tends to get very full, and you have to claim a spot. 

As I have mentioned, the class does not start until 8pm.  I have discovered that people here do not go to bed until a little bit later than usual.  Maybe it’s just in the summer.  I’m sure they want to take as much advantage as possible of the nightlight and “warm” weather.  This created a small conundrum.  To eat before or after Zumba?  Hmmm.  If I wait until after, it would be like Hilary and Ben style late, and my food wouldn’t have time to fully digest before bedtime.  If I eat early, which is what I almost always do, I might get a cramp or something.  I could hear the voice of Mike saying, “You know it’s better to eat after you work out than before.”  But I was hungry, and I was having soup, and I had two hours before the class started.  So, I ate before.

“What did the map say?”  “Did you make it on time?”  “Were there any spots remaining?”  “Did you get a cramp?”

To get to the Church of Go and Zumba.  You walk south on Friends Way.  Look at this little plane.  It looks like the one from The English Patient.

Then, cut across the NAPA autoparts/Ace Hardware parking lot,

I also passed the Cab company.  Yes, some people here are too lazy / cold to walk some days too.

 

down the street past the giant AT&T satellite, (Megan, this one’s for you.  I’m pretty sure you don’t have to have a signal booster in your apartment up here with this giant thing down the street.)

then, across from the Bank, 

you will see the Church.

When you get inside, take a left.

ZUMBA!!!

Walk About

Sunday afternoon I went on a long walk all over town.  Here are some of the sites that I took in.

On the way out my door I have to acknowledge that I live one house away from the 24hr shop and take-out restaurant.  I will be investigating this.

As I turn off of Friends Way onto Bison Street I can see the ocean.

My first stop was the newly finished sea wall and boardwalk.  

 This took two years to finish, but it’s a great place to walk and fish.  I chatted with a couple kids that tried to help me look for fish in the water.  The only one we saw was already dead, ew.  This side of the peninsula faces out to the ocean.  So, the ice you see is moving out of the bay and the rivers on the other side of the peninsula and into the ocean.  The mountains in the distance are in Alaska, not Russia.  (I’m not quite that close.) 

The new fancy hotel.  Any and all visitors are welcome!

After passing the airport, which you already saw, I came to the eastern side of the peninsula. 

I even caught a little plane taking off on the runway.

I walked by the main store.  I may be coming here to buy a fishing pole.  I am determined to catch a fish while I’m here.

I walked by the clinic where I will be working.  It is the biggest, fanciest building in town.

This is the new long term care facility.  (aka nursing home)

Across the street from the library is the Elementary and High School.  They are both really nice and home to the fighting Huskies.

I also saw a hare outside the school.  

 Look at him go.

That is the tour for now.  I’m sure I will be revisiting many of these places throughout the summer.