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.