My Love for Afghanistan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone asked me why in the world I would want to go to Afghanistan? After all they said, it's nothing but a deserted, sandy place, where men oppress women. Here was my response: 

 

 

Well I suppose that might be the view of people who have never been there. But I’ve met people in the mountain villages who invite me to their homes and have their daughters stay home from school just to meet the foreigner and sing me a song. They offer you food, let your dogs in their house and then when you leave say, “come back to my village” as their daughter takes a picture with me before heading off to school. I’ve seen plateau gardens much like the Aztec and Mayans had on the hillsides and irrigation canals running snake like through their planting systems along a stream. Long dirt pathways and ladder bridges to cross where you meet women with their burqas off eating w/ their male family members under the apple trees and women singing and dancing and complementing my clothes, asking if I want to trade. Spending the night in the downstairs of a family's home w/ all the women and a ten year old boy who slept alongside his mother while the men slept upstairs and when I leave they give me their jewelry . I tried to decline but they insisted, then when it fell in the sand and I didn’t want them to think I threw it away I tried to tell them I lost it and they tried to give me more but I had to decline. I met a man who found me on the streets of Kandahar and helped me find a hotel only to have him invite me to his home the next day and his wife ask him “why did you take her to the hotel? you should have brought her here.” I’ve met curious young farmers who would watch me as I played in the stream w/ my dogs and when I asked where water was to drink and they pointed to the stream only i was concerned about drinking that they brought me a bottle full of water that clearly was not from the store, I hoped I wouldn’t get sick and my some miraculous blessing I didn’t. I met another elderly farmer w/ his foot amputated and a prosthetic who invited me for tea in the fields only my dogs kept stepping on his tomato plants so I had to sadly decline. I rode my bicycle home from school passing two boys riding on the same bike heading home from school in their school uniforms. For some reason I looked down and I noticed that both feet of the boy on the back of the bike were prosthetics. I found myself riding home one day w/ one boy racing me on his bicycle and the only reason I had to stop mid race was b/c there was a giant steel industrial trash can in front of me and if I gotten in his lane he might get hit by a car. I found myself walking home only for Afghan women holding infants to invite me in their house. I bought food from a shop made of mud and sticks where an old man sat curiously watching me as his 10 year old daughter sold me goods. I wondered if I would be able to teach her English, if there was somewhere I could have school. I met boys in an orphanage sponsored by an American ER doctor who would write down the English I taught them, one of them mimicking me saying “copy” when he finished until I was told I could no longer go back b/c the Taliban might attack the orphanage. I worked with women who never went to school until 4th grade when the Americans invaded and graduated when they were 24 from university only to send me emails after the Taliban take over saying they weren’t allowed to do anything, could I help? I met a Kuchi woman who was paralyzed w/ a urine bag in Afghanistan living in a house of mud and clay that I built for them that they were grateful for. I paid for her surgery b/c apparently the NGO’s have decided to forget about Afghan suffering all because of the state of female education. I paid for a tutor for a few months for the Kuchi children who didn't have a school and was told only boys could go and then I found out later on that girls were going too. I saw women in Kandahar walking around in pink and purple abayas and then wondered why I couldn’t do the same? Why did the Taliban suggest I need to wear dark colors when they weren’t? I met an Afghan woman married to a Talib in Helmand who asked me to take her son to America to go to school. I asked her Talib husband whether he would let his daughter go to school. He replied, “she will go to university if the Taliban leadership allows it” as his infant daughter bounced on his lap playing with his beard while he recited Quranic surahs. I met the Taliban in Helmand who upon me arriving to the ministry after it closed b/c I had gotten very sick in Kandahar decided to call the chief to come back to give me a permit rather than make me wait another day. When it turned out I needed another document from another office elsewhere he called his Taliban friend and told him to return to work, that my guide would drive there to get it. I met Talibs who stared out me curiously, even asking if they could come to America to see our historical sights like I saw theirs. I met Afghans both who worked with the Americans and those who fought against them curiously intermarried and eating under the same roof determined to bring their country together and make it successful. I saw hope. I met people whose hope would never die even in a pile of rubble and who despite how little they had would insist on giving me, an American, whatever they had. That is the Afghanistan I know and love, a place where you can get lost in the mountains and find yourself surrounded by dozens of friends you never knew you had willing to invite you into their home. That is why I love Afghanistan.

 

 

 

 

 

Street children I bought a meal for. Later I bought them shoes.

Ainsley; a puppy I found on day on the way to school laying on the side of the road bleeding after being run over by a car.  I paid a taxi drive to rush her to Nowzad clinic who helped save her life and then I had to run off to school down different streets arriving late.

Puppy Fashion Amongst the Northern Lights

It's Minnie wearing a Minnie Mouse dress!  I can't wait for her Minnie Mouse ears to come in the mail.

 

And here's Mickey the Chunky Monkey, he has Mickey ears

 coming in the mail as well.

    My puppies have gotten so BIG!  In fact Mickey is officially 3.5 lbs overweight at a hefty 21.5 lbs versus the 18 lbs max he should be.  Minnie on the other hand is a slim 13 lbs which is why their nick-names are Chunky Monkey and Skinny Minnie.  As you can see they are looking utterly fabulous in their new doggies clothes.  So fabulous in fact I've already ordered more.  I had to buy Mickey a larger sweater, this one was a little too snug but it doesn't stop him from looking absolutely adorable in it.  He also needs a larger snowsuit as he can hardly move in his he's so pudgy but when I went to look I found that his is already the LARGEST size!  Oh MY!  Well so far they're fine going out with just a leash and collar despite me needing 2 coats, snow pants and a face mask on just to walk to school.  Minnie in the mean time is waiting on her fabulous new red coat and 5 more dresses to add to the 3 she already has.  Soon enough I'll have the most fashionable dogs on the Slope.

    

A Pasta Dyed Thanksgiving!

        I understand that I have been neglecting my blog.  I wanted to upload videos of my classroom but poor internet bandwidth seems to inhibit that at my residence and thus allocate that as a solely "once in the school activity."  Obviously one would be able to tell once watching the videos why I suddenly forget to do that at school as I'm far too busy constantly decorating and improving my classroom.

I have been busy creating a Hungry Caterpillar section for my classroom.  Thank you to all the parents who donated Pringles cans!  I can't wait to turn them into Hungry Caterpillar jars and allow the students to feed them with green bottle caps depicting foods the Hungry Caterpillar likes to eat.  Yuuummm...did someone say munchies?

 

As you can see pasta dying for Thanksgiving crafts is no mess-free activity.  

 

Thanks to everyone who donated pasta and hand sanitizer.  I can see I should have plenty of pasta for the rest of the year.  

 

A Thanksgiving craft already complete, ready for a few more?  That reminds me, I hope those coasters arrive in time.

 

And of course, what would Thanksgiving be without a Thanksgiving poem to go along with it?

This is Why Kitties Shouldn't be Allowed to Sew!

 

     This video is from over 4 years ago when I first got Gwennie Poohbear.  I was staying in my friend's RV temporarily and decided to sew a dress of which Gwendolyn immediately wanted to assist.  Obviously she was not much help.

Figlet's Rescue (or Fig for short)

 

 

        Sorry for this delayed post but I was reviewing past posts and realized I never added the rescue of Figlet to my blog, Fig for short.  So here it is nearly 1.5 years late but better late than never.  So one cold frigid day in January 2021 during a red zone when student's weren't in school I was standing by the front door waiting for the principal to bring in the mail.  I heard whimpering so opened the door and felt the cold inward rush of the winter air but couldn't find where it was coming from.  I closed the door allowing it to warm up some only to hear it again.  So I reopened the door and walked outside in my ballet flats only to see a high school student holding a tied up dog about to walk onto the frozen sea ice.  I knew what this meant.  All too often in Diomede, Alaska they dispose of unwanted dogs once they reach the age of 1 or 2 years of age by shooting them on the ice.  Down came the students father with a rifle and away I flew over the snow to intervene.  Of course at that exact moment the principal returns with the mail and I am standing there with a dog and rope.  You are only allowed 3 pets via BSSD's former pet policy and being I already had 3 cats the principal said I could only keep her if I had a rescue to take her on the next flight.  So I called a friend in Nome who agreed to help followed by Best Friends Animal Rescue in Anchorage, AK who immediately agreed to take her.  And thus began Figlet's Youtube stardom when I sent them videos for future adopters.  

            Of course let me tell you it's not quite easy hauling a metal indoor dog crate over 20+ foot snow drifts to get to the arriving chopper.  Mabel, the new Filipino teacher helped me but neither of use could carry it up there (we couldn't get a plastic one delivered in time) and then out comes Bobby, an Inupiaq man who trots effortlessly over the snow we were slipping on, picked up the crate w/ one hand that neither of us could carry and dropped it over the snow drift for us near the tarmac.  These Eskimos sure have a better resiliency than we do for doing things like this.  So I slid back down to get Fig who at this point had spent a few nights in my kitchen with Gwendolyn trying to get through the door.  I asked a nice worker who was leaving Diomede from his 2 week shift to escort her, I even told him I'd pay him but he wouldn't accept money and away Fig went to Nome to her new home.  If you're wondering about her pink attire, well she was freezing and I had to protect her from the cold somehow so I fashioned a coat of mine into a dog coat for her, now if only I could have made her booties.

        If you're wondering how Fig got her name it's because they said they were going to shoot her because she wouldn't eat when in reality, they just didn't have dog food to feed her and she didn't want to eat slop.  So I took her inside and saw her eyeing my figs which she was immediately fond of in addition to oatmeal and butter and later cat food.  I offered her expired dog food the last teacher left which she also found agreeable but she preferred cat food instead.  Better than nothing I suppose.

P.S.  If the principal hadn't let me rescue her I would have quit and left with her, HA!  And Figlet was adopted by a wonderful family in Anchorage!  :)  Thanks Best Friends Animal Rescue for being willing to take her in a pinch.

An Eskimo Sledding Field Trip!

 

        Monday, May 16, 2022 was field trip day for ECE and K-1.  Originally we were going to go to Drum Island but after taking into account the melting snow, the children's ages and the distance we instead decided to go to the beach.  We didn't have enough adults to both drive snow machines and have one ride on the back standing up mushing style so we had to take them in groups.  Here I am riding in the sled on the way back to pick up more kiddos.  Of course one ECE child ended up falling off (a common occurrence even amongst the older children) but she was picked up by another teacher pulling the drift wood.  

                                                          The little one says, "Can I go?"

                                                                 Oodles of drift wood.

        While at the beach children dug in the snow with sand digging supplies, made s'mores and ate roasted hot dogs over the driftwood fire.  We had the school bus take the ECE students home so we would only have to take one trip via sled back to the school.  What a fun adventure.   I got a taste of what their Inupiaq ancestors felt traveling around with caribou. 

Classroom Update

 

 

          Spring is in the air and the sun is shining each morning on the way to school now so maybe now that the winter blues has passed is the reasoning behind my reorganization of my classroom.  Either way, yesterday after school I decided to shift my furniture around.  It had already been changed from the previous video shown but never has it looked as good as it does now.  I LOVE it, the Smart Board is at the center and the student's tables are surrounding me.  It's so much livelier and exciting and all of the areas are now utilized more efficiently.  

Happy Valentine's Day during Red Zone

 

         So this blog post is going to be short and late.  Our Valentine's Day this year was fairly uneventful as we were on Red Zone because of Covid for the week before Valentine's Day and the week of (total of 2 weeks).  Covid was going wild in Kaktovik with official counts around 18 in our isolated bush Alaskan village and unofficial numbers rumored to be much higher.  Even I missed three days because I was sick although my results came back negative and I was able to be back in time for a Saturday make-up day (mocking humor here).  Nonetheless I still sent my student's Valentine's Day cards in their school packs and one Kindergarten student was holding it up and playing with it the entire Messenger call (our internet bandwidth here his too weak for families to do Zoom calls).

The Cat Tooth Fairy comes to Kaktovik, Alaska

     Okay, so just as the day was winding down I decided to bake some crackers with home-ground spelt flour that I made with my VitaMix today.  After I did that I decided to squeeze my precious Gwennie's face and tell her how cute she looked sitting atop my cookbook on my kitchen counter.  Only then did I notice red, inflamed gums with a loose tooth.  I was immediately concerned and went to get the tweezers only to discover they were too small to do the job.  So what did I do?  Panic of course.  That's what instinct tells you.  After all it's not like I could drive to an emergency vet as there are no roads here of course.  The next plane wasn't until the following morning which means that my poor dear Gwennie Pooh would have had to suffer a whole other night before boarding a flight to Fairbanks.  Then there was the issue of cost of the flight and hotels and the quarantine upon return due to Covid.  So, instead I came to my senses and called Ann, the former principal's wife.  He retired last year but she decided to hang around for one more year for the kiddos.  Soon she arrived with two sets of pliers and to our dismay, neither worked.  She tried to reassure me it would fall out but I was still concerned and then the idea of dental floss came to mind.  So I went to the bathroom and got some and after two tries it did the trick.  Out came the little kitty cat tooth.  I've saved it in a jar for the cat tooth fairy and so I can take a better picture when I get a new camera.  Until then, this photo will have to do.  UPDATE:  Here is the new photo!

 

And thus I put it back in its jar for safe keeping.

 

Puppy Surprise

 

    Welcome to January 2022 everyone!  What a great year this will be and how can it not with such blessed omen as the arrival of these two blessed pals this past winter break.  And indeed they are precious.  I haven't officially decided on their names, I was thinking Mickey and Minnie but it will likely be a few more weeks until I officially decide.  

    They have been home for about 2 weeks now and the chaos is finally beginning to subside.  They are beginning to fully understand how to only use the puppy pads in their dog room and the laundry room to go potty rather than my nice hardwood floor or the kitchen.  They are also adjusting to me being gone for long days at school and then coming home in the evening.  Although yesterday they moved their puppy steps that help them get on their chair over to the blockade in the doorway and came close to gaining freedom but alas failed.  Mwahahahaha!  

    And the best news of all is that the mail I ordered before Christmas fully of puppy items is just finally beginning to show up after a week or two without flights due to a blizzard.  Yes, indeed we spent most of winter break caked in a blizzard that was one of the worst they've seen (I think I'll detail that occurrence in another post).  But we survived and these two precious bundles of joy are finally settling in.  This weekend finally feels like a weekend of relaxation because getting two puppies is hard enough without having to wait 4 weeks or more for supplies to arrive.  

    And finally, let's not forget Gwennie, or little Gwen Gwen, or just plain Gwendolyn.  She loves her new monthly Skip and Scamper box.  The treats were a real hit but unfortunately they decided to devour the foil toy and they allow me to clean it up alongside their vomit.  Oh well, live and learn.  

     And here Gwennie is again in another box that she finds most comfortable.  Funny isn't it how we can spend oodles of money on fancy toys and beds and when it comes down to it they just like an old Tupperware container and plastic tops for my AeroGrow plants.  

 But before we go, let's have one last look at my puppies settling in.

 

 

This is comfy sis

 

 

Ahhh...this is even better :)

 

'Til we meet again

 

It's Covid Red Zone in Kaktovik

 

 Do you see all the pretty tabs to mark which section will be referred to on which day during our 15 minute phone calls?

        Yes it's been confirmed, on Tuesday, September, 14, 2021 we were told there was a confirmed positive case of Covid of a non-resident or visitor in Kaktovik.  This means that we had 30 minutes to contact parents and get students ready to send home (fortunately I had a teacher's assistant help with the phone calls).  This also means that we will not be back in school for 12 days and are sending home packets for the students in addition to making 15 minute phone calls home at a scheduled time for each child.  Considering Point Hope has 140 positive cases and does not think they'll be back in school before the end of the semester, we are faring quite well.  However, while picking up mail we were told of another confirmed positive case, this time of a resident.  

That was a lot of sticky notes to mark, glad I only have 12 students in my K-1st class.

All the packets have been placed in backpacks with the student's names written on them in Sharpie.  We will pick them up on Monday when we drop new packets off.

ALL ABOARD!!!  PARTY TIME!!!  Now it's time for us to distribute backpacks to families on the PARTY BUS!!! (Note: that's really the name, party bus, I promise).  We even got some neat dance moves in when we weren't running from stray dogs nipping at our heels as we knocked on student's houses or petting the new litter of puppies sleeping in the Kunichuk (arctic entry) at one of our student's homes.  

 

 

Afterwards we made a pit stop at the whale feast as the community caught their 2nd whale on Tuesday right after students were sent home to quarantine (not to many seemed to quarantine as seen below at the photo of the 2nd whale being caught). 

 

 Do you think we should remind them to stand 6 feet apart on the whale?