Saturday I got up and looked out of my window at Emily and Dwayne's

house. More snow had fallen overnight. They took me to the airport and,

needless to say, I had a good cry.



Back in Anchorage there were cars and roads and people and bustle - all the

things I had got used to being without in the past week. Marti from the

Authors To… Continue

Friday was spent at the High School in Aniak, doing writing exercises

with several classes of the older children. I varied the exercises

depending on the class. It was a fun day. I found that the High

Schoolers in general during my visit were some of the most difficult to

get through to, but also some of the most rewarding. You could just

tell when they got it, and the light went on, and they started to enjoy

it. There are some very intelligent and creative… Continue

This is a picture outside the back of Emily's house. I could see both ends of this rainbow - it was beautiful.

Today I was on familiar territory - back in Aniak in the Elementary School where I…

Continue

So, after the High Schoolers in the morning, it was the Elementary

children in the afternoon. We drew pictures, told stories, and I read

them one of the books I had brought for them from Scotland. We had fun

and, again, I came away with loads of pictures of all sorts of things -

bears, fish (the boy who had over lunch told me how to… Continue

So, after spending a day in the school in Kalskag, I flew back to Aniak. The next morning I was being picked up early to fly to Sleetmute - one

of the…

Continue

Before the Brief Interlude I left you, dear reader, as I was gettting off my

duct taped plane in Kalskag. I was staying with two teachers - Karen

and Dave - who had kindly invited this stranger into their home. It was

a lovely home and full of things from the local area, plus the Far East

where one of… Continue

This is just an interlude - longer posts will follow on my days in

Kalskag yesterday and Sleetmute today but two things happened today

which were so wonderful I had to share them.



First of all, I met a very bright and funny High Schooler called Vernon who is a real

character (he came out to meet me from the Bush plane, told me he was

my bodyguard, and that he could speak in a Scottish accent but he

wasn't going to because he would never be able to get his own… Continue

Which means 'Hello, how are you' in Yu'pik. More at http://alaskanmisadventures.blogspot.com



Since I was fogged in in Aniak, Emily took me to the elementary school which is Kindergarten to 6th Grade (so, ages 5-10 I guess. The school

was very accomodating and arranged for me to spend half an hour with

each of the 5 classes (I go back on Thursday to spend all day with

them). Needless to say, I was very nervous. I've never taught children

before. Before we left… Continue