First Picnic of the Season

We had a beautiful day on Saturday (upper 30's and sunny!) so we decided to go on a picnic. St. Lawrence Island is privately owned by the Yupik people, so we are only permitted to be in the village and on the roads unless we purchase a pass and are accompanied by a native person. These are pictures from our picnic spot. That is the road behind us that goes out to the dump. We kept being passed by hondas full of families out for Sunday drives! Good fun.


We watch this cliff from our window. This time of year, thousands of birds fly in and out of the cliff everyday to lay their eggs. Soon, people from the village will go out and gather eggs to eat.


The above picture is part of the mountain range and the below picture is of the village from afar.


The boys were very excited to jump in puddles with their "walking sticks". We only lost Owen once, but by the time we drug him through the snow on his bottom, the mud was all cleaned off and he was good as new for the ride home:)

A Long Week?!

"Best Friends"

My favorite mornings are when I awake to Logan and Owen holding hands or hugging each other and saying, "Best friends." If one awakes before the other, it's not long before I hear, "Wake up Brother! Play." And they play together all day. Sometimes it's happy...sometimes not! Sometimes it's constructive...other times mischievious! I find that very often they aren't "Logan" and "Owen". During Christmas, they often introduced themselves as "Mary" and "Joseph". Lately, they are "Sally" and "Mary" (characters from a book we read). Other times they are crocodiles or bears or you name it. The following are photos from the past week of them being together.


Jacob took them for his daily walk and they loved it! How exciting! I have sorely missed having that break in my day. Jacob took them out almost everyday of their lives until moving to Savoonga where weather and roads have permitted it...until now!


The other day, I overheard, "Owen! Help! Help! Owen!" When I peeked around the corner, this is what I saw. And I thought they were ready for bed!:) Later, when I asked Owen who took his pajamas off, he told me, "Brother did it." So, you can see, they enjoy helping one another!


Me: "How many cookies do you want Logan?"
Logan: "1,2,3,4,FIVE!"


Me: "That's way too many cookies! How many cookies do you want Owen?"
Owen: "10,10,10,10,TEN!"

I guess there's nothing wrong with trying!


This morning, I caught Logan pouring water into the "dog bowl" so that "his dog" could have a drink. (Fortunately, we don't have a dog, and the bowl that Owen was lapping out of was fresh out of the kitchen cupboard!)

Logan's Photo Op

I was trying to fix dinner this evening when Jacob went out to the shed to get Logan a board that he "really needed". I glanced over just in time to see that Logan had put his new rubber boots on and was turning the door handle to apparently go outside to help Papa. He was too cute standing there in his diaper with his boots on the wrong feet to pass up taking a quick picture. He agreed to pose and it went something like this:

Me: "Smile, Logan."
He gives me the typical squinty grin.

Me: "Logan, open your eyes. I can't see your eyes. Where are your eyes?"
He points to his eyes...thanks, not quite what I was going for.

Me: "Come on Logan...smile!"
The combination of excitement and desperation in my voice set him running towards me for a big hug:)


Logan: "I don't mean to spoil your fun, Mama, but I have to go. Papa needs me." (I'm sure that's what he was thinking.) Sadly, I followed him out the door to dump our burnt dinner in the snow!:) Fortunately, I wasn't too far along. I hate to waste food, especially in Savoonga!

Memorial Day Parade

Jacob pastors the Presbyterian Church in Savoonga. The other church in Savoonga is Seventh Day Adventist. When we arrived, they were without a pastor, but in January, a couple arrived from North Carolina to minister here. They are both retired nurses and he is a Vietnam Veteran. He was very excited and active to facilitate a Memorial Day Parade for the first time in Savoonga. You can see by the pictures that there was a very good turn out. There are many war veterans in Savoonga and people are always excited to join together for a community event. Some of us walked about a mile out to the cemetery while many others followed behind on their hondas. Jacob was asked to participate in the service and then the city provided wreaths to be placed on each grave. It was followed by a reception in the firehall and tonight they are having native drumming and dance which I'm sad to miss, but thought I probably shouldn't leave the boys home alone sleeping peacefully in their beds:)







I was hoping you'd be able to see how people pile on their hondas, but the photo is too small!


When we finally arrived back home!

Summer Nights

I hope to post some photos tonight, but in case the Internet is way to slow, I thought I'd at least write a bit before growing frustrated and going to bed:)
When I look out my window at all of the snow still present on the ground, it doesn't seem much like summer, but school is out and we have only a couple hours of darkness already, so I guess summer has begun!
When I returned downstairs after putting the boys to bed, Jacob told me that during my absence, he heard banging around in the room attached to our house that holds one of our fuel tanks. He opened the door to find a young girl in there. When he told her she needed to leave, her friend also came out of hiding and they explained that they were hiding from "the drunk man". Jacob told them they couldn't hide there and that he would go see about "the drunk man." Sure enough...there was a man roaming around, quite intoxicated, screaming obscenities, but going back into his home. (I want to note at this point, that seeing drunk men wandering about at all hours is not typical for Savoonga. We know that, despite the fact that this is a dry island, alcoholism is a real problem here, as it is elsewhere, but it is not in your face as it is in many places.)
So, at this point, Jacob returned upstairs. Very soon, I notice 3 elementary school aged boys throwing rocks the size of my head at our huge, fuel oil reserve tank...the one that is so rusted out that we were ordered by the Coast Guard to have it replaced this summer. By the looks of the old tank, it wouldn't take much to break a hole through it. So I yell out the window for them to stop. They ever so politely mock me (which, unfortunately, is quite typical of many of the youth here). They continue throwing rocks. I offer to call the VPO(police), by this time they spot Jacob walking briskly towards them and begin running away quite rapidly. Unfortunately for them, a couple of ATVs full of adults saw what was happening and they were hot on their trail.
So, my favorite part throughout the ordeal, was the side drama. When I yelled for the boys to stop...the same girls whom Jacob caught in our fuel room earlier appeared out of nowhere and said, "We were just playing." I told them I wasn't talking to them, but to the boys. So I ask them for a VPO phone # and the one girl says, "Oh, the drunk man already left." We keep talking and finally I say, "You guys know not to go in that room again, right?" They blame each other and then agree not to go in again. I say, "Good, because it's not very safe to be in there." The one girl replies, "Drunk men aren't very safe either." A true statement which made me laugh considering the context, but when I stopped to think about her statement a bit more seriously, it really makes me cry because I know that it is a statement that this little girl knows to be true all too well for her young age.
I fear this is just the first of many exciting summer nights to come!

Spring Cleaning and "Our Friend"

Today I finally had enough of our filthy home (okay...it looks clean enough on the surface, but I know when the last time was that I actually scrubbed the floor!) Logan and Owen caught my excitement to clean when I started moving all of the furniture. I was impressed that they remained quite helpful for a couple of hours before they were ready to be "all done." Perfect timing for a knock on the door. It was an 11-year old friend of ours who always brings me great joy! I opened the door. She didn't speak. I asked her if she wanted to come in. She entered...still not speaking. I asked her if she wanted to play Play-Doh with the boys. She shook her head. Hmmm. We weren't making much progress. I finally discovered that she was sad because she couldn't find any other kids to play with...they were all sleeping (at 2pm...understandable since school is out and the sun and the youth are up until the wee hours of the morning). She didn't feel like doing anything, so she said, so I continued cleaning and before long, she was playing with the boys. She stayed for an hour or so until I began mopping the floor with my vinegar/alcohol/water mixture. She crinkled up her nose and said, "What's that smell?" I told her and she looked miserable. I asked her if she wanted to leave. She nodded and walked to the door. I said, "Boys, say 'goodbye.' Our friend is leaving because she thinks our house stinks." Success...after over an hour, she smiled:) She returned later, with a friend, and confirmed that our house did not stink anymore.

Sometime before Christmas, I began doing a Kid's Church on Tuesday evenings. I never knew who would show up and, in the beginning, (before the kids knew I was serious about kicking them out if they didn't listen!)chaos would ensue and I would feel like I was back subbing in innercity Grand Rapids. So why was I doing this? One evening we went to a volleyball game at the school and this girl (who I wrote about above) came up to me. She was very excited and said, "I remember." "Remember what?" "I remember the verse you taught us!" "Really? What is it?" Now, she looked a little nervous and I must be honest that I had my doubts. She said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." Well, what do you know? Someone was actually listening!:)

Sadly, but as I'd learned was typical, I didn't see her again for several weeks until her grandmother's funeral. I think it was our largest funeral with over a hundred people present...by far, the most people we'd ever seen in the church at any one time! The girl was supposed to sing "Jesus Loves Me" but when her turn came she began crying and couldn't do it. I gave her a reassuring look. During the "open sharing time" at the end, she came to me and asked, "Will you sing that song with me...the Love the Lord your God song?" In my head, I said, "Are kidding me? There are over a hundred people here. I don't sing in front of people who are older than 12 years old and I don't even sing that song well when I try in a room all by myself!" To her, I replied, "Sure...but you have to sing too!" She laughed and said she would. When we were up on the stage together, she leaned over and whispered, "I don't remember the words." Great!! Ha, Ha! So "we" sang and it sounded horrific, but it was beautiful and received with smiles and tears.

I didn't see her again for a couple of months due to my travels and winter setting in, but one day, she showed up on our doorstep. I asked her if she would come to Kid's Church if I started having them again. She nodded. She has come every week since, remembering even without me calling her (which is a super big deal here!) In the midst of the chaos of other kids teasing each other and moving around and me constantly having to bring them back to the point, she sits there like a sponge absorbing every word out of my mouth. It is so rewarding to have her there and also scary to think of how much responsibility I have not to teach her wrongly! As our relationship has developed, I've really become fond of this child, but was also aware that I was probably just another person in her life. A couple of weeks ago, she came over after school and was having a snack when a lady from our church also came over and they exchanged some words in Yupik. I asked her what she said. She looked bashful and said, "I told her that you are becoming like my mom."