Issue No. 1

Ok, ok. I'll get this started. The internet at our apartment is very hit or miss, so I haven't been bothering with it much. However, things are happening here in Togiak! Tomorrow is my first volunteer shift at the library. Kyle and I will be volunteering every Thursday evening after school starting next week! The library here is ran 100% by volunteers. It is a very small space, but the community is very lucky to have it, it is a great resource! They have a food program for kids under 18 that entitles any youth to a box of food once a day. They also have twelve brand spanking new Mac computers- very fancy! Another great program at the library is the Dolly Parton Imagination Program. It is a program that sends books once a month (completely free of charge!) to children under the age of five. The sooner the family gets signed up for it, the better because they send books specific to the child's age. A lot of the books are actually geared toward Alaska Natives and have pictures of native babies- something that isn't seen in a lot of mainstream books for children! It is a great program!
Tonight at 11, Kyle and I are joining Dale, the main librarian and a teacher at the school, as he pulls his net out of the bay. We're going to help him clean fish, and I'm sure he'll send us home with a hefty supply of fresh salmon!
All last week Kyle was out of town at teacher in-service in the neighboring village of Dillingham. I, for some very strange reason, volunteered to watch all of the teacher's dogs while they too were in Dillingham. Including our own very, very well behaved, amazing, lovable, calm dog, Margo, I had a six month old Siberian Husky (staying at our apartment. The rest were at their own homes.), a six month old Australian Shepherd, a four year old Corgie mutt, and two four year old Irish (ENORMOUS) Wolfhounds. Needless to say, I definitely had my hands full. I don't want to get into the details of what my days were like that week, I am thankful that it is over and I am officially retired from mass dog watching...
I was very fortunate to have had the blessing of the Vice Principal, Mr. Lee, to borrow his four wheeler the week that everyone was in Dillingham. I didn't have very many opportunities to take advantage of it as it was raining on and off for most of the week. I learned very quickly the first day that I had it in my possession that even a little bit of rain turned out to be a lot of rain when driving over six miles round trip to check your mail in town. This past Wednesday morning, I was up very early, as usual, to walk the dogs. It wasn't raining! So I was going to check the mail! This is a very exciting thing to do here in Togiak, especially when you're expecting hoards of treasures from Amazon (such as bed pillows, a slow cooker, an oscillating fan, a dog bed, 3M hooks for organizational purposes, a package from your sweet mother-in-law, a bed skirt, dog toothpaste, dog trimmers, etc.) I was so far under the impression that the post office was opened Monday through Friday from 8am-4:30pm. Apparently, however, they don't open until 2pm on Wednesdays. Or perhaps its 10am. Or perhaps they may just close sometimes. Alas, a little frustrated, my dry trip into town was not wasted because I instead took a luxurious cruise along the beach. I rode into flocks of shore birds, sending them aloof and crunched over sea shells the size of my hands. My 360 degree views are full of mountain ranges, tundra, fireweed, the Bering Sea, the harbor, boats in the bay and a colorful array of ramshackle houses.
It would be too boring if something seemingly horrendous didn't happen to the four wheeler belonging to a patriarchal member of the school while it was in my possession, right? I thought so, too. Wednesday afternoon, the day that everyone was returning, my neighbor, Donna, wanted to take the four wheeler into town to check her mail. She was expecting a birthday package in the mail from her father. So I went outside to giver her a quick tutorial on how to operate the quad. In an attempt to show her the basics, starting it, neutral, reverse, shifting, etc., something happened. I was explaining to her that it had seemed difficult to shift into second. In this short demonstration in our gravel filled parking lot I learned, to my horror, that it in fact was not shifting at all anymore. I looked down to find the shifter jammed all the way down. When I got off to check it out, it moved around freely from its base. Sorry, Donna. Looks like you're waiting until tomorrow to get your package. I did not look forward to telling Mr. Lee that I broke his large piece of equipment. Mr. Lee is a very jovial, kind hearted human being. He merely laughed when I told him what I had done. After he looked at it he assured me that it would take no more than tightening a bolt to fix it. Boy, was I relived. Here I was, ready to give over all of my hard-earned dog-watching money to fix this man's four wheeler!
Anyway... Kyle starts school on Monday! He is feeling very prepared and ecstatic to finally begin. We have both met a handful of his students already. Every time we take the dog out we are greeted by a gang of kids eager to say hello to us and to Margo. More exciting news- I applied for a full-time paraprofessional position at the school! I'll definitely keep you all posted on that! I cannot wait for the upcoming week that is sure to be filled with lots of stories of school and volunteering! Perhaps I can talk Kyle into a guest spot on the blog here... I'll be writing again soon! Leave me questions or comments and I will try to respond accordingly!