Filling the “Night” With Stars

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Keely

So it’s funny because, haha, we are north of the arctic circle where there is no real night anymore. Fortunately, our school gym is big and blue and windowless, so we should be able to carry off our Night Full of Stars on Saturday.

This week has been madness. We planned our colors and theme to match the one graduating senior’s color scheme for tomorrow’s graduation ceremony, so we will be able to piggyback on her decorations and get everything set up in time for the big night. It’s hard to believe it’s only two days away.

On Tuesday Jake padlocked the gym doors and gave me a key. Only the prom committee and the volunteer decorators have been allowed inside since. The girls and I have stayed after school and not made it home for dinner before 8 any night this week.

As we glued still more cardboard stars and inadvertently glittered the floor and the walls and the table and ourselves, C said to me “Ms. O, I can’t believe prom is only two days away. Like, you know when you’re so excited you can’t sleep? Like maybe on your birthday? It’s gonna be like that. We’re gonna have the best night ever.” I swear she said those exact words to me.

Laser tag has arrived, and so have the cakes and the illegal-to-fly-in-a-small-plane tanks of helium (how did they get here? I really don’t know!). The girls have made cardboard silhouettes and covered them with black paper to create shields for laser tag that will double as extras for the dancing. A gave one a bowtie, a collar, buttons and a red flower. He’s going to be her date. The hours that they’ve put in are going to pay out big time: we didn’t have much money, but we’ve had incredible support from all over the country, and the kids have made a lot from scratch that is going to look great.

I’m completely exhausted, but I can’t keep from smiling. This week has been an all-in adventure: I’ve hardly slept, I haven’t managed to do much school work, and even now, at 9:30 pm, my kids are still a part of my day. I have two in the bathroom right now, trying on dresses. The one gal came over for a shower, and asked if it would be okay if she brought the dresses over from the school and tried them on. How could I refuse? She called her pal and now they’re giggling in the bathroom. “Definitely not this one, huh?”

That’s the thing about the bush, I think. Once you open the door, you’re all-in. My class is like my family now, and they are welcome at any time of the day or night to use the bathroom (woo running water!) or to make cookies or study math or just to talk. It’s not just my class, either. My door is closest to the playground, so little kids sometimes knock for water and band-aids and just to visit. It’s impossible to say no. Last night, cousins A and C came over for math help and managed to learn a few phrases in french on the side. “Le chat est noir,” A repeated to herself as she put away her book and pulled on her shoes. “Le chat est noir” she said, as she and her cousin tumbled out the door, chasing and pushing and laughing like they always do. I will teach them “les étoiles brillent dans la nuit” on Saturday.

Arctic Spring Lullaby

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Keely

My new favorite spot is on the riverbank by the elephant graveyard. It’s prickly with dry grass, charred by old fires, and studded with shell casings. It has a giddy breeze and the sound of water rushing by in some kind of big hurry. It has a huge slick of melting river ice that glares into the sky with blinding defiance and tips over helplessly into the clear water. The steep bank is made just right for the dangling of tired, muddy boots. I lay out there on Sunday afternoon, watching blue roll onto the sky, tasting the dust on the air and reveling in the sudden, dry earth under my shoulderblades. Sometimes, lying under a blue sky like that, in just that kind of wind, I can let my heart fly up like a kite with a long, dancing tail. That’s the happiest I know how to be.

I went down to the bank tonight just to think for a while, and to read my book and listen to water bringing the cold mountain song down like a lullaby. There are sirens in the Chandalar, luring sailors into the hills.

let me put my arms around you
(shush shush shush)
like this circle ’round the sun
(hush sh-shush)
come running to the woods, girl
(shush shush shush)
when your work is good and done
(hush sh-shush)

or just let screen door slam to
(shush shush shush)
and let the water run
(hush sh-shush)
so I can put my arms around you
(hush now hush)
like this circle ’round the sun

1:03 am, north of a circle ’round the sun.

Weird Weekend On Its Way

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Keely

Almost everyone I work with is out of the village this weekend. Terri left yesterday, and Jake, Shannon, and Ben all left this afternoon. It’s strange and a little unsettling, suddenly being so much more alone. I have Ruby, Terri’s little dog, to keep me company, and my students are sure to make appearances from time to time, but even my usual go-to phone call buddy, Sean, is disconnected while traveling this weekend.

my usual companions have left, and I’m cut off from the rest of the world.

I’m not worried about being lonely. I like keeping my own company, and I’ll have some fun this weekend working on a project or two for the prom and graduation. The thing is, there are no adults in the village right now that I know well enough to call on if something goes a little awry. I don’t have phone numbers memorized for an emergency, and I don’t think calling 911 does anything out here. I’m not expecting trouble, just realizing that I need more of a support network in this place. Usually I have someone in one of the apartments that abuts mine, and for the moment I’m all alone. There are two school staff still here, but both make me a little uncomfortable, which is a whole lot worse than lonely.

I do have the kids, though, and they’ll keep me from going all weekend without a laugh. I have the kids and I have Ruby Who Is A Dog (some kid asked me on our morning constitutional, “what is that!?”). I have my safe warm house and a well-stocked kitchen and a whole lot of Northern Exposure to watch. Best of all, I have the slough and the spring woods to spend my hours reveling in, the way popcorn revels in butter. With a little luck, the cookie girls will be coming by soon to rescue me from my solitude. I’d better run to the store for eggs before it’s too late.

Two-Step in Boots

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Keely

put some miles on my boots
this week past
maybe some fifty miles
the same and same trails
In snow and slush and mud and dust
and a sun that throws daily different shadows
It’s fast, this business of spring
And I have made fast miles to keep up

slip-slush-splash and a few miles in wet jeans
That chafe and tug
what of it? It’s ice and mud
and laugh it off and welcome the sun
Did it again the next day, too
and again and again with sore feet and
giggling like the white goose flying
the first one shot
a hundred bucks to the gun

blue lake ice and then the same ice pitted
caribou antlers bend like mossy rubber
and in two days the white slough buckles under the bank
and disappears and unveils the carcasses of salmon
lying glinting in the river like silver gold
And dried on the sand like paper cranes

girl prints and caribou moon prints
by the gravel bar where bears are
and wolf toenails and boot heels
cutting the sand on the driftwood bank
slush steps fast-sinking in the melting lake
and the moon fading in the summering sky
this hurrying business of spring
is dancing miles on my boots
this week past
maybe some fifty miles

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Too muddy for too many words

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Keely

Miss A wrote in her journal that “the best part of being outside is feeling the sun on my back. It feels so warm and good.”

This week is culture week, and the students have a half-day of music every day. They are learning fiddle, guitar and traditional dance. The program these folks run is amazing, and the kids are loving it.

For culture week, one community member invited us to his house to see the wolf he'd trapped. Black wolves are prized for their fur along the coast.

For culture week, one community member invited us to his house to munch on dry meat and see the wolf he’d trapped. Wolves are a significant threat to the moose population, which the community relies on for subsistence, so managing wolf numbers in the area is of real concern to the village. Black wolves like this one are prized for their fur by the people who live along the coast.

Some of the kids and I took the music instructors for a walk after the cakewalk last night.

The prom committee made another hundred dollars from the fundraiser, and I won back the lemon cake that had been making my house smell like heaven all afternoon. Only about a quarter of it made it home, though. You can’t not share your cakewalk winnings.

I had girls in the kitchen right up to the last second baking cakes, and there’s only so much giggling one can handle in a small space before fresh air becomes absolutely mandatory. I needed that walk, and the beautiful, silly kids just made it more refreshing.

M built the tiniest snowman! This is the only week of the year so far where the snow has been wet enough to make snowballs. They fly thick and fast whenever I take my students outside for journals.

Feet.

“I’d like to run through that puddle in the morning,” remarked A on our post-cookie walk through the village tonight.

Most of the walk was a game of tag and tangle with Gracious, C’s adorable dog.

We’re excited! The Cinderella Project of Maine is trying to help us get prom dresses, and we made the roll call (about three minutes in) on CNN Student News today! Between that and cookie night, it’s been a real red letter day.