March 24th-27th
Every now and then I get the opportunity to teach a Rural Alaska Landfill Operator (RALO) course out in rural Alaska. The destination for this RALO is St. Mary's. St. Mary's is a rural village of about 500, is located near the Yukon River in Western Alaska. There are no roads to St. Mary's, flying is the only option.
I was suppose to leave Anchorage for St. Mary's on Monday, with the actual RALO class then starting at 8 am the next day. The volcano unfortunately had other plans in store for flights in and out of Anchorage. The volcano, Mt. Redoubt, blew it's top late Sunday evening. This cancelled all Monday flights in and out of Anchorage and this prompted much discussion as weather or not to cancel the class. I really wanted to instruct the class in St. Mary's, but, I didn't want to get stuck in the bush either. I had a plane to catch the following Wednesday to Belize for vacation, so I didn't want anything to interfere with my vacation plans.
Tuesday was looking like it was good to fly, so myself, the other insturctor, Ted, and the course evaluator/coordinator, Karen, made the decision to go for it. The airport was noticeably busy due to the delays the day before, but we made it on the plane on time, and headed for our layover in Bethel. The Bethel layover was over 4 hours, so we checked in with Haglund Air, and then took a cab into town. There was an air conference going on at the Long House motel, so we checked in with them, said hello, ate some of their snacks, and then headed back to the airport. The flight to St. Mary's was uneventful. Many of the students for the class were on the plane with us. Upon landing, we learned that one of the students had his bag lost somewhere between Bethel and St. Mary's. It is not a good thing to be out in the bush without your luggage. That is why I always try to do carry on. I made the suggestion that Karen loan the student landfill operator some of here extra clothes, while the airline located his bag. This idea was ultimately rejected, but the group enjoyed the mental images of the slightly overweight student stuffed into Karen's purple sweater. That kind of broke the ice for everyone, and I had a feeling that the trip would be fun.
The place were we were staying and holding the class in St. Mary's used to be an old Jesuit school for native kids. I got mixed reactions about the school from the people I talked to. Some indicated that the school had a sorted history, and that the ghosts of past still roamed the halls. Others I talked to actually attended the school in the late 80's, and had a generally favorable review of the school. Either way, it was a nice facility, in the middle of nowhere. This place could have supported a conference of 100 people no problem. Our class of 12 people got swallowed up in this place.
The class was a good mix of students from different villages in Western Alaska. Unfortunately, the flight delay cost us a day of class, so we had to abbreviate the lessons. We covered two and a half days material in about a day and a half. Even though we accelerated the schedule, we never really felt rushed. Ted and I have been working together for about two years, so we have the program down pretty well.
Ted and I alternated teaching the lessons , so during the downtime, I took the opportunity to explore a little. The place was like a virtual ghost town, and a little creepy in a way. I found this huge sanctuary, which obviously held church services not that long ago. The pink glow from the covered windows gave the room scary undertones as the stories of ghosts crept into my head.
There were other rooms that were simply abandon. This room had desks jumbled in the corner. Who knows how long it had been since class had been formally held here. The one thing that had been updated on the place was the fire sprinkler system. Fire is a huge problem in rural communities. Every year I get a couple of frantic calls from villages wondering if their burnt out school or community center can be disposed of in the landfill. Holy Cross was not taking any chances on loosing this building, and had a top notch fire alarm and sprinkler system installed. Funny thing about this new expensive system, was that it went off, (the alarm, not the sprinklers), and the entire class had to go outside for a fire alarm. It was cold, and we had to wait until the police could turn off the system. The false alarm was of course attributed to the ghosts who roam the halls. We all eventually made it back to class, and then nicely asked the ghosts not to disturb us anymore. There were no more alarms.
The food was all provided for the conference. It was pretty good in a school lunchroom kind of way, and there was certainly plenty of it. I think that Adam the cook thought that there was twice as many students as there actually were. Nobody went hungry.
This is where we stayed during the three days. This was once the girls dorm for the school. The caretaker/cook, Adam, said that just the week before, his wife encounter a ghost here while cleaning. She hadn't been back since. This of course intrigued me, so I searched high and low for the ghost. I went in every room and even in the crawl space. No ghosts. I guess finding a ghost is kind of like looking for a moose in Anchorage. When you are looking for one, you will most definitely not see one.
The place was pretty comfortable. Basic, but clean. I always bring my own sleeping bag, that way I have my own cocoon of comfort. I travel pretty light, I have learned over the years what is important to bring and what to leave home. Karen, brought a few movies with her, and using the laptop and projector from the course, we had movie night in the evenings. Karen's movies were pretty tame, and appropriate for all audiences, but when we queried the students for movies, we received several that were quit scary. We passed on Saw IV and the Punisher. A little gory for some of the students, and a bit creepy, especially since we were staying in a haunted house.
We were fortunate to find out about the bingo game going on in the village one evening. Karen and I, along with one of the students, walked the short distance to the bingo hall near the center of the village. I think that most of the 4-wheelers and snow machines from the village were there. It certainly made it easier to find where we needed to go.
When we walked into the bingo hall, there was a definite silence that fell over the area. There were a few awkward moments as we got our bingo cards, paid and found a seat. There were more than one snicker in the background as Karen and I tried to decipher the game and adjusted to the fast pace of the bingo number reader. It took a few minutes, but we got our heads in the game, and spent the next few hours playing bingo like the pros.
Neither of us won anything, but we had a good time playing anyway.
Here is a group picture of the class. I think that the students learned a lot over the two day course. Even though we had to abreviate the length of the course, I don't feel like we missed anything.
I left for the airport right after the class in St. Mary's ended for me. I got a ride to the St. Mary's airport and sat around for an hour while they got the plane ready. The terminal had Wi-Fi, so I surfed the Alaska Airlines site with my i-phone to get an idea about delays due to the volcano. Sure enough, the flight to Anchorage that night was cancelled due to volcanic ash. I figured I would still go to Bethel that night, get a room at Bentley's, and be in line the first thing in the morning at the Bethel airport.
All of this went as planned. I got the last room at Bentley's, well, the last room for a guy. Bentley's, in additon to the usual rooms, has a house that they rent, and it just so happened to have a spot for one more person. This option I found out was not available to me because the other eight occupants of the house were female nusing students flying back to Anchorage after working in the rural villages for the past few weeks. I told the hotel desk that I was willing to be "inconvienence" a bit as long as it ment I had a place to stay, but in the end, they found a single room in the old section of the B&B that had become available. I then dined at the always acceptable Front Street Cafe, just two blocks from Bentley's and had mongolian beef for dinner.
The next morning I was up at six, and to the airport by 6:30. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8, but I wanted to be there early, just in case. Well, I was pretty much the only one in the terminl. I checked in with the agent, checked my bags, sat down and waited, and waited, and waited. There were several highlights throughout the day, as the promise of leaving came and went. The airlines would tell you just enough information to keep you in your seat, with the promise of more info in an hour. When the hour was up, they would give you a hint of leaving with in an hour or so, and then tell you to stay put, there would be more information in an hour or hour and a half. This went on pretty much all day. As the day went on, the terminal got more and more crowded. I think that the terminal had three flights worth of people waiting to get out. It was a long day to say the least.
I always thought that I would get out eventually, but I was beginning to feel like Tom Hanks in that movie where he is stuck at the airport for something like six months. My wait wasn't nearly that long, just 12 hours, but it was long enough. As I was standing in the security line for the plane, I saw Karen and Ted come into the Alaska Airlines terminal. They were hoping to get on our delayed flight, and get back to Anchorage in between eruptions. Ted ended up making it on the plane, but Karen and Riley had to stick it out in Bethel for another day. I found out later, that as the plane was sitting on the tarmac in Bethel, the volcano blew again. Karen, sitting in the terminal, was certain that our plane was going to not take off, and head back to the terminal. But luckily for us, the air was clear enough for our plane to have a safe flight all the way to Anchorage. It was a good trip, and despite the delays, everything overall went pretty smoothly.
Grandma and Grandpa were suppose to be on a direct flight - Chicago to Anchorage on Friday afternoon. Due to Mt. Redoubt they were sent to Seattle. We all thought they would be there a few hours and then would be on their way to Anchorage. Friday night was at a hotel, Saturday night was sleeping at the airport with everyone else waiting for the flights that never came. Finally on Sunday night they called and were on a flight to Anchorage! They arrived at 1:30 am on Monday and were very happy to take a shower and sleep in a bed!
We are so happy to see you! Welcome!
Mom's birthday is on April 7th, she will be 29 or perhaps 39. She blew out a candle to celebrate another year.
Dad also had a candle to celebrate his birthday which was March 16th. Uncle Sam now sends Dad a check every month and provides some health coverage as he turned 65. I remind myself when I see how much I pay in taxes that I am supporting his monthly social security checks!
We are so happy to see you! Welcome!
Mom's birthday is on April 7th, she will be 29 or perhaps 39. She blew out a candle to celebrate another year.
Dad also had a candle to celebrate his birthday which was March 16th. Uncle Sam now sends Dad a check every month and provides some health coverage as he turned 65. I remind myself when I see how much I pay in taxes that I am supporting his monthly social security checks!
We like that it is a charter school, small classes, unique curriculum....yet, it is part of the Anchorage School District so has money, resources and the benefits (larger sports teams, etc) of the larger school district. 
The school is K-8, the 6th - 8th grade last year went to the sister school in Germany and had a fantastic trip. The school was started last year and has put together a good group of teachers fairly quickly..jpg)
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