New Stuyahok

The end of April I went on my first AmeriCorps site visit for work by flying to New Stuyahok in Southwest AK. The village of about 500 people is along the beautiful Nushagak River, which was breaking free of its ice-hold while I was there. I had to fly through Dillingham and hop a couple-seater plane (just me & the pilot in a Piper Saratoga). 

The Member is part of my youth program and it was great to see her in her friendly home setting. 

I've slept in some interesting village locales over the years and this time I un-expectantly stumbled upon some brand-new vacant teacher housing. It was comfy and awesome. I was supposed to stay in the City building, where my Member is based. It's big, warm, but lacking hot water and shower facilities. This would have been the sink I utilized to wash my pearly whites and face. I think the sink is mostly used for making coffee.

Like I said, I visited during spring break-up and the changes were evident. For one, snow melt created a vast puddle/lake in front of the brand-new school. Some kids used the puddle for recreation, finding pieces of building insulation as rafts. I think you can see the scope of fun with the four-wheeler driving through their watery paradise.Funny enough, this is not the first time I've seen kids floating on insulation pieces-that was in St. Michael probably six years ago! Other amounts of water wreaked some havoc. Down by the Nushagak River, sled dog lots were floated with the high water level. One young musher had to relocate his more than 30 dogs to dry, safe land nearby. He showed me the set-up as he cooked sockeye salmon and rice for the dogs (lucky!).Local kids were obviously happy to play outside, I noticed as I watched a game of sorta baseball. This little guy wasn't interested in the game, just hopping over or wading through this stream of run-off.And this girl played on the outskirts of the ball game. With spring comes BIRDS! Geese, crane-hunting, etc. was big excitement and activity. Gun shots were heard frequently; many of the ones I heard came from a rooftop "down by the river," not far from the City building. This young guy was hiking over the tundra after school for his "shot" at birds. Common sight.I enjoyed a long walk on the airport road and through melting tundra with the Member and some of the teenage girls in her youth group (that's part of my program). It was fantastic to connect with those gals amidst wide-open undeveloped space as a chilly but fresh-feeling wind beat on us. A development debate for this region of Alaska is centered on the prospective gold-driven Pebble Mine. The general tone seen around New Stuy was anti-Pebble Mine. Even this pre-school student showcased that strong feeling (his hat)!The village's only church is Russian Orthodox. Typically, villages have one faith denomination from long ago exploration and claim-staking, or sometimes Churches actually "divied-up" villages, so there are pockets of Catholic communities, Covenant, Lutheran and so on. I had never seen an Orthodox rural Church. I didn't go inside, but was interested in the grave-markings.The nice thing about going back home from a village trip now is returning to Andy! Before I left New Stuyahok though, my Member's Gram gave me some local goodies to take along and eat. Agutaq and king salmon strips! 

I have more site visits coming up, including one to Yakutat!

*Amy