Every time I talk with any

student about the lower 48, I get questions and comments that really stun

me. Just like the questions and comments I get when I visit the lower

48. Two questions from the lower 48 that come to mind are: Do they live

in igloos? And, Do you get any snow days for school?

One of the girls here told

me that if there were bugs in Florida, she didn't want to go. Only a handful

of these kids, if that many, have seen a McDonalds, though there is a

Burger King in the grocery store in Nome.

Living in Wales, I have to

cope with not having fresh fruit and vegetables; meats arrive frozen and

sometimes the bread does, too! We have gone days without a plane, which

means no mail. As I told one of the new teachers this year, "You

will soon find that the excitement in your life will be to hear a plane

circling to land."

I have learned to talk differently

here and find I use it sometimes in correspondence and my speech in the

summer. The first time I returned to Kentucky, after nine months in Wales,

I thought there were too many birds around. Driving again was stressful.

I also found that I wanted to return to Alaska and Wales as soon as I

could. I, too, didn't want to deal with the bugs.

Now let me tell you about my

village. Wales is a very small village of Inupiut Eskimos. It is one of

12 remaining whale-hunting villages in Alaska. When you read the history

of Alaska, you will read about the flu epidemic of 1918 that killed most

of the population here. Afterward many families moved to Barrow and Kotzebue.

Some of the original family kin are still here. Ivory artifacts have been

found dating back more than 5,000 years.

Our school name is Kingikmiut

Ilisagvik, which in Eskimo means "learning place for people of the

high place". Our mascot is the killer whale, the orca. The student

body consists of about 55 students from preschool through 12th grade.

Wales is in a tundra area and

there is a mountain to the south called Cape, which has the Continental

Divide running along the top, and a mountain to the east called Razorback.

The Bering Strait is on our west.

The lowest temperature has

gotten as low as minus 80 degrees and the highest has gotten to 80 degrees,

but the average temperature runs minus 40 degrees in February (without

windchill) to upper 50s in the summer. Snow can last from November to

June. Eighty percent of the year is windy and winds can pass 50 miles

per hour. Snowdrifts can reach as tall as 14 feet throughout the village,

taller than most buildings. Around the school, drifts have gotten to almost

30 feet.

The only running water is in

a few of the public buildings: the Washeteria, the Dome (city offices

and clinic), teacher housing and the school. When there is a problem with

the water and sewer (and, trust me, there have been problems), we use

"honey-buckets" or slop jars, as they are called in the South.

We have one store and one church.

A lot of the families go subsistence

hunting for food. Eskimo food includes whale blubber and skin, dried fish

and meat, greens, berries, walrus, seal oil and meat, reindeer, stink

flipper and fermented walrus. Wild animals, such as fox, brown bear, polar

bear, moose, musk ox, reindeer, snow owls, ptarmigans, cranes, snow birds,

and porcupine roam freely around the village throughout the year. Reindeer

are corralled, butchered and shared among the village.

During the fall, we have clamming

season and in the winter, ice fishing is another way of getting food.

In spring, if we are lucky like last year, a whaling crew kills a bowhead

whale. This village is allotted two whales per year.

Ghost stories and legends are

a big part of the Eskimo culture. We celebrate with potluck feasts and

Eskimo games and contests such as Eskimo baseball, seal hop, stick pull,

leg wrestle, one foot high kick, and kneel jump.

Many people think that Wales

is so small, there is nothing to see or do. If you love the outdoors and

hiking, you will never get bored. When walking along the mountains, you

can see rock formations called Three Old Ladies, Foot Prints, the Chair,

the Mitten and White Rock.

We have a peace monument facing

Russia which is a dove in open hands. That's what you see when you look

at it, but it means much more. The design was made to allude an incomplete

bridge, a bird, an Eskimo sled, a Russian constructivist sculpture, and

a hand extended in friendship. An identical sculpture was installed on

the Russian mainland facing us.

Eskimo dances are taught and

practiced within the village and school. Many families go to "camp."

This is the time to collect and harvest fish and berries to store for

the winter.

The northern lights are a beautiful

addition to our dark skies. A sight of wavy green, pink, blue, and yellow

lights that no one should miss fills the skies many nights.

Travel in, out and around Wales

is limited and expensive. We are accessible only by bush plane, snowmobile,

and boat. Most of the vehicles in the village are snowmobiles (called

snowmachines here) and four wheelers. And then there is the old-fashion

way: walking.

We joke and tell people that

the washeteria apartment is a quarter mile from the school, but in the

winter it turns to a half mile. You have to climb up and down, up and

down, anywhere from five to eight drifts that are roof high. We can't

travel the beach, which has no drifts, because there are polar bears around

once the water freezes.

And no, we are not in total

darkness. Up until mid-December we lose light about an hour a week. Then

we have three to three and a half hours of light that will grow as winter

wears off and spring appears. By May, when the temperature can still be

in the 20s, it will feel very warm and you'll see kids running around

in short sleeves.

And that brings up another

question from the lower 48: Do the kids were shorts and summer clothes

up there? Yes, but the shorts are called shorties.

There are lots more little

comments, like when I order from people over the phone who think that

AK stands for Arkansas or that the abbreviation for Alaska is Al. "We

will UPS it to you and it will get there in two days." Is that a

guarantee or money back? I hate it when I find something to order and

in small print it says "except Alaska and Hawaii."

One medical insurance company

told me that they would reimburse me when I returned to the States. Hey,

Alaska is in the states; remember the 49th state?

How many places can you make

up an address and the mail still gets to you? My favorites are 101 Walrus

Way or I. C. Russia. I even had a friend address a letter to me with just

my first name and Wales, Alaska and the zip. And it got here!

Now that you know about Wales,

you can see that there is a lot of coping to do. But the article talked

about educational matters and where the urban areas are complaining about

the rural areas getting more money. Urban people can't comprehend what

it's like to struggle with off-the-road freight costs, crumbling facilities,

high teacher turnover and disheartened students.

We have worries of housing

and water supply, supplies that sometimes do not arrive, where weather

turns schedules in and out. The district has computers, but they may be

older ones and/or not working properly. Another big hurdle to face is

logistics. We can't go to a hardware store, Wal-Mart, or an Office Depot

when we need things. We have to think a year ahead and order things.

And then, as teachers know,

orders arrive mixed up and we have to straighten them out and if there

are returns, there is again cost and time spent. It could be months before

we get the right items.

We wear different hats to get

the jobs done. Here in Wales, we have seven teachers, with two of us working

half time as either counselor or special education teacher seven teachers

for a school of preschool to 12th grade. As a halftime teacher of middle

school and high school math, I may also have to teach PE, dance, art or

music. We only get an itinerant teacher for vocational education for a

semester once a year. This year we had wood shop. At this point, we have

less than 10 days of school left in the semester and some of the wood

for projects still hasn't arrived.

Now DON'T get me wrong. I love

living in Wales. Just ask my mom, who lives in Port Charlotte, Fla. What

I do want is for the lower 48 to learn more about the state and especially

the bush area and even the urban areas of Alaska to learn more about the

rural parts. I have lived in three of the lower 48 states and visited

almost all. I try to bring the lower 48 to my students. They are limited,

but who isn't? You are only limited in education if you allow yourself

to be.

I am always talking to people

about traveling to and in Alaska. I brought up my mom and two sisters

to Wales. Mom is ready to return. Lots of people take cruises and those

are nice, but you miss out on so much. I want to share this way of way

of life and have you share your life with us.

Do I sound like I'm begging?

Maybe I am. I would love some help and I hope this editorial will inspire

some of your readers to help make it possible for these four students

to get a bigger view of the world. We would appreciate any help from money

to free passes to events.

With a little bit of help from

many friends, there may be Eskimos visiting you at the end of May.

Judy Standafer

P.O. Box 508,

Wales, Alaska 99783

[email protected]

or [email protected]

Fax 907-664-3031, phone

907-664-2173