Meeting the Kong Staff

         After traveling from Philadelphia to Seattle to Anchorage, I finally arrived at Bethel Alaska. This was my last stop using the large Alaska Airlines plane. From here I knew that I would have to use a small ‘bush plane’ to get to my final destination. My only problem was that I arrived in Bethel at night and those planes only fly during the day.

         Luckily for me, four of my teaching staff was at the airport to greet me. They held a small sign written on a styrofoam container that said Kong Teacher. I walked right over to meet my new ‘family’ while I would be living in Alaska. They were actually stuck in Bethel for two days due to the poor weather conditions that have been occurring.

         Since they were stuck in Bethel, they had access to a district vehicle to drive us around Bethel to where we would be staying for the night, which is at the district office. There is nothing like getting to know your co-workers like having a giant sleepover in the district office. But, this is actually something that occurs quite often when teachers and administrators get trapped with the poor weather.

         The next day, the weather still wasn’t the greatest in the morning so I got to run around and get a new cell phone since my phone will not work in Kong since the only service provider that work is GCI. But, I got to take a small tour of Bethel and meet most of the district office employees who were all so welcoming of me into the LKSD (Lower Kuskokwim School District). I even got to meet some of the high administrators of the school district, and everyone is just so friendly. I am just amazed at how nice and friendly people are here.

         Finally, the weather cleared up and all of us Kong teachers finally got to fly on a bush plane. Flying on this small of a plane is quite amazing. The view of the winter Alaska tundra is quite breath-taking; however, you feel every, single bump that happens while you are in the plane. Personally, the view outweighed all of the scary bumps that I had to go through.

            Arriving in Kong was very different. I was getting used to the negative temperatures back in Pennsylvania, but I was not ready for all of the wind that occurs while you are on the tundra. And the only way to get where I live is to take an ATV or snow machine to the school. I got to ride with Bernie, our school secretary to the school. I was just so tired from all of the traveling I wasn’t think to put on my face mask. The wind whipped at my face the entire ride to the school. I felt bad since my eyes were watering since Bernie wanted to take me really fast on the ATV and I just am not adapted to the cold and windy weather of Alaska. Even though it was one cold and windy ride, I knew that I had to start to get used to this type of weather since I will be living in Alaska for a while.

               This is Ayagina'ar Elitnaurvik, the school I am teaching math and science at.