Alaska was so far away. It wasn't a place people desired to go visit on vacation, nor was it a place most people wanted to retire to. Yet, I found myself on a plane headed there nonetheless.
Why I asked myself as I gazed out the window watching the snow as it fell from the sky like bricks of ice rather then those nice little snow flakes I always saw over in Ohio where I was originally from. Why was I on a plane headed to a state I really had no desire to visit.
"Coffee or tea," the hostess asked me as she passed by my seat. "Cola," I told her when I saw cups of that on her cart. She handed me one and continued on.
It was either this or I had to remain on the school grounds teaching drop out kids for the entire winter holiday break. I had no desire to do that. The idea of teaching kids out in the middle of nowhere was more appealing. At least that was what I thought at the time I'd been given the option. Now I was having second thoughts.
They lacked teachers in Alaska and every year a group of teachers were sent from various schools to teach for a period of time. This was my school's turn to participate.
The plane started it's descend and the buckle up sign lit up near my seat. I'd not undone mine, so I had no problem with the sign. This could be an exciting adventure I told myself. All I had to do was loosen up and enjoy my stay.
As I walked off the plane, I started looking for a sign with my name on it. I was told that was how they'd get me to the area I needed to be in. Sure enough just at the end of the line I saw a sign with my name written in bold black marker. I waved and started towards the sign.
As I approached I called out. "I'm Molly!" The sign holder dropped the sign and motioned for me to follow them. He was a man pretty near my age I suspected. He had long blackish hair and a responsibility fit body from the looks of him.
When we got out of the crowd he stopped walking. "Do you have your luggage?" he asked.
"Yes," I assured him. "I travel light."
"Excellent," he smiled at me. "I'm Mark, by the way." He motioned towards a snow machine parked just within the parking area. "We have to travel on this so I'm glad you didn't bring a hug suitcase."
"Yes," I agreed, "no place for it."
"Our village is pretty far out in the ice and snow." He climbed on the snow machine and motioned me to climb on as well. "It will take us several days to reach it."
"How..." I started to ask.
"No hotels here," he assured me. "We camp..."
"Camp?" I asked.
"Camp," he assured me as the machine started and we drove off into the pouring snow storm. How I wished as the snow zoomed by me that I'd stayed home.
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The day passed slowly. With each mile I felt colder and colder. After awhile he stopped the snow machine and switched it off.
"Time to go to the bathroom and warm up," he told me. He climbed off the snow machine and started inspecting it. I stood there for a few minutes wondering where I'd go to the bathroom. It took a few moments before he noticed I wasn't moving.
"Anywhere," he pointed around. "I will not look. I've got to check out the bike before we go further and you need to put on more clothing." He pulled my bags from the machine and handed them to me. "It's pretty cold where we are going."
He turned away from me and continued to go over the machine.
"Pee anywhere?" That's what he'd told me. I did have to pee. I looked around. Where?" It was all open ground. After a few more moments of wondering and realizing I wasn't going to be able to hold it for the entire trip I broke down and squatted behind my bags. It wasn't much privacy but it was some. Ice cold air greeted my backside. I shivered and was glad when I was done. To his word he did not look in my direction.
I had not brought many clothes and warmer ones I simply didn't own. I removed my coat and put on 3 of my warm sweaters. It was all I had. I put my coat back on picked up my bags. Shivered some more and returned to the side of the bike.
"It's time to go," he informed me. He took my bags and loaded them on the bike again.
We road for hours after that it seemed. By the time we stopped again I was exhausted.
He shut the engine off and pulled another bag from the back which he tossed to the ground.
"That's our sleeping bags." He stopped talking and put his finger to his lips. His long hair blew around his face in the wind that suddenly started to blow. He pushed it aside, and pointed towards a group of tall trees. He motioned me to get down low to the ground. From his waist he removed what looked like a gun. I looked in the area he'd pointed but I saw nothing at first.
He stood for a few more minutes waiting. Nothing happened. He took a few steps towards the trees and suddenly, without notice, a huge bear came charging out, but not at us. It was running away from us. He did nothing except watch it go. When it was safely out of site he turned away from it and opened the bag where the tent was.
"Let's get this up before you freeze to death," he told me. The discovery of the bear didn't seem to phase him at all. But, it scared the hell out of me.
"That was a bear!" I found myself almost shouting.
He pulled the tent out and started unwinding it. "Yep, it was." He agreed. "I have no idea what it was running from." He looked back in the direction he had ran from. But nothing came out of the woods.
"I'll keep an eye out for anything," he assured me.
I did my best to help with the tent. But, I was a city girl and had no idea how to put up a tent. He had the tent up in about ten minutes by himself.
"You're not a country woman are you?" he asked as he worked inside the tent with bedding and a small easy to use cooking stove.
"Not in the least," I assured him. "Well," he continued to talk, "You'll be fine once we reach the village. Just let me take care of things here.
"You've no argument from me," I assured him.
The fire he had going came from the cooking stove. But it was warm enough that I wasn't freezing as I had been on the snow machine.
"There simply is no other way to reach the village outside of a helicopter at all," he assured me. "We only use planes for things like food and physical emergencies."
He opened another sack and removed packages of food. "Once I have them warmed up," he clapped his hands, "Eat up and then go to bed." He put the food on the stove. "The drive will be long tomorrow."
I watched, as he prepared the food. I would have flirted with him had he been back in the states. But here...I had no intentions of staying here so flirting seemed pointless.
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After what seemed to be days and days of travel the village came into view. Puffs of smoke appeared in front of us in the very blue sky coming towards us. I was exhausted. Drop out kids might not have been so bad to teach I told myself as I noticed how bad my butt hurt from the ride. I felt frozen solid, and I had to pee yet again.
The snow machine pulled into the fenced in yard of the city. It wasn't a big place. The houses were built one right next to the other. Most of the snow had been removed from what they called a road. However, no other snow machines were visible.
Children were outside building forts and snowmen. Over near what appeared to be a school building was a slide made out of ice.
Mark pulled up by a small house just by the school. "This is where you will be staying." Several people started to walk towards us as he pulled to a stop and turned off the machine.
I climbed off the machine and wanted to rub my butt. But I didn't do it because of the people approaching.
The house wasn't big. But it was big enough for me. It had a nice burning stove and kept the place a nice toasty warm. The kitchen and dinning room were one room. The living room and bedroom were one room. So the place had three rooms. A bedroom living room. A kitchen dinning room and a bathroom. I was all set to start teaching tomorrow. Mark assured me he'd supply me with all the wood I needed to keep warm and to cook my food.
A wood burning stove was a first to me, and I would need further instructions as to how to work one. But I had to admit I rather liked the flavor of the food from the wood burning as compared my own electric stove back home.
My first day of school began the next day. Because of the location of this tiny village I noticed the sun didn't shine, and if it did shine it wasn't very bright. I was told that in the summer months the sun stayed in the sky night and day and there was no darkness. However, I was told I would get to see the northern lights.
My classroom contained twelve children. I was rather surprised that I had that many to teach. The town didn't seem big enough to have that many children. But, I was told, that some of the housing wasn't in the city. Some of the children had to be brought in everyday because of the cold. Those same children may not attend class everyday because of that work for them to do on days they couldn't attend was necessary.
"John," a hand went up. "Jamie," another arm went up. "Julie,"...I paused. And called out again. "Julie?"
"Julie couldn't make it today," a small girl named Sally informed me.
I nodded and made a note that she was one of the students who lived out of town.
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"We are taking orders for the food plane," Nancy informed me after my class had ended. "Do you need anything?"
I looked at her kinda puzzled. She laughed. "Things you like to eat." She handed me a list of possible foods. "Mark will make sure you get what you ask for. Food and shelter is provided for your stay here at our expense not yours."
I took the list of foods. "How long between the planes?"
"I'd imagine this will be you're only food order." She nodded.
"So make it count."
I walked towards the schools outside doors glancing at the order form as I went. This place was quiet and it was peaceful. I shoved the doors open but didn't step outside. Instead, I let the doors close. Outside there was a group of students playing in the snow. The older individual students were helping the smaller children build snowmen and forts to throw snowballs at each other from. I watched.
