December 8 - Friday

By the time we got the library aide training approved, the Youth Services Librarian from the state library had already made other plans. So, I held the library aide training this week in McGrath, by myself. I had a syllabus created but it was very hard to follow. The two women from the Yukon villages, Lori from Holy Cross and Tina from Shageluk arrived about 3:30 or 4:00 on Monday. The earliest they could get Dawn here from Lime Village was 4:00 on Tuesday. Marcy arrived about noon on Wednesday - the problems of having a district that is all bush plane trips apart. And now the days are almost as short as they will get and the flying must be done in daylight.



They took two people to the Yukon and returned with Tina and Lori. On the same return flight was a maintenance man, who on Tuesday flew to Lime Village and that flight brought Dawn back to McGrath. We were all surprised by the arrival of Marcy from Nikolai on Wednesday. The Nikolai principal had hired Marcy on Wednesday morning and basically said, "You're hired, now go get on the plane." So, my syllabus kind of undulated, as I repeated for the new comers what I had covered for the earlier arrivals, while the early ones progressed on to something else, until I couldn't remember what I had told to whom. I was as confused as the previous sentence. Dawn stayed two hours later on Wednesday evening then the others so that she could catch up. Then Lilly, McGrath's aide, had to leave early on Thursday to attend a two day college course on Quicken being presented in McGrath by Laural and Mike's son-in-law from Anchorage.

On Wednesday afternoon, I had Lara come in and talk about the summer reading program because she has done it for McGrath and then we all went upstairs for a meeting with Joe, the superintendent. I told the other women to go on up and I would follow as I could. They insisted they would get me up the ramp. So with one pushing an office chair and another pulling on my crutches we ascended amidst much laughter.

(Up the ramp)

(careful on the corner)

(Yohoo! Look at us!)

(Giggling like little girls)


We eat lunches and most dinners in Susie's Iditarod Café. The accountant is going to have a fit because she assumed we would eat in the school cafeteria, but the assistant superintendent had told me to take them to the café. This was a very special treat for the participants because none of the villages have any kind of restaurant.

On Thursday, Lori and Tina returned to their villages on the same plane that carried the School Board members home after their meeting. Since the maintenance man in Lime wanted to stay another day, Dawn thought she would stay until Saturday, but Joe put his foot down and insisted the district couldn't afford another flight to the Yukon on Saturday and Skip had to be in McGrath to return on an already scheduled charter. So she returned early this morning on the flight to pick up Skip. Marcy caught the mail plane to Nikolai.

I am bushed. Everyone tried to do my running for me, but there was still a lot of moving around from activity to activity, and going after things that other people couldn't find. I enjoyed them all so very much but was very happy to see the last one leave. My hope now is that they learned enough to take back to their villages to make a difference. Of course, the fact the village with the worst library and the least productive aides sent no one is a real sour spot. I will still have to go and spend at least a week in that village.

Jim, the technical supervisor for the district, also told me today that he thinks he has a deal worked out about the on-line library system for the whole district. Follett wanted to charge $3000 for each of the eight sites and he has worked hard to make them understand that some of our village sites are about 1/3 the size of an average school classroom. He says the deal that was worked out sounds too good to be true and he has requested it in writing. If it is true, the villages should have the system by possibly the end of January, before those I taught have forgotten everything they learned about Follett.

November 29 - Thursday

November 29 - Wednesday

Well, we finally got a little snow. Four inches on Monday is better than nothing. Then this morning I awoke to a few more inches. I caught this picture out my bedroom window, but should have taken the picture before I had breakfast and before it started to melt.



Across the street, you see the house of Barb and Ken. Barb has been the acting community library director and wonderful to work with. Today, she and Ken fly out to their trap lines until March. They would normally been gone long ago, but Ken had pneumonia and had to delay the trip. The way she talks about his coughing, it doesn't sound as if he's well enough to go now, but she says he's been chomping at the bit to go.

I have been trying to organize a library aide training that would bring all the village aides into McGrath for lessons with the Alaska State Library Youth Services Librarian and me, but I was told 2 weeks ago that the money had to be spent by the end of December and I've only gotten three people who will come, besides the aide from the McGrath library. The state librarian is chomping at the bit for answers and I'm trying to learn from the school district accountant if we will even proceed with the plans. The only possible time would have been next week. There was a suggestion that we hold it in Grayling since that is the library that needs the most help, but one of Grayling's aides will be outside (out of Alaska) and the other has another day job and probably will not come even if it is held in their library. The McGrath aide couldn't have gone to Grayling because it is a community library in the school district building. Besides, I can't imagine climbing in a bush plane with my one good foot and crutches - a truck is bad enough.

Last evening, we had a houseful of people for Mike's 60th birthday. Most of the people I already knew. Two new acquaintances where one the local Physician's Assistants and his wife with their 3 week old baby. So, new baby, Mike's birthday and Carla's being home from Israel gave a lot to talk about, if help was needed. Mike also talked about some of his youthful experiences. There was talk about Francis and Joanne having to move their cabin 3 miles because it is now on federal land; materials are so hard to come by that one does not abandon a house and build another. We discussed the old way of mining gold when they used mercury spread on tables to pull the gold out of the ore dust and then balled up the mercury to heat, which vaporized the mercury and left the gold. There is an operating gold mine near McGrath. Several here last night worked in the mine at one time and the assistant superintendent's son works there now.

I've taken the day off from work because the heels of my hands have swollen so badly from the crutches that I can barely hold the handles anymore. When not writing a blog entry, I'm emailing to settle the training questions.