Can You Say Tukurngailnguq?

After a good week of R & R in Olympia, J.D. and I headed to Sea-Tac at 2:30am to catch our flight to Alaska. Because we were flying with 13 pieces of luggage, we needed some extra time checking in for our 7:00am flight. Despite the Smart-Cartes piled high with equipment, we had little trouble getting through the airport and soon we were winging our way north. Dozing on and off on the plane, much of the three and a half hour flight flew by (pun intended), but I was able to catch the sight of the rugged, icy-white mountains surrounding Anchorage as we came in to land. A quick transfer and we were back in the air en route to Nome.

Once we arrived in Nome, we trekked through the snow to the neighboring terminal (terminal is a loose term) to catch our flight to Stebbins. With an hour to wait once we had gotten everything situated, we tried to stay conscious in the waiting room. A few other people were there, patiently waiting to get home. Perhaps they'd been in Nome to get away for a bit. Perhaps they had some business to attend to or family to visit. Maybe they'd been on a longer trip to Anchorage or Seattle. I don't know, but I do know that waiting in this room was only new to us.

About thirty minutes after our scheduled departure date (again, nothing new to the locals) a man in jeans, a fleece, and boots called out all passengers to Stebbins and a few other villages. We followed him outside and climbed aboard a small two-engine plane with six seats crammed inside. Shuffling by the piles of luggage I plopped myself down in one of the front seats. My knees up against the co-pilot's seat (occupied by a passenger) and my head brushing the ceiling, I sat with the others waiting for take-off. This was by far the smallest plane I've ever been on. I could have easily given the pilot a back-rub and watched him work every lever and button. We sped down the run way and left the frozen ground.

Beneath us the frozen sea was showing signs of spring. Long cracks split ice sheets of various shapes. There was one shaped like Greenland, another like Florida. Some seemed frozen solid while others had puddles forming. Still, the sight of uncapped liquid was rare in the solid landscape. Soon, sight itself disappeared as we were enveloped by dense fog, the claustrophobia of the cabin extending outside, trapping us in whiteness.

Exhausted by the travel, a lack of sleep, and a stomach on the verge of digesting itself, I bobbed in and out of consciousness. I was awake when we started our approach for Stebbins. The pilot descended, landing gear was down, then suddenly he gunned it, pulled up and drew up the landing gear. Twenty minutes later we landed at St. Michael. Unable to land in Stebbins due to the weather, we could either stay in St. Michael, the neighboring village and hope to bum a ride to Stebbins or return to Nome. Hearing that the "road" to Stebbins was in bad shape, we hopped back on the plane and suffered another flight across Norton Sound. We landed, called a cab, and arrived at the Golden Nugget Inn, the cheaper of the two hotels in town, but as we found out, nothing is cheap in Nome.

On the verge of collapsing due to hunger, we ditched our bags and trundled down main street Nome to Milano's, a Japanese/Italian place. Stepping into the restaurant was welcome respite from the 20 degree weather outside, a far cry from the 75 degree weather I enjoyed just a day earlier in Olympia. I ate an entire pizza and headed back to the hotel, stopping at the grocery to pick something up for breakfast. I found a relatively cheap option: a jar of applesauce for $2.99 and a box of granola bars for $3.99. That sounded more reasonable than a $9 gallon of milk, a $7 box of Frosted Flakes, or a $3 can of pears.

Collapsing onto my bed, I stayed awake to ensure a more regular night's sleep. At about 11pm, with the sunset lingering, I slept. The next morning, we headed back to the airport for our second try at Stebbins. Success this time on a plane with a tad more room. We loaded our gear onto a trailer, hopped on the four-wheeler pulling it, and tried not to freeze on our way over to the school.

Now it's Tuesday and I'm sitting in the computer lab at Tukurngailnguq School. We had a good night's sleep in our apartment upstairs in the school, making our commute this week particularly easy. Our cast is excited, but painfully shy and reluctant to do anything in front of a group. For most, saying their name and age during auditions took a lot of bravery. We've already had a couple of drop-outs and our first rehearsal was tough, but I trust that these kids can do this. One thing is for sure, these next two weeks will not be typical for us.