Winter wonderland

I feel like I have to write a quick post since the last thing I wrote was so focused on the nastiness of mud and didn't include anything very positive. The day after I wrote about the mud we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland with perfect falling snow coating the frozen ground. No more mud! The roads under the snow are fairly uneven, so that was a new challenge, but so far we've made it without falling.

Friday was a great day at work. I spent the day in a training with a local program through Indian Health Services specializing in prevention services. They focus on incorporating traditional healing practices and beliefs into community based programs and encourage the utilization of elders and others in the communities to help heal communities from within and serve as resources. 

The core values that they focused on were love, respect, and working to achieve a purity of one's emotional, spiritual, physical and mental selves. They spoke a lot of the historical trauma that Native Alaskans have experienced, but did it in a much more solution-focused and strengths based way than others that I've heard speak on the same subject. Their goal isn't to blame others but to find commonalities in core values and beliefs that we can build upon in the work that we do. Over lunch we heard a guest speaker at the local college present on the decolonization of social work, which was fascinating and was another perspective to consider when working in this region. 

Walking home from work the sunset was gorgeous with vibrant hues layered up from the horizon of red, orange, gold, etc. Turning the other direction from the sunset there was already a full moon in view, which just added to the soft golden light. Crossing an intersection with two friends from work one starting slipping and as I reached out to try to help her I started slipping into the splits (I am really not flexible enough to do the splits, so it wasn't the most graceful picture). As the first friend fell heavily on her back the friend on the other side of me reached out to try to grab me and then started slipping herself. We were all laughing and trying to get up when we caught sight of the driver waiting to cross the intersection who wasn't so thrilled with the ridiculous Kass'aqs (Yu'pik word for white people) sliding around in front of his car. 

We have a friend who heads up the soup kitchen at the Lions Club each month and we were able to serve there again yesterday. I don't think I'll ever get used to salmon soup and baked salmon being the two options being donated, but you know you're in Alaska when . . . The JROTC students from the high school also help out each week as well as teenage boys from a local treatment program working with substance abuse clients (particularly inhalents). A few other social workers helped out as well and it was a fun day.

One good thing about living in a small community is how easy it is to get involved in local activities, the flip side is realizing how easy it is to quickly over-commit. I realized that the week of Thanksgiving we're scheduled to:

Wednesday: Go straight from work to helping prepare for the huge Thanksgiving meal the Lion's Club provides to those in need, then going to our new apartment to clean before moving. 

Thursday: Help set up, serve, and clean up the Thanksgiving meal at the Lions Club for four hours. After that dinner with friends.

Friday: Moving into our new apartment and then helping prepare food and serve at another "Supper Club" hosted by a different church that is open to the community

Saturday: Dave is going to try selling his fudge at the local Saturday Market, something he's been wanting to try for years. After that cleaning our church.

Sunday: Finally, a day of rest.

Life is full but really good. We're grateful for the new friends we're making, but miss being close to others that we love.