Arrival in Kaktovik, I am so excited.

On Saturday March 28, 2009 I left Fairbanks for Kaktovick. I did not get much sleep the night before. I worked on getting ready to go. I had spent Friday purchasing fresh fruit and vegetables at Sam’s club and Wal-Mart. I bought strawberries, grapes red and green, grape tomatoes, bananas, apples, mandarin oranges and romaine lettuce, for the village teachers. I purchased the same things for myself however instead of romaine lettuce, two big bags of romaine salad, kiwi. My sister came over and helped me pack and repack the boxes until one thirty in the morning. I had not realized that it had gotten so late. I ended up leaving a lot of stuff behind, like all the orange that I bought and some of the bananas and most of the apples. I came with electronics including computer, pda phone/camera, video camera and camera. I hope to get a lot of interesting photos.

Today we were toured around the school, teacher housing, and the dump, which reminded me of the mid 1970’s dumps in the interior, one of the two stores, the pretty fuchsia store. The school has a pool that is about the size of a back yard pool and is only three feet deep. There were a number of kids in there having a great time.


I fixed brunch of hash browns and eggs. Then worked on my journal. About 4:30 Ms. Kaden and I took a walk to see the village and get some photos. The windsock was at medium. I wore my snow pants, white sorrels, and parka and leather mittens. We ended up walking from the itinerant teacher housing to the Sims store and then back again.

By the time we got back my face was burning, I had forgotten my neck gator in my car back in North Pole. My parka on the other hand was very wet like I had sprayed the inside with a water bottle. It must be that were the cold hit the warmth of my body there was condensation. My shirt was dry.

I am happy with my choice of villages to go visit. It is twenty below today and when the wind was not blowing it was a nice day out. When the wind is blowing it gets cold fast. Tonight we are going out for dinner at what sounds like a hamburger place.