Visitors

Well, it appears that the 4th grade boys in the village have adopted us! They helped us get all moved in and unpacked during our first couple of days in Kwethluk and continue to make daily visits to see us. The actually asked to help us clean, wiping out cabinets and vacuuming the floor. We had between two and eight boys in the house at any given time during those first 48 hours.




… knock knock knock… “May we visit?” They’d call from the front door. We have to be sure to keep the door locked or else they just walk right in, as is okay in their culture. We had to lay some ground rules, especially after the knocking started at 9am after a particularly long night of unpacking. #1 – Not before noon. #2 – Not more than four kids in the house at a time. #3 – Only for two hours once each day. They are actually pretty respectful of the new rules… and I found out later that most teachers only allow the kids over for a couple of hours one day a week. However, April loves playing with the little boys, so here they come!

These quiet little Yupik boys are polite and considerate and very funny. The Yupik culture is a teasing one. When someone teases you, jokes around with you, it means they like you – sarcasm abounds. I love it!

They are also more incredibly helpful than you can ever imagine an eleven-year-old boy to be. Since they are always playing around the school, and we live right behind the school, they are always near our house. I don’t walk to the dumpster with a box of trash (the dumpster is quite a hike to get to) that a small boy doesn’t come up and insist to carry it for me. I don’t bring a load of boxes from the Post Office that I don’t have several boys helping to unload and carry them up the steps to the house.

And quiet. These boys are softspoken, seldom get rowdy in the house, and don’t argue. Wow!

Curious. As they unloaded my frozen meat cooler into the freezer that first night, Vosley asked me, “What’s this?” while holding up chopped rhubarb and Halibut filets. He had never heard of or eaten either one. Unpacking was an adventure, especially when they discovered my hockey equipment, which they promptly put on and began a game on the kitchen floor. We promised to play hockey with them as soon as “freeze-up” occurs.

Now that we're pretty well done unpacking, the kids come over to watch a movie, usually. But, often, they get distracted early on and want to draw. James is a particularly talented artist and I was surprised to see that the first picture he ever drew for us was of a very traditional-looking eskimo. That picture now has a place of prominence on my refrigerator.

“Where are the girls?” you may be asking. Well, it appears that boys dominate the gene pool in this village!


All photo credits go to April D'Water!