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With love, to Shungnak

June 29th 7:49 pm | Jen Cerovski Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

I love Shungnak

I love "Gooooood Evening" on the VHF

I love fall time, picking berries on the wide-open tundra

I love boat rides to pick masru

I love trying to speak Inupiaq and never getting it right

I love the sky - so huge it could swallow you whole

I love the alpenglow

I love fish racks heavy with salmon

I love running past the graveyard and into the hollow with the blueberry bushes

Pulsating red. 

I love eating caribou soup and panuktuk.

I love watching Ruth make birch bark baskets.  I know she is here with us tonight in spirit

I love listening to kids hollering at the northern lights

I love learning to make mukluks

I love hearing Josephine telling Pete "Mens can't come" to sewing night

I love drinking tea and sewing late into the night at Mildred's

I love hanging out on the beach and listening to elders tell stories about growing up

I love learning how to cut fish EVERY fall

I love saying the pledge of allegiance in Inupiaq

I love listening to the cranes circle overhead

I love George's pizza

I love staying up all night watching the Kobuk 440

I love amaqing my daughter

I love being told I'll never have a husband because I make too much noise with my sewing needle

I love running through the village in the early morning when everyone is sleeping or just going to sleep

I love wearing atiqluks

I love visiting with people on the beach

I love listening to Emma give Pete a hard time

I love hearing people walk in the door in the middle of winter saying, "Alapaa"

I love listening to the clicking sounds as a herd of caribou passes by

I love running from the school with the staff and students to watch the ice go

I love hearing Caroline singing as she cooks

I love watching elders walk down the snow-covered street in their colorful parkas

I love catching sheefish

I love hearing birthday wishes on VHF and "be bossy"

I love nine-foot snowdrifts

I love Bella's donuts

I love learning from all the ladies at Sewing Night

I love eating sourdough pancakes on Sunday with Mildred

I love hearing folks shooting at the ice during break-up

I love the ptarmigan exploding out of the snow and scaring me half to death

I love the Halloween parade and talent show

I love how the shyest person can put on a costume and become outrageous

I love that I go home with a bellyache from laughing so hard

I love being bothered about not having any kids of my own (You can't do that anymore)

I love visiting with Genevieve or Linda at the post office

I love the moon coming up over the river, swollen and beautiful

I love Inupiaq fashion shows

I love going to the coffeehouse with my first ever batch of homemade donuts

I love watching the kids float around on their Styrofoam boats in the springtime

I love skiing out to the bluffs with a pack of kids

I love hearing the musical sounds of village English:  he never, I always

I love saying "Adii" (and so I still do)  "Adii, writing this graduation speech was really hard!"

I love "I jokes" and Inupiat laughter that goes on forever

 

But most of all I love.... my students

Jen Cerovski is a former Middle School Teacher of Shungnak School.

 

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