Blogger alert,

So I have finally am doing another blog as I have had a whirlwind month since last time I updated the blog. So attention everyone this is fab!! J Anyways work has been going great as I have been travelling around to villages doing our annual village visits. Not only do I get to interact, visit and see old friends at villages but I have the chance to be out of red dog.

Beautiful village of Kiana!!
KIANA TIME
The first stop was in Kiana and we had warm greeting there as the meeting went well. Not only do we inform them of all our year to date stuff but we also give out door prizes and feed them a chicken dinner.

How many Staheli's does it take to use a VHF :)

Elders of Kiana listening to our presentation!
So the presentation went well and I got to explore Kiana while I was there and stayed over at the Staheli’s. Not only did I get to have Heanie’s famous salsa but got to hang out with Zaz and Lee’s boy Joe. Otherwise as Joe baby, that kid is a riot and after not too long he was calling Uncle Sam and asking a ton of questions.

Lee Boy and his son! Kiana in the Morning!! Foggy!
The caribou were running while I was there but I only had one day there. The next morning I had to talk to students about scholarships and red dog and their future. I always enjoy talking to students as they are always interested in new stuff. I suggest that next time don’t talk to them at 9 in the morning as most of them were half asleep J

Noorvik AK home of da bears!!
After departing Kiana we took off to Noorvik, noorvik is where my mom is originally from so I was amped to be there as I haven’t seen some of my relatives for a couple of years. Most notably my Aana (grandma) for those of you that don’t know.

My Grandma Elizabeth Sheldon!
So I was stayed at her place, the only thing is that when I got to Noorvik I had a full blown cold. Why can’t that happen at work and not when I am out venturing to the villages!! But we our first agenda was to talk to the students as they asked questions about red dog and were excited to see that Lois Newlin from Noorvik originally was there and she talked about what she does. I feel she was a great role model for noorvik kids but mainly for the girls of that school as they see that they could too make it at a place like Red Dog.

Fish drying in ORV Lake shot!
Afterwards we had some time to burn so I ran over to my Aana’s place and said hi dropped my stuff off and went on the tour of Noorvik, it was nice to be I a place where I visited when I was younger and it brought back memories of going there for duck, and caribou hunting and also for Christmas.

My parents old house :) Presentation in Noorvik
So after our tour we had our meeting and that went off great as well and people really enjoy the food we bring…i.e. chicken. After our presentation was done (I give a presentation also about employment) I went over to my aana’s house and hung out for a bit and got a treat at the end when my Uncle Allen and aunt and cousin went for a boat ride.


Allen, Benji and Linda up the Kobuk! Nice river!!

It was wonderful to be back out on the Kobuk to venture places where my mom was when she was a kid. So we got to look around for Caribou and saw some on the tundra and what not. But I also caught some ducks while we were boating...ah nice to shoot a shot gun again!! So not only was it a great ride but the views were wonderful, the sun was setting and it put out a ton of beautiful colors out there. Had a great time and didn’t want to leave Noorvik.

Caribou on the range! Beautiful Sunset!!
But we left Noorvik the next morning and my Aana made me some pancakes and I cooked some eggs. A funny story, my gram was mixing the batter and had the krusteaz blueberry mix and while mixing she thought that someone put nails in the batter but they were really dried blue berries that looked like nails J but sadly I had to go back to work.

Noatak Alaska
The next place we went to was Noatak, we were a bit delayed to fall weather but we finally made it to the village and took our bumpy ride out to the school. For those of you that don’t know Noatak has a new school and let me tell you it’s a beautiful school.

Noatak's new school!! Prayer before presentation
I am very impressed with all the art work and design of the school. The village of Noatak should be very proud of their school. So we didn’t have to present that night so we got to venture out and what not. We had our presentation and that went well and afterwards we hung out at the school, got online. We really couldn’t go around the village due to rain so we resided and went to sleep. In the morning we had our presentation to the kids and hope that we inspired some of them to be all they can be. Afterwards I got to interact with the kids by shooting around, playing volleyball and what not. The weather was still bad there so since the mine is only 30 miles away they decided to ferry us back and forth to the mine site.

My new friend Noatak! Noatak's whale bone!!
This gave us time to walk around and me and Cecil took a walk in to town and visiting the native store and what not. On the way back a cute little puppy followed us all the way back and he was very adventurous walking around in the marsh and what not. Afterwards it was my turn to go back to the mine site and riding in a helicopter is fun!! It wasn’t my first time but I love flying in them.

The beautiful Noatak river

Puppy of Noatak


Red dog Valley!