Saturday, May 17, 2014

The End of Our Alaskan Adventure

We have been in the moving process this month.  Moving 4,000 miles takes some serious planning.

We have had a total of 3 yard sales, trying to lighten the amount of things we have to ship back.
Happy with his yard sale purchase.



I cleaned out the pantry, and gave our remaining food to a local friend who has four children.

When I was cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, I set the things we wanted to keep on the counter, and the things we wanted to give away back in the pantry.

I set these boxes against the wall, and saved these useful items for new teachers to have in the fall.

Two nights before we left, I went through every cabinet and drawer and emptied it all out.

We only shipped 11 totes total back home.  If it had sentimental or monetary value, we kept it.  If it could be easily, or cheaply replaced, we sold it or left it for new teachers.

We set the third bed back up in our workout room.

Drilling, zip tying, and labeling...

We lived in a suitcase for our last week.

Back at school, things were just as busy because we had to box up the entire building.

I worked for three days straight, boxing up everything in my classroom, and labeled each box.


The boxes here are all the language arts textbooks.  I got a good work out boxing these up.


Other than furniture, there was nothing left in my room for the last day of school.

Other teachers were also ready for the move. 




My classroom all in a pile of boxes.

The school hired a moving crew to transport boxes over to the new school.

To give ourselves a break from all the packing, we checked Nathaniel's fish traps after school.


A boy from Nathaniel's culture days group wanted to check his traps with us.

His little brother tagged along too.


The day before Nathaniel checked the same traps with this boy and this is how many they caught...

The Tribal Council hosted a Potluck/Eskimo Dance to say good bye to  teachers.





The village elders ate first, teachers second, and kids third.








We walked to the store across the street and we had some friends tag along.








This little guy just had to hold Nathaniel's hand.


By the end of our walk we had a little parade going.




We have had a crazy adventure these past two years in Alaska.  We've grown up a lot and have gained new perspectives, life-long friendships, humility, appreciation, and contentment.  Our impact may have just been the size of a mustard seed, but we hope that we've left something behind that will continue to grow.  We are excited for the next chapter of our lives and can't wait to see what the future holds!



3 comments:

  1. It's been fun to read about your 2 years in bush Alaska. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Thanks for posting this. It has been a pleasure to follow. Your comments have meant a lot.

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  3. Thanks for sharing your adventure. I am finishing up my teaching certification and really looking at possibly going to Alaska. Good luck in the lower 48 with what ever it is you decide to do. I'm excited to go back and read a lot of your old entries to see what life is like for teachers in Alaska.

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