Cumikluku "Pay attention"

As much as I seem "stuck" out here, I love it out here too. The only way I could explain it is God really. I really love working with the students and others in the community. I notice too that I enjoy just hanging out with people. I don't really have to say anything; they don't either. Just being in another person's presence is really a neat experience. It illustrates to a very minor degree what it is like to be in God's presence.

I was freezing my butt off all weekend. The mercury was hovering around freezing with a frigid northerly. Mark Agimuk and his son took me out on the tundra for the weekend. I thought that it was absolutely fascinating. We took a long boat ride down the Ningliqvak out to Hooper Bay where we entered a shortcut passing Old Chevak Cev'allraq. Many of these shortcuts were originally dug out by the old timers. Erosion over a lil' time created quite substantial rivers like the shortcut we took. Mark pointed out two mountains in the distance to the north, namely Nasqulek "one with a head" and Ingrissaar (???). Nasqulek in particular is interesting because it has a head like feature just to the west. It is said that it lost it's head and it fell down on the tundra there.

We passed the shortcut and briefly stopped at Mark's summer fish camp. Then, we went out to the Aprun River, which can be taken all the way to the Yukon River. We found a strip of tundra and started some hunting. We were hunting for ducks and geese. Mark used a 12-gauge and his son used some other gun (I can't remember maybe a 410, I don't know). They used some binoculars, or qinrutek, to locate a likely patch of tundra. I followed Mark as he and his son split up. I learned a number of words and ways that Eskimos hunt. We knelt down on our knees on the wet and frozen brown tundra and waited for the birds to fly. ("on one's knees" is ciisqumingaluni, and lavluni is "being in a crouched position") Mark mentioned that this is how they hunt without decoys and everything. They shot a few ducks but only managed to get one. As Mark turned and shot, "Pow!" The duck was hit and slowly made its way down. Mark was saying, "Nunamun iggluten. Nunamun iggluten." which translates as "fall on the land". Unfortunately, it landed in the middle of a small lake.

That evening, we set up camp, had some cup of noodles and they took off for some more hunting. Noticing a white fox and some lagit/tuutangayiit "canadian geese". We caught five geese and a few more ducks before it was all said and done. I walked along the banks of the Tengluk River as they hunted and the son went down. It was chilly and I had to walk to stay warm. It was also stunningly gorgeous out and I enjoyed my walk along the river while the sun went down. I returned to the 8-man ginormous Cabela's tent and we all went to bed.

The next morning we awoke at 10ish, ate breakfast of hot doggies, sweet rolls, and coffee before making a break for the mouth of the Aprun River. We saw and went after a couple of seals near the mouth of a smaller river in the bay (Kuiggaq). To no avail, we caught none. We did do some more bird hunting though as we saw a bunch of swans, or qugyuut. They scrammed from the area but I learned a couple of vital lessons in hunting without even really hunting myself.

I had a tendency to get down on my knees and I'd delve into my thoughts. I was cold and would stare down at the tundra, nunapik. Suddenly, Mark stood up, twirled, and shot a duck nailing it. it happened so fast I don't think I could ever think that fast. Ducks are sneaky cumiknarqellriit. Afterwards I watched and noticed that Mark was ever scanning the tundra. So I did as well.

The ride back home was FRIGID. We arrived at about 7:30PM after 2-3 hours of boating. I was very cold but all right. When I got into the shower however, my feet, knees, and hands were beet red. Great trip, great fun. Quyana.

Piurci