Mouse food

Last week was another nice, restful week. No more xcountry running. But it was still filled with interesting things. Clotilda Stone, Eggsualek, passed away a week previously so the Catholic Church held her funeral. The procession was rather fascinating. It started with a full house and the close family members, who were women, all laid roses on her wooden plywood casket. The sons and daughters were all seated in the front row, with the women on one side and the men on the other. It seems like she was an amazing lady; I wish I could've met her. Then singing and worship preceeded some preaching both from the Catholic priest and Eggsualek's son. Some people came up and gave remarks about her life. Then, someone opened the casket with a Makita to reveal the corpse.

A long line formed of people who "walked the line" giving their condolences and blessings to the family one by one after seeing the casket. I was nervous to make a faux pas. So, I paid very close attention to the people ahead of me, esp. the guy directly ahead of me. Passing the casket, I dipped my hand in the water and made a small cross on Eggsualek's right shoulder. I guess it's some kind of blessing, but I don't know.

I was kind of nervous walkin the line, too, since I didn't know much of the family that well. One of the elder's daughters works at the school and so I know her. But I wanted to show how sorry I was that they lost their mother. The guys especially, since they didn't know me, were not very receptive.

After closing the casket up, they took her out to be buried. Four guys walked her with a cross in front to the cemetary where there was an open grave awaiting down at the end next to her son and husband. We put the casket in and buried the corpse. It was hard, back-breaking work, but fun all the same to help out. After filling the hole, some tundra was put on top probably to keep the dirt in place. While there, Elias, one of Eggsualek's sons, explained to me that the cemetary was the first runway for Chevak.

The funeral lasted from about 3:30 to 6:30 and was supposed to start at 3PM. From the cemetary I went over to the Tribal Council building for a potluck upon the invitation of my fellow coworker. "Neryartua!" "You're gonna come over and eat!" She said. The people who lose a loved one will give away lots of food and goods to show their grattitude toward the people who have comforted their morning. That's the best I can understand it. Moose stew, seal, seal oil, Eskimo ice cream of all kinds, breads, and you name it was there for the eating. I had some moose stew, herring eggs, a few kinds of akutaq "Eskimo ice cream" including some with mouse food.

Akutaq consists of Crisco, berries, fish, etc. mixed together to form a tasty, allbeit very unhealthy, treat. In fact, the word means "thing mixed together."

I visited a couple of friends from the village this weekend. On Saturday evening, I went over and visited John and his wife Teresa. They offered me some BBQ silver salmon, rice, and veggies. Yummy! They had gone out and collected mouse food, which are roots of some sort that mice collect and can be dug up and collected. Teresa taught me the words for the 3 things you'll see in mouse food. Marallaq are tubers, a few inches long and stringy. Utngungssaq are small tear-drop shaped about the size of a pea. They are sweet and delicious. We were pulling out the neqnialquq, which were black and inedible really.

I also got my first indication for being able to build a qayaq. First thing's first, I need to go out on the nunapik, tundra, and find some wood. One piece needs to be 2 and 1/2 cagneqs long. A cagneq is a traditional measure the span of one's arms, their wing span. Also I need to find one that is a stump, i.e., it curls upward, for the front of the qayaq. I hope to get started soon. I better go looking.

On Sunday eve, I visited another good friend of mine, his wife, and family. The night was peppered with stories of hunting, fishing and alangruqs, ghosts or apparitions. If I go and buy 3 yards of fabric, Mary offered to make me a huge overcoat qaspeq (a sweatshirt with a large front pocket), that it'd be very weather proof. I've got some work to do so chao for now.

Piurci