St. Lawerence Island
Im back up in Alaska now working on shooting video at each of the Bering Strait School Districts schools. Each one is located in a different village on the Bering Strait in Northwest Alaska. I started my trip two days ago (Tuesday) out in St. Michael. Dan Edie the principal there is a good friend of mine so it was nice to spend some time with him. I got the footage that I had missed in my previous visit and after one night there I was off to Savoonga. Savoonga is one of two villages located on St. Lawrence Island. It is the biggest of the BSSD schools and like many of the villages in the area is situated right on the edge of the ocean.
Two of the teachers Doug and Michelle graciously hosted me. Doug took me out around the village on his honda helping me get some amazing video of an Arctic Fox searching for lemmings. I stayed the night with them and finished up shooting in the morning. Then I hopped a plane to Gambell which is the other village on the island. Gambell is another one of the bigger schools in BSSD. I had never seen Gambell before not even from the air. I had stopped in Savoonga briefly last year, so I kind of new what to expect when I went there this time, but Gambell was completely new. I really like the surrounding area. The village itself is sitting on a huge gravel pad. The gravel is made up of round rocks that is 70 feet deep. It is quite difficult to walk on. Every step you take your feet roll back about half your stride, so its tough going. I had wonderful weather and armed with a honda and one of the local students (Mike) was running around shooting video in no time. The principal Steve and his wife put me up in their house and fed me a very tasty dinner. Its nice to have a real bed to sleep in at all my stops so far. After dinner I went back out to shoot a little more video. It was a beautiful evening out, and didn’t want to waste a great rain free opportunity to get some more video. Behind Gambell is a big mountain and I figured I’d get some good footage if I climbed up there. So I drove the schools honda to the base of the mountain and hiked up from there. Defenetly worth the effort. Up on top you can see in every direction.
The island surrounded by the blue waters of the Bering Sea is just beautiful. I was able to get some great video of the village from up above, and watch the sun rays shine through the clouds above.
After I got the video I wanted I just spent some time sitting up there enjoying the view and feeling the wind blow through my ummm hat and coat. 😉 It was nice.
My plans for tomorrow (Friday) are to shoot video in the school and a couple other places around town and then I’ll be off to Teller for a night, and then to my old stomping ground Brevig Mission to stay with AnnMaire and C.O. So far I’ve had amazing weather, and great hosts. I only hope the rest of my trip is the same as the beginning.
Erin on September 28th, 2007
Glad it’s going so well! Happy and safe travels to Teller today! I love you!