Kids, let me tell you about a little something that happened a few weeks ago. You see, there is this wonderful thing that is often taken for granted: electricity. (Sidebar: I'm looking out my window at some snow falling gently to the ground. It's the second time I've seen it this year. Previously, I saw September snow for the first time in my life.) Anyway, back to the story I was just about to tell.
So, in rural Alaska, electricity is not always the most consistent thing. One Sunday, a group of us decided it would be fun to go have a bonfire on the beach. We hopped on some four-wheelers and headed out of town to a better location. After having a nice fire and eating several (...four...for just me) hotdogs, we returned to find that the power went out when we were gone. Our apartments and school were running on a generator at the moment. No big deal, right? Oh wait! We had no water pressure. Hmmm.... The pumps from the village had no power either. Well, a night without water isn't really a big deal. Monday morning came around. Still no real water pressure, but the slow flow was enough for me to make coffee. After a quick breakfast with coffee in hand, I walked out the door to my classroom. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but my classroom is in a building adjacent to the main school but not attached. I first noticed that the entryway light was out. "It must have blown out when the power failed yesterday," I thought. As I turned the corner into the classroom and flipped on the lights, I was struck with the reality that the power was still out, and my building was not on the school's generator. A line from It's a Wonderful Life popped into my head: "This is a very interesting situation!" I sipped some coffee and headed into the school to find out what happens when there is no power in my Outhouse. On finding the principal, he informed me that the power was still out all over the village, but we might not have school because we had no water. In fact, the water that was in the pipes was unfiltered and unsafe. I took another sip of my contaminated yet tasty coffee (and I didn't get sick!). If it wasn't back by 7:30, we wouldn't have school. Seven-thirty came and went. No school, but we had a work day instead. It was really a good thing because over the weekend, we had no time to get work done due to inservices. For some, it was a little bit of a challenge to do work without access to the internet. I guess I forgot to mention that before now. The internet and phone lines were also down. We really had no way of communicating with anyone outside the village. If we really needed to get a message out, we would have driven over to St. Michael (only a little over 10 miles). It was on this day that I was told a very interesting fact. In rural Alaska, it is possible, however rare, that power can be out for up to two weeks. So if we are supposed to talk at some point and you don't hear from me, don't panic. I didn't forget. I don't hate you. I'm not ignoring you. The power's out. And the internet's down. And the phone lines are out. Luckily, the power, internet, and phone lines all came back on in the afternoon.
It would have been nice for that whole fiasco to have ended on Monday. Unfortunately, they needed to replace some transformers, so the power went out a couple more times over the course of the week. Which meant we needed to move class to the cafeteria one day and to a minuscule classroom on another. It was hectic. I think the only normal day that week was on Friday, and it actually went quite well.
