About Us

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We are the students at the Innoko River High School, living in the last village on the Innoko River in the western Interior of Alaska.

Jamie Hamilton

Interests: Hunting, fishing and working on engines.

Hobbies: Basketball, snowboarding, snowmachining, and dirtbiking.

Favorite Native food: Willow grouse.

Reaction to being told we were going to SOUTH AFRICA:
At first I was speechless, and to this day I can not believe we were chosen to go.

Jamie

Jamie
ALISON Shadow data

Our GLOBE Research

We have been a GLOBE school since 1998. Different classes of students have set up different study sites over the years but in 2005 our local research on our environment took on a different twist when lightening struck behind our village and burned a 15-acre area of land dangerously close to local homes.

The Alaska State Forestry Department hired the Shageluk Emergency Fire Fighting crew and the EFF crew from Nikolai to assist in putting out the fire. The fire lasted just two weeks but has provided us with long-term data on regrowth in a Boreal forest that has made us think about climate change and how it effects our cultural traditions and survival as the Deg Hitan people!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Joy: Monday

I realize I should have worked several sessions on getting kids to write more interesting blogs for content rather than what they did in the morning and what they ate and that they got up late. Parents and others want to know more substance of what we are doing. I'll fill you in on a little bit of interesting things. The weather has been chilly, foggy and rainy first few days, towels take a long time to dry after you take a shower. It's warmer in the afternoon, though, Shageluk temps, around 50 degrees F. to 60 degrees. Birds fly around the Leslie Hall, pigeons and some kind of blackbirds and we took pictures of these interesting geese sitting on the roofs of the buildings. The boys were fascinated by the ivy growing on all the old brick buildings here. The trees are really different and we'll take some pictures of those. No lions or giraffe's yet, maybe tomorrow. The cultural presentations are very, very interesting from other countries. The boys did notice, though, that some people have no more culture and thought that was sad. All they could do was describe their country from a textbook point of view. Rudy and I are having fun watching the kids interact with others. It was funny, on the bus one of the South African students really started quizzing our kids about USA money. That's when OUR kids realized they didn't know whose picture was on some of the coins! A real shocker for them. They get asked questions they can't answer sometimes. The South African boys really got a kick out of asking our kids questions. Another thing that amazes our boys is that kids from other countries know multiple languages whereas, USA students only know English. I told them not only do those other kids know and understand other languages, they can READ in other languages, too. Mind boggling for us. We are hoping to get out into the city again and look around at some things. We couldn't see much with the foggy day on Sunday but it was nice to get around. Field trips tomorrow to see other things in Cape Town get set up. Well, that's all for now! African dancing is great. Today we are going to introduce them to "Indian Rock and Roll."

Jamie: Monday at the University of CapeTown, South Africa

Today we got up, went to Upper Campus and called our families in Alaska for the first time since we got here. Then we watched different schools give their presentations about what they did to ear a trip to South Africa. After lunch we watched the Africans put on an awesome play, they were really good actors. They all the kids from the Netherlands put on a cultural presentations. I they they showed us some of the coolest tings for example, they sowed us some of their cultural dances, then they asked the crowd consisting of 400 people to dance with them, and everyone got up and danced. Greenland pu on their cultural presentation and I thought it was a little strange because they had their faces painted. Then they ran around screaming and rubbing their butts to people. Everyone was running away from them because they were freaking everyone out! AFter we watched all the cultural presentations we cae back down to the Lower Campus dorms and got ready to go to bed.

Everett: Monday in South Africa

Today we all got up and went to eat breakfast and then went to Jaemson Hall to listen to a few people talk. They talked about sustainability and I'm not sure what that means. After that we went to other rooms where they had breakout sessions with other country's science projects, other student presentations like ours. We went to room #LS3B and all the projects were about Earth as a System science projects. After that we all had to go to Leslie Hall and have lunch there. It took them forever to get ready because they were bringing everything by truck to Leslie Hall. After lunch we went back to Breakout sessons and went to the same room. One of the projects compared heat from urban areas to heat in rural areas. After that we went to listen to the Cultural Presentations and the Netherlands one took forever. Lots of them were cool but some I couldn't understand so I just read the slide shows. We came back to Graca Machel (our dorms) and ate dinner. After dinner we went back to the Jameson for more cultural presentations. I think one of them had mask dances but I missed it because I was sleeping. After it got close to 9:30 p.m. we came back tot he dorms and I fell right to sleep in my sweater.

Jack, Monday Activities

Today Joy had a hard time to wake me up this morning because I was tired from the time difference and too soft bed. Then I guess she woke me up and I fell back to sleep. 25-minutes later I woke up again and got ready to get out of my room. We each have a single dorm room, nobody bunks with us. When I walked out of the room I had to catch Joy up and say "Good morning," and I stopped at Everett's room. We went and ate some breakfast, then we caught the Jammie Shuttle up to upper campus where our meetings are. The campus is big with large old buildings made of stone. Then we walked to Jameson Hall where our first meetings are. We got to call home today from Leslie Hall. My mom was at Bingo so I didn't get a chance to talk to her but I talked to my sister. We watched people give their presentations, other students and I imagined what it wold be like when we do our presentation tomorrow. All day we spent listening to other people's projects, one from Finland talked about Birch trees. After dinner we listened to other kids' cultural presentations. Some countries have no cultures. The kids from Detroit talked about sports and the kids from Ohio talked about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They have no culture. We are very, very sleepy in the evening here but I'm having fun and got to meet some people.

BIG BLOG TO MAKE UP FOR DAYS

BLOG for FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2008:
Flying over North America and the Atlantic Ocean

Joyanne Hamilton

The last 5-days has been a blur of activities both at home and now that we are actually traveling. When we were at the Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport at the North Terminal, we had to sit and think about what we had done the past few days.

Mostly this week we rehearsed the Cultural presentation. Previously we had been rehearsing our science investigation presentation (on the Burn Site data) and what climate changes means for Native Alaskan people. The boys were doing very well.

Rudy wanted to focus on cultural aspects so took the boys up in the slough to take pictures, discussed later freeze-up and earlier thawing and show the boys pictures of how sparse the trees were long ago compared to now. The night before we left he brought them up to St. Joe Hill, an example of how much changes has happened in the last 30-years.

I have to say that the boys continue to have a great attitude throughout. What is so great is to see their grasp of the material they have to present and their love of their traditions.

Our afternoon in Anchorage: We had a great time with everyone’s relatives at the Golden Cottage. A lot of people came to see us off. I was glad Shirley, Harriett and the girls made it to see Jack, he was so excited! Jarrett and Marcus came to see Everett. Cooki, Leona, Helen, Gary, Mary, Sunny Dawn, Jessica and Lenny where all there with the little ones, too. It was so nice to have them all there. Martin spent the day with us so that was extra special for Rudy and I. OH, we also saw Harold Dan at the book store. After a day of shopping for this and that, seeing Shawna and Martin, it was great to sit down and have a nice meal.

Since last night’s departure from Anchorage to Salt Lake City, Utah we have had to hurry up and wait more than once! When we landed in Utah this morning, we got to the gate just fine but had only about ½ hour before the next plane boarded and went on to JFK Airport in New York. Rudy talked to the Delta ticket agent to get us all mileage plans. After this Africa trip the boys will have accumulated enough miles to take a trip on Delta and their affiliates just about anywhere!

They started boarding this plane when the boys were still at the stores and using the bathroom. We had to send Jack after Jamie because they were almost ready to close the plane! We all made it on though, passports and all.

When we landed in JFK 4.5 hours later it was so smoggy you could barely see anything. Rudy and I have never been to New York but we recognized the downtown skyline, the Empire State Building (King Kong wasn’t there) and of course, Lady Liberty. The “hurry up and wait” policy applied to us while we were in New York. We had about one hour until our next flight but as we taxied up on the tarmac we were told we would have to wait for a few planes to leave the gates before one opened up. It was about ½ hour before we were finally able to pull into one of the gates and then we had to wait for a “tug” to come pull us in closer! When we finally de-planed, we literally raced to our connecting flight to Dakar, Africa that was two gates away, not too far. We got there just in time, the whole plane was already loaded but they had waited for us.
Right now we are flying over the Atlantic Ocean and over the Atlantic Rift. We are more than halfway to Dakar at this writing. When we get to Dakar we have an hour and a half layover. I’m hoping we get to stretch out and kick back in the airport instead of racing to catch the next plane! It is 4:30 p.m. right now in Alaska, 10:30 p.m. Africa time and dark over the Atlantic. The boys were busy reading books today that we had purchased at Barnes and Noble. In-flight movies are on tonight, “Fools Gold” and “The Bucket List”. They are doing VERY well. Will write more later.

Jack—Internet doesn’t work on the plane so I thought I’d get you kids to type up your day and then I’ll try to post to the Blogger once we reach Dakar. You can read mine up there.


June 20: Everett

Today we just waited for planes and waited to land at Salt Lake City And we were about to jump on the plane but Jamie took forever to by a can of soda so we all waited by the gate and Jack had to run and get Jamie because the plane was ready to go. Once we got New York we went straight to the other plane and ended up barely making it. We are not heading to Dakar.

June 20: Jamie


Yesterday we went from Anchorage to Salt Lake City. When we got to Salt Lake City we only got to stay there for about 20 minutes then we had to board the plane to New York City. We only stayed in New York for about five minutes then we boarded the plane Dakar. And we are currently one the plane to Dakar.

Jack’s BLOG: Flight over North America and the Atlantic

June 20: Jack
Today I jogged from the Salt Lake City plane to the New York plane air port and I been waiting to get off this plane because I cant sleep my Ipod finely went dead so I’ll see you after.







June 23, Monday BLOG

Everett:

Today we all woke up except for Jack, eh was sleeping for fifteen minutes and we can’t wake him up because his door was locked. He finally woke up and we went to eat breakfast and took a bus to Leslie Hall. We tried to call home but I forgot my Rand and change. We all tried to call home but couldn’t’ figure out how to use the pay phones. We didn’t know how so we called a cab and went to five stores and two of them were Harley Davidson. We had to be back before 1:00 p.m. and on our way back the cab driver went the wrong way and he had to go around Lower Campus again. We got back and ate lunch fast and went to Leslie Hall. We had to go to a Safety meeting. Then we lined up by country to prepare for the opening ceremonies. We were last (United States). We were waiting in line for a long time and we had to sing the national anthem. We had to walk in the building by country and we finally made it and lots of people were taking pictures of us. We sat down while African Natives were dancing and when they were done, lots of other people talked in the microphone for a long time. After that we came back and ate dinner and went back to Leslie Hall for icebreakers in the evening. We were split into lots of groups to get to know each other, lots of kids from other countries. We went back to the dorms at 9:30 and got ready to go to sleep.