Livin' The Dream

The kids in bush Alaska are wonderful. On the two trips to the Alaska bush that I have made, the children are a significant part of the experience.
Until about the hour of noon, there are no children to be seen in the whole village. About one o'clock, they begin to emerge from their homes to see the curious new people in town. At first, they are a bit shy and cautious. That doesn't last very long. As soon as they determine that you are friendly, it's game on. They tease, they play, they hang on to you. They not only want to be with you, they want to stand in the very place you are standing, even though you are already occupying the spot. Of course they want to "help" with painting or digging or carpentry, dangerous or not, they want to be doing what you are dong.
We developed a strategy in which one of the team members was designated to interact with the children while the others were working. This was the only safe thing to do. One day the ladies held a Sunday School with crafts, lesson, singing and of course food. Another day, Jared, was assigned to build "boats" with the kids which they also painted (in retrospect, not such a good idea to mix kids and paint). Walking around the village, is an interesting study. There is no way in or out of the village except by air or boat. So the kids roam freely without much of a care as strangers are pretty conspicuous. There are limited things to do in the village so they make their own fun. One of the sites they introduced us to was "Mud Hill" which was exactly that. It was a hill about 25 feet high with a sharp drop off. They would run up the ramped side with all the speed they could muster and fling themselves into the air to land in the accumulated softer mud on the backside. Pretty amusing to watch.
Rain or shine these kids dress and play the same. We witnessed them wrestling and rolling on the ground as the rain came down so hard that we had gone inside for a bit. No rain coats, no boots, just hoodies and tennis shoes. There really is not one reason for a person to own a pair of tennis shoes in Emmonak. You could even play a game of basketball on the boardwalk basketball court in your "Extra Tuffs" (boots), that is if there was a basketball. It is wet and mud everywhere. But, that is pretty much all they wear there. A new pair of tennis shoes is new probably about 30 seconds before they are not new anymore. Less time if it is currently raining.The kids are cute and generally pretty starved for your attention. Most of them grow up without ever getting out of the village until they are teens or later. "Big" cities might be Aniak or Bethel. Anchorage is a huge place to them. Of course they know all about popular culture through the internet and video games and dish television. As they become teens, village life becomes understandably dull and many problems are evidenced in the grim statistics that are complied each year. Teens typically dress in the popular "gang" fashions, baggy pants, sideways hats, hoodies, and puffy tennis shoes. The school system tries to address the problem with self-esteem programs, one recent one which was "Livin' the Dream." Several kids were wearing the hoodies they received for completing the course. It seemed ironic at times. Our missionaries have such a challenge to not only meet the spiritual needs of adults in a place like Emmonak, but the teens and children as well. What do we offer them? Where do we take them? Is the key to their survival in Emmonak or would they do better somewhere else? Does the village want to see all their children leave for a more populated area? Hard questions and all of it takes a lot of money and a lot of time. Pray for our ministries in bush Alaska. Without God, I am not sure what if anything might be done.