Lacie Days 1 and 2

Doing this project is an exciting opportunity to travel somewhere I've always been interested to see.

Unfortunately I missed a lot of the good scenery on the way there because I fell asleep on the plane. There is something soothing about the buzzing noise and the small space.

When we landed I was disconcerted because it was already so dark.

Our very helpful host, Gary picked us up and drove us around. I had hoped photo ops would be good, but it is difficult when everything is the same pallette of greys. Even the purple that seems to saturate the twilight scenery of Fairbanks in the dreary winter was absent.

We went to the science facility first to speak with some follow up people and the director whom Ryan and Mary also interviewed. It seemed very promising as we had a ton of good stuff in less than an hour.

By the time we did that and got the tour, it was about 3:30 and most people who we would have liked to interview at work had gone home.

When we got back to the apartment, we planned for the next day by making a few phone calls and mapping out what we were going to do. We decided to go to the heritage center first thing and discussed who we wanted to speak to.

It was about 6 by the time we got that done, so I decided to call a friend of mine from high school who happened to start teaching in Barrow this year. We have known eachother for years, but never really kept in contact. When some people from home told me he was in Barrow, I e-mailed him a week before I came up.

Scott teaches middle school and seems to have enjoyed his experience so far. It is kind of interesting to speak to someone you haven't kept in touch with for so long. I asked what he does here for fun and he pretty much watches tv and works.

He isn't the only one who commented on the nightlife in Barrow. I guess the early evening hot spot is the post office. We stopped by and saw this was true. People were lined up to pick up packages. It is a good place to run into people.

I also toured the middle school that has a program where every kid gets a laptop. The facility was really nice and Scott says he spends a lot of time at school. He says its because he has nothing else to do, but I think he probably really cares about the kids.

Kortnie and Gary were at the apartment so after I met Scott (who happened to live right next door) I asked Kortnie and Gary to go to dinner with us. Kortnie, Scott and I went to the Northern Light restaurant right across the street. The food selections was interesting...Asian food, American food, and pizza. We were ther for several hours before finally going.

When we got back we watched television and chatted with Gary. He had some good stories about working in journalism. He works as a police officer now and it seems to be an exciting career as well. He says the crime is very bad for the size of the town. It seems Barrow has some very unique problems.

Tuesday:

We woke up half an hour before the Heritage Center opened and checked it out. It was a very nice museum--probably my fav. part of the trip so far. I thought the statement in the whaling room was very interesting about how the culture is blended in old tradition and modern ways. I think that is the story of this town really. There are a lot of modern influences, but the harshness of the land itself help keep the traditions alive. I loved the displays on whaling. I was imagining how cool it would be if the whole community came out for a whale hunt. Everyone has their part. Growing up here would be really interesting.

After the heritage center we went to the Senior Center which wasn't opened and by all appearances was likely never open.

Tuesday is about rejection. I can take rejection and I was rejected so politely it is hard to feel bitter or angry about it. People did not want to be recorded, but they could give you the number of someone who would be good to talk to. I think that they could have been coaxed into it if we had more time. A few would consent to a pencil/pad interview, but refused to be recorded. I try to explain we are students and what we are doing, but many just seemed too uncomfortable and often they became suddenly very busy or very tired when we wanted to talk to them. I guess taking rejection is just part of being a reporter.

There was a Thanksgiving feast at the borough building which I thought would be a great chance to talk to some people. I expressed this to a man we interviewed Monday when I saw him there helping serve in an apron. He said this was most certainly not a good idea that people would want to eat and not talk to us. He was right.

The good thing that came out of going to the dinner was we talked to the Mayor's assistant who arranged a meeting for us on Wednesday. The mayor usually requires two week's advance notice, but there had been a cancellation the day before, so we got one right before our flight .

The highlight of my day was a certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle at Pepe's and the promised Christmas card. The restaurant takes down all out-of-town patrons' names and addresses and sends them hand written Christmas cards. They had so many this year, that they said the card would be delayed until August.

We took some photos outside. Kortnie has nerves of steel and was handling the wind like a champ. I was a little cold, but I held out longer than I might have because I didn't want her to think I was a wuss. We thought we saw a seal on the ice but it was only a tarp. It was kind of dissapointing.

I think this story could be good if one had more time here and thought of a better angle. I have thought of other stories to do here, but none really relate to the climate change thing:
All the Asian food in Barrow
What there is for young outsiders to do in Barrow.
Why people come from other countries to live here
Whale hunts
crime...

One woman (who refused to be interviewed or speak Inupiak on the record) said that a reporter from London came over the summer for a month and did a similar story. She said she was a bit rude and followed people around with a microphone even after they said they didn't want to speak to her. Are we taking the wrong approach, or did the other reporter ruin it for us?

Despite our dissapointing results relative to actual material, we put in a decent seven hour day and I think that we will have something to work with.

There is no doubt about it, things are changing up here. The question I keep having is how much is climate change? There are so many factors that sometimes I think people attribute everything to the most common adversary of the time. Not to deligitimize how these things threaten our existance, just to say that sometimes something like climate change can be a scapegoat. People are noticing changes I just wish we could find more first-hand accounts.