The Powers That Be

Some might look at this title and think I may rant on about meeting standards, following challenging guidelines while teaching or something of that nature. However, this post will be about the source of our power and electricity in the village.

Since we live way off the road system, on the coast of the Bering Sea, the electricity we get comes from a few generators in town. So here's how it works: there is city power and school power. The school has two 60kw Cummins diesel generators that power the school and teacher housing next door. One generator runs and the other is meant as a back-up. Ideally, the generators are inspected annually and I believe they switch every year. So, in a "perfect" mechanical environment, both generators are up to date and operational.

Then there is "city" power (I call it village power because I have a hard time calling Platinum a city.) The city has its own industrial generator which supplies power to all the buildings, store, post office and homes in the community. The city also has a weaker back-up generator that runs if the main one is down.

So here's how its been. When we arrived a few weeks ago, both of the school generators were down. I believe that one generator was broken due to a melted piston. I'm not so sure about the other one, but it isn't running as well. In this case, the school switches power to the "city" grid. All is fine for a day or two. Mechanics are scheduled to visit to fix at least one generator and diagnose the other. But, a few days before school starts the city generator fails too. Power outages are quite frequent here and the lights normally turn back on after a few minutes, but this time they remained out for a few hours. The lights came back on but with a few restrictions. The weaker back-up generator was running which means that we cannot use any 220 watt appliances like stoves, ovens and dryers.

The past two weeks have quite eventful with at least a power outage everyday and always during school! With the constant overcast weather, it makes reading hard and makes one feel like they are trapped inside. I've learned to become quite adaptable to this and have been better at making activities up on the fly. I've also had to do all of my "cooking" with a microwave, which actually didn't turn out so bad because, well, I'm not exactly a top contestant for any cooking show. But. No laundry. I am fortunate enough to have a smaller water heater that I could keep on for showers. So I may have been clean everyday but the clothes I was wearing, sometimes not so much.

Until today! One of the school generators is operational and ready to pump some power. I currently am finishing up my last load of laundry and celebrated with a good ole out of the box, skillet rice meal, with tuna. Maybe, in the morning, if I'm feeling especially adventurous, I'll make pancakes.

I never thought I'd ever really have to worry about something like electricity in life. Spotty cell phone coverage in hills, sure. No access to internet all the time, probably good for me. But hours and minutes without power in a room full of junior high boys, time to be creative and flow with it.

Back to lesson plans. Here are a few random pics I've taken in the past week:

This is currently my desktop background

The whole village of Platinum

Decided to walk the beach toward Red Mountain. 30 minutes later I was still not very close and the sun was setting.

The road is traveled by villagers and a construction company. There is an active gravel pit on the left side of this picture, behind the hill.

Our dump. Haul it. Throw it. Burn it.

Across the bay

Salmonberries- tasty! There are also blackberries, not so tasty. Raspberries are around too.

A week from last Sunday, the fish plant (cannery) invited people from Platinum to a Sunday lunch. We loaded up in the school bus and drove a mile or so north from town to the plant. It sits on the end of the peninsula, or "spit" as they say. Easy unloading for caught salmon and freight. A lot bigger than I thought!

The plant is owned and operated by the local for-profit regional council. Alaska is much different when it comes to land ownership and management of Alaska Native land. In short, Alaska is divided into 12 regions, based on the different languages and tribes in the state. Since Native Alaskans technically owned all of the land in the state, a settlement was reached and they retained a certain amount of land, paid over $900 million and received other benefits. The cannery is a result of our region's for-profit corporation. They hire people from all over our region.

This is the inside. The food was FANTASTIC! Made me feel like I was back at Camp Barakel. Best part, we could help ourselves to mint chocolate ice cream. I thought I'd have to wait months to taste ice cream again!