How to battle pneumonia in toddlers

That day that I went down to the ice with Jason Ahmaogak and the others was such a great day that I had decided that, even though I had only five days before I was scheduled to leave for India, I would push it and hangout in Wainwright for a day or two more.

But, before going to bed, I called Margie and she told me that Kalib had pneumonia, that his temperature had gone all the way up to 105.

This frightened me, and so I came home.

I found him looking a bit weak and peaked, but his spirits were good. I am told that from the time he was diagnosed until I got home, he had done little but sleep, whereas everybody else had hardly slept at all.

Since I have been home, however, he has been up and chipper, if still a bit peaked. 

Then I found his Dad tossing him into the air like this.

We drove him into Anchorage today for a followup doctor appointment. He is doing well, but must stay on his medication for a few days yet.

As for me, I don't know. I have a great deal to do before Melanie and I board our plane tomorrow night and I planned to get right on it after we got back from Anchorage.

We got back about 2:45 PM. I was so tired, I laid down upon the bed, flat on my back. Jimmy, the black cat, settled down on my chest and dozed off. Then I dozed off. Although I woke up for brief moments, I stayed dozed off until my brother Mac, who I last talked to maybe in January, called at 5:00 PM.

And I have been too exhausted to do anything since, including to work on this blog. That's why you don't see all those pictures, back to Wainwright and Barrow, that I have been planning to include.

I wonder how this entry got done?

The only thing that I want to do now is go to bed.

A beautiful, exquisite, kind of day - but a nightmare inside my computer

I took many pictures on this exquisitely gorgeous day, plus, I still have a few from Wainwright and even Barrow that I hope yet to post, but I encountered an absolute nightmare in my computer.

An absolute nightmare!

I do not know what is wrong with it, but I can do just one thing - like pull up one picture - and then I must restart the computer and start all over again and I am about to go insane. So I haven't even looked at but a few of the pictures that I took.

Therefore, I post just this one image, from this morning, when little Kalib walked out onto the road with me. Yes, I was prepared to snatch him up and carry him away if I even heard the sound of a car in the distance.

No, I'll post two, just because Kalib walked out into the road with me, but a road can be a very dangerous place, especially for children. Lisa came out today and as she drove down Seldon Street, she saw a young boy, alone on a four wheeler, driving in a dangerous, idiotic, manner.

This is a common occurrence around here and if you ever say anything to the parents of such children, you had better be prepared to duck.

Shortly after Lisa arrived, we climbed into the car and took off to meet Melanie and Charlie. And there, not far from where she spotted the boy, was his wrecked four-wheeler, three police cars and an ambulance.

I hope he is okay. God. I hope he is okay - and a bit more wise, maybe. But I don't know.

Oh, one more - just to end this day on happy note. We had a barbecue in the back yard. As he always does, Muzzy got his share.

Wainwright whalers make a boat ramp while waiting for a good east wind to reopen the lead

This is where the snowmachine ride from the previous post took me - offshore out onto the sea ice a few miles north of Wainwright. That's whaling captain Jason Ahmaogak walking farthest from the camera to study the thin, broken jumbled ice that has closed the lead.

Just a few days before I arrived, the lead was open right in front of where Jason is. He and other members of the Iceberg 14 crew had launched their boat and chased whales.  Under the leadership of Jason's late grandfather, Ben Ahmaogak, Sr., Iceberg 14 has long been an exceptionally successful and respected whaling crew.

Ben died in May of last year and passed the title of whaling captain on to Jason, who has an exceptional crew of both men and women behind him - including his Aunt Mary Ellen, who has thrown the harpoon and shot the heavy, brass, shoulder gun and brought bowhead home.

A jet passes over shards of the thin, jumbled ice.

When wind and current again takes away the ice that Jason stands on to reopen the lead, the edge of the shore-fast ice will be several feet above the water. Before this happens, the crew wants to make a boat ramp. Working with a chain saw, shovel and pick axes, they begin.

John Hopson, another whaling captain, uses the saw to cut into the ice.

You can see the ramp forming behind John.

Taking a break.

Time to eat some caribou roast.

Then back to work.

Finally, the job is just about done. Terry Tagarook gives John Hopson a pat and jokes that they need to make their trails as smooth as John's head. Terry is a school teacher and, with the exception of me, taught every single person working out here this day.

That's not quite true, because Terry has taught me, too, just not in the classroom.

Lolo carries tools out of the boat ramp, the closed lead behind her.

Wainwright whalers. 

I am home in Wasilla now, for just three more days. I did not want to leave the whalers, but I have a commitment of the heart in India and so I did.

I also have a commitment of the heart to this community, Wainwright. If I am fortunate enough to enjoy good health and continued survival, I will be back.

Before I leave, I will post a few more images from Wainwright and maybe Barrow, too.

Finally, I ignore these damned injuries and do something

For the first time since I took my big fall and got hurt June 12 of last year, I got out into the country and did something. Remember how I said that, in the situation that I am now, I did not think that I could drive a snowmachine and I knew that I could not hang onto the back of the sled?

Yesterday, Jason Ahmaogak was ready to go down to the ice to work on the boat launch in the hope that the wind and current would soon shift and the lead would open.

I could not stay on land. I was going to ride on the back of another snowmachine, but the driver hurt her wrist and could not go, so she said I could take it.

Of course, I have this brace on my wrist, not to mention the weakness and soreness, but I decided to give it a try. I found a way to do it.

It felt so good, to be out there on the ice.

So good! Wish there could have been water, wish there could have been whales, wish I could be here when there is water and whales.

I will be either on my way to or in India by then.

It will be good to be there, too, but I will miss Wainwright and the whales.

Too many places to be, all at once.

More on the little outing next post.

Cara is learning new words every day, both English and Iñupiaq

Remember Taktuk and Cara? The mother and daughter who I first introduced in images of them dancing at Kivgiq? This evening, I stopped in for a visit at the Wainwright home where they live with Taktuk's parents, Ben Ahmaogak, Jr, and Massak. I had not been there long before little Cara called me, "Behh" - pretty darn close to Bill. 

Cara is learning to speak - and she is picking up both English and Iñupiaq words.

Whenever Taktuk hears her daughter speak a new word, she enters the word into her computer. The column at left is for English words, like, "nose, arm, ski-doo" and such and the right for Iñupiaq words.

After I left, Taktuk sent me an email describing her daughter's use of Iñupiaq, so far:

"Cara uses these inupiaq words:

"Qain for come. "MOM! Qain!"

"Uva for here you go, or if she wants something from me.

"Naun for where is it? (the last "n" has a tail)

"Atchu for I don't know

"Nanuq.. polar bear, but she actually says NANOO

"Tuttu.. Caribou - We also call her CARABOO, her auntie Tommilyn gave her that nickname because one day Cara wasn't paying any attention to any of us, so Tom shouted, "Caribou!", and Cara instantly looked!

"Quaq, caribou frozen meat

"Aattai for PRETTY!!!

"And, instead of calling her great grandparents AMAU, she calls her great grandmother, Aaka-aaka and her great grandfather,Aapa-aapa. This started off when I was first born and the first born to my great-grandfather & great-grandmother, Nellie & David Alak Panik (our school was dedicated in his name years back), my great-grandfather said he felt too young to be called AMAU, so he said for me to call them Aapa-aapa and Aaka-aaka, which sounds simple. So, my Aapa Leo kept it that way with his great-grandchildren: Anton, Rodney & Cara.
Tinnun which is an airplane (the middle two "N"s have tails).

"KUNNAAN, her great-grandfather Benny's eskimo name. Mine also, and her Aapa Ben Jr's, and her cousin Kunnaan's (Krystle's boy)."

She seen a picture on a poster at the Clinic and it was of little Kunnaan of Pt. Hope.. Krystle & I and the others think that both Kunnaan and Cara looks so much alike, Ahmaogak babies!