Back in Athol

When we arrived in The Village on Thursday, aside from being a little sick from the flight, I think we were both struck by how beautiful this area is. The flight revealed the surrounding area as a series of twisting rivers and lakes of all sizes - nearly more water than land. The tundra is characterized by the full spectrum of greens and blues and almost completely flat. A few villages were visible during the flight but the area is largely absent of humans - at least as seen from the sky. Looking down from the plane or the surrounding hills, it's absolutely stunning.

However, we're back in Athol for district-wide training. Athol is not beautiful. It's a frontier town that seems completely dedicated to utilitarianism. Despite the relative urbanity of Athol (and its conveniences), I'm glad we're not living here.

As for the trainings, what's been most disappointing for me is is the almost complete lack of training around special education. Special ed wasn't mentioned at all in last week's 3-day training and appears only once on the agenda for the next two days for 1.5 hours (which conflicts with school staff meetings). This is all too typical in my opinion.

Some other notes:
- Our shower emits a high pitched whine right before it goes completely cold for a couple of seconds
- We were informed by a student who followed us home from the post office that we'd hear the words "gay" and "retarded" a lot at school
- Our apartment is well heated - so much so that I slept without blankets the other night. It was 45 degrees out.
- Our airstrip is apparently one of the worst in the area- it was closed for 14 days in a row last year. The school nearly ran out of food. Good times!

We return to The Village on Wednesday night. Looking forward to it.