Easter 2009

Dear all,

I hope you all had a good Easter. I'm sure you did. I had Palm Sunday this week, in snowy / sunny Port Lions, AK. It's a 12 minute plane ride from Kodiak, flying through the passes between the snowy mountains.

This time was by far the scariest flight yet. Usually when we get up in the air, the pilot looks to the west, and if he can see through the pass, he flies that way - otherwise we fly around Kodiak Island along the coast, a considerably longer route. This time, Jimmy, our young Yup'ik pilot from the Kuskokwim River area, headed the plane through the passes but we ran into a brief snow squall and as the plane twisted and turned around in the valleys, it seemed as though you could reach out and touch the pine trees on the snowy mountains -- which I was quite afraid we might hit. But I guess Jimmy knew what he was doing - these planes have GPS so the pilots have a map right in front of them showing where they are at all times. Probably we didn't get closer than 200 feet, or more, from the mountainsides. Suddenly we emerged from the squall and the mountains, with water below us, and we were flying across the Kizhuyak Bay.

I spent part of Saturday visiting parishioners in their homes. It's easy to do that in a village of 250 people. Port Lions is a very nice village, with great scenic views, but a number of empty houses, because the number of jobs in the town is limited. There are no stores, but there is a post office, a clinic, a library, two schools, a Native building, a firehouse, and a water treatment plant. (I asked, why would PL need a water treatment plant, doesn't it get pure mountain water? And I was told that "beavers pee in it, etc" and that there are certain diseases you could get if the water wasn't purified.)

As you walk around the streets, kids and adults sail past on quads or 4-wheel ATVs, all wearing helmets. It's a convenient way to get around town. Others drive pickup trucks or regular cars.

Port Lions came into being in 1964, when the village of Afognak, AK was wiped out by earthquake, and due to changes in the contour of the land at Afognak, it was deemed unwise to rebuild that town. (Afognak was on Afognak Island, a large island just north of Kodiak Island.) The people migrated to what is now Port Lions. About half the townspeople of PL are Native Americans (Aleuts) who seem to be culturally much the same as other Americans. In many cases I would not have guessed that a person was a Native American (or as they say up here, "Alaskan Native" or simply "Native"). The Alaskan Natives do not have reservations, but have about 85 Native Corporations which own significant amounts of land, engage in businesses, and are, by and large, very successful. A great many of those I have met have Swedish or Russian names. (Most Alaskan Natives have three given names: a "church name" that is the name of an Orthodox saint; an American name, and a Native name. This is hard to master, with so many children around. I try to learn the church name first. I love them the best. Here at the seminary we have a Methodius, a Perpetua, a Procopius -- nicknamed Koby, and an Ishmael).

I listened to some of the people who remembered Afognak talking about their childhood there - and how they played out of doors, amidst and around the trees and houses, and made their own games up - an experience they noted was very different from that of most kids today, who are glued to the internet. On Good Friday in 1964 most of them had just finished having supper and were getting ready to go see the movie "King of Kings" - a movie was a big thing in Afognak - when the earthquake struck - it was the most powerful earthquake in recent North American history and lasted 4 minutes.

Afognak Island sounds like it was (and remains) a paradaisical isle, largely unspoiled land, like Kodiak. Between Afognak Island and Kodiak Island is a water channel called whale passage, because whales use it a lot to get. There is an island called Whale Island right there. They tell me you can often see pods of whales right off Port Lions.

A number of parishioners make their living by hosting tourists who come for hunting, sportfishing, or nature viewing. One of the women was telling me how she loves going out on the boat with her husband when the waters are calm, and just watching the animal and marine life.

Unfortunately, because of the economy, a lot of these people aren't getting much business right now. Hopefully that will improve as the economy picks up.

This weekend I learned that in Alaska the largest cabbages anywhere have been grown. How is this possible? 90-degree summer days combined with 20-21 hours of sun. Carrots, potatoes, and corn are also grown here, and tomatoes are grown in greenhouses, and cattle are raised.

Happy Easter to all
Peace, love, and joy