I’m writing from Fort McPherson, a small town (roughly 400 people) populated mostly by Gwich’in people. I’m making a very long day trip (7:00 am - 2:00 am) to obtain Gwich’in language materials for the school library. I’ve learned that the best way to get things done here is to do as much legwork yourself as possible, and to meet with people face to face. I spend a lot of time trying to hunt people down and showing up in random organizations since most people don’t seem to care about keeping appointments on time and don’t mind dropping everything to talk to you if you just pop up out of nowhere.

I just had a very long chat with a local Gwich’in community member and learned that the  Gwich’in word for internet translates to machine that knows everything. Which is kind of awesome. (I should learn the Inuvialuktun word for internet too as they just got their vocab updated.)

In other news, the school library has been cleared out, and I am now in the process of building a mega acquisitions list, scoping out library software and barcoding systems, looking for audiovisual materials for special needs students, researching aboriginal keyboards, planning out which budgets can be used for which materials, conducting interest groups with the students etc. etc. The list goes on and on (and on) and I am basically trying to be in a thousand places at the same time. But right now, I’m just taking a break in Fort McPherson’s school, my clothing still smelling like the smoky cabin where I had bannock and tea with a couple Gwich’in residents.