Megster's Travels: AKiak

Akiak: population approximately 350

This is one of the smallest villages I have been to yet and probably the most 'native'. It's right along the Kuskokwim river and salmon really is a HUGE part of everyone's life. Just walk along the river and you can see it. Lots of fish racks... I could smell it before even seeing them. For me it was a bit overwhelming, but to all the people here it's totally normal.

Fish drying

Now here's the most interesting thing I have encountered out in the villages yet:

My staff partner came back from her initial scoping out the village walk and returned saying we might be invited to eat Stinkheads. She said they were fish heads that were buried in the ground for a while and after they have been fermented and turn to mush they are then eaten. I thought she was joking....... she wasn't. We talked to a girl here in the village about it and she said that they bury the fish heads for a couple weeks and when they take them out they are delicious. I went right back to the school and looked it up. This is the first thing that came up on google:

http://www.culinaryschools.org/cuisine/10-disgusting-delicacies/

I showed this to my staff partner and turns out she tried the soft boiled fetal duck in a village that I missed out on... can't say I'm uber upset about it. I don't think I could have downed a baby bird that I boiled to death unless it was a complete necessity.

Unfortunately we never actually got to try dubuq (that's the Yupik name of stinkheads- I have no idea if I'm spelling that right- still haven't caught on to much of the Yupik language- but it's pronounced sort of like da-book) but maybe it's for the better, I'd rather not come down with a case of botulism in a place with no doctor.

Along the Kuskokwim

There's not really a lot in this village... the river, the school, the post office and a store. We spent most of our time chilling in the school-- a library, internet, a home ec. room for a kitchen-- really no reason to go out into the rain. But we ended up with a surprise day off due to the flight schedules and so we finally did venture out a bit.

This is the store- no sign needed since the village is so small.

And why actually get rid of an old vending machine? Just toss it outside- doesn't hurt anyone or anything lying there anyhow.

And here is what you can find in a village store:

4 bucks for a can of chili...

$10.50 for a bag of cereal...

$5 for spagetti noodles...

The crazy part about those prices is that they really aren't bad for a village since Akiak is just down the river from the 'hub' of Bethel where we just were. One summer ago I saw a small thing of laundry detergent for $30. Forget fresh food either, you usually can't find it and if you can it's reallllllly expensive.

As we were walking we also came upon this... what's hanging you ask? A skinned beaver drying out.... take a closer look:

So gross to us. So normal to the Natives.

Ok, on to something a bit less gross. We were told by a mushing family back in Bethel that we would definitely see the dogs of a well known Iditarod musher Mike Williams and his son. We found those dogs alright and boy did they stare us down. It was a bit eerie with all of their heads staring right at us before bursting out into a fit of barking. The village kids warned us that 'those dogs bite' and they sure did want to the first night we saw them. We went back another day to see them again (so much to do here) and we met Mike Williams Jr. and he told us how he was excited about the pups that were recently born. They were some of the most adorable dogs I think I've ever seen! The dogs were a lot more chill this time around- maybe it's because their owner was out or because it was rainy, I don't know, but I like seeing them and thinking about what their winter racing season must be like.