Welcome to Quinhagak

It is Monday morning and it is time to make our way to Quinhagak. After a wonderful breakfast Nick, Ashley, and I call a taxi to take us to the airport. We get all checked in and then wait patiently for our flight. Not surprisingly our flight was delayed for a couple of hours do to wind in the early hours of the morning.   

 

Nick is shocked that our flight was delayed for a couple of hours do to weather. Ashley in her styling purple snow pants is enjoying the carefree time at the airport.

Nick looks so excited, not sure if he got enough coffee this morning at breakfast. 
I on the other hand just don't like my photo taken. On the far left is our experienced pilot.

Safe Landing

After a short flight we made it to Quinhagak where we were greeted by the principal shortly after landing. This was good because the Quinhagak airport is a bit outside the village and it would have been quite a trek with our luggage. We were comfortably transported to the school and allowed to settle in to our new accommodations, the library loft. Lucky for us we wouldn't have to pack and unpack everyday, but could safely leave our stuff in the library. Unluckily, we were informed that the library is haunted, we were willing to take the risk. The kitchen staff let us store our food in the fridge and as we became acquainted with the teachers a couple offered up their classroom microwaves for use during our stay.

 

Quinhagak Airport

The Surprise of the Quinhagak School Bus and Windmill

We got a quick tour of the school and were introduced to several teachers. It was very interesting to see a school bus among the many snow machines and four wheelers  parked at the school. The school bus was something I was not expecting to see in a rural village. The bus is used help transport students with handicaps and it is the special education teacher who happens to have a CDL to drive the bus. Also unique to Quinhagak is the well groomed gravel roads. Apparently the nice gravel roads are there because of gravel found on the coast, lucky for Quinhagak. Of course we cannot see the gravel roads being covered in snow and ice, but travel around the village was definitely smoother because of it. One last aspect of our welcome to Quinhagak was seeing a windmill. Off in the distance was a working windmill to help produce power for the village, but we were informed that it was not currently in use. I got the vibe there were mixed feelings about having the windmill in the village. It was a busy day and we jumped right in and were invited into classrooms, but more on those experience later.

Welcome to the Quinhagak K-12 school.

Quinhagak Head Start, which is right next door to the school.