Barrow, Alaska, Feb. 22, 2012, 7:14 p.m.~

Dear Book-Of-Words~

Hello from the Great White North (Barrow, Alaska)!  

Aama Tyorek here.  I hope this finds you well.  I am hanging in there.  School continues to be a constant struggle.  Writing and reading is still so hard for me.  Darned learning problems!!

My family is well: Father and my brothers Qisik and Sorqaq have just gotten back from another hunt: they got a seal, so we will eat well for a few weeks.  It was a huge male, weighing over 1,000 pounds.  I am most pleased: at least our family will not starve to death!

Mother has been busy with me and the little ones: Maki and Mikisaq.  Mother has been trying to work with me on my homework, guiding me to figure out the harder problems, but gently encouraging me, saying that I can do it, I can do it.  Still hard, though; sometimes I get so frustrated all I want to do is cry.  Yet I DO try.

Hard to believe it's been a few  years since Grandfather Elk died and a year since Grandmother Bird Woman left to join the spirit world.  I see them in the dancing northern rainbow and when they are green, I know Grandmother and Grandfather are very pleased with me.  It's when the rainbow turns a deep, vivid crimson red that I get scared because either I have been a disappointment to them again or something bad is going to happen.

I don't like it when the Night Rainbow turns red!

The Night Rainbow has been very busy in our skies; just about every night we see them dancing in our Arctic skies, above our heads.  I get mad at my little sisters becasue they love to laugh at the lights; I tell them to stop because the spirit-gods in the Night Rainbow could come down and chop their heads off or else they could become paralyzed.

So far nothing bad has happened, but I wouldn't put it past the spirit-gods in the Night Rainbow!

I am still friends with Pammaliq and Aqukqarq.  We play together after school (or on weekends).  Seems we're always together: it's almost like Mother and Father have gained two more children!

I just love them so much; we're almost like sisters, we're so close!

The weather here is bitterly cold and rather snowy, but not nearly as cold as it's been.  I'm thankful to the spirits for that.  When it's bitterly cold it's usually windy and it's not fit for man OR beast.  I just stay inside our cosy little house and pray that the power holds or that the Night Rainbow doesn't mess up with our power or Internet/radio signals again when it's clear or partly cloudy out.

The days are just starting to get a little longer: it's no longer completely dark, as we have an hour or two of daylight.  I know that with each passing day the days will get longer as we head towards the spring equinox and then The Long Day, when it's light for almost 24 hours a day.  Then when it's like that, we can't even SEE the Night Rainbow for a month or two.

Well, I have to get back to my stupid homework, so I will go.  I just wanted to write in here, Book-of-Words, and let you know what was going on.  Take care and may the Great Spirit bless you!

~Love, your Inuk friend, Aama.  :)