Dinner with Leroy Oenga Jr. and family, part 4 of 7: appetizer

Dinner with Leroy Oenga Jr. and family, part 4 of 7: appetizers. Tiny cuts of caribou and bowhead blubber - eaten together. 

Very tasty!

Text added at 11:26 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 57 and counting.

Tuttu soup at Pat and Beverly's

Pat and Beverly Hugo invited me over for dinner tonight – tuttu soup - tuttu being caribou, of course. Pat is originally from Anaktuvuk Pass and this caribou came from there. Their grandson Mike could hardly wait for the blessing to conclude but he did and then helped himself - as did we all. Audrey is visiting from Anaktuvuk. I recognized her right away, because she danced so beautifully at Kivgiq. It was an excellent meal – the likes of which you will not find in a restaurant. Fresh homemade biscuits too.

In the fall of 2012, I had gone out to do some coverage during the Barrow fall whale hunt and traveled on the Savik boat. Pat was part of the crew and made a number of appearances on the blog series I posted - all shot with my "real" cameras. Here is a link to one picture of Pat from that series, taken as Savik crew helped tow a whale to Barrow. This year, he went out again but unfortunately broke his back. He is recovering well but still has a ways to go.

Text added at 10:42 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 56 and counting.

Instead of a coffee break I get treated to a tuttu quaq break

I had been sitting at a desk in the Iñupiat Heritage Center reading oral histories for two hours straight, enjoying every word but I noticed I needed a break. My neck and shoulders were getting sore. I thought maybe I could go buy me a coffee somewhere, maybe with some prepackaged chocolate chip cookies. Then Fredrika Leavitt came into the kitchen area just on the other side of he divider from the desk I am working at. She pulled a caribou leg out of the freezer and started to cut with her ulu. She asked if I wanted some tuttu quaq (frozen caribou). I did. So she cut some off for me, gave me some ugruk seal oil to dip it in, showed me where the tea was and also the pilot crash crackers and a bottle of grape jelly and peanut butters. I had a good snack. No coffee, but I just made my second cup of tea. Now I will resume my reading until they close for the day and I must leave. 

Text added at 5:59 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 55 and counting.

The movie, Big Miracle, and what I witnessed in real life, part 7: tuttu comes to Malik, Malik provides dinner

One afternoon, a caribou wandered into the rescue camp. Malik shot the "tuttu" for dinner and then turned it over to younger members of the chainsaw crew for skinning and butchering.

I have many more pictures than this "scanned" and lined up storywise, but I don't want to stop right now to take the time to write a story. I just want to keep "scanning."* I will write more stories tomorrow. Then, since I depart for Arizona (where Margie arrived today) late Saturday night, I will wrap this up, one way or another, by Friday night and will probably schedule the last post to appear Saturday, but possibly Sunday.

That's why I want to keep scanning. I think I can complete this quicker if I get all the pictures scanned now and then write later.

*As explained at the beginning, I no longer have a working film scanner. So I am using my camera as a scanner. I photograph the black and white negatives one at a time, then convert them to positive and work from there.

p> 

Complete series index:

Part 1: Context bowhead hunt

Part 2: Roy finds the whales; Malik

Part 3: Scouting trip

Part 4: NBC on the ice

Part 5: To rescue or euthanize

Part 6: Governor Cowper, ice punch, chainsaw holes

Part 7: Malik provides caribou for dinner

Part 8: CNN learns home is sacred place

Part 9: World's largest jet; Screw Tractor

Part 10: Think like a whale

Part 11: Portrait: Billy Adams and Malik

Part 12: Onboard Soviet icebreakers

Part 13: Malik walks with whales, says goodbye

Part 14: Rescue concludes

Part 15: Epilogue