Our Arrival In Stony River Alaska

Wow, what a day! As we flew through the snow covered peaks of the Alaskan Range, past glaciers and volcanoes, we were awestruck, and a bit apprehensive. Moments after our departure, we flew past the last roads that we would see for hundreds of miles. The flight was spectacular, and so was our greeting at the end of the runway in Stony River.

Debi Rubera and two of her students met us in a quad atv with a trailer attached, to cart the three of us, and all of our gear and belongings a few hundred yards to Gusty Michael School in the center of town.

Not certain if we should film or not, we carried our cameras into the school. Branden discovered two students working to make traditional knives called Ulaqs. I was surprised to find the younger children practicing their reading skills behind two desktop computers. A few of the older girls were working on laptops given to the school by apple. They politely told me that they were learning to use imovie (I loved that... an instant connection based on a common technology).

I was struck by the thought that these kids, and this school, were like many others that I have visited across the US. But this location was like no place that I had ever been. So remote, so quiet, so peaceful, so beautiful already in so many ways. Brandon was immediately invited after school to a villager's homesite to film his family as they milled the lumber and worked on their new house.

What a day! What an opportunity! Thank you to all who are supporting this trip and these kids!