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A small group of people sing through cloth masks. It’s slavii at St. Seraphim of Sarov’s Orthodox Church in Dillingham. At the front of the church, a boy is spinning a star decorated with tinsel. Normally, he’d be surrounded by others doing the same.
Father Jason Isaac is the rector in Dillingham. Despite restrictions, he said, the spirit of the celebration hasn’t changed.
“I’m very surprised to see the joy. The message of Christ being born will always be celebrated joyously, he said. With this year being different because of COVID-19, the people are still trying to bring joy to each other by singing here the carols.”
Presented by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Every day at 2 p.m., New Stuyahok’s sole math teacher, Joshua Gates, gets on a VHF radio that broadcasts throughout the Southwest Alaska village and sends a message to the community. Gates shares a “math minute” 10 math questions a challenge for both students and parents. Then he shares the answers, and if students got them right, they are entered in a drawing to win a half pint of his homemade smoked salmon. Gates’ ingenuity is just one example of how educators in New Stuyahok are getting creative to keep students engaged with school and their peers during a global pandemic. In the rural Alaska town of around 500 people, where internet use is limited and cell service unreliable, teachers have found new and old ways of connecting.