Monday, August 25, 2008

Dirty Jobs: Shishmaref Style

Back in March I introduced VFN reader to our unique plumbing situation. Today I learned a little bit more about how our non-plumbing works.

My fourth hour class was out taking pictures for an Alaska History assignment (they're going to learn the corresponding Inupiaq words tomorrow). They came back with images of typical Shishmaref life, including some of the finer points of Shishmaref plumbing.



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These are the waste bins. No big deal. You saw these in the last blog post about plumbing.



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Here are the anuq men in action. They use the hose to suck up the waste from the bins.



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Here's another view. This one nicely highlights the waste tank.



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This wide angle shot shows the anuq vacuum attached to a truck. The vacuum attaches to the truck via a regular trailer hitch.

Nice, huh? Now you know for a fact that these guys actually use a gigantic vacuum cleaner to remove the waste from the bins. I wasn't exaggerating.

2 comments:

Mrs. Black said...

You know it as been a really long first week of school when I would sooooo rather read about "Dirty Jobs: Shishmaref Style" than do lesson plans. I love reading your blog! You are so entertaining. Yeah, funny you should mention a bristol reunion. I was think about the same thing this week. We had some really fun times, huh? Do you remember Rachel Vincent? She just had a baby girl. Didn't Jannell have one too? Chelsea is due with another girl in October. Crazy baby-ness. Anyway, I hope things are going great for you and Steve! Tell him I say hi! Take care!

Anonymous said...

ha ha ha! How come I never saw these guys the whole time I lived there..... leave it to kids to find the fascinating! I wonder what kids would take pictures of here.... I think I am going to try it with tutoring this quarter....I was able to revive one of my cameras I ruined this year, with the help of tape, and a thumbtac I might add.....good enough for school.
Anna