Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Ugarook (bearded seal)

It was cold yesterday and I was still in bed. Asleep. Dreaming. You know, warm cozy in bed asleep, dreaming, when my Grandma comes and pulls the covers off and says excitedly “Eddie’s dad Jim caught an ugarook [a bearded seal]! Come out of bed I want you to take pictures. Tell me when he starts cutting it.” By the time I’m out the door Eddie’s there outside swinging. “Hey JDn [that’s my nickname JD- n] come swing?” I love Eskimo accents they’re so cool I wish I had one. I’m jealous because Eddie has one and he’s just a kid. I wanted one ever since I found out there even was such a thing.“Sure.” I made my way over to his house across the street when this “glassily” odor about makes my eyes water. I turned around to see Eddie’s dad start cutting the ugarook. I took pictures of the ugarook and Eddie. Later on my favorite dog, Rosco, comes walking to us with her master. The horribly bad part about Rosco is that she’s blind in her right eye! Why? Because someone went up to her and shot her with a Beebee gun?! Soon they left and Grandma’s over and Jim has the guts out with what looks like there is a squid inside. The closer you got the stronger the smell. After 2 days he has it almost done all he needs now is to get the blubber off the ugarook skin. He already has the meat outside at the back of the house to dry and turn into beef Jerky (ugarook jerky).

1 comments:

Rocking RS said...

Layni,

Wow, I was surprised how much the Eskimos and the people of Alaska celebrate. They sure do have a lot of unique traditions too! How exciting to have experienced it. Be sure to take videos too so you have the live footage to remember a few years down the road.

I love how you get right in the middle of it all, including the gutting of the ugarook. I never was a fan of watching anything be gutted and I grew up in a family that loved to deer hunt. We used to go camping for a week in the middle of the woods so Dad and all his friends could hunt or attempt to hunt! HA!

Thanks for sharing so many details. You write very well and really help me understand such a different lifestyle from what we are used to.