Some writings I brought over from an old site.

Your Village Called!!!

What is YVC??
(Yukon Villages Consortium) aka Your Village Called!!! by VPSO Samuel L Flyinghorse.

YVC is the next biggest zany Alaska Email sitcom to wander across the muskeg since the tv show "Northern Exposure".

YVC is an all star cast of Alaska Villages, demanding Elders, disgruntled Teens, lively Children and lost sled Dogs.

Call the Alaska State Troopers, Quick! Wake the VPSO!! It's time for fun!

Episode 1
Call of the Wild!

It was a nice log cabin set on 3 acres of beautiful wooded land. The driveway was recently strewn and smoothed out with 1/2" pea gravel that crunched nicely under the tires of my pickup truck as I drove up.

"Civilization out here in the woods". I exhulted to myself.

But my blissful welcome to the village was interupted by the site of a small wooden structure standing in the back yard.

It seemed almost reclusive in appearance standing there in the shade of the trees. Like a shy child that is too scared to talk to visitors.

Can some inanimate object have a life of it's own or it's own distinct personality?

The little leaning structure was known by many names.

"The little boys room",
"the John",
"the Loo".

Or up here in Alaska as I would soon learn. "the Outhouse"

It stood with it's back turned to me as if ashamed. As if "IT" were one of the young men being made to turn away in the storyline of the movie "The Blair Witch Project"

I remembered the closing scene of the movie as the unseen murderer struck the young woman making her way upon the scene.

Alarmed for no apparent reason I looked around behind me suddenly only to see a big black raven skimming the tree tops in the distance. A cloud of mosquitos danced and dipped over the highway.

A semi truck could be heard miles away gearing down the long hill I had just descended.
I thought I would have running water in the cabin and in essence I did, as I listened to the bubbling of the creek nearby.

I sighed and stretched my legs and arms from the hours of driving. Time to call mama and see if she had any extra phone books or SEARS catalogs to mail to me.

theSam!!!


Tales From the Village!!!
Up In Smoke with 20 Questions.

UP IN SMOKE
Today is Easter Sunday April 2004.
I thought Mama wanted to stay home and for us all to participate in the Village Easter events but it turns out that our village dinner won't be starting till after 4 p.m. today.

Mama and Shayne went to Church and I just slept in. I'm playing hooky today.
As I sit here and type on this pc. Granma Frieda was calling around for cigarettes to buy from someone.

I told her on the phone that maybe Larry had some. Granma says she'll be right over, so she hangs up the phone and in a few minutes Larry comes inside our apt.

(He's outside on the porch constructing a new dog house for"Scabbers"-the-friendly-mutt)

Larry comes in and stands for a moment.
Like he's looking for something lost or else he wants to say something to me.

I take the non verbal cues from him and speak up.
"Did someone come over?" I ask him.

"Granma Frieda, she's looking for cigarettes" he says, then leaves the apt to go backoutside on the porch.

Larry resumes hammering nails into the partially constructed dog house as Granma Frieda hesitantly walks inside and stops a few feet away and looks at me expectantly.

Now I'm starting to think to myself, 'what's going on here?'.
'Is everyone thinking I'M starting to smoke now?'

Granma Frieda is disappointed to know that I don't have any smokes to sell to her and neither does Larry. So she leaves and walks back home to her apt house only 100' away.

Land sakes!! I miss Church one day and already I'm looking like a sinner!!

20 QUESTIONS
I had applied to a nearby Alaska Native village as a CHA/P (Community Health Aide / Practitioner)

And after driving for a few hours I arrived in the Alaskan Native village and met some wonderful people.

3 of them interviewed me in the office.
I'll share a few questions and answers.

1. "You are the only official in the village and another Health Aide arrives for work smelling like alcohol. She sees a patient and then you take her aside. What do you say or do?"

Hopefully I would get to talk to her the moment I smelled alcohol on her or noticed that she was intoxicated or hung over.

I would insist that she go home and return to work the next day.

2."What does Confidentiality mean to you?"

Not publicly talking about my interaction with patients in the clinic or of my dealings with patients outside the clinic.

It means only talking to the patient or those people that are authorized to speak on behalf of the patient. Keeping such conversations low and being aware of who else may be around the area because they might be listening in.

3. "Why should we hire you?"

I've had 2 1/2 yrs experience as a VPSO in another village.
I have done mostly Police related work so I would have a good idea what to expect in terms of law enforcement and medical emergencies.

I also know the basic workings of a village. I know how life is and what things can happen.

I've done much extra volunteer work like helping in the school and by giving time to the youth and children.

I've also served the Elders and delivered fuel for them in winter. I've chopped wood and hauled water on occasion.

I've also kept my interests alive that related to my VPSO job and purchased tools and equipment to use thus I was ready for just about any emergency that would happen.

4. "Are you aware that as a Health Aide you will be expected to be on-call 24 / 7 while you are here in the village?"

Yes I am. I look forward to it.

I have prepared myself over my lifetime for moments such as these.
I am fully aware of the many village emergencies that can happen and I welcome people to come to me for help"

5. "What are your strengths?"

I had to laugh at this one because I laugh at myself mostly.

The 2 young women and the one young man stopped writing furiously on their questionaire sheets.

I don't know really. I'm friendly, I love the Public Safety service I've done and I expect to be doing that 20 yrs from now.

I've made up my mind to commit to this job. In fact my strengths come from my weaknesses. I've been afraid of things and of people when I was younger but I'm not afraid of anything now.

6. "What are your weaknesses?"

Well, I do like to sleep alot.

I'm impatient.

When I suggest something or tell someone to do something I want it done now.
I'm also impatient with myself too.

When I was younger I didn't know what to do in emergency situations so I learned how.

I couldn't speak clearly or confidently to people or in front of large groups so I learned how to speak.

7. "Are you willing to travel to and from training sessions in order for you to be qualified to perform your job?"

Yes I am. I showed up here to meet you all didn't I?

MOTIVATIONS

They should have asked me more questions relating to my resume, about my prior Hair and Massage work. But then again, I'm glad they didn't.

What motivates me to do my job?

It's hard to say really. But there's so much that has happened to me in my life that is the driving force behind me today.

Why do I love the little babies so much? Why does my heart go out to the kids and the women? Only I know.

When I first arrived in the Village and was looking through the old VPSO records and in the office books. I found a tattered worn letter.

It appeared to be a letter written by an Anonymous VPSO and the message was addressed to other VPSOs. The writer cited an Elderly friend of his in the village and shared a moving experience.

I'll share it with you.

The story that he had written down was from "Maggie" the village Elder.

She said that all of the Native girls in the village had been or would be sexually abused / assaulted at one time or another. She recounted how one of her childhood friends had been assaulted by her father.

The girl then slept with sheets wrapped around her legs at night. The abuse finally ended after she shot her father in the leg with a .22 rifle.

None of these incidents were reported to the Troopers though. Because this all happened "in the Bad Old Days."

The Anonymous VPSO also recounted in his letter that during his stay in the village. There was a young girl that called him one day asking for an escort to the village general store.

The young girl had seen a red fox running around the village and was scared that "it might bite her if she walked alone"

The Anonymous VPSO walked with the young girl to the general store and back to her house. The point the Officer made to us readers was that he didnt want to turn down requests made by the young people.

Today it was "a red fox', tomorrow it might be "the bad man" instead that was making the girls and boys afraid.

Resolve
I took that 2 page letter to my Lodge room and tacked it by the light switch next to the door. It was the last thing I saw before leaving my room each day or night to go on Patrol, and sometimes it was the last thing I saw and read before turning out my light and going to bed.

At times that story ran through my head when I was summoned to various village emergencies. In my 2.5 yrs as VPSO I had numerous calls from scared kids in the village.

"My mom didn't come home, can you find her?",

"My dad was trying to get into the house with a knife".

Even the Elders would call me. "My grandson took our pickup".

I understood the spirit of the Law and the Letter of the Law and decided that some times the Village laws took precedence over the State laws. But I won't get into that subject now.

I'm glad I found that scrap of paper in the old VPSO office. It told a story that I never would have believed unless I had seen it myself. And because of that letter I kept an eye on the sex offenders that returned to the Village

I kept an eye out for the young people and never let the predatory young men be with the girls that Wanted to be Protected by ME.

I looked out for the Old people and helped them as much as possible.

Such things (among many) were my motivation in doing my job, but things always weren't so serious.

I can also tap dance and sing really well too because I had to explain why I did many things in performance of my VPSO duties.

In fact I've learned to juggle and to leap through flaming hoops and to ride itty-bitty tricycles around while balancing a ball on my nose.

Though I could never get the ventriloquist act down pat, I keep moving my lips.

When I was a VPSO and had the VPO (Village Police Officer)
working with me we were quite adept at handling the various Village Council grillings.

Showtunes?
Start the tunes and we'd finish 'em. I was the dummy and the VPO would cast his voice. He would drink water and I'd spit it out.

We played classical arm pits music and did magic shows. We'd spin china plates on our batons.

LOL

I'm being sarcastic of course.

In my time as a VPSO I had 3 bosses to answer to.
1-The Village Council / village.
2-the company that hired me and paid me, TCC Inc.
3-and the AST Oversight officers that were each assigned a few rural villages and they had to visit those villages each month and see how each VPSO / VPO was doing.

Yep, I can sing and dance.

Perhaps I'll do that for ANOTHER village council should I be hired.

I'm glad that those Village Tribal Administrators that interviewed me for the Health Aide job didn't ask about the alleged "car crash" incident where I had to document the whole event in a report complete with MS Picture Paint diagramming the route through the village with my "village honey" and her swooning friends in my Patrol car.

We plowed through Granma's garden and smashed into the food cache knocking it down; berries, moose meat and salmon jerky everywhere!

Best report writing I've done EVER! My TCC boss and the AST were impressed (with the report). I joke of course about the car crash.

But what ever motivates you to do YOUR job let's hope it's something honorable and rewarding, even if it is painful.

For me I see a woman that is abused and her children are scared that the abusive husband will turn his physical rage upon them. I was one of those children.

In Seattle WA when I did Hair and Massage and also Childcare on the side. I kept my past in mind when doing these 3 activities.

I carefully washed my clients hair and could still mentally feel the spot on my own mothers head that was kicked in by an abusive husband long ago. None of my Hair or Massage clients ever knew of this.

I sought after and received childcare experience too. I loved my church families that entrusted their children with me and also the day care I worked at.

I can still recall all of my "Lil' Chippers" because we would go outside and play in the fenced yard that was covered in pulped wood chips. Cleaning them off of chips was a fun assembly line process before going back inside the daycare.

For me Motivation is seeing what Alcohol did to my older relatives by taking their initiative and independence away. Alcohol and violence took away the handsome looks and stole the beauty of my relatives.

For me it is these memories and much more that drives me to do my job as a Public Safety Officer.

Even if right now I am no longer actively employed as a VPSO. I've been trained by the State of Alaska. I was never told that once I left the village and became a civilian to forget everything and let other First Responders and other people with Initiative do the work.

It's my turn now to be the grown up and to do the work.

Now I've armed myself and prepare physically each day to be ready for when I do take the physical fitness tests to be an Alaska State Trooper candidate or else if I apply to any other Agency.

I was in a great Alaska Native village for too short a time but I did do some good out there.
I know I will be remembered by those I touched in heart & mind. But someone else out there will need me soon and I will be there for them.

I don't think I would be like this if I had married back in 1990, or in 1994 or in 1998.
I tried to do the LDS Church things I had been taught. But having a family of my own eludes me. So I have devoted my life to serving and protecting others and I will do so until I die.

Be safe. Samuel L Flyinghorse

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