I Did Good Today

First thing this morning I hired a guide who turned out to be just wonderful. She knows everybody in the village, of course, so is able to tell me who’s here, who’s gone, who’s left permanently, and who can proxy anybody missing. She drove me back and forth in her truck all day (I’m slightly less than organized) and was cheerful and helpful the whole time.

We got a lot of work done, too – more than I thought I would. I finished 2 whole binders and made good progress on the third one! That’s a good thing, because I found out there are no planes on the weekend. If I don’t finish by Friday I’m stuck till Monday.

Needless to say I’m going to try real hard to finish by Friday!

The weather wasn’t the best ever. A blizzard blew in overnight so it was almost white-out conditions at first. I was very thankful for her truck! By the afternoon, however, it warmed up and stopped snowing. I think it may even be melting off now. I took a walk down to the beach and actually overheated.

They have 10 wind generators! My guide says they were installed 2 years ago and are already paying for themselves. I was very pleased to see them – I think more villages in Alaska should have them.

Their school is pretty neat, also. It has maybe 15 students of all ages, and is probably only a few years old. They invited me to eat lunch with them each day I’m here, for just $4.00 a meal. I have to admit I wasn’t too happy with the food, but that’s mostly because it was meat (I’m vegetarian). I’m sure a normal person would be quite happy with the food; it was nutritious and filling. Since it’s my main meal, I made myself eat it – and since I was surrounded by 15 students and several adults, I couldn’t make any faces while eating it either!

All of the people I’ve met so far have been very kind and seem happy. They are all Aleut, with some Russian and/or Yupik mixed in for good measure – except for the teachers, who are all Caucasian. And as everybody keeps pointing out, even the dogs are friendly here! Two in particular came with us on our rounds this morning and where simply overjoyed at the snow.