Perryville, Alaska

Well, I made it: I’m in Perryville. It’s actually a nice little village. So far, the people all seem to be quite nice and friendly.

I had a bit of a meltdown earlier. When I got off the airplane upon arrival I had no lodging, no contacts, and no idea what I was doing. A very kind man who flew in on the same airplane took pity on me and let me hitch a ride with him over to the school where they were quite willing to set me up in one of their spare rooms. They also let me use one of their phones so I could call the main office and see if somebody there could finally tell me what I was supposed to be doing.

Thankfully they had finally gotten the lodging straightened out – just that morning, in fact – so were able to tell me that they had reserved a room for me over at the Tribal Office Building. Coincidentally just across the street from the school, as luck would have it. It’s a really cool Quonset hut type of building. I hauled my bags over and got set up.

At first look, the room was quite a disappointment. It’s large, but was almost completely empty except for a twin-size bed with no bedding in one corner and a chair in the other corner. I set my laptop up on the chair and set about trying to get settled in. One of the office workers walking by happened to see me sitting on the floor with my computer on the chair and very kindly pushed a spare desk and another chair in here for me. Then he came back later with an actual phone for me, as well as the secret password to log on to their internet.

I’m in business now!

I even managed to locate the two boxes of supplies that had been sent up here ahead of me, only to find t hat they contained not only the binders I expected but also supply kits for two enumerators.

That’s when the meltdown hit. They told me before I left Anchorage that I was not going to be getting any enumerators, so I didn’t bring the necessary tools to train them and get them up and running!

I totally freaked out and had to call the main office in Anchorage where a very nice man calmly talked me back down to sanity and explained that I really was up here on my own and didn’t need to worry about training anybody with no supplies on hand with which to do so.

Who knew being on one’s own would be such a good thing?

After I calmed down from my little episode, I settled in to the binders to get a feel for what my day will be like tomorrow. Perryville is a small place with only 50 some houses, so really it should go quickly. It’s also quite walkable, so as long as the weather holds out I will be hoofing it unless my cultural guide suggests otherwise. They all drive 4-wheelers down here: my brother will surely agree with me that I am not the world’s best driver on 4-wheelers, but if necessary I can get by.

About that time, a lady showed up with not only sheets and blankets for the bed - but towels too! Slowly but surely this room is sprucing right up. It's very comfortable now, and will be the perfect place to spread out and deal with my three binders.

Hiring a cultural guide is the first thing on tomorrow’s agenda. I have a name of a woman who was recommended; we’ll see if she’ll take the job.