An elder fainted during bingo. I guess she is like the grandmother of the village. She is related to just about everybody in some way. Literally. So almost everyone who works at the clinic was there after hour staking care of her. You have front staff taking her temperature, all the health aides doing labs and other things. The maintenance guy was there helping. All sorts of village people were in the clinic very concerned that maybe it was her heart. She was okay in the end. I had no idea of any of this until the next day when I noticed that people on PTO were running labs during the evening. I think if we had a CB radio, I may have known something was up, but we are out of the loop here on the other side of the village.
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I had given up on fishing for salmon because we had no idea what to do with the net I borrowed, and did not have an anchor or long poles. Then a teacher's cousin decided to let a group of us use his 300 foot salmon net, as long as we checked the net for fish. I think the cousin is out of town. So after midnight, a group of us went to the beach to set the net. We had the teacher and his cousin, a 9 year old girl, my boyfriend and I, and another teacher. We drove Honda's in pure darkness across the beach and across low tide. A couple of the guys waded into the water with the anchor to get the net set up. One fish swam into the net immediately. No one had a bucket so this poor fish was bungee corded to the front of a Honda. We all went back to the beach the next afternoon to check the net. There were tons of fish! We had silver salmon and a couple king salmon, some humpies (which are inedible right now so they are being dissected at school), and some mystery salmon. My boyfriend went into the water to help the guys pull salmon from the net. I was suppose to be the one doing it, but my boots did not want to cooperate with my waders, so he went for me. I am kind of glad, because there were lots of jelly fish and I had no idea that salmon bite. Hard. Yikes! I just looked for clams on the beach and cleaned the salmon after we divided them up.
We chose the best salmon and brought it to an elder as a gift. They were so happy! That is a Yup'ik tradition; giving the best to elders. We are still getting random salmon, but there are only 2 a day or so in the net. The teacher checks the net and brings by a fish when it is our turn for a fish. This week has been mentally rough on me at the clinic. So much sadness.
A pregnant girl forced to sleep on the floor because others took her bed. And she appears to be losing weight and be malnourished since the first times I met her. Had to do a last minute DUI blood draw for the police. DUI on an ATV since there are only 6 trucks in the village. The officers had no idea about what was needed for it. We had no idea what was needed on our end. So I drew blood into some giant tubes they had in a kit, all while they watched. It was messy since you cannot clean with alcohol and our only other option is iodine. But it was sad because I knew the guy and while he was not really a friend, he was someone I had started to get to know over the summer. That was until he started acting like he had a crush on me or something and started coming by often, offering to take out my trash or take me to the store or give me rides home or bring me berries, etc. All which were declined of course. This is just an example of a big issue in the village and probably other villages. There are a large percentage of men age 20-30 or so who are just constantly in trouble. There are no jobs for these guys really because there are so few jobs in the village. And while most still go to berry camp and help out their grandparents, they spend most of their time drinking and doing stupid things or even criminal things. They never get out or go to college or do anything to better themselves. They just drink and make babies. I also had to draw blood on an unconscious 19 year old. It was really awkward and sad, because she was unconscious for hours and we have no idea why. Well, someone probably knows now, but there were no witnesses so unsure if it was a suicide attempt or what. But poking someone with a needle and they just do not respond.. it is tough. I hope she is okay. So emotionally it has been a tad tough. My boyfriend came back last weekend! Hooray!!!
I am going to St Mary's August 23-29. It is funny because neither my lab manager or I knew I was going until Thursday! I said months ago I could cover if needed, but then I heard nothing and I actually thought the lab tech from Emmonuk was going. Then one of the big bosses sent an email conforming the trip! So cool for me. I am gathering as much flying segments as possible to help pay for my vacation travels from here to Anchorage. I was talking to an elder the other day as she was impressed because I knew about the medicinal properties of tundra tea. I knew what it is used for traditionally. So we had a nice chat about plants. We are looking at going to Cozamel for Christmas, stopping in Colorado either before or after the trip.
Because there are so many salmonberries this year, they are predicting a harsh winter (or more like a traditional winter). However they predicted a harsh winter last year and we barely had snow until April.
Today was a rough day at the clinic. One elder broke her hip. One teen broke his femur. Both had to be airlifted to Anchorage (500 miles away). The provider managed to rig a device for the broken femur since we did not have something for femurs to put the femur back together. But he succeeded and diminished the pain greatly before the medevac arrived. Of course my day was slow because they ran no labs and I was not considered "muscle" for lifting patients around. And (thankfully) I was not needed for ambulance clean-up or other gross things. So i just did my survey prep since I was not needed today other then as a sounding board. Also - teachers are starting to arrive. Lots of strangers afoot. This is how I freeze berries. A single layer on a baking sheet. The salmonberries are spaced so far apart because when they are naturally ripe, they get juicy and end up sticking together in the freezer. Current berry inventory plus a bag of salmonberry juice. Maybe I will use it for jelly or something. I made salmonberry jam the other night as a test run. It turned out well and I eat it every day on my lunch sandwiches. Yummy! I am actually surprised because very few of the natives know how to make jam. They all love it, but do not know how. Weird. And it is weird because one of the Yup'ik Facebook pages I follow was talking about jam and had the Yup'ik word for salmonberry jam as an image. Must be a location thing. This is Akutaq from our pot luck last week. Just salmonberries, sugar, and Crisco. I guess in Hooper Bay, using fish in akutaq is not as popular as other neighboring villages. But some kids who came over last week told me they like to add mashed potatoes to theirs. Ummm. Unsure what to think. I am not as adventurous as I would like to be. I cannot get myself to try akutaq, even without the fish added. I just see the Crisco and cannot do it. The natives usually just laugh. Thankfully at least one of the PA's has openly stated that he has no taste for it either, and the other male PA is too much of a health nut to ever eat Crisco.
This is our gas station. I finally had to go get gas for the Honda. Normally my boyfriend does this, but I was getting near empty. I believe the gas tank is 2 gallons. Even with me driving it every day, the gas we put in before vacation has lasted all of July. Very cool. But I have not driven to the end of the beach or anything. People fill up gas cans when they go on long journeys. We have pre-paid fuel cards, but somehow you can p[ay with cash. There is a creepy old building behind the pump with the company's name on it, but I have never seen a person inside. Hopefully I never have to find out! Various teachers have given us their cards before moving away, so we are set for awhile! As you can see, you can also get stove oil here!! Thankfully, we have no use for that.
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AuthorI am a Colorado native who moved to Alaska for love and adventure. This journal is going to track my journey. Archives
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