Most of the middle school kids made posters and cards for the clinic. Some younger kids worked on posters for the clinic and the police station. Today was the funeral of my co-worker. It was at the Covenant church next door to my home. Everyone dresses pretty casual, in jeans, sweatshirts, maybe qaspeqs. I was the only one in a dress. The funeral was just like any other in the lower forty eight except there were a couple of song verses sung in Yup'ik.
I cried a lot. I hugged a lot of people, even though I am not a hugger. As you go see the casket, you are suppose to go hug or shake the hands of the immediate family up front. I knew four of the family members. Right before the funeral, we found out that another suicide happened overnight. Same age group, same method. The son of a teacher aide. This is the 4th suicide streak my teacher friend has experienced in her 17 years here. I just hope it ends soon. We have tons of people coming to help, and some have been here since Monday. Maybe 5-10 minutes after I left work on Friday, a co-worker hung himself. The ambulance may have been on the way to the call as I was leaving, I am not sure. Everyone tried for 45 minutes to revive him, but they had no luck. He was maybe 23 years old. He was also someone I talked to every day and someone who was a work friend. He was one of the sweetest and gentlest people I have ever met.
Yesterday evening, his girlfriend shot and killed herself. She was even younger than him. They had a one year old daughter together. My friend who was the PA on call had to call two mothers within 48 hours and tell them that their children were dead. 3 suicides in 2 weeks. Everyone is related somehow, so an entire village is in mourning. Two of our health aides were directly related to the victims. Another worker was the best friend of the man who died. I found all of this out when I walked in the front door. Everyone knew about the co-worker but me I think. I do not know why so much tragedy is happening. I am afraid it will keep happening like it did a few years ago. So many people are so lost. A teacher who has been here for 15-17 years said that 45 of her former students have died one way or another. We only have 1200 people. 45 is an insane amount, especially since all of her former students would be under 30. Grief counselors are being flown in for us and the entire community. We are having workers flown in because right now, no health aides or environmental service workers can work because of grief. The PA's had to work, but in general, the clinic is trying to only schedule urgent things this week and keep the schedule light. We had one float health aide who is local help us out today. She also took the emergency call Sunday. I have never known anyone personally who committed suicide. I still feel in shock. Mousefood is a Yup'ik delicacy and people search for it in soft spots on the tundra. Kids get very excited when they find some and bring it by to show us. Mousefood consists of the roots of various tundra plants which are cached by voles in underground burrows. These roots are less than an inch long. They are eaten with seal oil or put in soup, or eaten raw or fried. Elders teach that when collecting mouse food, one should always leave half of the cache for the mouse.
We had the first flood of the year today. Last year there was only a tiny flood, but this year it was bad. All buildings are on stilts so the flooding does not really damage homes. I was a little bit scared though because I have never seen a flood. The wind was 50 knots, it rained all day, then high tide came and everything flooded. First the road to the airport flooded, then the road to the store. School was released an hour and a half early because of the storm. At work, I was watching the ocean come closer and closer to the clinic, but I kept being assured that the road home would be fine. Then the ocean came right across the street, and one of the PA's was telling the manager she needed to release us (the ones who live away from the clinic) so we could get home. This was around the same time they were looking for people to let the clinic use their boats in case of emergency. So my boyfriend came and picked me up and we fled the clinic. We did stop at the Sea Lion )or the little AC store) because the AC was unreachable. I have never seen so many people crammed into that tiny store! It was food stamp day (first of the month) so people wanted their food. We waited in line for maybe 30 minutes. We mainly waited because we actually bought a loveseat there. There is a huge PFD sale going on, because PFD's come out soon. It is being delivered over the weekend. This is the commercial fish building that is across the street from the clinic. Well, across the street and maybe 15 yards down. All the water went away once the tide turned. A third of the airport road washed away, but you can still drive there. The boardwalk by the store is destroyed. No one was hurt, but there were a few stupid people trying to walk through the water.
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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
March 2017
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