Health Fair Adventure- Chengea 2010
Here are the travel tales of 4 castaways during their Chenega Health Fair adventure.
Dale (Vogue meets bush)-district grant evaluator
Michael (Washington D.C. HP. Grant Supervisor--first time in Alaska)
Carol (Chugach HP Grant Director)
Kirsten (Chugach Alutiiq Life Grant Director)
Supporting Cast:
Mark (district/community counselor)
Chris (not seen in photos)-district wide counselor.
John (Lodge owner and boat captain)
Students (so busy cooking and visiting-didn't take pics).
These photos were taken day two-day 4 of our 5 day trip through Prince William Sound (ie: Chenega Bay). Prior to these pictures we had a scary bush plane ride from Anchorage to Tatitlek where we had an eventful day and a half of touring, meeting with community memebers, teaching nutrition lessons, and sleeping in the community center. Our flight from Tat to Chenega, was fairly smooth over the water (the day was nice). Normally we stay in the school but due to the fact that we were trying to give our DC guy (Dr. Michael an Alaska experience he wouldn't forget), we arranged for overnights at the Jumping Salmon Loge (across the bay, boat access only from the village). The first night, the boat ride was a bit cold and damp but not bad. We traveled by an open bow skiff, with captain and lodge owner John at the helm. We had a wonderful night laughing and telling stories by the fire. We learned that you can recrisp year old potato chips by putting them on the fire overnight, that spotting seagulls are exciting to men from D.C., that when a remote lodge owner tells you he put a solar system on his roof, it's not a mobile with planets, and that Michael must be a double agent for Russia as he strangely knew the exact make and model of submarine clock that John had inherited with his lodge (just the fact that he knew it was a submarine clock baffled us all)-infact he knew a lot of odd details about everyone.. Oh, and I also learned that the word "fussen" is still alive and well and didn't just die with my grandmother.
The next morning we woke to a frost, fog, snow covered, and sleeted world, with continued drizzling of rain. I was pretty discouraged by the idea of boating across the bay in such a mess (esp. since none of us brought rain gear), but was cheered with the natural comedy of watching my co workers (Dr. Vogue and Dr. D.C.-as well as Carol) deal with the challenge. (See nasty boating pics for this). We all did survive and made it to the school for a wonderful day of working with the students and a candlelight memorial dedication of the new parent resource center at the community center.
Our second night and boat ride to the lodge was a lot dryer, but still cool. Our community counselor Mark joined us for the evening (being a good friend of John's he was able to take another skiff back to the school later that evening). This evening, being that it was fairly nice outside, I spent getting to know John and hearing the story behind his life and the lodge. We talked about how just life in Alaska challenges you and especially when you try to live remotely. He had a wonderful story and it was great getting a chance to get to know him. He was also interested in life in Savoonga, so that was fun to share as well. After my deck conversation, I headed back in to talk/laugh with the gang until time for bed. As I was sleeping on a couch way to small for me (but close to the fire), I woke up in the middle of the night to see a beautiful starscape and smiled happily knowing that our last morning/day in Chenega would be a sunny one.
The morning was beautiful but clear skies brings cold weather so there was a skim of ice on top of the bay, and our toilet water line had frozen up (no bathroom trips that morning) again discouraging but I found humor in the idea of my co-workers having to use the outhouse just outside the door (which never happened because they all, refused to use it, and held it until we boated over to the village) 'smile". Which must have been a very uncomfortable trip for them in that way. "smile'. I, having lived with nothing but an outhouse for 2 years, had no issues with using the man made toilet, in fact it had one of the best views I've ever seen from one. It was a pleasure. "smile" We had a very nice boat ride over to the village that morning (see sunny pics), cooked a healthy meal for the kids, and then had a beautiful flight back to Anchorage (see picts of plane and bush pilot). As we were leaving the ferry from Whittier/Valdez was pulling in (see big boat pic). It's an event that happens once a month and provides an 1.5 hour opportunity for the community members to come aboard for a hot cooked meal (floating restaurant) while travelers can visit the village. Another one of the photos (from air) shows just how close Chenega is to the Gulf of Alaska (ie: open ocean). Flight pics show, glaciers, the hundreds of mountains that span this region and there is one that shows the town of Whittier (also one of our school sites). You also may see shots with a barge in the background. This is the floating Health Fair barge sponsored by Exxon Valdez Oil Company and takes health providers throughout Prince William Sound to visit remote communities and inspire healthy life practices (physical and emotional). There was no room on the barge for us so we flew to each site, following the health fair through it's journey.
After we arrived back in Anchorage we all got a good nights sleep at our homes (Michael had a nice hotel room/very nice meal he told us later) and drove to Whitter then next morning for a day of visiting and teaching there. The weather was pretty windy, rainy and it actually started snowing again in the afternoon. We were all very happy that we weren't flying this day. In the afternoon, we made the 3:00 tunnel and exhausted from all of our travels, we grabbed a diet coke in Girdwood to toast the end of our week long adventure and bid our good friend Dr. (earned his Alaska stripes) Michael from D.C. a safe journey home.
Dale (Vogue meets bush)-district grant evaluator
Michael (Washington D.C. HP. Grant Supervisor--first time in Alaska)
Carol (Chugach HP Grant Director)
Kirsten (Chugach Alutiiq Life Grant Director)
Supporting Cast:
Mark (district/community counselor)
Chris (not seen in photos)-district wide counselor.
John (Lodge owner and boat captain)
Students (so busy cooking and visiting-didn't take pics).
These photos were taken day two-day 4 of our 5 day trip through Prince William Sound (ie: Chenega Bay). Prior to these pictures we had a scary bush plane ride from Anchorage to Tatitlek where we had an eventful day and a half of touring, meeting with community memebers, teaching nutrition lessons, and sleeping in the community center. Our flight from Tat to Chenega, was fairly smooth over the water (the day was nice). Normally we stay in the school but due to the fact that we were trying to give our DC guy (Dr. Michael an Alaska experience he wouldn't forget), we arranged for overnights at the Jumping Salmon Loge (across the bay, boat access only from the village). The first night, the boat ride was a bit cold and damp but not bad. We traveled by an open bow skiff, with captain and lodge owner John at the helm. We had a wonderful night laughing and telling stories by the fire. We learned that you can recrisp year old potato chips by putting them on the fire overnight, that spotting seagulls are exciting to men from D.C., that when a remote lodge owner tells you he put a solar system on his roof, it's not a mobile with planets, and that Michael must be a double agent for Russia as he strangely knew the exact make and model of submarine clock that John had inherited with his lodge (just the fact that he knew it was a submarine clock baffled us all)-infact he knew a lot of odd details about everyone.. Oh, and I also learned that the word "fussen" is still alive and well and didn't just die with my grandmother.
The next morning we woke to a frost, fog, snow covered, and sleeted world, with continued drizzling of rain. I was pretty discouraged by the idea of boating across the bay in such a mess (esp. since none of us brought rain gear), but was cheered with the natural comedy of watching my co workers (Dr. Vogue and Dr. D.C.-as well as Carol) deal with the challenge. (See nasty boating pics for this). We all did survive and made it to the school for a wonderful day of working with the students and a candlelight memorial dedication of the new parent resource center at the community center.
Our second night and boat ride to the lodge was a lot dryer, but still cool. Our community counselor Mark joined us for the evening (being a good friend of John's he was able to take another skiff back to the school later that evening). This evening, being that it was fairly nice outside, I spent getting to know John and hearing the story behind his life and the lodge. We talked about how just life in Alaska challenges you and especially when you try to live remotely. He had a wonderful story and it was great getting a chance to get to know him. He was also interested in life in Savoonga, so that was fun to share as well. After my deck conversation, I headed back in to talk/laugh with the gang until time for bed. As I was sleeping on a couch way to small for me (but close to the fire), I woke up in the middle of the night to see a beautiful starscape and smiled happily knowing that our last morning/day in Chenega would be a sunny one.
The morning was beautiful but clear skies brings cold weather so there was a skim of ice on top of the bay, and our toilet water line had frozen up (no bathroom trips that morning) again discouraging but I found humor in the idea of my co-workers having to use the outhouse just outside the door (which never happened because they all, refused to use it, and held it until we boated over to the village) 'smile". Which must have been a very uncomfortable trip for them in that way. "smile'. I, having lived with nothing but an outhouse for 2 years, had no issues with using the man made toilet, in fact it had one of the best views I've ever seen from one. It was a pleasure. "smile" We had a very nice boat ride over to the village that morning (see sunny pics), cooked a healthy meal for the kids, and then had a beautiful flight back to Anchorage (see picts of plane and bush pilot). As we were leaving the ferry from Whittier/Valdez was pulling in (see big boat pic). It's an event that happens once a month and provides an 1.5 hour opportunity for the community members to come aboard for a hot cooked meal (floating restaurant) while travelers can visit the village. Another one of the photos (from air) shows just how close Chenega is to the Gulf of Alaska (ie: open ocean). Flight pics show, glaciers, the hundreds of mountains that span this region and there is one that shows the town of Whittier (also one of our school sites). You also may see shots with a barge in the background. This is the floating Health Fair barge sponsored by Exxon Valdez Oil Company and takes health providers throughout Prince William Sound to visit remote communities and inspire healthy life practices (physical and emotional). There was no room on the barge for us so we flew to each site, following the health fair through it's journey.
After we arrived back in Anchorage we all got a good nights sleep at our homes (Michael had a nice hotel room/very nice meal he told us later) and drove to Whitter then next morning for a day of visiting and teaching there. The weather was pretty windy, rainy and it actually started snowing again in the afternoon. We were all very happy that we weren't flying this day. In the afternoon, we made the 3:00 tunnel and exhausted from all of our travels, we grabbed a diet coke in Girdwood to toast the end of our week long adventure and bid our good friend Dr. (earned his Alaska stripes) Michael from D.C. a safe journey home.
posted by Kirsten | 6:50 PM
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