Emmonak, part 2

So, I'm back in Emmonak, but not by choice. We spent a few days in the village of Alakanuk. The weather forecast didn't look too promising while we were there, so we decided to leave while we had the chance. While in Alakanuk, we set up clinic in the tribal council building. They gave us an old office to use to set up clinic and to sleep in. It was completely full of junk, which we had to clean out and move around just to have enough space to set up. That's also where we had to sleep. No beds, no pads, nothing! Just a nice hard floor to lay on. They did have a bathroom with warm water, but no shower. They had community meetings all day in the main recreation room, and at night they had half the village practicing the tribal dance for an upcoming competition. They practiced every night for about 3 hours. And they weren't very quiet either.

When we were ready to leave and went to check out, you'll never guess what they charged us for these luxuryaccommodations-- $180.00 per night. Yes, that was not a typo--$180 per night!! Never mind the fact that we are bringing a service to their village, and sleeping on the floor. I wasn't too happy about it, either.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the only way to leave the village was on a snow machine (snow mobile)--no planes were coming in because of the weather. The closest (biggest) place to go was back to Emmonak. So we hired a man to take us and our gear back to Emmonak. Since there is only enough room on the back of the snow machine for one passenger (and there are 2 of us), I had to travel in the sled that was pulling our gear. Talk about a crazy trip. I was wrapped up as much as I could possibly be. And between the exhaust from the snow machine and the ice crystals that it was shooting at me like b.bs, it wasn't a very enjoyable trip. Not to mention that the sled I was sitting on was home made, made out of wood, and VERY bumpy. Single digit temperatures didn't help either. Fortunately, it was only about 30 minutes of torture! :) But hey, it's all a part of the experience, right? Sometimes I wonder what on earth I am doing up here!

My "first class" seat