A Different Look

A lot has changed in Bethel and in my personal life since my last blog post. Winter has fast arrived and the roar of boat engines has quickly given way to the shriek of snow machine motors flying across the icy tundra. This past week marked our first rise in temperature above 32 degrees in literally the past month. However much those “warmer” temperatures might sound inviting, it has produced absolute havoc on Bethel transportation with the ice build up we have witnessed following the past two rain showers. Bethel roads currently look more like the typical scene you witness out of a hockey movie when two hockey coaches shuffle across the ice to exchange handshakes after the match. I wish I could say that the ice would make my commute to and from work quicker, but in all reality, it’s much slower. I do however provide local Alaskans a few good chuckles as they watch me slip and fall repeatedly on my tactical route across the banked street.

Bethel is without question a winter city. Everything seems to fall into place and simply function better with a few inches of ice and snow covering the landscape. Within a matter of days after our first deep freeze, the river begins to freeze, the tundra becomes navigable and people trade in their cash for clunker cars for this year’s newest Polaris snow machine financed with their families Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) checks. It takes some time until the river is iced up enough and completely navigable, but there are always a few brave soles determined to be the first conquistadors to make their way up river. Some make it happy of heir success while others stare down into the river with a cold, wet, disgruntled look on their face into an icy hole about the size of a snow machine. You live and you learn… sometimes. I however will not be leaving my fate to early season conditions and have vowed to wait until I see cars on the river before making the slip fate.

In regards to my personal life, I will no longer be a part of JVC, but will continue my work at Bethel Community Services Foundation in hopes of completing our savings and financial education program. The transition from JVC life to regular old Bethel life is an ongoing transition and I am still in the process of figuring out all the details, but remain committed and optimistic about the upcoming year. The departure from JVC has been a tough transition both emotionally and logistically, but glad I embarked on the adventure none the less and will continue to be in close contact with all my housemates. The experience, although tough at times, is one that I think everyone can benefit from. It was without question the first time in my life I have entered into a living situation with six strangers and shared some of the more intimate details of my life. While we had our share of conflicts, we also had our share of laughs and fun adventures. Living in community is one of the more difficult things I have done, but also one of the greatest tools I have found for finding my own strengths and weaknesses and will carry this self-discovery with me regardless of what roof is over my head.

While being a nomad for the past week has been a challenge at times, I do have to admit that it makes for great blog material. As of Monday, my new “posh” residence is the upstairs cubbyhole in the Yute Airlines pilot housing complex. When I say “complex”, I am referring to a sketchy looking blue apartment duplex shared between the pilots and mechanics at Yute air. Tony (one of my boss Jerry’s friends) who is the owner of the duplex and station manager for Yute Air, has been kind enough to let me live here awhile free under the conditions I will help out a bit with miscellaneous items around the duplex. My first task was to fix the plumbing in the house so the water, and more importantly the toilet, would be operational again. Given that I have no past experience with plumbing or handy man work for that matter, I said of course. Needless to say, my business skill set proved absolutely useless and Tony ended up fixing the plumbing. Looking back I probably should have come clean with Tony at the beginning and told him I know nothing about plumbing, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that. ***Note to self…when someone ask you if you know how to fix the plumbing, say no and mention that you’re a finance major and that wasn’t covered in your core curriculum.

In regards to my new roommates, I live with three other guys; two of which I have met so far. Jared, a mid aged twenty-year-old former Texan resident, fly's a seat single engine prop plane out to the surrounding villages. Jared’s advice to me: “be careful about who you let drive you around in a snow machine. There’s a reason that the average women has six kids and the population isn’t growing.” Thanks Jared! Jared has offered to fly me around one of these days and do some “fun stuff” in his plane. When I asked what “fun stuff” is, he said flying really low and “stuff” like that. Terri is my other roommate. Terri is a quiet, disgruntled, ex hippy, Vietnam Vet who is a man of few words. The other night when I asked Terri if he would like some pasta if I made it, Terri replied, “I cook my own food.” Easy enough, so do I. Overall though, I can’t complain at all. It’s a free place to stay, offers companionship, has cable TV and should be relatively easy to clean up my 8x4 room when all is said and done.

As of now I am planning on staying in the Yute pilot housing for the next several weeks until I return back to Colorado for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was originally scheduled to come home the 15^th of December, but decided to bump up my ticket in order to cover all the major holidays. When I gave the news to the girlfriend about possibly coming down to Omaha over Turkey day for the Missouri Valley Volleyball Tournament, I had one happy camper. As is stands right now, my plan is to return to Bethel on the 9^th of January when my semi permanent lodging will be available. I am in the process of working out a deal with my boss’s daughter to stay in an extra bedroom in her place for the remainder of my Bethel year. She is currently a city police officer, but looking to become an Alaskan State Trooper in the next few months. At least I know I will be safe! In regards to work, everything is going decent. Our program is off the ground and running, but my biggest challenge is still getting people to show up when they say they will. Scheduling here is all relative. There are some preliminary plans in the making, but I am hoping to score a teaching job at the high school here in Bethel as well. Most likely it would be in the form of substitute teaching as I have offered to teach courses in business and polotics. Here's my chance to convert a few!

Besides the change in temperature and location, the past month has been a great month. A few weeks back I had the opportunity to fly down to Anchorage early before our JVC fall retreat and do a little exploring on my own. The trip started out great as all my flights were on time and upon arrival into Ted Stephens International Airport I was greeted with a 2010 Dodge Ram rental car for the same price as my previously booked Chevy compact car. Deciding to make the most of my time, I drove South down the Seward Highway towards Seward. Several hours and a few sightseeing pit stops later, I arrived in Seward to find quite possibly one of the most beautiful quaint small towns I have ever seen.

Upon arrival in Seward, I made a quick stop through the visitors’ bureau to finalize my hiking plans. Twenty minutes later, I was making my way up “Exit Glacier” on what was undoubtedly one of the better glacier hikes I have experienced. Shedding clothes quickly, I made my way up the five mile trail to the top of the glacier in hopes of completing my hike before dark. Upon arrival at the top, I was greeted by several furry mountain goats lounging around in hopes of getting their daily allotment of vitamin D. The temperature difference between the bottom and the top was mind boggling, but to be expected in late October. Overall, it was a great trip to Seward. I had a chance to partake in some awesome hiking, car camp on the beach, experience the Seward nightlife with some friendly locals and drive on one of the most famous and epic highways in the country. Job well done!

Puppie Love

With Fall in full swing and Winter fast approaching, an enthusiastic extra spring in their hop is very apparent. While pet owners back in the lower 48 begin the seasonal preparations for the cold and double check the size of fee fee's winter sweater and snow booties, Alaskan dog owners are tuning up the racing sleds and perfecting their mixture of salmon and kibbles and bits. That's right, it's time once again to start the preparations for the Winter dog mushing season. What I once considered to be good material for Disney Movie's, Paul Walker film's and children bedtime stories is now my Bethel reality and livelihood. Over the past few weeks we have had a unique chance to help out with several dog teams in Bethel. In whole, there are about three main dog teams in Bethel: The Kaiser's, Klejka's and Anksman's. Between these three, they account for about 50-70 dogs. This weekend, I am taking care of 30 of those dogs and 4 puppies at the "Friendly Dog Farm." Thirty four dogs...not bad for a weekends work. I will be the first to admit, this is pretty awesome work (or a nightmare if you despise dogs) and without question is a complete 180 from ordinary city life. The whole ordeal is quite amusing and it makes it even better when I try to imagine how raising thirty four dogs would fair in my preppy hometown city of Greenwood Village, CO. My guess, it would not even last a day living next to our friendly neighbor Tom. Considering Tom calls the police on the two barking dogs next door, I can only presume that more drastic measures would have to be taken such as calling the Denver SWAT team to neutralize the threat. "...roger that, we have a code red K-9 alert!"

Responsibility is the name of the game with these dogs in the eyes of Cassie their trainer. Cassie, a Bethel resident and avid dog musher, works three jobs in order to create the flexibility to spend countless hours feeding and running the dogs. It was an awesome experience a few weeks back when a few of my roommates and I had a chance to help Cassie run the dogs. By far the most comical element of the setup process occurs when we pick the dogs up by the collars, kind of like you're trying to strangle them, and they hop like rabbits over to the six wheeler where they get hooked up to the lines. Due to passenger constraint limits on the ATV I had to sit out the first run, but was shocked by the look of the dogs upon their return as they were covered in mud and foaming at the mouth. It literally looked like they took them behind the shed and beat em with a stick. One of the main reason for the fatigue is due in part to warm temperatures as Alaskan Huskies function best right around zero degrees.

Before leaving town yesterday for a K-300 meeting (the major dog sled race in Bethel), Cassie had mentioned she was going to leave a few dog directions in case of emergency or lapse of memory on the JV's end. Little did we know that she would have a whole sheet (single spaced typed) laminated for our convenience. Thanks! Directions include:

1. Let buster, her personal house dog (because she doesn't have enough) out of the house, chain him up and give him a few handful of kibbles with water mixed in.
2. Mix 2/3 bucket of kibbles among 3 buckets, mix with warm water, mix some liquid fat (from a restaurants grill) in with the food, add one whole scoop of salmon to each of the three buckets, mix up all three buckets contents and bon appetit...
3. Give mother dog (with four very cute puppies) 1/2 cup of kibbles with piece of salmon on top.
4. Scoop poop (meaning throw poop into bushes and neighbors yard)
5. Check stitches of four female dogs who were spayed
6. Give Rudy his antibiotic: you will have to open his mouth, push the pill down his throat and make sure he swallows (very fun f.y.i.)
   
7. Make sure walk in freezer is between 0-10 degrees F (which we determined is full of hundreds of frozen salmon used to make the dogs stew)
   
8. Put Buster back in house and turn off freezer.

Nice, all of a sudden I am a freezer technician, veterinarian and gourmet chef. Sounds like something for Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs. My only question is, do you think I should put some of this stuff on my resume?

If there is one thing I have learned about Bethel thus far, it's that valuing the little things is what makes this place unique and is what gets you through the days. Unlike a big city, or even a relatively small city, Bethel has fewer things to do than I'm accustomed to. The first month or so was relatively tough and I constantly found myself looking ahead to what I was going to do next. Well, like anything the person adapts to their surroundings and makes the best out of every situation given enough time and the right support. Now instead of looking ahead I find myself much more content and cherishing the little things that make Bethel a diamond in the tundra. Take for instance this past Friday. I was driving my 1990 Toyota all-trac sports car back to the house after taking care of the sled dogs when a major traffic jam caught my attention. "What in God's name could be causing such a scene in Bethel" I thought. It either has to be Sarah Palin walking down the street or someone from Obama's cabinet coming into town to tout their new Golden Globe Award. Well...I was wrong with both. Turns out a pair of two baby moose and their mother were taking a Friday night stroll through Bethel. You would think Alaskans would not get this excited over a couple moose, but it looked like something out of a Denali National Park tourist commercial. Unlike the Japanese tourist and their fancy thousand dollar Nikon cameras, Bethel residents rushed to the scene, cell phones in hand, and shot away with their cell phone cameras still excited that Bethel now has cell reception. Seeing the moose was cool and indeed a tribute to the five year moose moratorium, but my highlight was not so much the moose as it was watching people abandon their running vehicles in the middle of the road. T.I.B.

Life is good on my end. I have a lot to look forward to in the next several weeks between my trip to Anchorage where I will be touring around pre JVC retreat, continuing my financial education classes and best of all getting my big cast off my left arm this Wednesday. I haven't quite decided what the first thing I will do with my left arm is yet, but regardless it will feel great to have more mobility in my life. Having one arm was definitely a challenge, but again I realized how amazing the body is to adapting to the circumstances it is placed under. Throughout my six week escapades as a one arm gimp I even managed to impress several fellow Saturday afternoon football players during our weekly football showdown with my one arm receptions and even several interceptions. Football season will most likely continue for another couple weeks until the weather turns cold and the focus shifts to broom ball. Note***there are no live stats or audio for Bethel intramural sports.
It is quite amazing to witness the fast changes in the days up here in the "North Pole" as my sister would call it. Between the time we arrived in mid August to now, Oct 10th, the days are much shorter and the temperatures are fading quickly. The most noticeable change is the sunrise which now does not grace our presence till after 9:00 a.m. Don't tell my mom, but I have yet to use sun screen yet in AK and don't see any changes in the near future mostly because it ALWAYS RAINS. In more exciting news, the last barge came into Bethel a few weeks back to drop of last minute supplies and provisions for the upcoming winter. Most residents have numerous supplies, cars and toilet paper on the barge due to the reduced price of not buying local. Watching the barge dock is widely considered to be immense Friday afternoon fun and is good for at least two hours off a work day. I don't even think you need to take vacation time, it just seems like it's built into most contracts here that "barge watching" is considered work. Until Next time enjoy and thanks again for all the support back home, cards and care packages.

Woof woof,

John

"T.I.B"

The great Leonardo Dicaprio once stated in one of his better flicks Blood Diamond "T.I.A." meaning this is Africa. Here in Bethel at the friendly confines of our permanently under construction house we have created our own version of the phrase which states "This is Bethel." T.I.B can be used for a wide variety of things that describe Bethel in some shape or manor. For example, imagine that your supper stoked because your mom just sent you a bunch of Subway gift cards to supplement the shitty diet...I mean simple diet we partake in every day and that your so relieved to be eating some good food only to find out that the Subway does not take Subway gift cards. I know right...you would think that a company would take their own company's gift card, but obviously it's more complicated than one might think. So keep imagining that your trying to explain to the cashier that the only reason that your at Subway is because you have a gift card and how you feel like you shouldn't have to pay for for your meal because no where does it say that this particular Subway does not accept gift cards, only to have the cashier tell you that he's just an employee and that he doesn't know but to talk to the manager who will be back in a little over a week. So instead of getting mad at the situation you simply mumble to yourself "T.I.B" as you pull out your credit card and pay for your $12 sub and everything seems better. It's a great trick to pull on yourself, but I recommend keeping the T.I.B.'S to under five per day.

Another example of when to use the phrase "T.I.B." occurred this past week when I was walking back to work after another one of my no show meetings (like 50% of all meetings). As I walked across the swamp/tundra on the elevated 15 foot board walk, I paused for a second to zip up the remaining half of my rain coat as a small day long rain storm passed, and managed to fumble my leather Creighton organizer with half my life in there only to watch it fall in slow motion down 15 feet through the cracks in the board walk and into the deep wet part of the swamp. As I sarcastically laugh to myself I realize that I had to go retrieve it, as it contains all the paperwork and savings registers for the newly opened savings accounts I just recently opened. I wish I had a picture to better describe the retrieval, but let me assure you it was quite the site to see a young preppy JV waiting through the waist deep mucky freezing swamp water in search of his prized leather organizer. The retrieval was a success though and as I regained my composure and made the wet smelly walk back to our house as the water seeped out of the cracks in my shoes I smiled to myself and said, "T.I.B. baby...T.I.B."

While there are plenty of T.I.B. moments to write and laugh about, there are other aspects of Bethel that are equally unique and add to the Alaska mystique . This past Labor day weekend we were fortunate enough to take a short day trip along the Kuskokuim river to explore Bethel's wild side thanks to our friend, neighbor and captain Dr. Joe Klejka. As we made our way up the wide and shallow river it dawned on me just how important this river is the the Yupik's way of life. Throughout our hour long journey up river in search of an abandoned Moravian boarding school we passed numerous residents fish camps in full use over the long weekend as residents made one last salmon push before winter hits. Along our journey we also encountered numerous moose hunters searching for the great Alaskan prize of a big piece of meet. Moose hunting is a very big deal in Alaska and especially this year in the Yukon Delta as Bethel and the surrounding villages just lifted a five year moose moratorium. As it stands currently Alaska fish and game has issued 175 moose permits, but in all reality the number of moose taken out of the delta will far surpass this limit, as many Bethel residents and villagers will shoot first and ask questions later.

Several weeks ago we had the opportunity to have dinner with an officer of the Alaskan State Troopers Wildlife division and here several of his many stories relating to illegal wildlife poaching. My hands down favorite story of the night was his description of their sting operation set up about a year back to catch illegal moose hunters. One of the fish and game rules in Alaska is that it's illegal to shoot a moose out of a boat. So, in hopes of catching some illegal moose hunters, the Alaska Fish and Game set up a rubber moose on the shoreline posed in a grazing position. Within two minutes of the set up, shots were being fired at this rubber moose from a boat down river. The plan backfired however as the troopers had hopes to catch some rich white hunters from the lower 49, but in turn got a pair of local Yupik hunters. Woops...

As far as my work and personal life are concerned, everything is pretty good as a whole. As you might have caught on from my discussion earlier about the swamp, I have a big ole' cast on my arm thanks to a frisbee fall around a month ago. Turns out I have a small fracture in my scaphoid bone in my wrist. While it is not necessarily painful or even that annoying the scaphoid bone is relatively important in the long run and needs to be healed properly to regain full strength and range of motion in the hand. As it stands right now, I have a little over two months left in the cast before my release back into the wild. While annoying and very itchy, it does have some perks such as fewer household chores and plenty of TLC from the roommates although I think both might be wearing thin...? Work is good but a little slow at times. A good part of my day is spent keeping up with the daily news, weather and sports; but if there is one thing my boss has taught me so far, is that it's important to stay well versed in the matters of the world. My technical job is to teach banking/finances classes as part of a savings matching and financial education program. So far we have three people enrolled in the program and have started up with the classes and are looking for another 6-7 participants. They seem to put up with me and not mind the classes, and as a whole I keep their attention fairly well until we hit interest rates. Then it's like...who cares. Another interesting aspect of my job has been seeing how the whole government grant process works. My boss Jerry is the Bethel grant master from what I have witnessed and heard from other folks around Bethel.

Well, until next time I hope you enjoy. In the words of Bill and Ted from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures; "be excellent!"

Two weeks in....and more Salmon

Two weeks in and life in Bethel Alaska keeps trucking on. It feels kind of nice not to be the completely new kid in town and the perks of living in such a small town is that you can really get the lay of the land fast. When we first arrived, our initial greeting crew at the airport us to cherish the few "unknown" days of Bethel because they would be few and far between. I now know what they are saying and appreciate their advice. As a whole though, life has been good and am enjoying settling into my job here at Bethel Community Services Foundation.

Bethel Community Services Foundation or (BCSF) is primarily a philanthropic trust fund set up about 4-5 years ago here in Bethel to serve various aspects of the Bethel community and neighboring Alaskan Native villages. Together with my boss, Jerry Drake, the two of us head up BCSF along with a board of directors and gaming managers (aka Bingo directors). My primary role here at BCSF is to assist in the Savings and Financial Education Program or SAFE as we like to refer to it. The basic premises of the program is to assist various individuals with the accumulation of wealth, whether that be the purchase of a car, snow machine (snow mobile), first home, apartment rent, or basic business tools that will hopefully help these individuals towards the highly sought after road to financial freedom. Week one was a bit slow, but have managed to get into the swing of the Bethel community through various fundraisers, chamber of commerce meetings, and board of directors meetings. Several of my room mates are rather jealous of all the perks of my job specifically referring to my weekly lunch with Jerry at the Bethel Chamber of Commerce meetings. Never in my life would I have expected that I would be so excited to go out to lunch, but given the circumstances and the simplicity of our average community meals here in Bethel, it was a very nice treat to say the least as I enjoyed my $18 dollar hamburger, $3 iced tea and previously frozen fries. Ahhh...just like Chipotle!

Jerry is a nice guy to work with and keeps me on my toes with his witty comments and colored commentary. He's a perfect example of the Jack of all trades. Throughout his career here in Alaska, Jerry has worked as a commercial airlines pilot, mechanic, accountant and now Executive Director of BCSF. Besides "free lunch Wednesday" there are several other perks here at BCSF such as free MAXIM magazines since his son's wife no longer lets them into the house. Hey, don't blame me....I just work here and would not want to offend Jerry's generous gifts.

Life in community is different but good. It's a little more touchy feely than I am used to but will undoubtedly be a good growing experience for me. Everything in the house seems to be grounds for a discussion. "What kind of peanut butter should we buy, chunky or creamy? I don't know, better have a community meeting." I suppose that's what living in community is all about, but it's definitely a huge change from living with my previous roommate James at Creighton where the most important conversation we would partake in was what type and how much beer to buy.

There are always lots of surprises living in Bethel. Take for instance the common courtesy that most of us have to knock or ring the doorbell before entering someones house. Those rules don't apply here in Bethel. At all! When someone wants to get a hold of you they simply come into your home and start yelling "hello." It's taken some getting used to, but definitely ads to the whole community experience when you never know who's coming on or what they are bringing. Take for instance this past Tuesday. It was about 10:45 p.m., the majority of us were either asleep or reading a juicy romance novel, when in bust our next door neighbor Wilson. Yes, like the show Home Improvement. With him, Wilson had a freshly caught silver salmon in a black trash bag and was wanting to know if we wanted it. Sure we said, but how do we clean it and fillet it? Sure enough, Wilson came prepared with a local butchering tool and twenty minutes later we had a nice fish head (which apparently goes great with soup) and two nicely cut fillets of silver salmon.

With that, I will leave you dreaming about fish head soup and Maxim magazines. Next time on JVC Bethel Adventures.....salmon slop, animal fat and poop as I indulge on our adventures of taking care of 30 Alaskan Huskie sled dogs.

Welcome to Bethel

For those of you who might not know, I am doing a year of service up in Bethel, Alaska with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. My exact title/job is not quite known yet, but in short I will be working for a non-profit (Bethel Community Services) in the micro-finance/philanthropy sector. Bethel is a nice quaint town located about 400 miles West of Anchorage with a population of just around 6,000. Bethel's demographics are about 70% native, with the other 30% being people from all over the world who think it's fun to live in middle of no where.

We stated our journey in Portland, Oregon at Camp Adams where all 122 Jesuit Volunteer's (JV's) from the northwest met for orientation and training. To my surprise Camp Adams was not quite as much of a bible camp as I thought it was going to be, although I definitely would consider myself in the minority since I am a non-vegan, SUV driving, son of an oil barren, republican and don't regularly save our households rain water to help flush the toilet; but other than that I fit right in. As a whole everyone at orientation was a very nice and unique person who shared a common passion of wanting to do some good in the world. Orientation was a definite tribute to the Jesuits as roughly 70-80% of all volunteers attended some sort of Jesuit high school or University. One of the highlights of orientation for most of us, but especially the ladies (like 70% of all JV's) was Fr. Grubb. Who said Jesuit Priest are square...? Fr. Grubb is the Dane Cook of priest with his rugged looks, funny stories and quick Wit. It was a nice change up to have some good laughs and a youthful message after four days of talks. As a whole Orientation was a great place to get to know the roommates and work out the basic house arrangements before heading up to Bethel. We ended orientation with a fantastic dinner and mass with numerous other former JV's and supporters.

On Saturday August 8th, the seven of us departed for Bethel with ALL OF OUR STUFF in anticipation of what lie ahead it the last frontier. Our travel was plagued with delays and broken planes as all three of our flights had some sort of technical difficulty, but in hindsight it was nice to have that one extra cold beer at the Anchorage Chilli's before heading out. Upon arrival in Bethel we were surprised by over a dozen former JV's, eager neighbors, bosses and supportive community members as they ushered us and our bags away in style on a scenic tour of town on the one paved road.

Bethel is a simple yet nice place. From the outside it's not much to look at and has very little shot at winning any top prizes in the parade of homes, but from our five short days here we can already tell that the community is what makes this place tick. In our five days here we have only had to prepare one meal. Talk about service! Without question one of the common community builders in Bethel is potlucks. On Sunday (not even 24 hours into our adventure) we were informed that our JV house was hosting a community potluck. We had very little to offer besides plates and expired salad dressings, but our neighbors, friends and community came through with a grand slam. No where in my life have I seen so many different types and flavors of Salmon. Here in Bethel one of the common catch phrases we hear a lot about is subsistence living, meaning to live off the land; but for now I might leave that topic for a different day and blog.

It seems like summer flew by so quick and it was just yesterday that I was teaching tennis and playing golf at the Pinery Country club, but I suppose it's time to trade in those tennis shoes for a pair of mud boots and that ball cap for a wool hat. Bethel seems like a great little town and in my few short days am beginning to see why so many former JV's continue to stay and make this Tundra there home. I am hoping to get some pictures up at some point of the town, our house, etc...but am having some problems with the website. If and when I do I will be sure to post some cool pics. Until then adios.

Toodles,

John