Berry Bliss

Last night we had a brand new kind of tundra adventure: berry picking! We knew ‘twas the season when our patients’ injuries suddenly shifted from fish cutting accidents to sore knees/backs (from bending down to collect tundra berries). After hearing all their bragging stories about the gallons upon gallons of berries they’d acquired, we decided to venture out and see what all the hype was about.

The sun was hot this afternoon, so we waited till later in the evening to trek out to the tundra. No more than 15 minutes into our walk, Brandon stumbled upon a blueberry treasure trove. I swear that man has eyes like a hawk because they were definitely not easy to spot. They grew on the underside of small bushes that blended in quite nicely with all the other tundra vegetation. Here is my artistic rendering:

Both of us began collecting feverishly. Brandon even got so excited that he forgot he was holding a bucket full of berries....and returned them to their home on the tundra floor (:

We picked and picked and picked to our heart’s delight. 

But I still wasn’t satisfied. What I really wanted to lay my hands on were some of those infamous salmonberries that all our patients rave about. So I left the blueberry hotspot to hunt ‘em down.

I walked far and wide and seemed to find everything but ONE. FREAKING. SALMONBERRY. PATCH. What I did find:

A predator.

Some cranberries.

More  blues.

BINGO.

Those bright orange things really stood out against the greenery once you could find a patch of them. We got a couple handfuls and called it a night, since by this time it was 10pm and the mosquitoes had sent in their army.

Not bad for our first pickin!

Mr. hawkeye even found a couple of raspberries

A Learning Experience

The theme of this weekend: R & R. But to be honest, we have been on quite the laid back schedule since we got here. 

Brandon and I have been talking a lot lately about why God brought us to Bethel, of all places. What we had in mind when we thought of coming to Alaska was tall mountains, bears wading in streams, fishing every weekend, camping by glacier lakes, and spending most of our time with packs on our backs trekking through the woods. Bethel = 360 degrees the opposite.

It’s not that it’s a bad place to be. There is unique beauty in the vast tundra, wild berries growing everywhere, Yup’ik fish camps, and experiencing one of the last cultures in the US that still practices a 100% subsistence lifestyle.

But it is also a very poor community. Drugs, alcohol, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and untimely deaths are a daily song in these parts. Brandon and I have patients on an almost daily basis that come in with black eyes, bruised ribs, separated joints (“my husband kicked me”), or heavy hearts from the recent loss of a young family member. Needless to say, it has been a very humbling experience. One that has made us reflect over and over on what lessons God brought us here to learn. Here is what we have come up with so far:

 Live a life of appreciation, not expectation. We came here expecting a grand adventure of hiking and camping and fishing and mountain climbing, and sunbathing by a lake. These things are our livelihood. We would never choose to live somewhere without outdoor adventures to be had. But being in Bethel has taught us that these luxuries are not a given; they are a blessing. I think somewhere between the Rockies and the warm desert sun, we started to take that fact for granted. In Bethel the most exciting outdoor activity is walking on the tundra (if you are without boat/ATV/snowmachine). But we have come to embrace that. We are blessed to have two legs, sandwiches in our packs, and each other’s company to take that walk. And you know what? It’s really all we need. (Well, mosquito repellant too….)

Make time for the ones you love. Life is tough out here. I don’t think I’ve met one native who hasn’t lost a family member to drugs/alcohol, domestic abuse, ATV accident, drowning, or freezing to death. It really put it in perspective for both of us: time with loved ones is precious. We have started doing weekly Skype/Facetime dates with our parents and making more of an effort to stay in touch with old and new friends. Sure, it has cut our TV/internet time and made our Sunday nights one giant catch-up fest,  but it has made us feel so much more fulfilled in those relationships than ever before.

Marriage is a work in progress. In Bethel, we are together 24/7. We wake up together, go to work together, go to the gym together, go home and cook dinner together, hang out with our couple friends together, and so on. While this has been an awesome change compared to living in different cities (which was more than half our relationship), it has also taught us A LOT about each other and marriage. About give and take. About working as a team. About communicating; openly, honestly, and often. About knowing when to give space, and when to stand close. About growing together. And most of all, (WARNING – cheesiness ahead) about loving someone so much that no matter how many ups/downs you go through and how much time you spend together, you still can’t get enough. Unconditional, patient, forever kind of love.

Enjoy the simple things. I know this post has been pretty heavy, so I figured we could end things on a more light-hearted note. Let’s face it – there is not a whole lot to do in Bethel. The highlights of our weekends consist of: A. 45 minute trek to the grocery store, rain or shine, to spend no less than a small fortune. B. Friday night card games. C. A gluttony of wine and carbs. D. Cleaning our bunker. Or E. More walking. But to be fair, we have a much greater appreciation for these simple life pleasures. Sure, we get bored and down on the lack of pizazz this town has. But it has definitely expanded our horizon of activities we consider fun.  These days you’ll find us shooting hoops, tending to our garden (built by Brandon from scrap pallet wood), putting puzzles together, and creating new culinary masterpieces (tortilla pizza, anyone??). Life goes on without shopping malls and movie theaters, after all.

Seeeee-saaaw!

Our garden (:

Ahhhh, the simple things.

Just Around the River Bend

Today was a beautiful 75° day in the bush. We were tossing around ideas for some fun in the sun when we got a text from our friends inviting us out for a day on their boat. 10 minutes later, we were packed and ready to go. It was so exciting to finally get to take the ONE road out of Bethel (the river)!

We headed out around lunchtime and started upriver toward the (distant) Kilbuck mountains. The Kuskokwim river originates just behind Kilbucks in the Alaska Range and flows for 700 miles all the way to the Bering Sea. It is the longest free-flowing river in the US. And it is SUPER curvy! The whole ride was turns and bends, hardly any straight spots. 

The Kuskoskim is also the lifeline for many of rural native villages outside of Bethel-and the highway by which many of our patients reach us from those villages in Bethel. The first village we passed on our journey was Kwethluk. It's one of the bigger villages: 11 square miles and 700 people.

Just past Kwethluk, we got to see several fish camps along the river! Rows of bright orange filets hanging to dry, the smell of sweet smoke from the smokehouses, and native summer tents/houses dotted the river bank. It was awesome to get a glimpse of this part of the Alaskan native culture. These fish camps are how natives the bush feed their families for the whole year. 

Among the fish camp territory our friends had previously discovered an abandoned school campus, so they took us there for our first stop of the day. There were several building still standing, including the school itself, a church, and a housing unit. The place had a 70's vibe, but the creepy part was that there were still desks, books, toys, etc. lying around as if it had been abandoned yesterday. 

The schoolhouse

Straight out of a horror flick. Eeeek.

Overgrown jungle gym. Someone needs to fire up that lawnmower and put it to good use.

This desk had an ink well in it. Old schooooool!

Housing unit

Once we were thoroughly creeped out, we left to head farther upriver for some more exploring. We made several stops along the way and made all sorts of fun discoveries:

Open tundra, baby! (That's Tucker the dog in the background - not a bear. But we did see bear tracks!)

Wild salmon berries

Tundra spider. Looks interestingly like a salmon berry.

Our ride.

Our awesome Bethel friends.

Kilbuck mountains, Kuskoskim river in the background.

We were having so much fun exploring that we barely noticed how far upriver we had gotten when the driver realized we were down to half a tank of gas. Whoops. Luckily the way home was downriver, so we made it back around 10 pm with plenty of fuel (to fill a shot glass). It's still weird to me that at 10 pm, the sun shines just as bright as at 5 pm, so I was still amped up when we got home. Hence the reason I finally got back on the blog train tonight (:

Happy rest of the weekend, all!

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!!

This year was definitely a unique one. Mom and pop Mascareñas are here visiting, so the four of us got to experience a bush Alaska Independence Day together (:

Our day started with a good ol’ Fourth of July parade. It was 45 degrees and rainy out, but that didn’t seem to stop the whole town of Bethel from coming out to watch it. People from nearby villages even flew in and came by boat to join the festivities.

As soon as the parade passed, people lined up and followed it to the festival site at Pinky’s Park. It was a mass exodus by foot through the muddy streets, people on their way to get the party started.

When we got to the park we were greeted by booths selling everything from local food to raffle tickets to patriotic hair dye.  We did the tourist thing and stopped at most of the booths, buying up all kinds of goodies. We scored some homemade salmonberry jam, ate Yup’ik fry bread, and Sandra even got a 2014 edition Kuskokwim 300 sweater.

My daddy and uncle used to have one of these cotton candy machines waaaaay back in the Romania days. Totally took me back to childhood, going to the park while they sold it and gave us plenty to sample (:

Not like papa used to make it, but still yummy!

Our secretary from work, cooking us up some Yup'ik fry bread

Agutak (Eskimo ice cream) – ingredients of which are white fish, Cristo, sugar, and berries.

One of my personal favorite parts of the festival - a silly string pit!

We showed those kids who's boss

There was even a stage at the festival with live music, a frozen T-shirt contest, break dancers, etc. It was also where they raffled off the boat we were supposed to win (musta been rigged).

They had no problem keeping those frozen T-shirts cold 

Once we had our fill of grease, sugar, and souveneirs, we stopped to snap a few shots out/around the park. 

The festival lasted till 5, after which we went back to the house and had a relaxing night in. No fireworks this year (no darkness), but we did watch them on television! So anticlimactic exciting. Hope everyone had a great holiday!