First Day

greetings! my first day at work is done...thank the lord cuz i'm beat. arrived in anchorage at about 9:30pm alaskan time friday. saw anchorage since it doesn't get dark here until midnight. its 8pm now and it looks no different outside than it did at 2 this afternoon. really weird. it'll stay dark until about 5am. in just a few wks it only gets dusk for a few hours...looks like the middle of the day at 11pm. anyway, a coworker - natalie met me at the airport and we stayed the night and then flew out to aniak this morning. this place isn't a town even, it's a very poor village. as most are. these people live off the govt and basically don't work, which is why most of the help here is from pretty far away. natalie is from australia...rob has had people from romania and wanted some girl from china to come in but her visa didn't get approved, so i'm here...nice. last pick i apparently was. yeh - so today was busy, busy. took a couple hrs to unpack, learned the kitchen altho i won't be cooking much at all...just helping natalie in the am and pm for about 1 hr total. the rest of the time i'll be outside. today i learned how to gas up a super cub - which is a 2 seater plane that carries gear to whereever the people are headed. i learned how to tie some crazy knots, oil the plane, check for probs, etc..rob says he'll be showing me some flying things by the end of the summer - but who knows. he took me up in the plane - unbelievable view. the river here is covered but with broken pieces of ice - HUGE chunks of ice. it's all melting and the townspeople are worried about flooding. it's all everyone talks about. there is a local store that has basic needs..a gallon of milk is $9. seriously. a jar of PB is about $7-8. food is flown in from a company in anchorage. in the village there is a post office, electric company, store, a crappy lodge, 2 very small schools and a tiny church. there is no bar and you can't buy alcohol...aniak is a damp village, which means you can drink it here, you just can't buy it here. so the villagers have massive shipments brought in once a month. there are 2 dudes that are always drunk and they walk the loop around the village. there is only one rd - gravel that literally is a loop around the place. imagine the worst unmaintenenced rd in ks and thats better than whats here. there are some super nice people tho...the carpenter here and his wife are very nice. they don't live here at the lodge. amber - the cleaner- does as well as rob, natalie and i. my room is the loft - no windows but its open on the sides at the top, it's small but cozy. i have to climb a ladder to get in here. there are no rails, but 2 looped ropes on either side of the door. the lodge has a bunkhouse, and an attached section on the back to sleep guests. a work in progress..the bunkhouse should be dun by next wed. no more than 10 guests will stay at a time. back to my job...i will be outside all day. during the day rob is gone flying, so i'll be the one loading the planes, getting any and all gear ready, i will be taught to run a chainsaw (how scary is that) to cut wood, mowing the lawn, in charge of the garden, helping at the 2 camps up in the mtns about 70 miles from here, building and setting up whatever needs to be done. me building things? i'm willing to learn. at least i wont be bored and couped up inside all day. and i can't wait to see the blisters. should be an interesting summer and busy, busy, busy. i plan on writing as often as possible and will include pics. have a couple of anchorage, but will take plenty. keep in touch! goodnight.