Around Alakanuk

Alakanuk is spread out along one long curving gravel road which is mostly along the river. Below, Clark is walking toward Dave's store which is at least 1/2 mile from teacher housing. They have mostly boxed and frozen items to choose from. Occasionally, there are treats such as eggs and cheese! A carton of eggs is around 5 dollars and a block of cheese is around 15 dollars. A frozen DiGiorno pizza is 15 dollars, cream cheese is about 6 or 7 dollars, and there are many foods I just don't even look at. Some items can be almost 7 times the cost in the Lower 48. Most people up here claim it's easiest on their consciences to just not look at prices.

This is the local annex store which carries overflow food from the Native Store across town. They sometimes sell things like cake mixes or brownie mixes for half price. At any store up here it is important to check how far out of date things are and inspect damaged boxes carefully to decide if it's worth it because all sales are final. (This reminds me of my canadian bacon I've been eating. It has an expiration date of April 2010. My friends recently commented about me actually eating it.)

This is the Catholic church which sits right next to the local annex store and the Tribal Council building.
Below is the Tribal Council building--used for Eskimo Dances, Voting, and Bingo.
In Alakanuk, some of the staff waits for the community to unlock the T.C. for a potluck. The community never showed, because there was some lack of communication in the whole process. After standing in the rain, we ended up going back to the school and eating in the gym as a staff. We did load up and go back to the T.C. for a quick meeting with a poor turnout and I went home to go to sleep by 7:40pm.
Having an incredibly busy schedule, being introduced to new viruses, and living on a poor diet caught up with me and I was exhausted. Many of us ended up being sick with a virus that took our voice and our vigor for a while. After sleeping about 11 hours that night, I felt much better and got up to yet another day of teaching and repeated the teach-sleep cycle for about a week and a half.