To Akiak or Not To Akiak..

....and that is the question on deck. The weather's been bad here. Okay, not my definition of bad...just clouds & it's raining. Which means I missed the northern lights that came past Anchorage this week. Drat! Anyways, the weather may be to dangerous to fly a bush plane into the village. So I may have to spend the night in Bethel.

I didn't get my driver's license here. I had a bunch of identification but not the one piece they required. I studied very hard too. Ah well.

Shopping was a huge deal. Since there's not a grocery store in the village, you have to buy everything & ship it out. And you should buy in bulk. So let me tell you about my experience. I went to Sam's Club with my roommate. We loaded up two carts full of stuff. I bought dry goods & toiletries. Oh! and cleaning supplies....about $550 in groceries. Now this store has a bush shipping department. So they'll pack up your purchases & ship them to your house. For a charge of 49% of your total order. Add in some other fees and my shipping fee came to about $400. So I spent close to one grand at Sam's Club.

Oh wait, but I'm not done!! I still had some other items to buy. So we went to Walmart, who also has a bush shipping department. I didn't need a lot. A bottle of ketchup lasts me more than a year, so I got items like that. Now for Walmart I just had to take my cart up to the Bush Shipping window & fill out a form for COD delivery. That way, in case my order gets lost or stolen, I don't have to pay for it. But I pay all the fees to the Post Office when it comes.

And that's still not including my meat, dairy, & other perishables. I am ordering those online. But I don't need a whole lot of that stuff.

Food is expensive in the bush. But with the internet, it makes things a lot easier. If I run out of something, I can just order it online & pay a huge fee.

Had I known about the 49% charge, I would have brought empty tubs, filled them up with my purchases & taken them to the Post Office myself. But by the time I found that out, I was leaving the next day & it just wasn't an option. But live & learn.

My new cell phone drops calls & other carriers don't recognize it as a cell phone. They think it's a landline. Which who cares, but I was hoping to text on it & I can't text with some of my friends unless they contact their own carriers & tell them my number is in fact a cell phone. Geez louise!!!

This is certainly nothing like I've ever experienced before!! I'm glad to be doing it though. I'm telling you, the people here are so much fun! You have to be a little bit crazy for doing this and it's like I'm among my people!!

and that's just the teachers....

I'll update you on Akiak....as soon as I can!