home of a hundred trillion mosquitoes

I am back in the office after my Social Justice Retreat to Bethel and St. Mary's. I got to see where Kate Knudson was staying and living--whoa...all I can say is I'm glad I'm in Anchor-town, because it was pretty flat and not much to do. We flew in on the 4th, and it was the busiest day of the year for the community, which was fun, because all these Yu'pik kids were running around enjoying themselves. Had a corn dog--who would've though: corndogs in Bethel.

But I'll back up. We had a flight out at like 6AM, so we got up at like 4AM, only to cab it and have our flight cancelled until 1PM. So, five of us walked back to the house, grabbed a 3-hour nap, and then cabbed it back to the airport, to finally begin our adventure.

I really don't have much to say on Bethel. It was...Bethel.

We did get to take this really cool charter plane to St. Mary's, though. That was fun. We got to see the barren tundra for the 30-minute flight to St. Mary's, population: 550. It was really neat to be so isolated surrounded by tundra cotton, Yu'piks, and mosquitoes. Oh, the mosquitoes. Good gracious. We went on a prayer walk in the tundra only to have swarms and swarms hovering and dive bombing us. It was insane.

The retreat itself was OK. It was nice that only the Juneau and Bethel communities were there. We stayed in the Jesuit Residence; those Jesuits, man...so funny and good-hearted.

I'm excited for my post-JV time as far as figuring out how I want to continue in my social justice/save-the-world feats. My last day is approaching quickly. I'm going to be done at Four A's July 28th! In the mean time, I'll be desperately searching for a job and all of that fun stuff.

I'm missing the comfort of home and friends a lot. I'm hoping to finagle (spelling?) a trip home in August sometime, which I NEED!!!!!!! Phew. It's time to escape Alaska for a while to see my homies. :)