We're spending the night....

Welcome to my first time overnighting in a village while travelling for work! We left in the morning for a village called Kalskag. It is a small village upriver from Bethel with a very small clinic. The fog was starting to descend as we left Bethel, but we figured we would give it a try. As we arrived in Kalskag, it started snowing and looking like the weather was going down. As we got off the plane, the pilot informed us he would probably not be coming back that afternoon as scheduled. We looked at each other, and decided we would make do. My co-worker was more prepared than me and even had a sleeping bag with her. It is somewhat common to get stuck and sleep in the clinic. We were in the truck heading to the clinic when the airline agent told us that the Kalskag clinic had a planned power outage all day and would be closing in about an hour. Yikes! We wanted back on that plane. The propellers were just starting to get going and we were trying like crazy to get the pilot's attention. He couldn't really see us due to fog on the windows. So the agent lady pulled her truck in front of the plane and started honking and flashing her lights. The propeller kept getting faster. I figured the pilot would have to figure it out, one way or the other. He finally noticed us and let us back on the plane. We flew to another village even more upriver called Aniak. Aniak is a bigger village and actually has a subregional clinic which is a very fancy building staffed by 2 physician assistants. They also have 6 houses which are used for staff. If we were going to be stuck, we wanted it to be in Aniak. It is actually a bit of a dream destination with a beautiful river, tall mountains, trees and lots of wildlife (grizzlies, wolves, moose, etc.). They also don't have permafrost there so buildings can be built on the ground. But our main plan was to get back on the airplane and head back to Bethel that afternoon. Lo and behold, we didn't have reservations and there were 20 people trying to stand by for 9 seats. This is a common problem with the hospital reservation system....mainly that it sucks. To make a long story even longer, Aniak was our home for the night. We got dropped off at the grocery store to buy some food for dinner and then to the apartment. The apartment was very fancy and only lacked a few basics like pots/pans/towels, etc. In the end, we didn't end up seeing any patients and I nearly finished my book, Ordinary Wolves. So it wasn't a bad trade-off. We made it home the next morning. Unfortunately, I never got to see the mountains as it was so foggy and then dark the next morning. I'll be going back Tuesday though!

This is the view from the physician assistant's house. That's the river and big mountains in the background which you can't see! The other pictures are the clinic housing and a log cabin (not many around Bethel due to the lack of trees, but lots in Aniak).