Summer in Bethel

I spent my whole summer in Bethel. I stayed with Maggie and Elia Michael and baby-sat for them. Their oldest is three years old and the youngest is two years old. I baby-sat Monday through Friday and sometimes on weekends. While I was watching them, I cleaned up and cooked them breakfast and lunch. The only time I'd clean up is when they both took their nap in the afternoon. Sometimes I'd bring them out for a walk or to the hospital, but most of the time we'd stay in.

At the end of May I went down to Chefornak with the two kids and their mother. We stayed at Chefornak for a couple of days then went back to Bethel. The first time I was in Chefornak I stayed in all day because I didn't know anyone. The only places I went were to the store and to Maggie's sister's house to visit. I went down to Chefornak again in mid-June with Maggie, her sister Eliza and the kids. Just Maggie's sister and I went down in the afternoon and Maggie and her kids came in the evening. We went down for an old man's funeral. After the funeral was over, the next day we went to Nightmute for two weeks. It was okay there except there are no roads, only a boardwalk from the high school to the end of town. While in Nightmute, Eliza and I went walking up the hill. We almost made it to the top but we turned back on the side. Before we walked down she showed me where Chefornak and Tooksook were. The second time we walked up the hill we made it to the top and stayed at the top for one hour looking around and taking pictures, and she showed me where Newtok was. While we were on our way down we stopped at a little water pond and drank from it. We finally reached town around one o'clock. A couple days before we left we saw ten or twelve musk-ox on top of the same hill.

By: Kathy Duny