I saw into the future.

0Josh • 30th Aug 2005 • blog entries, moving, nome., station life, travel

So, the big surprise from last weekend was our trip out to St. Lawrence Island and the native village of Gambell. We flew out Friday afternoon with the intention to return back to Nome on Saturday afternoon. We were going to see Dave & Mitzi Shinen who are Wycleff Translators in the village. Dave & Mitzi are also family friends from my early childhood, they became my “Godparents” of sorts and we’ve kept up for the past 20 years. Dave and Mitzi have been involved with this translating project for nearly 40 years now and have just a few to go. We learned that hauling water to your house from a central water location a mile away and ‘honey bucket’ toilets really make Gambell life unique.

We had a great time talking and catching up. Dave showed us a video of a Gambell whaling crew from a few years ago… very cool. When Saturday afternoon rolled around there was no flight back to Nome. The Sunday morning flight got cancelled, as well as the Sunday evening, and the first Monday morning flight. We were marooned 30 miles from Russia for a few extra days than planned… but really enjoyed ourselves. We were even able to see across the dateline & view Russia on the plane ride home.