Mt Drum, Wrangell St. Elias International Park
Mt Drum behind gertee
spagetti and meatballs with salad and garlic bread
Friedrich family spagetti cooked on a woodstoveThursday I'll be interviewed by Dr. Stanley Monteith on Radio Liberty.
Yesterday I filled my cart with my dirty laundry and hauled it up to the Merc about 3 pm. It seemed like it wasn't too cold when I left home, but by the time I got there it was 42 below outside and for some reason the laundrymat was packed full of people. So I left my cart sitting outside and walked back home to gertee, waited 2 hours, and walked back in the dark after the rush was over. Took a shower, washed 3 loads, and by the time they were done drying my hair was dry too. As I walked home pulling my cart behind me I thought about how handy my cart is, and about how strong I feel because I know I can do this kind of work in this kind of weather. I ran into several church going white Christians driving big new trucks who smiled and waved as they drove past me, but it was an Ahtna Indian lady who wanted to figure out how to fit me, my laundry and my cart in the back of her little car. She kept saying, "It's too cold outside to walk." She also told me she has a new grant funded job teaching rural people about the dangers of tobacco smoke and poor eating habits that lead to diabetes, and she smokes cigarrettes!
One of the primary inroads the communitarians make into rural Alaska is via all their new Native "community health" programs. There's signs all over Glennallen asking people to call the authorities to "report" any signs of domestic violence they see or hear. Now it's the community's fault if local parents argue or yell at their wayward children. No yelling allowed, ever. We all need to be trained to spy on our next door neighbors, but it's not a bad thing, it's for a "good" reason, don't ya know? A good community monitors the health and well being of all its residents.
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