Here we are- finally on Saint Lawrence Island! It's been two years that we've been hearing about and praying for the people of this island. There's roughly 1500 villagers living here, split between two towns.
In Gambell we were greeted at the airport by 5 or so ATV's with riders donning full snowgear. There's no terminal to speak of. We just jumped out of the plane and loaded our stuff onto the ATV's (locally called Hondas) and were whisked away to the church. It was a stormy time landing.
Cloudy most of the time, and blowing wind almost always, this is an interesting place. No trees, lots of ocean. We saw whales two days in a row. First time it was a bowhead whale, which doesn't show it's tail when it dives. THe next was beluga whale, which showed it's tail.
Everyone enjoys Squeakums. There's sickness going around our group, but it's doing a slow rotation, so we're not all out at the same time. That's good. We've met some amazing elders in the community with steadfast faith for generations and in the face of many sorrows. Often when we meet people, within our first conversation we hear their number of siblings and children and grandchildren, and also the number of them that have died. Usually the sea is part of the cause, storms, ice breaking through, boating accidents. Death is a big part of their lives, as odd as that sounds.
