About Point Hope,

 

     I went to the village of Point Hope for three days, the 13th through the 15th of July.  I believe I said in the last email it was 100 miles from Kotzebue but it is really 150 miles as the raven flies. The reason for going was because they were having trouble with their immunizations storage and the kids were way behind in their shots.  I had been scheduled to go before now with Grace, the CHAP manager but for one reason or another it kept getting canceled.  Another PHN (Public Health Nurse) was going at that time to do what is called well child exams and we felt it would be a good chance to get a lot of things done.  Our flight out was scheduled for noon but was delayed a bit because they had to change planes due to an excess of cargo (no not me or my fellow PHN who also weighs in at around 350) and another passenger that had just flown in with Alaska Air who had to go to Cape Lisborne.  Also we were told they had clearance for all their planes to land at Point Lisborne except the one we were flying in, but they were trying to get it from Anchorage.  We finally loaded into a twin engine plane and departed on this clear day and rapidly climbed to around 5000 feet, much higher than the 1500 feet I have become accustomed to.  The reason was we were going over the Brooks Range to our first stop, Cape Lisborne.  I put my earplugs in, put my head back, and went to sleep.  I was awakened by a nudge from my fellow PHN who pointed out the window at the rock covered mountains that surrounded us.  I now had to look up in order to see the tops of them.  We were rapidly descending through a valley with no airfield in site. My fellow PHN had started this flight by asking the pilot about crashes (I did gently admonish my fellow nurse {in a loud and nasty voice} that maybe this is not the time for that subject). He responded that he had "only been in two crashes, but I wasn't the pilot".  (He had all his limbs intact and no scars I could see, so I was not worried........)  As I looked around for an airfield while glancing at the rapidly spinning altimeter, I was wondering if this was going to be number three. He pulled a tight turn to the left and then we were headed through another valley towards the sea. When we crossed the coast he pulled another tight turn and paralleled the coast which was made up of towering rocky cliffs ending in the sea.  In the not to far distance I could make out a green, gently rolling area with structures in the middle and the cliffs rising again past them in the distance.  The pilot passed the site at around 1000 feet and looking down I could see a gravel area sandwiched between the cliffs and the sea.  Just after he passed this area he pulled a u-turn that would make a cops head spin.  It seemed like he turned the plane on its side.  He leveled out just before the end of the strip and smoothly touched down.  Ok, crash number three is still in the future thank goodness. 

     The area was beautiful; nestled between towering cliffs to each side, the sea to the front, and gently rising green covered land to the back that soared up into the clouds.  There were a number of structures including some large house size tents that made it look like a factory site.  I was told it is a long range radar site left over from the cold war with the radar up in the mountains to the rear.  There was no one in site as the one passenger and his gear including a rifle case unloaded.  He said the rifle was for the bears.   The pilot jokingly said it was a top secret base and I asked if they were going to come out and shoot us.  The passenger said "no, they'll just shoot me".  A truck appeared out of nowhere and picked him up as we turned to depart.  The pilot taxied to the end of the runway and after a smooth takeoff turned us on our side again (I'm starting to get used to this now, and it's kind of fun) making another u-turn.  He parallel the cliffs until we passed  a point I could see in the distance.  Along the base of the cliffs I could see multitudes of seabirds on the cliffs and in flight against a backdrop of blue-green sea.  After passing the point we headed seemingly straight out to sea.  I was again wondering until I looked at the dashboard mounted GPS and it showed we were on a straight line headed for Point Hope, 30 miles in the distance.

 

     Whoa, commercial break......  It has been overcast all day and for the first time in the over 15 months we have been here, I just heard a peal of thunder.  I had heard that the multitudes of fires that are continuing in Alaska were started by lighting.  I thought this was unusual because thunderstorms are rare.  Guess maybe I'm wrong.  

 

     We landed safely at Point Hope and the old village structures, now in ruins, were to our right towards the sea and the actual point.  The town was about one and a half miles inland from the airfield. We were met by a pickup truck that took aboard all the cargo along with us two nurses and hauled us all to town. It was driven by a Nulukvik, (a white man) who said he had lived there for over 20 years. As we passed the cemetery where many of the markers were made of whale bone and it was also surrounded by a fence made up of whale bones, he told us that was where his first wife was buried.  He unloaded us and our gear at the village clinic before heading on with the rest of his cargo.

      I can see why the Inupiat settled here. The coast comes up from the south gently heading westward and in the area of a few miles curves out into the sea to a literal point before curving back towards the northeast going up the coast.  It is a natural point that sea life traveling north and south has to go around.  I was told it was settled a long time ago and starting a couple of hundred years ago, it was a natural place for ships to land.  I was also told that not only Beluga and Bowhead whale pass here, but so do Killer Whales which I did not think came this far north.  The seal and walrus also have to pass here.

     The clinic is a large one as the village contains as I said, around a thousand people.  That evening I got to know some of the folks working in the clinic and I got to stab a few kids.  There is a CHAP living in the clinic that is from another village and is filling in temporarily. After the clinic closed, I walked into the lounge and on the table were a well used ulu along with fresh peeled carrots, celery, and cauliflower.  Right beside it was a gallon zip lock with a large chunk of muktuk.  It consisted of whale skin about one inch thick with about five to six inches of pink blubber attached and cut into one large block.  She was making herself a salad with all the ingredients. 

     A little later we walked to the store which was quite large, kind of like a bush Super Wal-Mart although probably less than one tenth in size and a whole lot more expensive.  They even had tanned furs for sale which is not PC for Wally World.  On leaving the store I noted a large sign posted on the exit door warning about Polar Bears and giving safety tips. We dropped our buys at the clinic and walked to the end of town to the home of an itinerant Nurse Practitioner. She is based in Point Hope but also goes to three other villages.  She had invited us to dinner that night and was baking a large fresh caught Arctic Char that someone had given her. These fish go around 10-15 pounds.  On the walk we met a number of kids and a few adults and all were very friendly.  There are no fences and in a number of yards were wood framed boats around 15-18 feet long with no covering over the ribs.  Each was up around 4-5 feet off the ground on wooden racks.  The boats were pointed at both ends and when covered with stretched and sewn seal hides, are used for whale hunting.  They are rowed out on the hunt, there is no engine.  In one yard we noticed white fur hides lying over the frame of an old 4 wheeler which on closer examination turned out to be two polar bear hides drying.  The town has a few paved roads with the land the homes are built over being gravel covered.  Here and there wild flowers grew in patches attempting to lend color to the drabness.  Most homes are weather beaten by the harsh elements and are dull in color.  The walk was pleasant as the temps were in the 60's and the mosquitoes for the most part are gone. The town has water on both sides as it is a point and along one side there are snow gates to keep out the worst of the snow due to the strong winds of winter

     The NP's (Nurse Practitioners) home was simple but cozy inside. There were three local girls inside ranging in age from about seven to around 13 years of age.  All were very friendly and eager to visit with us foreigners.  They spend a lot of time there and the NP considers them like family.  Throughout the house there were post-it-notes on different items such as chairs, doors, and the wall with name of the item it was attached to written in English and accompanied by the appropriate Inupaq word. We had fresh baked trout and a baked dish consisting of cheese and grits (that's right, grits in the Arctic).  It's the best meal I have had in a village.  Afterwards she brought out a bowl that contained whale fat that had rendered naturally and contained small cubes of shrunken whale blubber sitting in clear oil. I tasted the oil and it had the same strong fishy taste I wrote about in my last letter.  She also produced three eggs that were about 2-3 times larger than chicken eggs, were powder blue in color, and had zigzagging lines around them.  They are Muir eggs that locals had gathered and given to her.  She says they are quite good.  After a friendly game of scrabble we were quite tired and made our way back to the clinic.  Patsy, my fellow PHN slept on a bed that folded out from a chair. I slept on a sofa bed with what seemed like a three inch thick mattress.  After a while I got up and unpacked my sleeping bag and used it as a cushion against the bar in my ribs and across my hips.

     The next day was spent making kids cry as some of them got as many as five shots at one time.  Hey, gotta have some fun in life huh?  Not really, our disease rates in some areas are on the decline so we are doing some good. 

     That evening I took a walk by myself and walked out onto the beach.  It is a gravel beach and looking both ways I could see an occasional driftwood log or stump. In the distance I could see racks for the keeping of the skin boats.  One area was fenced in with many large white plastic bins that are used when a whale is taken.  While sitting there listening to the surf and watching the occasional flock of seabirds, a lone seal swam nonchalantly by no more than 20 feet away.  The water here is blue-green, not the darker color around Kotzebue (because of the rivers draining into the sound).  I know you are probably getting tired of hearing it but that same chill ran up my spine thinking of where I was sitting, seeing what I was seeing.  (And getting paid to do it.)

     On return to the clinic for a dinner of hotdogs I had purchased on bread, the CHAP living in the clinic offered me some of her salad that contained not only the bowhead muktuk I mentioned, but beluga and fried whale blubber also.  The taste-the same as described before.  The texture is almost like chewing on a balloon.  I guess this is why it is usually cut into small chunks. (Kinda reminds you of oysters huh?  Just let it slide on down.)  Not long after was when she offered me the fermented whale meat I mentioned before.  One thing I did not mention though was that after I declined, she told me about when she first gave some to her ex-husband. He promptly spit it out and asked if she was trying to poison him.  After that, I did not feel so bad.

     During the day one of the chaps brought in a number of items she had found either along the beach or in the old village.  She had two stone ulu's, a number of arrow heads, and spear points made from stone. She also had a large stone with a depression in the center that was used as a lamp when seaweed and seal oil were mixed in the middle and lit. One item of interest was a very old bone about eight inches long that had a human faced carved in one end and an animal face in the other.  The NP said she thought it was human bone and most agreed it probably belonged to a shaman.  These are a superstitious people and the lady who found it feels she should return it to the ground.  She found it last fall and her 20 year old son dropped dead of an "arrhythmia" in December.  She feels it may be connected.  They are also a very religious people. Every door in the clinic has not only a paper cross with a prayer written on it but another cross made out of some other materiel. Some are made with tongue depressors and some with the wooden sticks from medical cotton swabs.  We asked about this and were told that people who stay in the clinic at night have heard footsteps and other noises.  I went to sleep that night in the usual way-trying to find a position where the bed frame wasn't digging into me and not thinking of spirits.  After all, why worry about something that goes bump in the night when right now there is no night?  I arose around 2:30am, 30 minutes earlier than usual for my nightly bathroom break. Later, while trying to get comfortable around 3am I heard movement and footsteps.  I figured either the on call CHAP had come in on a call or it was the resident spirit.  Either way I figured if I was needed, one or the other would let me know. In the morning I mentioned it to Patsy and the resident CHAP who both said they did not know of anyone coming in. However when I asked Grace who was sleeping on the sofa in the front of the clinic, I was told it was just Herman who had been on call and had come in with a patient.  So much for meeting the clinic ghost, maybe next time.

    The same lady who brought in the artifacts told of how she had gone out and picked a bunch of Qua-gaq, (do not ask me how to pronounce that.  The English translation is sour dock) a type of green that grows wild and she was looking forward to going home and fixing it for dinner.  Outside of town there is a seven mile dirt road that just ends suddenly in the tundra. Folks can travel along it to pick greens and berries which will soon be ripe there.  They can also go for miles on the beaches.  She also told us of her freezer.  Seems she has a hole dug into the ground by the old town that has a lid on it.  It goes down to into the permafrost. That is the way a number of these people store perishables.  I can see why after visiting the store I told you about and seeing basic side by side refrigerators for 1100-1500 dollars apiece.

     There was heavy fog Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The morning flight did not come in because of it. We were scheduled out at 2pm and were hoping it would lift.  It did, and we were picked up by the same man with his pickup.  One of the clinic personnel rode up on her 4 wheeler with two whale vertebras and what looked like a scapula, packed them into a box, and then began discussing shipping costs.  These were destined for the spud farm I mentioned in my last email.  They were being sent so the residents could us them for artwork.  As they had to go through Kotzebue first anyway, we took the box with us as baggage and turned it over to the recovery center on arrival so they could mail it off.  While awaiting the plane, a 4-wheeler pulled up with three folks aboard and our driver had a conversation with them about their new 4-wheeler coming in.  When our plane landed it was one of the 10 or 12 passenger models and I was wondering where the machine was.  When he opened the side cargo door I could see the gleaming new front end awaiting its new owners.  I asked how the heck they were going to get it out.  I should have known.  The three who arrived on the old 4 wheeler grabbed the front end as the pilot steered it out the door and after snapping a hasty picture, (on the website  www.samsicles.net ) I also joined in. We gently lowered the front wheels to the ground then let the back drop down.  Safe delivery made.

     The flight home was made along the shoreline with the blue water against the mountainous shore as I mentioned before.  I again fell asleep awakening just as we crossed over the point across the sound from home.  We made another high approach with the by now familiar hairpin turn, greasing in for the landing.  We were tired after the interesting and productive trip and after dropping our gear at the office, headed home for a welcome rest.

 

     I told Patty this evening that I guess this is my way of keeping a journal.  This way in years to come we can look back and remember how it was.  Who knows, if by some miracle we have grandkids, at least they will be able to get a glimpse into what we experienced.

 

                                                                                                                                                                    Thanks again for indulging me,

                                                                                                                                                                    Carlo