For the second week in a row I went out to a village to do school screenings. This time I spent four days in the village of Selawik, which is southeast of Kotzebue. There are approximately 1000 residents there and the town is kind of on a delta with many rivers flowing through the area and town. Selawik lake lies at the edge of town. It is flat around the village with the mountains in the distance on two sides. Spring is rapidly coming to the Arctic and the thawing was quite noticeable from the flight in and the flight out four days later. The ride from the airfield with me on the snowmachine and a fellow Public Health Nurse in the sled traversing the mush over the river to the clinic was interesting to say the least. On the return to Kotzebue the pilot rarely flew above 500 feet which made for an extremely bumpy but spectacular ride.
The town has many boardwalks built throughout to traverse the streams, rivers, and pipes carrying fuel and water to the many structures. Everything you see in these pictures was flown into that small field and then transported some kind of way to it's destination where it was then assembled with little heavy equipment.
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Last updated:
08/29/05
/100_2835.JPG "Traversing the now thawing delta like area on the way to Selawik.")
/100_2836.JPG "Another view.")
/100_2840.JPG "Coming into the village airfield.")
/100_2841.JPG "Lining up for landing.")
/100_2842.JPG "The village clinic where we slept on the top floor.")
/100_2843.JPG "The power plant for the village.")
/100_2844.JPG "A bridge over the river that can be traversed by 4 wheelers as well as pedestrians.")
/100_2848.JPG "Kevin, a fellow PHN nurse at the rivers edge.")
/100_2849.JPG "4 wheelers and snowmachines still travel on the now thawing river.")
/100_2850.JPG "A local man unloads two caribou from his sled. This will feed his family for a while.")
/100_2853.JPG "Some of the boardwalks with fuel and water lines visable.")
/100_2854.JPG "The school.")
/100_2856.JPG "Roughing it in the bush. After the clinic closed we could relax and watch the one TV without any recliners and no remote control!")
/100_2857.JPG "The sled that carried our bags, equipment, and Kevin.")
/100_2868.JPG "The clinic.")
/100_2869.JPG "The CB radio in the clinic. That is the main communication link throughout the village.")
/100_2871.JPG "Inside of the school. Remember, everything you see has to be flown in and transported from the airfield and assembled.")
/100_2875.JPG "Traveling on the river.")
/100_2879.JPG "An old airplane fuselage next to the airfield with the sign warning people to stay off the runway.")
/100_2881.JPG "Looking across part of the village and the river.")
/100_2883.JPG "My ride is here!")
/100_2885.JPG "Another view of the village as we prepare to take off.")
/100_2887.JPG "The delta again from the air.")
/100_2894.JPG "On the way back the pilot seldom flew above five hundred feet.")
/100_2895.JPG "There was noticably less ice on the return trip but the view remained spectacular.")
/100_2897.JPG "Crossing the still frozen sound.")
/100_2899.JPG "Pipe spit, the point at the far side of the peninsula Kotzebue sits on.")
/100_2901.JPG "Preparing to land in Kotzebue.")