This is the village of Shaktoolik

This is Shaktoolik...The top picture is the ocean and all the drift wood....I think the drift wood went on for miles. The next pictures are just me standing in the street of "down town" and looking to my right and then to my left to take a picture of Shaktoolik for you. The next really nice looking building the Shaktoolik Village store....it looks kind of like a dump on the inside but from the outside it does not look bad......the brown unlabeled building is the clinic....and this bottom picture is "my room"....at least I did not have to sleep on the floor!! I put my sleeping bag on top of this disgusting mattress. That green bag is my travel luggage issued by the health department. Everyone back in Nome said the water in Shaktoolik was drinkable so I only brought a few frozen water bottles, well, when I ran out of water I filled up my water bottle with water only to find out it was BROWN and smelled like pond water. I had no choice but to drink it as for I felt like I had no choice...drink it or die of thirst...so I chose life. It was probably only in my mind that the brown pond water made me sick...but I kept feeling nauseated and imagined that I probably had parasites now!! GROSS!! I fly to Savoonga in another week so I am definitely going to bring a case of water....I have to be careful what I bring because every single thing has to be weighed....including myself on these little planes.
When I arrived I was picked up by 4-wheeler and there was so much dust I was eating it by the time I arrived at the unlabeled clinic! Shaktoolik was not bad...FAR better than Stebbins i have to add. There was some miscommunication on our ride to meet the plane to fly back to Nome...and this lady on her 4-wheeler comes barreling in the clinic stating the plane was waiting for us!! So here we come by way of 4-wheeler and two pilots standing outside the plane waiting for the two public health nurses! How embarrassing!! One was the 'real' pilot and the other one was in training...believe me you could tell which one was in training....it was a rough ride going home....I was praying we made it, and had my hand around my ID bag so they could identify my body when the people came to clean up the plane wreck. What a comforting thought.