Summer of Change

Long time readers of this blog have probably noticed that it has changed quite a bit since I first started writing it two years ago. It is less about bush medicine and more about bush culture. And, frankly, it is more about me than I originally intended. The first change has evolved out of a general concern for patient confidentiality. The hospital decided that I could not post any pictures taken in their facilities, and that made me less interested in writing the medical stories. There was so much to write about the culture that I hardly noticed the shift.

The second shift, to writing more about myself, came more gradually. As much as I thought the blog was not about me back in the beginning, it was to some degree. It is just a little more so now.

The biggest change of all is now happening, and I am not sure just how this blog will go on after it is done. This is my last summer in Bethel. And I am already spending it alone.

Dutch and I have been feeling for the last few months as though the time was coming when we would be ready to move on, to turn the page, to live our life someplace different than Bethel. In April he applied for a position with the City of Kenai; it was offered, he accepted, and a month ago he moved there to start his new job. I am required to give much more notice, and can’t leave here until the end of September. Four months apart until I can join him there. He started exactly five days after our wedding.

Kenai (KEEN eye) is a small town (population 7,400) in southcentral Alaska, about 60 air miles and 150 road miles south of Anchorage. It is on the Kenai Peninsula at the mouth of the Kenai River. It is on Alaska’s limited road system, therefore not “in the Bush”. And it is in the land of tall mountains, big trees and beautiful ocean—the “picturebook” part of Alaska.

We found a wonderful house through serendipitous good fortune: a friend here had a relative there who was looking for some reliable people to lease the house for a year. And dogs welcome! It was perfect. It is right on the Kenai River, has a great fenced dog yard, and moose wandering through the property on their trails down to the river. The deck on the back looks out over the tops of tall fir trees, eagles flying up the river, and the Alaska Range marching straight into the Pacific Ocean. I am so ready to put a hot tub on that deck.

One of the best things about this change is that I will get to keep part of my old job, one of the parts I like the best. I will continue to do Radio Medical Traffic with the health aides in the villages by fax/phone from Kenai. And I hope to be able to fly back for an occasional village trip as well.

Once fall comes, I will no longer live on the tundra, but I will always be The Tundra PA. The beauty of the tundra has taken up residence in my heart, and it will always be part of me. Tundra Medicine Dreams will continue but may be a completely different type of blog. My interest in writing and what I want to write about is shifting along with all of this. It is time to start writing my novel.

Leaving Bethel is a huge change in my life, along with the loss of my grandmother and the acute loneliness of being separated from Dutch. The second two are a deep ache in the heart, lessened a little by all the planning and details for the first. There is much work to do, sorting, packing, cleaning, and selling off the big things like the boat, the snowmachines, and my truck. I’m not a packrat, but I’ve managed to accumulate a fair amount of junk in my ten years here.

All three dogs have stayed in Bethel with me, but now that Dutch is somewhat settled in to his job and our new house, it is time for Bear to go and keep him company. I’m planning a trip over for the 3-day weekend of the 4^th of July, and he’ll go along as part of my checked luggage. After that it will be just us girls here in Bethel—me, Pepper and Princess.

And if I stay busy, the summer will go by quickly; there are fish to catch and berries to pick, as well as patients to see. It’s all good.

109 days until October 1^st. Not that I’m counting.

Photos of moose by Dutch: the first just outside his office at City Hall, the second about a block from our house. Isn't it just such a Cecely moment? Feels like Northern Exposure all over again.