Update from Bethel, Alaska

Hey everyone,

After being berated by comments encouraging me to update my blog, I decided I better do it today even though the internet has been slow. There's really not much new here. As many of you saw from my Snapfish album, Bethel is a fairly small town that's pretty run down. Lots of homes in need of repair, very bumpy dirt roads, etc.

I've since found out a few interesting facts about the area. The population is somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000. Alcoholism remains a big problem here despite the fact that it is illegal to buy or sell alcohol. I thought that would make it difficult to be an alcoholic, but you can bring it in with you when you fly and apparently that's what lot of people do.

I also found out a little more about what people do for a living around here. I thought that fishing would be a main source of employment, but I've been told that's not the case. There's a hospital, school, a couple grocery stores and several restaurants, but there are also a lot of people that are just getting by on welfare.

Someone also told me that Russia is only about 475 miles away. That's just 75 miles further than Anchorage, but that must be to an island because I looked up the distance from Bethel, Alaska to Anadyr, Russia on the eastern mainland and it was more like 700 miles.

Just in case you didn't see my other pictures, here's a few from around town. I also included a picture of Wake, the B&B owners' dog. He is extremely mellow and friendly. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Surprise ending to my trip to San Juan

First off, my short trip was cut even shorter than expected since my flight from MSP to Chicago O'Hare was cancelled and since all flights were booked solid. I tried to go standby for about 7 hours, but I wasn't able to leave until 11:00 am the next day. That was unfortunate because, except for a short meeting, Sunday would have been my free day to see some of the island. Instead I spent the day traveling, finally arriving in San Juan at about 10:15 pm. I worked 10 hrs. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday then left SJU early Thursday morning.

Since I was only planning to be gone for 5 days, I packed pretty light and mostly clothes for warm weather. Then Wednesday afternoon, I found out that that was a big mistake. I was not sent home from SJU as expected, but instead received orders for BET (Bethel, Alaska). I left San Juan 25 hours ago and I'm still not there. From what I've heard from other NDF, Bethel is quite small with TSA staff totaling seven and only one of them being a local employee. It is located approximately 80 miles east of the Bering Sea, 400 miles west of Anchorage. The airport is very small. So small that it makes Key West look big. We work a split shift most days and everyone works in the baggage area first and then we all move over to the checkpoint.

My cell phone has no service up here. I have a few calling cards that Jess gave me when I thought I was going to Cypress and I'm sure I'll be able to get more, but I'll be using my blog and email to keep in touch more than anything else.

The mailing address here is:

Teresa Stewart

c/o TSA

3521 Chief Eddie Hoffman Hwy.

Bethel, AK 99559

Brown Slough Bed & Breakfast

(907)543-4333/(907)543-4332

I'm currently scheduled to be here until the end of May. However, I've already heard that there is a good chance that I'll be extended. Hope everyone has a happy Easter. Wish I could be there.