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.