Lauren In Alaska: May 2013

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea for the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska's Annual Meeting. Mekoryuk, a village of about 200, has been on my 'to visit' list since shortly after I arrived in Alaska nearly three years ago, so needless to say, I was excited!

Mekoryuk isn't the easiest village to get to in Alaska - seeing as it is 30 miles off the mainland, and often has weather that doesn't permit for travel to and from the island. However, we were fortunate in that we had clear blue skies on the day of travel. Those of us coming from Anchorage piled into a 9-seater plane and made our way to Bethel. We landed, refueled, and took bathroom break before heading west to Nunivak Island. After a small bump in the road (when preparing to land, the pilots realized the runway wasn't plowed quite wide enough for the wingspan of the airplane, so we turned around and headed back to Bethel where we spent an hour or so while the runway was plowed and remeasured), we made it and were greeted with a warm welcome and familiar faces.

Our five+ days in Mekoryuk were spent reuniting and hanging out with past campers and students, attending meetings, enjoying the warm hospitality of the entire community, eating LOTS of akutaq, pond greens, dry fish, salmon, musk ox, reindeer soup, and other delicious Native food, singing, laughing, running 3.5 miles up the river to the water hole and back a couple of times, and spending time with everyone at the conference.

Though it was only five days, my trip to Mekoryuk left a lasting impression. I'll always remember the warm hospitality and genuine community that was so apparent amongst the people there. I look forward to visiting again someday - hopefully in the summer! Thank you to everyone who welcomed us to Nunivak - we had a wonderful time visiting your beautiful home!