My job for the summer

During the summer on project all of us work jobs monday thru thursday. I am working at Silverbow bagels and I mainly make sandwiches, espresso drinks, workg as cashier and prepare food. I really enjoy working there, and the food & environment of the place is really good.

But the past two weeks I have been off work with a separated shoulder so I am going to share some of the positives and negatives of the last two weeks:

Positives

+ More time to read my bible

+ Catching up on sleep and feeling more rested

+ Having time to spend with locals

+ Having time to relax and talk with people

Negatives

- Not being able to work and make money

- Not getting to interact with co-workers

- Having to sit out physical activities (fishing, ultimate, etc.)

Week off

Every Sunday our project and some of the locals get together to play ultimate frisbee. This week during the 3rd game of the night i ran into someone and separated my shoulder. I am off work and in a sling for a couple weeks and it should be back to normal in about 6 weeks. most times this injury just heals on its own with time and rest. On the positive side it should give me some time to get into my bible more, meet with some people, and catch up on sleep and other activities.

Events during the first three weeks in Alaska

The first three weeks of Summer project have been quite busy, some events so far include:

• Helping out with a Native Alaskan festival called Celebration
• A lock-in for highschool and college students
• Open-mic night at the Waffle Co.- people on project and locals showing off their musical talents
• Multiple camping and hiking trips
• Dodgeball tournament
• Ultimate frisbee games on every sunday
• Playing capture the flag/capture the person in a forest
• Going downtown to get into spiritual discussions with people
• Yesterday me and a few other people climbed Mt. Roberts after a prayer hike
• Weekly Wednesday night Cru meetings- with an event after the meetings: so far the after events have been a dance party and kickball/the gallon challenge
• Community projects- I helped out at a local soup kictchen and helping with a organization that provides furniture for those in need
• This weekend I ate 2 of the foods that have become almost legendary on project: the McKinley Mac (Basically a Big Mac with quarter pounders and maybe a different sauce)and a Bacon Maple Bar (a maple frosted long john from Breeze In)
• I got a Job at Silverbow bagels in downtown Juneau- I make sandwiches, espresso drinks, and much more.

First few days in Juneau

So me and the other Nebraska people on project got up to Juneau 2 days before the projects started. So we spent those days exploring downtown Juneau and looking for jobs. We slept over at a camp site just across the water from the Mendenhall Glacier in a pretty sweet campsite. Once the project finally started we moved into our apartments on the campus of UAS. We are split up into action groups and I live in an apartment with everyone in my action group. I have 5 other people in my action group including the action group leader Edwin who was on project here last summer. People in my action group are from all over the place: Edwin is from Wisconsin, Drew (my roommate) is from Kansas, Jeff is from Indiana, Cory is from Texas and Richard is from Deleware/originally from China.

The first few days were spent getting to know the other people on project and securing jobs. Our first trip was to Echo Ranch camp just a short hike off the end of the road. We spent alot of time out there doing projects and playing games. I helped out with the project to help build a round training pen for horses which consisted mainly of holding up wood logs for others to drill into. Then we had a basketball tournament, ultimate frisbee and a game that is a mix between dodgeball and kickball. To end the night we spent time getting into each others lives and learning about each others stories.

From Nebraska to Alaska

I am definitely starting this blog a little bit late since I got to Alaska about 3 weeks ago. But I am going to start from the beginning of my trip and go through all of the highlights that I can remember.

The Drive Up:
The trip started out in Oneill Nebraska fitting 5 people into a van with all the stuff that we would need for the summer. Everything was going well for the first few hours and then going up a large hill in South Dakota the van stopped accelerating normally. We decided to try to make it to the next town with a mechanics shop and we went about 20 below the speed limit and having to restart the car at multiple times. After chugging our way along in this way for over an hour we finally got to the town of Kadoka, South Dakota. There we learned that an engine piston was probably melted and that we would no longer be able to drive the van. So we looked at all of our options and I didnt really think that it was looking to good. So we spent a full day taking in all there is in a small town in South Dakota. The mechanic that we met there was very hospitable and we found out later that he was a strong Christian. We went to a concert with the mechanic and his wife that night and basically did whatever we could find. Spending the day in some random city was quite an unexpected adventure. So the answer to our prayers came in the form of Tompkins parents purchasing a suburban that night and getting it all ready to go by noon the day after our car broke down. It was amazing to see how everything came through to help get the group up to Alaska.

So once we got back on the road again it was pretty much just intense driving from then on. We drove for the next 36 hours with short breaks for gas and restroom. We made it through Canada in about a day and a half. Then we had to stop on a road up a mountain for about 4-5 hours because of blizzarding snow and fog and then drove for the 12 hours to finish up the drive.

We arrived at Haines the night before our ferry left. Our ferry took a couple hours to get from Haines to Juneau. Then we arrived in Juneau a couple days before project began.

Overall the trip was pretty enjoyable and it made for some good bonding moments, especially the stop in Kadoka,SD. One negative thing about the drive was that I definitely have trouble sleeping in cars so there was a couple day period with only a couple days of sleep. The trip was a good experience and turned out to be quite an adventure.