We have now arrived in Akutan.....actually, we got here on Wednesday late afternoon. The flight in was incredible! The Grumman Goose took off from Dutch Harbor and took about 20min to fly across the islands that separate it from Akutan. The uninhabited islands were green and lush below us, and we could see the rocky cliffs that descended into the ocean below. Our pilot took us in a wide circle over the island of Akutan before he brought us in skimming over the water toward Safe Harbor Church, where Margo and Gary awaited our arrival. How good it was to see them! Our luggage had not made the flight in from Anchorage..........a pump had broken on one of the islands, and all luggage was low priority while they got the parts sent out on planes. However, it did arrive the next day, so we were in good shape.
After catching up with Margo and Gary, Carol and I joined them for the walk to the Trident plant where we will eat many of our meals. Of course we had to meet many of the people who worked there and many are friends of Margo and Gary.......it seems they know everyone! The plant is very impressive, and is the largest fish processing plant in the country. There are dorms there where the worker live and they seem really well cared for. They are provided uniforms and these are laundered for them and so is all their personal laundry!! We ate our dinner in the dining room with the workers, and the food was good and plentiful with lots of variety, and choices.
After walking home from dinner, Carol and I decided our day had been long enough.......we had a 2:30AM wake up call at our hotel in Seattle....and begged off Bible Study to go to bed.
Thursday morning we got to sleep in and then have a leisurely breakfast....around 10:30......my kind of morning! In the afternoon, Margo, Carol and I walked into the village, to meet more of Margo's friends, check at the post office for our "lost" boxes of fabric, and visit the school, tribal council, clinic and church. The school was really impressive, with bright, large classrooms, and a big gym. There are only 8 students this year in grades K-12, so even the pre-schoolers were in the large building. There is a married couple, Art and Dawn, who "run" the school, and do a great job with the kids. We will be working with the children on several small sewing projects, starting next week. They will come here to the church to sew, so we don't have to drag sewing machines back and forth.
After returning from the village, we made preparations for the Patchwork Tea Margo had planned for the women of the village and also those at Trident. We had 25 women come for tea and desserts, and had a lovely evening talking about quilting. Carol shared her story, and many women were blessed with hearing it. I think Carol's ministry here will be very important. She is so good at sharing herself and making women feel comfortable and at ease. I feel so blessed to have her with me on this trip. She is great at "going with the flow" and being flexible is very necessary here.....beside which, she's so much fun!
It was decided because of the crazy work schedule everyone has here, we would try running a "round the clock" quilting class. We would offer to teach anyone, whenever it was they were free to come. They only needed to show up at the church, and we would get them started quilting, The women from Trident wanted to start right away, but many of the women from the village wanted to begin after this weekend, when they had the big Akutan Holiday celebration. Two women wanted to start Friday morning, so we set up a 11am quilting time. Well, no one showed up, and when we ran into one of the ladies at lunch time, she said she had overslept. However, we talked with one man at lunch, and he said he'd like to make a quilt, so we ended up after lunch, starting our quilting class with two MEN! By the time we quit sewing two hours later, three women had joined our class. We quilted until about 4, when word came that fish had come in and everyone was called back to work. We're expecting maybe a few more women will come after they get off work tonight, but time will tell.
Thank you all for your messages, and all your prayers and thoughts. The support is wonderful for us, and we are so happy you "are there". Please continue to pray that our fabric arrives. We have shipped over a dozen boxes up here over the last two months, but less than half have arrived yet. There was no plane in today, so there probably won't be any more mail here until Monday, and we may be out of fabric by then!! Our batting did arrive (Thanks, Elsie Campbell!) so we're thankful for that. We had them send a "tracer" on the boxes yesterday at the Post Office, so maybe they will arrive next week.
Until next time.......
Kitty and Carol
