Tuesday 24 June 2008 - Manokotak

When I talk to village friends on Yahoo Messenger we inevitably refer to most villages by their airport codes.  Manokotak is KMO, Dillingham is DLG -- makes for faster typing.  It took me some getting used to at first... as did "poor" as a general negative or saddish sort of agreement.

Manokotak for the last two years has run out of fuel before the end of the winter.  This year they were out and the river still frozen, so no barge could get in.  In fact, their river is shallow, and not just ANY barge can make it anyway.  They flew gas in by plane (and you think you can complain about the cost of gasoline??).  Then they ran out again. 

Not a hundred miles from me and I had no idea they didn't have their tanks on full... I assumed with break up that a barge got in and everything was fine.  On Yahoo, I was told a friend's sister had bummed a ride with someone.  She told me they had 5 gallons of gas squirreled away and a little in the truck and a little in the ATV, but were feeling basically housebound.  (They live 7 miles outside the main village.)  I suddenly felt blessed even paying $5.51 a gallon where I am.  She went on to tell me she and her husband, even as her boys were prepping to go to fish camp with their uncle, were discussing whether they needed to move onto the road system.  I wondered for not the first time how some of these villages are going to survive, and what that will mean for the Yu'pik culture.

A barge was scheduled in there yesterday, and talking to my friend she complained that they were rationed to 20 gallons of heating oil.  I didn't ask her what it cost.  I had seen enough of the prices of things in the Bristol Bay Times article.