the honeybucket hover

It's been a crazy month. February is almost over, and the countdown has begun for my final weeks as a VISTA volunteer here in Bethel. I have ten weeks left to accomplish the rest of my goals that were given to me, in hopes of jumpstarting tourism on the YK Delta. I feel really good about everything I've accomplished so far. I've coordinated several small business workshops to help people get business licenses, so we can have more to offer in the way of tourism (ie. boat rentals, snow machine rentals, adventure travel companies.) I became an instructor of Alaska Host, a customer service training program that helps enhance good customer service skills in individuals in the visitor industry. It's an easy class for me to teach. Waiting tables for five years has enabled me to experience every scenario possible, good and bad. Of course I leave out any scenario involving me spilling food on someone. Another accomplishment: I created a preliminary brochure for "What to See and Do in Bethel." Every city has a brochure. Well, almost every city. We don't. So I've been trying to create one. I did read a list of 58 things to do while visiting Bethel, Alaska that someone wrote a few years ago. Coming in at number 30, was "Help a musher clean up a dog yard." Even the most pessimistic people in Bethel can think of something better for tourists to do than scrape poop off the ground. That list definitely won't be sparking any cruise ship interest in the Bethel area anytime soon. So hopefully I can tighten things up a bit in that department. And I'm currently working on getting visitor information in our main airport. If anyone reading this has ever been to Bethel, I'm sure you can agree this is a much needed attribute and long overdue project. As of right now, there is one brochure rack hanging on the wall at the airport. There are probably three different brochures in the rack, although they take up nine of the twelve slots, that way it appears full. I'm assuming that is why. But there is no sign, or easy-to-read brochure that quickly provides numbers of hotels, restaurants and phone numbers for cab companies. And that is what I hope to change before I leave.

Promoting Bethel is a hard task to have in the harsh winter months. It can have a way of slapping you around a bit. You can't drive out of Bethel. You can't go see a movie. You can't go the mall. There's no happy hour. No Taco Bell or Starbucks. I could go on and on. But if I did I wouldn't be doing a very good job at this whole Tourism VISTA thing. And I care about Bethel. I really do. It's just harder than I thought it would be to stay motivated and optimistic. Especially when the end of my year is nearing, and I'm so excited about seeing my friends and family. And I'm even more excited to figure out my next adventure. So it's been hard getting back into the swing of things these past few weeks. Since I got back from visiting Richmond for Christmas, I have had the hardest time focusing on my VISTA project. The first few weeks were the worst. In my mind I was still in Richmond. Still dancing in my favorite 80's bar with my best friends, and still playing Cranium with my two nephews. My two best friends here in Bethel were both gone on their vacations, and I was getting moved into my fourth and final home in Bethel. The weather was colder than I had imagined, and pipes all over town were freezing. The sewer pipe at my house was frozen and then ended up bursting. What does that equal? That equals two weeks of using a five gallon bucket, or as we call it, a "honey-bucket." A honey-bucket without a seat, at that! So we had to do a little something I like to call "the honey-bucket hover!" It was funny the first two days. My roommate, Mandy, and I figured that surely a plumber would rush over and save the day. But little did we know we were near the end of a long list of temporary honey-bucket subscribers. So for a little over two weeks, we tried to keep our spirits up as well walked down the street with bags of Bethel goodness to toss in the trash. I told my roommate she should just use her cat's litter box. And her cat might even cover it up for her. Haha, I don't think she found it as funny as I did.