The Simple Joys of Life!: I'm a Radio Celebrity!

So it really has been an interesting first week. I'm attempting to balance adjusting to the cold weather with the amount of work that I'm going to be doing all summer and all the while meeting new people from around the town and getting to know the other seven girls that I work with. So I realized today that I didn't really tell anyone what I'm really doing up here and the reason that I titled this post the way I did. So for the next few hopefully not too many sentences I will try to explain what my job is and how I'm a radio celebrity! So my job title is a Summercise Intern for the Norton Sound Health Corporation, CAMP Department (CAMP stands for Chronic care Active Management and Prevention). So what Summercise is basically a summer camp for kids to get kids in motion; it has two sessions that last for 3 weeks each, and different classes are taught and the kids get to pick and sign up for them. The classes I'm teaching is gardening, basketball, softball/kickball, swimming, cooking up culture, bite into it (vitamins with foods), flag football, great outdoors, and xtreme xpeditions! I know that it seems like a lot of classes but they are spread out and not all in the same session. Aside from working Summercise this internship allows us to experience different things like working in Step by Step a program that helps people learn about diabetes prevention and get to check blood sugar and blood pressure. Also, we partake in Summer Lunch for the kids, PMH (pre-maternal home) that lets us teach a class to soon to be mothers from surrounding villages about the benefits of breastfeeding and information about infant health. We get the chance to make nutrition display boards to help bring education to the community; and write a newsletter article to be published and sent out to people in the community and villages. We also get to work in community for a service project that we create, and the Diabetes Prevention Program, and Running/Walking Club. There is a few more things that I will get to do but I bet this is getting long already. So far I already know that this is going to be a really busy summer! So by now your still probably wondering how I'm a radio celebrity, well okay.... I think I can tell you! So another project is to create a radio spot and I volunteered to try it out. I got to give a minute radio spot that airs all day about nutrition and the importance of being active, so here is the really neat thing is that about 30,000 people can here the broadcast all summer in Nome, the surrounding villages, most parts of Alaska, down to Seattle, And across in Russia and Japan! I think that its pretty cool! I will also get the chance to travel to surrounding villages to talk about nutrition. So far I could not have asked for a more amazing chance to do what I love in such a unique place!

So this is the radio station that you can tune into in the region to hear me talk about nutrition

This is Moose soup and in the back is the Salmon Jerky and pilot bread with blackberry jam (homemade). A native Alaskan treat!

The Moose soup up close

A mountain from far away that still has some snow!

The snowy mountains on a cloudy morning.

A view from far away.

A view from the street leading out of town

More mountain views.

Okay these pictures are from this morning when I decided to go bird watching at 7am, which it was under 40 degrees out! I did get the chance to see some birds that had migrated from Hawaii, and other birds that come from all over like southeast Asia and above the Arctic Circle. So here are just a few pics from that early morning adventure!