moving to Bethel Alaska (renting, houses, suite)

[teamcoltra]

How is Bethel?

[r2thekore]

I'm in and out of Bethel for my job ALL the time.... As it is pretty much the hub for all of the bush villages (Fly in and out on Yute, Grant, and Hageland) ... It was terribly windy and snowy yesterday.... worse weather than the coastal bush villages. In regards to grocery prices..... It has JUST about broken my energy drink habit. Seriously ... 4 to 5 dollars for one kills my wallet!... I wonder how the whole... Bethel turning into a Wet village will effect the crimerate and drinking incidents....

[selnise]

I and my 21 yr old daughter are thinking of doing a 13 week rotation in Bethel.
What do you think? Is it safe to be there ? (being 2 gals that is)
Part of my job requires going to the different villages for a few days at a time.
I am concerned about safety and welfare. i am no spring chicken..
Hope you can help me..

[warptman]

Come on out, you'll be fine!

[creeboo]

yep, you'll be fine. I'm raising my 5 kids here and they are all fine. I feel safer in Bethel at 10pm than I would in Anchorage.

"They" (I'm assuming YK) doesn't generally send people alone to villages. I doubt they would give you a "tough" village as a newbie - they want you to come back and do more work!

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by selnise

Part of my job requires going to the different villages for a few days at a time.
I am concerned about safety and welfare.

Let me give you some perspective. First though... my first visit to Bethel was something more than 4 decades ago... when it was a really scary place! I knew that because everyone in Anchorage told me so, including the stewardess on the airplane flying out there!

A co-worker picked me up at the airport, which in those days was a 4-1/2 mile ride down a muddy dirt road to town (today it's a paved highway). It took us about an hour and half to make the trip! Nah, not the mud... it was the friends! We stopped maybe 5 or 6 times along the way to say hello and introduce me to somebody! I tell you no lie, by the time I was actually in town I realized that I'd found the right place for me. (I got married there, moved up the river to Aniak, which you will be visiting, and stayed for a long time. My employment finally forced me to move elsewhere, or I'd still be there.)

Here's the deal with Alaskan villages, as seen by a guy who has visited about half of them (everywhere in Western Alaska, the Interior, and the North Slope). You have never been, and probably can't find, any place where you would be safer. Everyone is aware that you are there and don't know a thing about the place. They are all watching out for your safety, because in a village it isn't what someone else does to you that harms you, it's what you do. It's who you choose for friends. Who you party with, and in particular who you drink with. You need not fear strangers at all.

Now, notice how that is vastly different than virtually any urban area in the US. Dark alleys are dangerous. Any stranger is a threat. Lock the doors, bar the windows, have a gun and a telephone handy. That is how Americans grow up learning to be safe.

So said American goes to a village... every path is a "dark alley", every person is a stranger with odd characteristics, a strange language, strange clothes, and who knows what else! So in an Alaskan village these folks are scared half to death, and commonly go home to describe how frightened they were. But in fact every stranger they'd seen was being protective of them.

Unfortunately it doesn't work well in the other direction. Village people learn to be afraid of family and friends, and simply do not worry about strangers (in a village where you live, the only strangers are ones who get off the airplane and are virtually never a danger). So they don't learn the kind of defense mechanisms needed in an urban area. They go to Anchorage or Fairbanks... and do dumb things. They'll get into any car if offered a ride. They'll sit in a bar and talk to anyone. They'll walk down a dark alley just to save walking around the block. They get murdered and raped at higher rates than exist anywhere else in the US.

[AKSteveB]

Question for the Bethel folks. I've been to some of the major bush towns (Barrow, Dutch Harbor, Nome, Dillingham, Kotzebue), but I've never been to Bethel. Barrow, Dutch, and Nome get a fair number of touristas, and even Dillingham gets some of the fishing charter/lodge people), but as far as I know, Bethel doesn't. Will the local people figure I'm utterly batsh*t for just coming up to look and talk to folks? Actually now that I think of it, there is a real active ham radio group there, and I'm a ham, so I can ask them too.

BTW I'm gonna try to bring my gf up to Barrow this Summer, she's never been there. This way, wherever the center of the universe happens to be, we'll know our way around a bit

[warptman]

We get our share of fishermen and rafters here to float the Kisaralik, Kanektok, and Kwethluk rivers every summer. Come on out!

[creeboo]

Will the local people figure I'm utterly batsh*t for just coming up to look and talk to folks?

like warpt said some people do come out and tour. I wouldn't come out here without a plan or some way to hook up with someone who has a boat and can get you out on the river during the summer. I'd try to aim for either summer/fishing (assuming you're an AK resident) or K300 in January/Camai at the end of March. I don't know your budget but there are boat and flight-seeing operations that can show you around the area. There aren't a lot of touristy things to do in Bethel proper (JMHO).

[AKSteveB]

It sounds similar (in that sense) to Kotzebue where I did have a friend to show me around. Kotz of course is a lot more compact than Bethel. I'll definitely set something up before I go. I'm sure someone from here or one of the ham radio guys would be willing to show me around. I actually don't much care about "tourist attractions" per se, when I do this kind of thing It's more about getting a feel for the place, the people, the topography, the culture ..well at least as much as anyone can in a short visit. Basically drop in for a week or so and hang. I'd definitely want to get on the water and visit a couple of villages.