$1000 Grocery Bill

How is that possible you may be asking yourself? Is it really that much more expensive to live in the bush (rural Alaska)? Possibly, but you see, there is a company called Span Alaska. They "barge" groceries up to us rural people from down in the lower 48. You really can get a lot better of a deal doing it this way. The only problem is that they require you to put in an order for 25 cases. For example, 24 cans of green beans is considered a case. So, after going through their catalog we put in an order. The groceries will come in on the last barge of the season. It sets sail from Seattle on September 5 and should roughly take a month to get up here. Needless to say we didn't buy any perishable items. Remind me in October when the barge gets here and I'll post a picture of what $1000 worth of groceries looks like. It better look it alot!

On a different topic, the other day I got a call at home from one of my Talent Search students. You see, while she was here at camp the State Troopers where trying to find time to come talk to her about things that happened back in her home village (I still don't know the whole story and based on what I do know I really don't want to know the rest of the story). Anyways, when she left camp I gave her my card and put my home number on the back and told her if she needed anything while she was in town (she was staying with her sister in Bethel) that she could call me. Well, I got a call one night asking if I had some money she could borrow for some food. Her sister wasn't getting paid for a few more days and they didn't have much food at home. Being the softy I am, I of course told her that I had some money she could use. Well, a few days after that call I got another call. Her sister still hadn't gotten paid and she wanted to borrow more money. Eric had talked to one of his coworkers after the first call and his coworker suggested that if it happened again to have them meet me at the grocery store and buy them some groceries. At least this way we knew what the money was being spent on. So, I met the girl at the grocery store and bought her some groceries. She was really good about asking about things before she would put things in the cart. She never asked about candy or chips, but she did ask about pop. I told her she could have 1 - 20 oz bottle. We also gave them some of the elk burger that we still had in the freeze from September. I'm hoping I don't receive another call from her. I'm glad that I am in the position to help her out, but I don't want her to take advantage of me. Good thing I will be heading out of town soon and will not have to be around if she calls again. Guess next time, I will be a little more cautious when hand out my cards to the students!