Monday 11 July 2016, week 9: Buldir Island, 18:56

Bear with me as – for the first time – there wasn’t a point during the last week when I thought, “I can write a blog entry about that.”

Somehow we appear to be around the halfway mark for our time on Buldir. How that’s possible, I’m not sure. McKenzie made some comment about how that’s what happens when you don’t take a day off for the first month. This is the same McKenzie who shared, “Wouldn’t it be cool – if we pooped clouds?” as we were watching fog roll up the trail where we’d been hiking from Spike Camp, so who knows how much stock to put in the things she says.
Kevin’s best line of the season so far is one about a quote from a teabag tag: Friendship is like a sheltering tree. “That’s why there are no trees on Buldir. We aren’t friends here.”

Apparently I live with a deep thinker and a curmudgeon, but I have no problem with that. Those two don’t think I’m introverted, and I think they’re on the quieter side of introversion; yet we all get along just fine and are having a nice summer.

I feel like I part-time play the part of mom and/or soccer mom. In many of my field camps I’ve enjoyed being the first in the main living area to get the heater started and water boiling so others can have their “wake me up” beverage as soon as possible. Providing for the wants of others and having a little alone time are my ideal camp mornings.

Although we don’t always stick together on the hike to Spike Camp, and we do split up the food we carry over there, I pack extra “just in case” we’re lower on some item than we remembered.

Personalities and camp dynamics are often emphasized more than questions about work skills during interviews for jobs in remote field camps. In the wrong circumstances, island life isn’t for everyone. Putting an extrovert on an island with only an extreme introvert for company probably wouldn’t work out well for anyone. In these field camps we’re working communities with only each other for conversation.

The only vocal contact we have with the outside world comes from our daily radio calls. Through marine radio Lisa calls WZ3423 Tiglax, then the camps on Chirikof, Chowiet, Aiktak, Ugamak, and finally KOD681 Buldir from her KWL Adak base. She makes sure we’re alive and well, gets updates on our daily activities, and provides us with NOAA weather forecasts and whatever sports news or fun facts we request.

Sure, we’re isolated on our islands, but being around each other most of the time means we can appreciate the same discomforts and joys, joke about our aches, and talk about pooping out clouds.