After leaving the Minneapolis airport yesterday afternoon with the Crock Pot ready for an adventurous spring break, and a long evening of traveling, we arrived to the house we are staying at in Anchorage at about midnight. Upon waking up to start our first official day in Alaska, we realized that the house we are staying in had a beautiful view of the mountains. We began our first full day in Anchorage today by being woken up by Paula saying we could sleep in later because the first person we were scheduled to meet with needed to reschedule. Due to having our first engagement rescheduled, we had time to go explore a bit of downtown Anchorage. As we walked down the street, we checked out several gift shops, including a fur store. We then drove to the Alaska Native Medical Center for a delicious lunch that included reindeer stew, salmon, and fry bread. Following lunch, we toured the Alaska Native Medical Center which provides comprehensive medical services and acute, specialty, primary and behavioral health care to the Alaska Native and American Indian population in Alaska. At the beginning of our tour, we met a lady named Melissa, who is from Kotzebue, and we offered to bring something up for her if she wanted to send anything with us for her family and/or friends that are in Kotzebue. We then toured the Southcentral Foundation and learned about how they primarily use non-pharmacologic treatments, their focus on holistic medicine and their use of several natural remedies traditionally used by Alaska Natives. The Southcentral Foundation works to improve the health and social conditions of Alaska Native and American Indian people as well as empower people to take charge of their lives. Following these two tours, we returned to the house for supper before heading to the Alaska Native Heritage Center to meet Yaari. Yaari was kind enough to reschedule our meeting from earlier in the day due to a personal scheduling conflict, and we learned so much about her personal experience and her experience with natural medicines. She explained about how she uses natural medicine in her life and in the lives of those she helps heal. She was also able to explain what she does as a shaman and how she is able to use healing touch, and even gave us a demonstration using a student. We ended our first day in Alaska by playing games and becoming even more excited for adventures to come during the remainder of our trip!
AuthorHi! My name is Megan Hamernik and I am a senior nursing student at The College of St. Scholastica. While on this wonderful trip to Alaska, I was able to spend time in Anchorage, Talkeetna, Seward, Kotzebue, and Alyeska. Please continue reading to learn about my amazing capstone experience in Alaska! ArchivesCategories |