Nolita Madros, Transcript Section 1

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Nolita Madros,
Transcript Section 1

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MARLA: Okay. My name is Marla Statscewich, it is October 26, 2005. And I'm in Anaktuvuk Pass at the clinic here with Nolita Madros.

And I just want to thank you very much for agreeing to do this interview. If you just wanted to maybe start with a little background information, where you were born, your family, and then we can go from there.

NOLITA: I'm the daughter of the late George Madros, Sr., and Anna Madros, who was also a former health aide. And I grew up in Kaltag, Alaska. And I've been a health aide in several villages throughout Alaska. I'm the last of 10 children.

MARLA: Wow.

NOLITA: And I have one son.

MARLA: Okay. And so you grew up mostly in Kaltag?

NOLITA: Yes.

MARLA: Okay. And then your -- your mom was the health aide there for how long?

NOLITA: I think 25, 26 years.

MARLA: So what was that like growing up in a house where your mom was a health aide? Did she have patients come to the house or?

NOLITA: When -- when I was very, very young, I remember they -- they used to come in and get checked and they had their little pharmacy white box with the little padlock, it was all wood, and all the -- it was like the bottom half of a refrigerator and all the drugs used to fit in there. I know. A wooden box. Later it moved to a different building.

But it was okay, I guess, oh, there was nights she would be out all night with emergencies. And then as I got older, some nights I'd have to go with her. Which is, oh, why is it my turn, why couldn't Georgianna go.
Georgianna was my older sister. But we used to take turns.

MARLA: So did you go with her because you were helping her?

NOLITA: No. No. Because it was dark and cold and because sometimes it was rainy and she was the only one on call that -- that particular week or whatever, and she didn't like to walk around in the dark by herself.

MARLA: Oh, okay.

NOLITA: So. And sometimes my dad used to go with her, too, so.

MARLA: Okay. And so was she a role model for you in becoming a health aide or how did you become a health aide?

NOLITA: How did I become a health aide? Well, health care was always a part of my family because I -- I grew up with it, my mom being a health aide.

But when I got out of high school, I went into the Job Corps and did the whole carpentry thing, and I worked as a carpenter probably 8, 9 years. And that was good. My dad was a carpenter so there was a time there I worked with him.

And then I had my son and I couldn't go out on crew anymore. So and I lived in Huslia at the time.

And I looked around, there was only very few jobs in the village that was full time. And one of the jobs was being the health aide and CHR in Huslia. So I was first a CHR and then later became a health aide.

MARLA: And can you explain what a CHR is?

NOLITA: At that time I went out to the elders and made sure that they were taking their meds, and just did like little daily checks on them, like once a week, twice a week, make sure they were okay. Give them enough wood, made sure they had enough food. And if there was a problem going on, I'd come back and talk to the health aide there. At that time, that was Roseanne Burroughs.

MARLA: Okay.

NOLITA: So. And after about a year and a half of doing that, it just kind of -- I learned everything I needed to know to be a CHR and I just wanted to know more.

So there was a position open but it was in a different village, it was in Ruby, so I went ahead and signed up for that. And I did, transferred from being a CHR to a CHP. And it's been a learning experience since then.

MARLA: So what --