KAREN:  Okay.  Today is April 1st, 2006.  This is Karen Brewster, and I'm here with Paula Ayunerak.  We are in Bethel at the Bentley Bed and Breakfast.  Paula is from Alakanuk.  And during -- actually agreed to come to Bethel to do this interview for the Community Health Aide Project.  Thank you, Paula, for coming all this way and agreeing to participate. 

PAULA:  You're welcome. 

KAREN:  Why don't we start out a little bit, tell us about yourself so that people know, you know, where you're from, where you were born, a little bit of your family background. 

PAULA:  Uh-hum (affirmative).  I was born in Fox Village.  It's between Black River and Scammon Bay.  And my father was from that area and my mother from Scammon Bay.  That was in 1938.  And I -- we lived there until I was about 11, 12 years old, then we moved to New Knockhock, it's close to (indiscernible) Mountain.  And we lived there for, I don't know how many years. 

And then in the summer of -- summer of 1953, my mother sent me to St. Mary's to go to school.  I was 15 then.  And so I finally went to school and went through -- started from third grade on until I was seventh grade.  And then I went to hospital for TB for 10 months, and then when I went back, I went back to St. Mary's and finished my eighth grade, and then I went to high school in Tacoma, Washington. 

Because when I was in hospital with TB, I got into some people there that were good friends of mine and so I start -- I lived with one of the ladies, lady friends there, and I went to school and -- for three years and one summer to complete high school. 

Then -- then I went to nurses training for one year and stayed for one -- maybe one more year, and then I went home and became a health aide. 
And there was people who were untrained, and especially one of the teachers was busy being teacher and being health aide in the village.  And this was on volunteer basis.  We didn't get paid. 

And then I had health aide trainings.  Then I continued on to college courses and got my Associate of Science Degree in Health in 1997. 
And I was health aide for 27 years.  And supervisor instructor for 16 years.  And I was teaching health aides for 16 years through teleconference, doing research in -- all about the body and the sicknesses that goes along with it.  So I still provide that with Delta Discovery little pieces about health. 

And I never went to school, like I said, from the time I can remember until I was 15 years old, but when I look back, that was the best teaching, education I ever got, in my own culture, and my parents taught me everything that I can use to be a -- to be a person that can be strong, profitable. 

And then when I finally went to school at the age of 15, I start learning about Western culture.  So it's -- it's good to be bilingual now. 

And all the teachings that my parents taught me was very useful during that elementary, seven years of elementary I had, and in the high school, and also in college courses I took and all the teaching I did, you know.  Everything they taught me, I -- I think it's because of, you know, teaching well done by my parents.