KAREN:  Well, you -- after those first eight months of training you had here in Bethel when you first started, did you get other training? 

PAULA:  Well, I had so many trainings.  I had Session 1, 2, 3 and 4, preceptorship, and all kinds of other trainings. 

Like I went to Anchorage one time and I -- I stayed -- for one week, I stayed in -- I had training in CDC.  And all -- it was all about sexually transmitted diseases.  Like gonorrhea, syphilis, maybe -- what do you call that liver disease -- I can't remember that name now.  Anyway, I -- anything, you know, about AIDS. 

One thing -- one thing I've learned in the village that preventative, anything that you can prevent it from happening, and the people to understand it.  Like when they first start getting AIDS out in the states, YKHC was teaching about AIDS in the villages, and I did -- I taught that in the villages, too.  And understand it.  And I think that kind of prevent a lot of AIDS -- AIDS cases. 

And also to under -- for the families to understand those kind of people instead of rejecting them, they -- you know, they know what the disease is and they work with them and accept them as they are instead of putting them down.  So that was good. 

And people never used to have diabetes.  And I think all the junk food and especially pop, pop's got lots of sugar, like a can of pop will have something like 11 teaspoons of sugar. 

KAREN:  Wow. 

PAULA:  And diet pop, people drink it, but it's got something in it.  I used to know it.  Something sulfur in it.  So it's not good drinking.  The best drinking people can satisfy their thirst is with water or fruit juice instead of pop. 

KAREN:  Yes. 

PAULA:  All the junk food, I always blame it on -- even the elders just love to drink pop. 

KAREN:  Besides diabetes, any other differences you've seen in disease and things you've had to deal with from when you started and when you retired? 

PAULA:  We -- we never used to have asthma.  And then very, very, very few people start getting asthma.  And then nowadays, lots of people have asthma, even little kids have asthma. 

In the past, we never used to have that.  Diabetes, we never used to have. 

And when I first became a health aide, there was lots of impetigo and draining ears.  And we've overcome that.  And you hardly see draining ears anymore.  You hardly see impetigo anymore.  And when I became -- when I start travelling to the villages, in one village there was lots of boils.  So one time the health aides and myself start talking, every time I go to a village, we always have a meeting.  When we had meeting, we decided the boils are going to be their priorities.  So prioritize who always get and take care of that.  And, you know, eventually, boils went away.  But they are coming back here and there. 

And having water and sewer system makes -- makes it better to -- I mean, got rid of those, like impetigo because people are cleaner.  And it's easy access to water, both warm water and cold water. 

In the past, in the past, you -- you have to pack water and warm enough water to take a bath.  But now all you have to do is fill up the tub and you're there. 

KAREN:  So. 

PAULA:  So that has helped a lot of people.

KAREN:  So houses in Alakanuk have running water? 

PAULA:  Yes.  And -- but there's a few there still pack water.

KAREN:  When did the village get running water? 

PAULA:  Maybe six years ago. 

KAREN:  Wow. 

PAULA:  It could be more than that. 

And then I used to write to environmental health or somewhere out in Washington, I used to write a letter to people about environmental health prevention like -- like places where they have, you know, just trying to let that village become -- have water and sewer because there's lots of -- they have places where they can empty their honey buckets, but they are still spilling on the, you know, ground.  And ground or sidewalks.  And the children don't see those as dangerous, something dangerous.  They just play, you know.  So -- and I'm so glad that those villages now have water.
 
KAREN:  Yes.