KAREN:  And so you started -- how did you do this, becoming a health aide with no training?  That's amazing. 

RITA:  I know.  It's -- sometimes I think about that and I -- just basic patient care, I think.  Letting people know you care about them.  Like if someone is hurting, you know, you want to fix the hurt. 

It might not be a physical pain, sometimes it's emotional or -- and I think my mother was a very good listener.  She used to sit with a lot of women when they had problems.  You know, as a health aide back then, we didn't have a clinic, but you'd meet people in the store or on the road, coming from church, and just being a good listener.  I think that's a big part of being a caregiver.  And I think that's what my mom used to do. 

And becoming a health aide back then and having no training, that's a good question, hard to think about, but it was all the basic stuff, you know. 

KAREN:  Yeah, you said you learned the basics from Willa and everything.

RITA:  Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN:  But how long was it before --

RITA:  Before training came along? 

KAREN:  -- before you got to go out and get real training? 

RITA:  Yeah.  '73 was when I first started, and it wasn't until I think Norton Sound was incorporated in 1975.  And I went to session -- I think my first session was in '76.  I went to Session 1.  And I became certified in -- did I say '75? 

KAREN:  You said Norton Sound was incorporated in '75. 

RITA:  Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN:  So you think you started training in '76.

RITA:  Yeah.  '76, '76, '77, '78.  There were CMEs I think.  I might have my dates wrong. 

Anyway, I became certified in '87, so it was '83 when I first went to my first Session 1.  And it wasn't until that time that they had this -- Norton Sound developed part time.  Back then when we were alternates, there was no training. 

KAREN:  Really? 

RITA:  We just -- we just did what the health aides did, the primary health aides did. 

KAREN:  Yeah, because the primaries got training.

RITA:  Yeah. 

KAREN:  But the alternates didn't.  I didn't realize that.

RITA:  Huh-uh (negative).

KAREN:  Because back when you first started it was Public Health Service that you worked for, right? 

RITA:  Right.  Uh-hum.  And the only training we ever got were, like, when the health -- the trainers went to the village and we would do IVs on each other and, you know, practice with the traction splint, backboarding. 
And it wasn't until the '80s that we had EMS training and they started with Session 1, Session 2.  And back then it was only through Session 3.  And I graduated or I completed certification '87. 

KAREN:  So those Session 1, 2, and 3, it was here in Nome?

RITA:  Yeah. 

KAREN:  How long was each session? 

RITA:  Each session was four weeks long.  So in '83 when I came for Session 1, my youngest daughter was an infant and I left her with my mom.  Well, I came to training.  And it was really hard back then. 

Even now today, I think these health aides are leaving their town, their home villages, leaving their babies, all their kids, and coming to training.  And usually there's not enough money to go home, like on a weekend, so four weeks away from home was -- was a big deal.

KAREN:  Yeah, I've wondered. 

RITA:  Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN:  How was that for you?

RITA:  For me, I had a support -- the support from my parents, and my husband was working, he took care of the older kids, but my mom had the baby.  So just the support from our families is what helped along. 

KAREN:  Because it is amazing that it's mainly -- it's mostly been women who have done this, right? 

RITA:  Yeah.  Uh-hum. 

KAREN:  That would leave their families and children to do that. 

RITA:  Yeah. 

KAREN:  That takes an incredible person, I think. 

RITA:  Uh-hum.  Yeah.  And these husbands have to cook, clean, you know, whatever.  And I know they are capable of doing it, but seemed like back then there was a little more support than there is today. 

KAREN:  There was more support? 

RITA:  I think so, yeah.  Nowadays there's more jobs, I think more men are working so it's hard to find good baby-sitters.  And that's where a lot of the problems seem -- I think seem to come up when they come in for training. 
But Norton Sound is now developing a -- they will have a trainee come in, if they are breast feeding an infant up to a year old, they can bring their baby with them, and a sitter, and they can house them.  Which is very nice. 

KAREN:  Yeah. 

RITA:  I wish they had that back then. 

KAREN:  Yeah, that's nice.

RITA:  Uh-hum (affirmative).