After looking for a job for one year, I ended up in the place I started: Antarctica.
This time, a new adventure is unfolding which will bring me through a winter season:
no flights, no fresh food, no mail, no sunlight.
Travel, friends, and family await.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

something in the mail

This is the time of season when we can start making some plans for August when our WINFLY (Winter Fly In) flights will begin. This year, our first flight is tentatively planned for 20 August. We expect five C-17 flights around that time. It's usually the coldest time of the year and also when the sun begins to rise; at last.

From what I hear, it's a particularly strange time; as those of us who have been here all winter have to adjust to new faces, a loss of priviledges that a smaller community merits, and a few new viruses that rear their ugly head from The States and New Zealand. This year, we will have an abnormally large WINFLY group come; including close to 300 new people. This will nearly triple our current size.

In any case, the really great announcement this week was this:
There will be both letter and package mail coming down! Over 10,000 pounds has been allocated. Not sure which flight(s) will have mail yet.
This is a morale boost for those of us who have been physically cut off from the rest of the world. My address on the right side of my blog.* I would love to see a letter, or two...

*My disclaimer is that I may not be able to send anything in return.

1 comment:

hisgoodnews said...

Do I gather from reading this that C-17's land and take off only when there is sunlight at your Station?
What kind of government do you have there? For example, do you have someone like a Mayor who oversees everything at the station and a board of supervisors under that person?
Will extra supplies be brought in to support the 300 people arriving or were those supplies already air lifted there before winter?
Hopefully the H1N1 virus doesn't arrive there. That virus has spread to many countries already.
Interesting how snail mail is still very much appreciated there.