Unemployment runs about 30% in Hooper Bay, and alcohol and drug abuse are serious problems. Many of the parents get drunk or otherwise chemically impaired every night, and wind up shouting and cursing at each other, or worse. As a result, many of the kids choose to get out of the house at night, during the times of greatest turmoil.
Being so far north, the sun doesn't set on Hooper Bay until much later at night. In fact, while we were there, it got dark about 2-2:30 AM each day.
If you combine these two factors, you create a situation where people are up all night. People yelling, couples fighting, dogs barking, four-wheelers racing around town--the hours from midnight until 6 AM are the busiest, loudest time of the day. Conversely, the town is deathly quiet until noon or so every day--everyone one is sleeping on or sleeping it off.
We started serious work today...putting up sheet rock on the ceilings of the buildings (in Hooper Bay, they refer to the ceiling as the "lid") and finishing some general framing of both buildings.
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