Traumatic experience in Alaska

Daniel Džunev

When I was younger, I used to sing in a choir. We have been in many foreign countries across Europe together, but I also had the opportunity to travel to Alaska with the choir.

My story is about our visit in Alaska, which I enjoyed the most from all the countries. The landscape of Alaskan nature is truly beautiful, actually I am a huge lover of nature, so the great outdoors is what caught my eye the most. Back then, I was 11 years old, therefore my english wasn't sufficient enough to communicate with the host family on my own, so I was placed in family with much older friend Vojta (16). The host family consisted of parents and three children (Antonio, Mathias and sister Nayeli). We have been experiencing the life in Fairbanks (the biggest city, yet not capital) for about 1 month. We had a lot of singing stuff scheduled, such as rehearsals and several auditions/concerts. Even so we managed to travel to Denali National Park and many places of interest near Fairbanks. Even though it was in summer time, we could throw snowballs at each other around the Denali Park glaciers.

To bring the plot. One day, our host family took us canoeing. We were divided into two canoes with the proviso that there was an Alaskan Malamute puppy on the other canoe. We paddled down the river Chena, and everything was going smoothly, although I was getting very exhausted by the paddling. All of the sudden, the second canoe flipped over and everyone fell in the water all at once. A moment later, there was a question asked: ''Where is Kemo?!''. The poor dog was trapped under the canoe, and I am not sure if he was able to breathe or not, because we couldn't see him. After lightning fast intervention of the host dad, Kemo was rescued and brought to the shore. I could see in Kemo's eyes and body language, that he is really frightened and shocked. From this moment on, he was afraid of getting close to any water area. Kemo experienced a real trauma by drowning for a while and it had a huge impact on him. My memories are little bit fuzzy, but I think we couldn't continue canoeing.

3 years after this incident, I saw a facebook post, in which Ellen -the host mother-writes about Kemo overcoming his trauma and reuniting with water once again. This warmed my heart and I am glad, that this story has a happy end.

edited by: K. P.