McMurdo Station is a small city. Like cities everywhere, the quality of life depends on the infrastructure that we hardly think about and the people who make everything work. It’s important that water runs, toilets flush, lights turn on, and food is available (and yummy). In a place like Antarctica, there are also many special needs: snowmobiles require servicing, equipment must be assembled and packaged into cargo, logistics must be scheduled, food must be pulled, newbies must be trained in the equipment and the environment, and more. The past few days we have had the privilege of spending time with a wide spectrum of the McMurdo Village People that make life and research in Antarctica possible.  These folks include the people that we worked with directly for training and assembling and logistics, as well as our friends who work in the kitchen, process our waste water, operate the power plant, and make the McMurdo water from the sea. We’d like to introduce you to a few of these wonderful colleagues – and there are many, many more who help make ANSMET successful.

–Cindy in sunny McMurdo Station, 10 December 2015