Rose

Rose, also called Pinniq, comes from Noorvik.

She knows a lot of the people on the 45 bus Thursday morning; greeting them by name and sprinkling her conversation with Inupiaq.

She says she first came to Anchorage to look for her sister, who lived on the streets and hadn’t been heard from in years. She found her sister — just a year and a half before her sister passed away.

“After that, life went on,” she said.

Rose has been camping in Anchorage, on and off, ever since.

Oliver

Oliver Solomon’s adventures took him to Korea, India, Mongolia and Japan; then north to Alaska.

First, the 30-year-old helped build a church in Shugnak. He lived in Kotzebue for a bit, then came to Anchorage to do “bible work” with a local Seventh Day Adventist church. Just when his time in Alaska was coming to an end and he was preparing to go back home to Washington, he said, a new job came up in Mountain View.

Now, he’s part of the construction crew working at 221 Meyer St. — the 38-unit apartment complex destroyed by fire two years ago. It’s been empty until recently, when the rebuilding began. Riding the 45 bus out of Mountain View Monday morning, Solomon said it’s right where he’s meant to be.

“[God] won’t send me somewhere he won’t take care of me,” he said.