In this land of ice, the only thing worth it is the salary!

Living at -26 degrees, as low as the mercury dropped in recent months in this land bound by ice and snow, is not at all pleasant. The only thing worth it here is the salary - says for the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP) Bosnian Mersiha Halilić, whose family is one of about twenty Bosnian-Herzegovinian families living in the north of America.

She says that people from BiH living in Alaska have gotten used to its harshness. Besides, the infrastructure of cities and life here is adapted to extreme conditions.

- People here know they have to get up earlier, to heat the car engine using special cables and the city power grid so that the oil in it thins out. If you don't do that, you'll have to walk to work or take public transport. But, people here know that, and such oversights don't happen to anyone - says Mersiha.

She adds that Alaska doesn't have much to offer.

- Here you can earn money, salaries are high, but life is desolate. The local population is good-natured and ready to host a stranger as much as they can. The Alaska government invests a lot to attract refugees from other countries. However, it is very difficult. For several years now, only about 600,000 people have been living here - explains Mersiha.

Mersiha and her family moved to Alaska eight years ago. They live in the city of Anchorage, where half of the total population of this state, which belongs to the United States of America, lives. Mersiha's husband Nermin, together with his brother, owns a company dealing with electrical installations, while she maintains a large number of luxury villas of local wealthy people. Mersiha is originally from Visoko, and her husband is from Breza.

- If you want to work, you can earn enough money, but everything else is not so good. The weather is very depressing. And people who have problems with depression cannot live here. In just three to four months, spring, summer and autumn change, and the remaining eight months are winter and night, which lasts more than 20 hours. Snow does not go away even when summer is in full swing. In some places, there is even snow during July - explains Mersiha, adding that life during long winter nights is maintained on the main streets, which are lit, and in shopping centers.

Their healthcare system, she says, is very poor, and the food is nothing to boast about either.

- The healthcare system works almost like a banking system. If you get cancer, and you go through medical therapies, but you don't have the money to pay for it, the hospital will take your property. I know people who have lost luxury houses and cars in that way - says Mersiha.