Elephants in Nunavut?

I was notified today that I'd passed my immunization test so this afternoon did my witnessed injections. It was one of those 'just do it all at once' kind of things as I helped with twins. With the number of shots provided here in Nunavut (it's a very comprehensive list) there's no problem getting immunization practice.  

As you see the english translation is much shorter than the Inuinnaqtun version of where I spent my time last night. As second on call last night I went to bed about 11 pm, then got a call from the NOC at quarter to one to come over to the HC. We were there until 3 am and I could NOT fall back to sleep, finally drifted off after 4 am and up again at 7:30 to head over to work. It was a fairly steady start to the day but there was a very strong sewer gas odour in certain part as of the centre. By 10:30 am the decision had been made to close the building down and for staff to check back by 1 pm. This allowed me to run some errands that were unlikely to get taken care of otherwise as my working hours correlate with much of Cambridge Bay. 

Coolest little shop in Nunavut

I did a little shopping at The Arctic Closet which is a nice little gift shop sporting some work from across the territory. It bills itself as the coolest little shop in Nunavut. I stopped at Polarnet to see about my modem as the ethernet cable doesn't fit in tightly and was told to just bend the cable to fit. Um okay. Then I made my way to Kitikmeot Foods to pick up the arctic char I plan to take home. Got two big fillets and two packages of char jerky and will return next week for musk ox burgers. Apparently they can only cut red meat when the CFIA inspectors are on site. It was nippy but a great walk and a good way to clear my head and lungs from the fumes. 

Elephants in Nunavut?

Returned after lunch and did the immunizations then we were sent home again. Well, actually the HC was closed but the nurses on call kept working as where else were they going to see patients? The other problem was that all the front desk staff quickly disappeared when allowed to leave so there was no one to register patients and people kept calling as if it were a regular clinic day and there was no one to answer the phones. I offered to stay and help, or relieve the staff who had been working in the fumes even for a few hours but they declined so after asking twice, I made my way along as well. I was intrigued to see that the brisk temperatures didn't slow down the kids on the playground equipment at the school. Perhaps it's the very basic television service which is mostly reruns. I took a short walk - was stalked by one of the dogs which roam the streets - and wondered if my pepper spray would work in these temperatures. I am not reassured when my roommate (who has only been here intermittently for two years) tells me she's been bitten twice. This leads to talk of the polar bear tracks seen in town, where the grizzlies are etc. 

I am on call this weekend and at report this morning it was discussed as being the really busy weekend for ETOH related issues. It's the week after payday so you would think that the payday weekend would be the one to watch out for. Apparently it takes a while to get liquor shipped in and you have to have money to order it so…..Good to look forward to that as I'm on call tomorrow and Saturday. So after a quick supper of frozen pizza, I think it will be an early night after the rather short one last night.