Have kamiks will travel

Since I got called downstairs this morning, well I guess I shouldn't be surprised as I am on first call....I've been online shopping at LLBean for snow pants - going to wait for the spring sale I think - and decided to do a final update of the blog before heading out on Monday. It is snowy, with blowing snow today so not much moving in the hamlet and that suits me just fine. 



Theresa Totalik



Sealskin kamiks

 I'm posting a photo above on the left of the Inuk lady fitting the kamiks which were delivered yesterday. Her husband who works with us as janitor, courier, xray tech, deliverer of notes to those without a phone and fetcher of air freight and patients who muts be rescued without transport, brought them to me. When he arrived with them in a cloth grocery bag he said "Northern brand" and giggled. She came to our apartment to make sure that the duffel liners fit correctly and did a try on. I'd given her the measurements of my calf and ankle to knee and traced my foot but she wanted to be sure before putting them all together. I can imagine that sewing the sealskin wouldn't be a job you'd like to take apart and resew. Here they are above on the right - didn't she do a beautiful job? I tried them out with a short walk to the COOP and they are just like walking in really warm socks and so comfortable. Been 35 years since I had a new pair of kamiks. My coworker who came along in her 'southern boots' mentioned how quietly I was walking. 


Spence Bay



Although my coworker has gone out with her walking poles, it sure doesn't look much like this shot of the frozen harbour which I took last week. Or even like this two generation shot of a pair of ladies wearing their Mother Hubbarb parkas on the right. Just love them. If I was here for ten years as the Mental Health Worker has been, I'd have three or four in various styles and colors of fabrics as she does too.

Have had a wonderful last week in the contract where one of the patients who we had been treating for a dental infection (as you can imagine a not uncommon situation up here) got on the local radio station and said "we are so lucky to have nurses like this in our community to look after us, they are great". I have sure heard the healthcare system and nurses 'down south' mentioned in both the social and traditional media, but not usually in such a positive light. So the generous amount of money deposited in my account is actually secondary when working north of 60. On one of the visits when it was possible that he might be schedvaced (sent out on a regular flight) to Yellowknife, I warned him (through the interpreter) of this possibility as I inserted his IV. He told me that the first time he'd been out of the community was on a plane in 1958 when he was a young man and he stayed in Edmonton for three and a half years. When I asked why he replied "TB in my back". I assured him that if he went, the stay wouldn't be anything like the former Rx for TB of the spine. One of the later visits for IV antibiotics, which my coworker ran found him speaking Japanese, French and counting in Italian to her. Apparently a legacy of his sanitorium days where he learned languages from his roommates and shared his with them. One of the rules up here is that you are never surprised at anything you find in the north.

I must get myself together as I need to bake up some of my supplies, clean the apartment a bit and think of packing. I close with the quote of the day for procrastinators:

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right."

— Napoleon Hill