As the final week in this contract rolls around on the calendar, I continue to be awe of the speed of eight weeks away. I have only two more sets of call and I'll be officially 'not working' for about three months as my return flights are September 25 and 26th. Hard to take, but someone has to do it.
The past almost two weeks (since the previous update) have been busy as usual. The weather is starting to warm up and well it should as summer is officially here, with the following forecast for tonight which is typical of the weather this week :
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud. Wind northeast 20 km/h becoming light in the morning. High 10. UV index 4 or moderate.
Sunday night Mainly sunny. Low plus 3.
Don't you just love that Sunday night mainly sunny part? So do the locals, as with the 24 hrs of daylight there are kids playing out on the street at 2 am, overnight travel to go fishing at the cabin and just general 'staying up' as it is known.
In fact the urge to go 'out on the land' is pervasive - as the dentist previously labelled it "spiritual" as in "I can't keep my appointment, I am going fishing". In fact I've been on the fringes of various 'get out of work' schemes this past week. One involved a boss showing up with a neatly written note claiming that a local employee 'went to see the nurse with back pain, was given medicine and told to not go to work'. This was a complete fabrication as the person hadn't been to the health centre for over a month and then not for back pain. The only reason the employer came to inquire was a concern that it was a workers compensation claim which must be reported. "No" I said "you have a problem but it's not related to healthcare" which elicited a big sigh from the foreman. I said to myself 'you had your common law partner write this note and you delivered it with a straight face knowing you had never sought treatment and had no back pain 'did you not consider you might get busted?' The second involved an actual injury where a labourer had a burn from molten metal on to the back of his hand which he worked the rest of the day with and hadn't reported. Slept in the next day and went to work to say he was injured so was brought over personally by the foreman for attention. The 2nd degree burn was fairly small and as I put polysporin and a band aid on it I said "so you're going back to work?". Very furtive look and reply of "not today". "Tomorrow?" Frantic look now and "I can't go back to work, it'll get dirty". Negotiation "do you work the weekend?". "No". Then you get tomorrow off, come here and get your burn checked and back to work Monday. Quick exit. Of course, no visit was made on Friday - how can you see the nurse if you're 'out on the land' getting your hand all dirty?
The quote of the day is:
Your life is recorded by two dates and a dash - make the best of the dash
No one here has to be told that!
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| Ice fishing |
In fact, speaking of traditional ways and being out on the land….the staff at the health centre participated in IQ (Inuit Qaujimajatuqangi) day yesterday afternoon. This is where qablunaaq (literal translation - those with bushy eyebrow) or white people are educated in the traditional ways. We took the vehicles outside of the community to German Lake and did ice fishing, collected heather for a fire and boiled water for tea, ate bannock, cheese, pepperoni, biscuits, hotdogs cookies and had a birthday cake (carrot cake) as it was one of the staff's birthday. Traditional games were played and prizes won there and for the fishing
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| Louise the champ |
derby - Louise caught a lovely big trout and a smaller land locked char. One of the clerk interpreters mother and some other family members were out on the ice fishing and we got some photos of them on the Honda and her ice fishing from her wheelchair. Saw some birds and evidence of other critters - it was fun! There were musings as to whether there were duck eggs in the cliffs surrounding the lake as there were ancient inukshuks all around hills and evidence of birds. I was told that ravens eggs are blue. "Like over sized robins eggs?" I asked. "no sort of speckly". The most excitement of the day was generated by the appearance of a bumble bee. Now granted they are HUGE up here (golf ball size) and make a loud noise (as would be expected by their size) but when I questioned those screaming and running from it I was told that a) no one in the community was allergic to stings b) no one had ever known of anyone to be stung - likely related to the wild shenanigans when a buzz is heard. I would've made an easy target for the bee what with my laying over on the tundra laughing uncontrollably at the antics. We were tired, full and sun/wind burnt when we straggled home.
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| love to see those lights coming |
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| King Air - welcome sight |
Apparently there are infrequent thunderstorms near the Arctic Ocean, but usually later in the summer. About 10 days ago there were a couple of days of really unsettled weather. The first night we were awaiting a medevac which had to divert to Gjoa Haven and wait out the front. Good thing they didn't try to land as it took two arms and one leg for me to get the door open on the vehicle when I got to the airport. Crazy windy, sheets of rain, crashes of thunder and big cracks of lightening. And the most amazing part of all this electrical activity was that everyone and I mean EVERYONE was either outside, up on their metal roof, looking out the window or generally trying to tempt the weather gods. The next day we had a hailstorm with big hail stones during the thunder storm
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| hail storm |
again everyone rushed to the window or outside. I was giving a little guy who isn't two years old an aerosol treatment and he stood in his diaper on a chair, with the mask on his face, in front of the window watching the storm. I'd say it's a good thing there aren't too many electrical storms up here or there would lots of defibrillation required!
But some situations are the same regardless of the culture. A mother stopped by the health centre to pick up her travel itinerary for a flight out to a medical appointment and was packing her toddler. This little girl has four older brothers and when I asked the mom if she'd cut her hair as she had an unusual coiffure she said "no, her brother did". When I asked if it was the one who had pulled the TV over on himself a couple of years ago, the one who had a BB in his arm or the one who jumped off the dock and broke his leg she said "no the one who's usually not too much trouble".
My roommate has gone back east for two weeks to get her children graduated and will be returning this week. In her absence I had an apartment guest in the form of a medical student for four days. The physician who comes in monthly to do a clinic brought his third year medical student daughter with him to give her a clinical experience and she sure got to see lots of unusual patients, experience a new culture, do things she wouldn't have a chance 'down south' and learn to practice medicine without all the technology and resources. She was a great roommie who was well received by the community as she was very approachable and keen. Will make a great Doc. Her Dad I think was proud of her and they had a nice father/daughter trip of it. I am waiting for my roommate to return in a couple of days as I'm rattling around in the apartment with no one to cook for.
As I get most of my unofficial news from the land of FaceBook (which is sometimes like saying you get serious news from The National Enquirer vs The Globe and Mail) I found the following exchange between two paramedic crews at home a few evenings ago:
EHS - Halifax Infirmary
One raccoon later we have arrived!
Go big or go home. Deer is the hunt of choice
Deer are too much paper work!
And speaking of hunting….the moose hunt of last fall which was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime…..has had a deja vu moment. Apparently the shore captain's employee (he who actually shot the moose) won a tag in this years draw. The shore captain being prevented from applying for the next five years. Mancation planning has begun.
So as I head into the final days of the contract and start my travel plans for heading home I noted that with Air Canada you can now check online to see which movies are being screened on your flight. For those who need time to decide, or who plan excessively, this is a welcome feature. I have already chosen The Grand Budapest Hotel, based on the trailers provided (as I fit into the planner category).
While on the topic of travel - here is a link to something called smash books - they can be used to document your travels vs the travel scrapbook on return:
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| $6 for water?? |
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| Disneyland from above |
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| Nunavut summer |
So, since I was out tromping around on the hill overlooking the community this afternoon and then visiting both grocery stores looking for cream - going to treat the other Nova Scotian employee here to creamed lobster tomorrow for supper. Now that the 10 pm siren for curfew (which all the kids under age 14 ignore) has sounded…. I am crawling into bed early with my book.
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| tundra flowers are small |
