INUVIK "Place of Man"

 

Inuvik, meaning "place of man" is Canada's northernmost town.  It has a population of about 3,500 and is on the Mackenzie River, the longest river in Canada.  The Mackenzie flows into the Arctic Ocean 97 kilometers away and the town is 200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle.  Surprisingly, I am 10 degrees west of Vancouver, although I am in the Alberta time zone. Inuvik was created by the Canadian government in the 1950's to replace a small town called Aklavik that was subject to flooding and offered little room for growth. 

 

 

 

Inuvik is the traditional land of the Inuvailuit, Gwich'in and Metis aboriginals.  The Inuvialuit live further north than any other aboriginal peoples in North America.  They are still firmly attached to living off the land eating and utilizing seals, beluga, caribou, fish, birds and berries.  Their craftwork and beading is remarkable (and expensive) as I discovered at the Christmas Craft Fair at the Community Center.  It's all hand done so worth the money but a pair of beaded mukluks would have cost me $500-700 and pretty useless in wet Vancouver.  Everything up here is remarkably dry.  The snow is light as air and fluffy and makes a distinctive crunching sound when you walk on it.  Inuvik is also home to several hundred Muslims.  The Midnight Sun Mosque made a 4,000 trip from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Inuvik and is known as the "little mosque on the tundra".  It is one of the northernmost mosques in the world.  My friend's partner Greg was the editor on a documentary called "Arctic Mosque" made on the Mosque's journey north.

A youtube trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ERuUMhkao

 

There is also a distinctive landmark of a Catholic Church in town.  It shares something in common with Paris in that it bears the same official name as Notre Dame: Our Lady of Victory.  It is 75 feet in diameter and the cupula is 20 feet in diameter.  The inside is apparently beautiful and acoustics amazing.  I will check out the Christmas concerts.

 

We are at the end of the Dempster Highway, the only route into town from the south.  Although there are ice roads all around to the communities to the north, when people talk about if the "road is in", they are referring to the Dempster Highway.  It starts in the Yukon Territory and is 736kms to Inuvik.  The road is unique for several reasons.  For one, it sits on a gravel pad up to 8 feet deep to insulate against the permafrost in the soil underneath, otherwise the road would sink into the ground.  There are two main river crossings and in the summer months you use a ferry.  For a month or so in the winter and spring there is an impassible hiatus where it is too icy for the ferry but not icy enough to drive across.  Once it gets cold enough and the ice thick enough you can drive straight across the river and hence the "road is in".  Due to global warming this event is getting later and later.  Apparently typically "road is in" in October or November and here, at the beginning of December the river crossings are still not drivable.  In fact, rumour has it 14+ trucks of mail are stuck at the south end of a ferry crossing and the ferry is stuck in the ice and has been for several weeks now, but the ice is not thick enough to drive across.  No parcels (just letters) have come into town since early November.  I guess Canada Post has finally rerouted these 14+ mail trucks back to Edmonton and is chartering a plane to fly up the parcels.  The town post office is nervous as to where they are going to put all the parcels once they come in, but as it is Christmas time, many in town are getting antsy for their goods to arrive.  Mail is really the only way to get most things up here, including Christmas presents for your kids.  How would they explain about Santa missing them?  He's basically in the backyard!  And as the town is reliant on foods to get driven up from the south, you can't always rely on things like...dairy.  And when it is flown in milk goes up to $14/2L.

 

  

Inuvik has a distinct feature called "utilidors".  They are above ground insulated conduits that carry water and sewage.  There is a whole network of them around town.  They are necessary because the town (as is much of the Northwest Territories) is on permafrost.  Apparently Inuvik has some of the worst conditions for building infrastructure.  All of the buildings and homes are built on pilings drilled through the active layer of the permafrost and into the continuous layer of permafrost beneath.  During the summer when the permafrost thaws the ground can shift and the buildings sway and lean.  And during the winter in the wind, as the houses are built on stilts, you can feel them sway and move with the wind. 

 

Still so far so good with the weather.  The sun will go below the horizon for the last time on December 5th and not rise again until January 6th giving us the aprx 30 polar nights and the noon moon!  I'm back on December 18th so will experience about 3 weeks of total darkness.  The weekend the sun returns is a big party with lots of events and I'm scheduled off so pretty excited about that.  Right now the sun is only up for a few hours (*note the time on the forecast pic) and when it is rising and setting it is beyond beautiful.  The contrast and colour up here is so striking. 

 

 

I'm finally back to work after the eye infection and have done a few fun things.  I've bought a yoga matt and gone to yoga at the community center a few times.  I've spent a few nights at the Legion which is the big thing to do in town.  There is a lot of gambling and draws up here.  There was a $30,000 bingo pot a few weeks back and every Friday at the Legion they have a 50/50 draw where you can win $800 +/- and an ongoing draw called "chase the ace" that involves playing cards.  The pot will continue to go up until the person with the winning ticket draws the ace of spades.  The pot last week was almost $9,000.  Sounds like good enough odds to me that I should have a few beers and buy a few tickets.  I have learned you NEVER wear a hat in the legion.  Toque included.  I came close to having to buy a round for the entire bar.  Sheesh. 

 

I've seen my first case of frostbite.  I said to someone it was the worst case I've ever seen, but realized it was the only case I've ever seen.  It can happen pretty fast.  Apparently the person was only out for an hour or two.  I think the wind... and alcohol made it worse.  And one of my patients was a trapper!  He said he sold mainly to The Hudson's Bay Company.  I can not believe that still exists.  That is so 300 years ago!

 

I have a list of things to do when I come up for round 2, December 19-January 31st.  I need to do the drive on the ice road to Tuktoyaktuk and see a pingo (land formation), go dogsledding and experience the Return of the Sun Festival.  I'm working Christmas and New Years but off for the festival weekend so pretty excited about that.  Stay tuned!

 

Inuvik - A sight for sore eyes

 

My time in Inuvik, NWT hasn’t been without a few hiccups.  Maybe I should have taken it as a sign of things to come when our plane had to spend a few extra hours in Norman Wells, one of our stops on the way up, because the guy sitting in the emergency row saw “a piece of metal fly off the wing” and a “ball of fire” coming out of the right engine when we landed.  Sigh.  Not what you want to hear.  They spent a few hours checking the wing out from the ground and revving the engines up all while we were all still on board which I found curious.  We were finally deemed safe to fly and off we went to land safely in Inuvik.

Now, anyone coming to Inuvik make special note the airport has about a half dozen luggage carts and when the government who I’m working for and is paying for my flight and luggage tells me I can bring up to 200lbs of luggage, well, I brought up nearly 200lbs of luggage.  Once off the plane I stretched my legs, took a bathroom break and got ready to retrieve my 4 pieces of baggage, aprx 50 lbs each – and…no luggage cart.  Sigh.  Ok.  I make a pile and start dragging pieces, un-ergonomic 50 lb rubbermaids included, across the airport 20 feet at a time.  It was quite a feat, and honestly I’m surprised no one helped me.  I finally got outside and no taxis.  Sigh. My luggage orchestra was so time consuming the airport was nearly empty.  Ok, so I call a cab, thank god for cell service.  The airport is a good 20 mins from town so I get my first experience of the cold, not so bad.  I can do this.  I get to the hotel where I am staying for the next six weeks, haul my luggage up the stairs and into the lobby.  In this poorly designed hotel you need to bring your luggage up another flight of stairs to get to the elevator.  Off  I go.  Sweating, tired & cranky, finally I’m at the front desk and give them my reservation number.  “No sorry, we don’t have you on file, this isn’t our reservation number”.  Sigh.  Uh what?  I dropped the names of the people who had booked my travel arrangements at the hospital and got it sorted quickly but he said it was the last room they had with a kitchenette.  Oh thank god.  I got in my expectedly generic room, nested and felt a bit more organized. 

This plane is the coolest weather vane I've ever seen! My hotel is in the background

 

The hotel is 99% full of both hospital staff and patients from the hospital either awaiting care or have received care and are awaiting a flight back to their community.  The hotel is almost directly across the street from the hospital so someone made a wise choice with location.  They have a continental breakfast included and if you want a plain white bagel and/or fruit loops, the lobby at the Nova Inn is your place!  I think I’ll stick to my greek yogurt and gluten free granola, from said damn Rubbermaid.  The laundry is $10 a load (!!), but that includes wash and dry and soap! Lucky me!  The nurses residences  attached to the hospital has free laundry I just need to make friends who are staying there and who will let me in to use the communal laundry room.  These travels make you appreciate what we have at home.   I will never complain about my $1.25 wash load at home again. 

hospital (easy to find in a whiteout?!)

 

The hospital is nice, well organized.  They gave me a great orientation day and then a full set of shifts.  They also gave me a food card so I can eat in the hospital cafeteria for breakfast, lunch and dinner for my six weeks here.  Not that I want to but I could and it’s nice to have the option to have a hot meal on shift.  I’ve done only one delivery in my orientation but I was impressed with the skills and teamwork.  There are policies everywhere which help as new staff and the doctors are young and receptive.  It makes all the difference.

 

The town is about what I expected.  There is one main strip, it’s clean, appears safe.   The liquor store was my first stop and the wine selection is amazing and cheaper than Vancouver.  The guy at the store said there is no “luxury tax” like there is in the city that’s why it’s cheaper.  Don’t care why, I just know I can get a bottle of Burrowing Owl or Beaujolais  and at less than what I do at home and so far I LOVE Inuvik.  I’m on a strictly red diet as the space in my bar fridge is at a premium.   I walked into a convenience store with a gigantic picture of Che Guevara in the window.  The man behind the counter asked where I was from.  I said “Vancouver”, he asked “British Properties?”, I said ”uh no”.  So random.  

 

Northern most traffic light in North America and the only one in town

 

There are two main grocery stores – one is Costco like and the other,  Northmart (which they had in Goose Bay) sells everything from linens, to groceries, to clothes to cheese graters.  Some things are insanely inflated but some things are very reasonable.  There isn’t much rhyme or reason to it.  Meat: expensive.  Two boneless skinless chicken breasts are $18.  Good thing I packed tofu. And I really wish I didn’t like Perrier as much as I do as it’s $4 a bottle .  But you can really find anything here, I probably packed too much food but you never really know what to expect.

 

The coldest it has got so far is about -17 and if dressed right I’ve been ok.  There was one time I went on a long walk sans long johns and couldn’t feel my legs but won’t make that mistake again. And thong underwear, yah that’s pretty useless keeping the ‘ol cheeks warm.  Oops.  A toque (knitted hat to my American family) is a must, gloves and layers.  When it warms to zero it feels down right balmy and I walked today with my jacket open and only a sweater.  It really is a dry cold.  I didn’t want to believe this phenomenon yet  because the only people that said it was a dry cold are people that had never been this far north before.  But really, so far so good with the weather.  I haven’t brought out the big guns of a jacket yet, and have been surviving fine with my North Face puffy down one.  The sun rises about 10am and sets at 3:30 or so but it really doesn’t get dark until 8pm.  The sun looks like it’s about to set most of the day. The first few days I cancelled my plans to walk through the woods because I didn’t think I had enough daylight left.  I had about 5 hours.  The sun takes just forever to go down but it creates the most pretty, soft, low light and shadows you’ve ever seen.  Especially with the sun glowing red against the snow, it’s really breathtaking.  

 

notice the critter tracks across the frozen lake

what animal track is this? Elk?

 

And the latest hiccup.  Sigh.  Pink eye.  And this isn’t just any pink eye.  Firstly it’s eyeS and likely viral as the two antibiotics I’ve been on haven’t touched it.  I’ve had it for a week now, there is no end in sight (pun intended) and needless to say I’m off work.  I go into the ER every 48 hours or so to make sure I have no increased pressure, no ulcers on my cornea that would cause permanent damage, but other than that I just wait.  It’s horribly painful, I’m getting more sensitive to light and my eyes are just gooey in general.  So gross.  I’m on a self-imposed quarantine.  It’s apparently pretty highly contagious so I’ve really come to love my little hotel room.

I ’m trying to stay positive.   I’ve finally finished watching all five seasons of The Wire, I’ve re-dicovered some good music on my ipod because I can’t have my eyes open for more than an hour or two at a time without resting them and I’m finally finishing listening to the Keith Richards autobiography ibook read  by Johhny Depp.  Sometimes I pretend I’m part of the witness relocation program and come up with scenarios that got me here, sometimes I pretend I’m like the Into the Wild guy and wonder what Jon Krakauer would write about me.  It’s amazing what the mind comes up with! I get out for a walk around town or the lake for an hour or two a day to keep my sanity and just keep my eyes down.  I’m pretty sure I look scary.  Oh well.  No more hiccups please!  This sure makes me appreciate “health”.  And as I post this on Remembrance Day, I ‘m cognizant that this really is all just a hiccup and a humble check in and life, this life, is a gift to me.  

 

Returning from the Big Land

I’m flying out of Goose Bay as we speak.  I’m on a little plane, full of French Canadian hunters, on my way to Halifax then Vancouver via Toronto.  This efficient trip makes up for the milk run of last time.  I’ll be at YVR by 4:30PST which is as best as I can ask for as I fly 4,000 miles across this great country of ours.  I’ll miss hearing “it’s a nice day out there eh me luv?”  Every. Single. Day.  Boy do people love talking about the weather here.  Just when I got a hang of the accents, or most of them, I’m leaving.  People from Black Tickle remain the most challenging for me and I still needed to ask them to slow down up until the day I left.

 

Overall my Labrador experience was awesome.  The kindness and generosity of the people I met made up for my frustrations with the inefficiency and in my opinion some of the archaic hospital practices.  The hospital has so many staffing issues and they bring in so many locum nurses, yet there are no full time lines available.  It’s pretty broken and I don’t envy the higher ups.  There are however positions available in the small native communities up the coast.  One nurse who agreed to a two year contract said she was getting a 40K signing bonus for committing to the two years.  She would be living in Nain, a northern community of 1,000 people so she probably deserves the money.  I heard on many occasions that the expired food in Goose Bay grocery stores gets sent to the northern Native communities, and that fresh fruit and vegetables that come in sell out in a matter of hours.  This obviously compounds the problems of the population that already has a lack of health care and self care. Poor diet is a huge reason why the hospital services so much hypertension, bowel issues, obesity, pancreatitis etc.  I guess it was naive of me believe that basic fresh food was available to all Canadians and it’s something I won’t take for granted again. 

 

I had no deliveries this last month at all.  I was pretty much a medical surgical nurse but actually liked the change of pace.  I did many skills I haven’t done since nursing school and got to work with patients of all age groups.   I miss working with the elderly.  I always like hearing about their lives, where they lived, how many children they had etc.  They are almost always open and willing to talk and you quickly appreciate their stoic resilience.

 I met some great friends during my two months and I hope that one day our paths will cross again.  My favorite story is of the girl that got bit by a bear.  Her and a friend were driving on way to a fishing weekend (because girls in Labrador are badass and go on fishing trips), spotted a bear on the road and stopped.  The bear came up to the car and started sniffing at the window.  She rolled her window down a little to pet its snout (because really, when else would you have a chance to pet a bear), and before she knew it the bear jumped up, put its paws on the window and pulled it down.  She used her arm to block the bear and it bit her.  She reinforced it wasn’t a vicious bite, it just kind of mouthed her.  She bonked it on the nose, it released her arm.  The best part of the story?  She went on with her fishing trip.  Badass I tell you.  Bad. Ass.  She’s disappointed the scar isn’t more dramatic and I can’t say I blame her.  Needless to say she was on a significant course of antibiotics when she came back.

 

When this same girl invited me up to her family’s cabin I jumped at the chance.  I knew I’d be safe with anyone that survived a bear “attack”.  Many people in Goose Bay have cabins near the lake and they are whopping 5-20kms from home.   Once we got there the only thing funnier than the three of us girls trying to start the generator  was the three of us chopping wood.  Wow is that ever  harder than it looks.  There really wasn’t any need to chop more wood, I just thought it was the right thing to do as I was in the Labrador woods at a generator run cabin.  I spent about 20 minutes on the same piece with little progress and my friend pointed out we were trying to chop pieces that were already spiit.  Right.  I’m blaming it on the axe.  It can’t be my technique nor my weak back.  How come the hot lumberjacks on Grouse Mountain make it look so easy?  Anyways, we had a great night with pizza made in the propane oven, cozy from the woodstove, lots of wine and laughs and it was one of the highlights of my trip.  Thanks M! 

My time is flying by.  I can’t believe I’ve been off work three months.  I’m going to be home for only 10 days and leave on October 28^th for my next adventure.  I’m doing two 6 week stints in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, two degrees north of the Arctic Circle!  I secured the position after a gruelling 45 minute phone interview. The interview challenged my medical surgical and pediatric assessment skills that I’ve been out of touch with for some time.  Thank you Andrea, Sarah and Heather for the tips! From what I hear there is a lot of autonomy as a nurse in the Arctic so that is something I am looking forward to.  In the 10 days at home I need to get outfitted for the -30 weather and buy a Costco sized bottle of Vitamin D to help with the almost constant darkness.  I’m pretty nervous about these next few months.  I think more nervous about the lack of daylight than the cold which is hard to believe.  Inuvik is on the ice road (as in Ice  Road Truckers) so the winter time is apparently when food is MORE accessible, not less, as the ice road is frozen and trucks can drive to town (pop. 3,500!).   I’m staying in a hotel with a kitchenette as the nurses residency is full.  There is no oven other than the toaster type so I’m going to be eating a lot of soup I think.

I figure if I can handle a winter in the Arctic Circle I can handle just about anything.  Someone in Goose Bay was saying how brave I was for taking this year off and travelling/working.   I don’t think I’m brave so much as not afraid to be scared and I think there’s a difference.  Being scared of something is more of a reason to do something, not less.  I’ve never regretted doing anything that I was scared to do.  At the very least you grow from the failure. 

Labrador Part Deux

 



Well I've settled in for my second round in Goose Bay, Labrador.  I've adjusted a little easier this time.  I'm not working near as much, I have some roommates, and am getting out and socializing a little more.  I averaged 68 hour work weeks on my first contract and now I'm working a measly 37.5 hours per week.  I wish I was working a little more actually but it's a nice change.   FYI to anyone travelling in the Maritimes, there is both a St. John's, Newfoundland and a St. John, New Brunswick.  The guy next to me on the plane thought he was landing in New Brunswick.  Oopsy. 

I've had two roommates, but we worked pretty opposite shifts so didn't see a ton of them, but still managed to find some time for drinking wine together until the early hours of the morning.  Nurses are pretty universally fun people.  We get along well with others because in our jobs we have to and it comes in handy in our personal lives.  I'm proud to say the "work hard party hard" is a coast to coast phenomenon. 

I think I'll focus on the liquid local delicacies this time around after seeing how they sell the salt beef
from my previous post.  How can raw beef soaked in salty bloody room temperature brine sitting on a pallet be Foodsafe?  Blarg. I don't know, but I'm alive and well, don't want to think about it and don't want to push my luck. My parasite (?!) may tell me otherwise in 4-6 months. I think I'll stick with beer from here on out.  Beer made from icebergs no less!

It's a beautiful Indian summer here.  It was 25 degrees and sunny today.  The leaves are a beautiful golden yellow, reminiscent of my time in New England this time last year.    It's striking and hard to appreciate in a photo but makes for lovely walks around town.  The sky here, I guess because it is so flat, reminds me of Alberta.  Big swirling clouds, beautiful sunsets.  It's a place of contrast in many ways, not just with colour but culturally.

 

There is huge Aboriginal population here, Innu and Inuit.  They don't all live here, but if they get sick they come down from the north coast to the hospital.  The 25 bed hospital has a substantial long term care component because there are few elderly care homes in town and the patients end up staying in the acute hospital for months.  I can't share the stories because it would breech confidentiality but some of them are horrific.  Incest, murder, rape, abuse, alcoholism, suicide, apprehension of babies etc.  It's what I'm struggling with the most here.  I knew I would see it, but once you put a face to a story it changes you.  I know I can help people here, for now, but it feels like such a drop in the bucket of a much greater problem. 

 

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MORE AWESOME LABRADOR VERNACULAR:

 

• Brazen: bold, ballsy (I know what this word means but don't think I've ever used it in a sentence and it's incorporated into everyday language here)
• It's a sin: wow, that's too bad/unfortunate (again, daily expression in these parts)
• where's he/she too?: where is he/she?
• I'm so contrary: meaning grumpy, cranky.  I had a 5 minute lesson on how to say this properly.  It's said fast with emphasis on conTRAry, like you are a southern belle
• Dinner: they mean lunch.  Daily meals = breakfast, dinner, supper.  Umm. Ok
• Now the once: I'll get around to it when I'm good and ready dammit
• Whilst: again, we all know what this means, but usually only South Africans say it no?
• Barney Stickles: a small generic lake fish (this might be my favorite expression)
• Vams: a woolly sock

 

 

 

 

 



 

Labrador eatin'

I should have had a conversation about what people eat here 4 weeks ago.  Who knew there was such a bounty of Labrador (& Newfoundland) specific food.   It started with the hospital serving fish and brewis ("brews") for dinner.  Right?  Does anyone know what this is?  They take salt fish and soak it in water overnight then take hard tack (rock hard bread that sailors used/use), soak that overnight too. The next day they boil each separately and then serve it together.  Traditionally it is served with scrunchions - salted pork fat cut into small pieces and fried. Both the rendered fat and liquid fat are drizzled over the salty fish and empty carbohydrates.  Wow.  I took a few bites of the hospital version and it was bland, white on white on white and I haven't yet found the appeal. 

Bakeapple (aka cloudberries) apparently have a distinct honey/apricot flavor.  Partridge berries (aka lingon berries) are a relative to the cranberry.  Someone brought me in homemade jam.  Yes!

 

 

Speaking of partridge, I saw one of them on a little hike I did.  And I use the term "hike" loosely.  I followed the cross country ski trail in a 6km circuit. There isn't much hiking to speak of here.  It's very flat which is part of it, and most of the trails are ATV/Ski doo trails.  I've walked them a few times, but ATV'ing is huge here and the people on the ATV's wonder what the hell I'm doing walking and it's noisy and frankly ruins my serenity.  These partridge are apparently fairly stupid, there is not much to catching them.  You can pull over on the side of the road and grab them.

The lack of the thrill of the hunt makes me feel only slightly guilty.....eating them. Someone brought me a plate of partridge, heart and gizzard in all. Hey, when in Rome.   It was delicious.

 

The break room was truly astonished I had never heard of, let alone tried a "Jigg's dinner".  It's a Sunday night staple here.  They asked how the beef comes in Vancouver if it doesn't come salted. Does anyone else notice a theme here?  I guess it is or at least was all about preserving during the winter months so everything, and I mean everything is salted here.  They asked what we have for Christmas dinner, I explained, and they said, "but you mean it's all cooked separately in different pots?"  "Ummmm.... yes...."  Their Jigg's dinner (aka boiled dinner) has, you guessed it, salted beef, carrot, turnip, turnip greens, potato, figgy duff (soft bread), and pease pudding (basically solid pea soup).  Someone brought me a plate to my house.  It was good, but holy god they aren't kidding about that salted beef.  I am so thirsty now!  I keep drinking beer, but it's not helping ;-)

 

 

 

It looks like I'm coming back here for another month.  Coming to the same place twice wasn't my intention for my big adventure but the dates of this next contract work out well and I have a big house to myself and they give me a car.  It could be worse.  The people I'm working with are amazing.  I am usually crying I'm laughing so hard at least once during my shift and you can't beat that.  They are so expressive and such characters - they talk SO fast.  I'll be home August 30th till September 16th and then back here for another month before I figure out where my journey takes me next.  If not Alberta, I'm going to pursue my Northwest Territory/Nunavut licence and head to the Arctic for contracts through the winter.  Never thought those words would come out of my mouth.

 

If you get a chance, vote for my photos of "Northwest River, Labrador" from my previous post at







http://www.travelnurse.ca/employee_photo.html    and help me win a camera.  They are the shots of the boat floating in the water and the teepee skeleton.  Thanks!

Half way!

I'm half way though my first adventure.  This is a small town alright and it takes some getting used to.  No Starbucks & no sushi which are the main staples in my diet back home.  I haven't eaten out yet hence have never cooked so much for myself in all my life.  There have been some frozen pizzas in the mix, not going to lie.  It takes a lot of work and planning when take-out isn't an option.  The liquor store is enormous so there have been a few merlot Monday's. 

I sure stick out like a sore thumb.  On my first day here I was in the grocery store and an older man started talking to me.  He asked if I was the new obstetric nurse in town.  Huh?  He is the town OB/GYN.  I was at a canoe regatta and someone came up to me asking the same thing.  When I'm at work patients ask too.  It could be my lack of accent or the fact I'm always looking for something that gives me away but they always ask where I'm from.  I met a couple that spent 6 years living at 4th and Lonsdale.  Wait, what?!  This is such a small world.

                                                  
The staff I work with are just amazing.  So much so that I am thinking of coming back for another month mid September.  They are hard working, resilient and very welcoming.  I'm THE obstetric nurse so when there are two women in labour, I'm IT.  There are a lot of foreign trained doctors that  look to me for advice and more often than not I'm happy to give it. It's daunting to think I'M the expert in the room.  Yikes.

The paperwork and charting is my biggest obstacle.  It's a challenge for me not to try and reinvent the wheel.    Their system is insanely inefficient, taking me up to an hour to complete a chart after a delivery. That can't be right.  It's hard for me to bite my tongue and not criticize.  It's not my job here. The unit clerks who are being vastly underutilized don't enter any orders, the nurses do.  The nurses write out all their own MAR's then need another RN to co-sign.  Nurses mix up all our own medications.  We need to call the lab in from home on the weekend.  It's back to basics.  I don't have access to their computer system because they didn't want to train me as I'm only here for a month so I'm dependent on other RN's to enter my work and check my lab results.  For those of you that work with me and know how neurotic and methodical I am, you can appreciate how frustrating this is for me.  It's all part of the learning curve and letting go on this big adventure.  It's something I need to work on. 

Clinically I am learning a lot.  I've learned a few tricks already which I'm excited to use at some point.  There are no epidurals, no elective caesarian sections.  Women in labour get triaged in the emergency room and only come to me in active labour.  They frequently are told to go labour at home and then come back.  Love it!

I'm still struggling with the accent.  I'm learning people from Black Tickle (!) have some of the thickest.  I'm not sure what people from Dildo (ahem) sound like yet. 

• Purr = pure
• mudder/faddur = mother/father
• tree = three
• hempt = empty
• ayEE boie or nayEE boie = not sure yet but they add it to the end of most sentences

Goose Bay, Labrador

Goose Bay, Labrador (the mainland) is a town of about 7,500 people, the largest town in Labrador.  St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland (the island) is a 2 day drive and ferry ride away.  The nearest Walmart is in Labrador City, a 525km drive from Goose Bay on mostly a gravel road. The population here is 35% Aboriginal, a mix of Innu and Inuit.  The Filipino population is growing as the Tim Horton's has sponsored almost their entire staff from overseas to help them gain their Canadian citizenship. 

Handmade moccasins

 

 

$400 seal skin (!!) boots (not clubbed baby seals I hope)

The climate here is described as subarctic.  July and August are usually the only months it doesn't snow.  For me the nights have been cool and the days mostly humid and warm.  I was warned of the black flies but I haven't seen a bug yet and hope to keep it that way.  It is not unusual in the winter for it to average 40-50 below zero Celsius and for the town to get up to 10 feet of snow.  I think I chose a good month to visit. 

The town started with the development of the Goose Bay Air force base during the Second World War.  It has the longest runway in North America (11,000ft) and is able to accommodate the largest aircraft in the world.  In 1983 the town gained international attention when a 747 carrying the space shuttle landed for refueling. During 9/11 the town accommodated overseas commercial flights that were being rerouted as U.S. airspace was closed.  The airfield remains a refueling stop for overseas flights and a stop for overseas emergencies.  We had a flight from Ireland that was enroute to JFK/NY land as a woman, 29 weeks pregnant had her water break mid flight.  She came into our hospital, we ensured mom and baby were ok and then had her medivac'd to St. John's.  She wasn't in labour (phew!), will be missing her brother's wedding in New York and having a Canadian baby whether she likes it or not.

The town is desperate for nurses.  Many that I work with tell me they are working with contractual signing incentives of $6,000 per year they stay and $4,000 reimbursement of student loans per year they work.  The facility has been more than generous with me.  They have given me a car to use during my month here and a 3 bedroom house to myself.  The hardwood floors and stairs have an oddly comforting sound and feel that remind me of my grandparents house in New Hampshire.  I never would have thought such a thing would trigger memories but its reassuring to me nonetheless. I'm struggling with the lack of recycling at the hospital or otherwise.  Stores are confused when I bring my own bags. 

This first week has been a bit of an awakening for me.  Vancouver was action packed and my pace has slowed right down.  I was nervous at first but have settled in to a nice routine.  I'm working mostly day shifts which is nice and working a lot which will keep me busy. I've found a u-pick farm where I can get my greens and herbs.  Eating well was my biggest concern. I have to space out the dozen or so things to do and check out here.  I'm hoping to get to the gym everyday on my days off, eat well, drink less and just get back to basics a little.   It feels good.