Last Day - Inuinnaqtun

It is Friday morning, my last day in the Arctic. For now, anyway.  I am happy to be going home, but also sad to be leaving all of the wonderful people I have met. I love being up here and meeting so many interesting people and hearing their stories. It is a completely different culture that I have been experiencing and I feel that I have learned a lot and will continue to learn even more on my future trips. Right now it is time for me to go home and recharge.

I will leave you with a little language lesson. My clerk, and friend, Helen would give me lessons whenever we had some downtime, so I will pass on a little about what I learned.

Inuinnaqtun is the dialect spoken in this region. It is similar to Inuktitut, but definitely not the same and they do not use syllabics either. Here are some common words and phrases to try!

• Kanogitpin - How are you?
• Namaktunga - I'm fine, thank you.
• Ilvitli - and you?
• Ublagot - Good morning.
• Ublugon - Good afternoon.
• Ullapa - I'm cold!
• Quana - Thanks!

Helen's dog is called Umiak, this means whiskers. I have decided that the next animal that finds its way into my home will be called Umiak! So cute!

A Beer Dance, Bazaar, Telethon and a Blonde Haired Alien

The weekend presented us with a couple of challenges. Friday night there was a beer dance, which meant that everyone was hungover or possibly still drunk by the time Saturday rolled around. We had a full day of patients booked from 9 to 6, the appointments had all been made the day before. Only one patient showed up! Talk about a long and frustrating day. I spent most of my time cleaning and organizing since the last dental team left a bit of a mess. By the afternoon you could find me relaxing in the dental chair reading some outdated magazines. There was also a bazaar Saturday afternoon that everyone was going to. All of the local artists stop by to see me, so I didn't bother going to check it out. There are some fantastic artists in Kugluktuk. I have been shown beautiful carvings, mittens and kamiks (boots made from caribou and seal skin that have incredible hand embroidery).

Sunday we had booked from noon until 6, knowing that the radio telethon was being held the night before we didn't bother trying to book the morning. My clerk Helen showed up and informed me that there was also a funeral going on, the majority of the community usually attend. We had about 5 patients show up, which was fine for me. The darkness is starting to get to me and I am getting pretty tired up here. Don't underestimate how important the sun is!!

Now, the infamous blonde haired alien...Only one of these strange, pale creatures has been spotted in Kugluktuk, it wears a raspberry parka and seems to respond to the name Rebecca. Yes, I am the blonde haired alien! At least according to the young girls, I seem to be. I saw two girls that were around twelve years old on Friday who wanted to book appointments, they kept on starring at me and giggling. I asked them what was so funny but never got an answer, they just kept starring. The next day, they returned, this time with two more friends. Now I had four little girls who were giggling at me and unable to answer any questions. I told the sonographer, Denise, what had happened and that I had no idea what they were up to. She looked at me and told me that it is probably my blonde hair that they are getting a kick out of. Maybe before my next trip I will have to dye my hair brown...

Kugluktuk

On Thursday the weather finally cleared enough for the airport to reopen. It had been shut down for four days due to bad weather and blizzard conditions.

I shut down the clinic and prepared to leave for my next destination. I was a little sad leaving Cambridge, mostly because I like working with Jana so much. We hugged goodbye and hopefully we will see each other in January.

Our plane landed about 45 minutes late, but everyone was happy and relieved that it was able to land. Unfortunately, the winds began to pick up and visibility was poor again so we had to wait for the weather to clear a little in order to take off. After waiting another hour or so, we were able to board. It is only a 50 minute flight from Cambridge Bay to Kugluktuk, and before I knew it we were finally in our last community.

The taxi picked us up at the airport to bring us to the Coppermine Inn. It was a large old van with cracks in the window and seemed to be on it's last legs, but it was going to get us where we needed to go, so I can't complain. We were told that it would be $15, I was a little shocked and checked if the price was per person. Yep, it was. It's only a five minute drive! We dropped the first passenger home, only to get stuck in the snow when we tried to turn around. Thankfully a man with a big truck was driving by and noticed we needed help. He tied a sling between each vehicle and was able to pull the van out of the snow.

The Coppermine Inn is a quaint two story hotel. There is a wood stove in the lobby and a huge polar bear hide and head as decoration on the wall. As soon as we walked in we could smell something delicious cooking, they were making pork chops for supper. I usually hate pork chops, but after two weeks of freeze dried food and tuna, a home-cooked meal would be nice. We were informed that dinner would be $50 dollars if we were interested, breakfasts were $30 and lunches $35.

Weather Day AKA Snow Day Even For Adults

Last night I had a difficult time sleeping. All I could hear was howling winds making my apartment rattle and shake. I woke up this morning and finally looked out my window to not be able to see anything except blowing snow and darkness. I could barely see the house across the street. Now this is a blizzard!

This is my second weather day, the first was Monday afternoon, I was surprised that the town was shut down as it was just a minor snow storm. We kept the clinic open, but only had two patients show even though we had confirmed with everyone that we would be staying open during the storm.

I assumed that we would not bother going in this morning, but got a hold of Terry just to make sure. I assumed wrong, and was not terribly impressed that I had to go into the raging storm. I reluctantly gathered my scarf, mitts, ear pockets and boots, which, not very conveniently broke yesterday. I can no longer zip them up. I grabbed my raspberry parka and finished my ensemble with ski goggles. I hesitantly opened the door and got pushed back by some very strong winds and a face full of snow, thought to myself, this is crazy and walked out into the storm anyway.

Every step was a challenge in the strong wind gusts. I truly thought that I was going to be picked up and fly away with the blowing snow. Walking up my street I was sure that there was a stop sign at the intersection, but I could not see it. I continued walking until I finally saw the stop sign when it was a couple of metres ahead of me. There were no people, cars or ski-doos on the road, everyone else was smart enough to stay inside.  It was quite eerie walking in the seemingly abandoned town in a ridiculous storm with a night sky as the backdrop but I continued on to the clinic with the winds helping to push me along.

I finally made it to the clinic, tried to unlock and open the door, but was stopped by ice build up so I turned around and went back home. I called Terry with the bad news. He is worried about getting cabin fever and wants to re-evaluate the situation at noon. I can tell you right now there is no way I am stepping foot outside my door again today. I am going to stay in my pyjamas, read, write, watch some TV and try to enjoy my snow day.

 

View from my living room window.
It's not an unclear picture,
this is what it actually looks like outside.

Blizzard warning for Cambridge Bay

Current WeatherWed. Dec 7, 2011, 7:00 MST Cambridge Bay

Details

A low pressure system moving east towards Northern Hudson Bay has created blizzard conditions for many sites in the Arctic. Strong winds gusting up to 90 km/h behind the low have developed blizzard conditions in Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak. Kugluktuk is expected to improve this afternoon as winds decrease while the other communities will not improve until Thursday.

-14

°C

• °C
• °F

Blowing snow

• Feels Like : -29
• Wind : N 74km/h
• Wind gusts : 85km/h

• Relative Humidity : 78%
• Pressure : 99.45 kPa
• Visibility : 0.2 km
• Ceiling : 2500 ft

It's Eleven O'Clock Somewhere...

My clerk Bernadette showed up for work on Friday and was great. She did her work without my asking and she even helped me sterilize instruments. Overall, I was very impressed with her and was looking forward to working with her until we leave for Kugluktuk on Wednesday.

It's Saturday morning and I expect Bernie to show up at nine, after-all, she told me Friday night that she would be seeing me tomorrow at that time. Ten o'clock comes around and Bernie is still MIA and I could really use some help. I decide to give her a call and see if she is planning on coming in to work.

I dial her phone number...
She answers, "Hello".
"Bernie, are you coming to help me at work today"?
She responds in slight confusion, "Is it nine o'clock already"!?
"No Bernie, it's ten o'clock".
"Ohhhh. I'm so sorry my dear, but I am slightly intoxicated right now".
"Are you serious"? I say with a slight laugh. "Can you at least come in for one"?
"Oh no. Not today. I will try to sober up for tomorrow at one though."
There is not much I can do in this situation except laugh and hope that I will see her Sunday afternoon.

Arctic College

It's not often that I meet young people in the communities who think about post secondary education, or even finishing high school, but I had the pleasure of meeting two inspiring young women on Friday. Both had moved to Cambridge Bay from their communities and are enrolled at Nunavut Arctic College (this is a link if you are interested in seeing the schools and courses offered). Programs such as traditional fur design and production, camp cook, teacher education, health care and skilled trades are designed specifically for life in Nunavut.

My first patient enrolled in the two year social work program. She is looking forward to gaining an education and bringing it back to her home town to help better the lives of people in the community. I was telling her about the work my cousin does as a violence against women councillor. She seemed almost surprised that there was a need for such a councillor down South, but also motivated and excited to hear about another woman like her who was working in the field.

My second patient was in her early twenties and had two children with her common law partner. (On a side note - no one ever seems to say boyfriend or girlfriend. If they have been together long enough and have children they always refer to their partner as their "common-law".) She is enrolled in her first year of a three year program to become a midwife. When someone is going to have a baby in the communities it is extremely common to be sent to Yellowknife for labour and delivery. Remember that up here there are no permanent doctors, only a health clinic staffed with a couple of nurses (who are incredible, by the way!). She was telling me about her experience when having her two babies. She was sent away, her family was not able to be go with her, she was all alone in an unfamiliar place and had to deliver her children without the love and support of her family and friends. She was so upset when she was recalling this story to me. I can't imagine what it must have been like for a mother to go through that. Her sad experience has motivated her to do something about the situation, to make a difference in her community. After three years, she will go back home with her family. As she says, "I am going to make sure that no one has to go through what I went through".

My spirits have been lifted! Now to brave the cold for my walk home. It's minus 31C and feels like minus 45C!

The Midwifery Program, offered in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Services, prepares graduates to enter into midwifery practice in Nunavut.

The program introduces students to the cultural, spiritual and traditional practices of Inuit midwives and is also designed to reflect the goals, values and ethical codes established as territorial and national standards and regulations.Specifically, graduates will be able to meet standards set by the Canadian Midwifery Regulatory Committee (CMRC) and provide care that is culturally appropriate for and acceptable to the residents of Nunavut.

Pink Snow Ninja

Our first day seeing patients in clinic was Thursday. I am a bit behind on my blogging and am trying to catch up....

I woke up to my iPhone alarm at 6am, pressed snooze a couple of times and finally dragged myself out of bed at 6:45. It was pitch black outside, not that this is different from down South at this time of year. I made some tea, ate my breakfast and got ready to go. I bundled up in my raspberry goose-down jacket, ear pockets, boots, mitts, and covered my face up to my eyes with my favourite brown, soft and fuzzy scarf that Farah made for me. After putting my fur-lined hood on nice and tight to finish my ensemble you would not be able to recognize me except for the small slit for my eyes to see through. I was now a pink with brown accessories snow ninja ready to brave the cold!

When I got to the clinic, I overheard people in the other offices talking about what a nice morning it was. This confused me slightly as it was at least minus 25 C, not including the wind chill. Eventually a familiar face came around the corner, it was Jana, the dental coordinator. I met Jana on my last trip, she had just started the job at that point, six months later she is now a pro and doing a fantastic job. My clerk never showed up for work, but thankfully Jana stayed to help with reception. By 10:30 I looked out the window to finally see some daylight, by 2:30 the sky was black again. Jana and I discussed the importance of vitamin D especially being in the North. The sun is never actually in the sky at this time of year, daylight is probably better described as dusk.

Clinic was busy with the typical extractions and simple restorations that seem never-ending in the North. The day eventually came to an end and I headed home to boil some water to make my freeze-dried beef stroganoff.

Déjà vu

It's Wednesday morning and I am back at the airport. Glen jokes that we are going to take the 737 out for a little spin and end up back where we started. I sincerely hope not!

We all waited in line to check in with Canadian North. I checked in only to find out that there is a problem with my ticket in the system and head office had to be called to sort things out. I waited patiently for an hour before the front desk person returned. As I am waiting I hear announcements that that the flight to Rankin has been cancelled due to weather. The person checking in beside me was supposed to be on that flight and was now looking for a place to stay in the fully booked Yellowknife hotels. Thankfully, I find out that my ticket is good to go and there are no warnings of bad weather in Cambridge, so far at least.

We boarded our little plane and were off to Kugluktuk for our first stop. The captain made an announcement that the weather is good enough to take a shot at landing in Cambridge, we all had a sigh of relief. Another hour in the air and we were able to make a safe landing.

We were picked up at the airport and brought to our apartments at the Green Row. I was given my key for 1E, the exact same apartment as my last trip! It was about 2pm by this point, I quickly had a snack and headed down to the dental clinic within twenty minutes. It took a while to find everything we needed. This is one problem with having so many different teams come in, we all have different ideas of where things should be stored. Eventually, I found what I needed. It didn't take long for people to notice the lights were on in the clinic. Within a half hour people started walking in to book appointments. An artist also stopped by to sell some hand made slippers.

I left for home around five, satisfied that I was ready to see patients the next day. The sky had been pitch black since around 2:30ish, but the street I walk to get home was quite well lit. I was happy to be somewhere familiar and started to settle in by unpacking all of my food and clothes for the next week.

Later in the evening there was a knock on my door. I answered to find a couple, the gentleman was an artist with some pretty soapstone inukshuks and caribou antler pendants (a cross section of the antler with an inukshuk carved out in the centre and painted purple). I swear the artists are on watch for any new people to the community, and when they find out, word spreads quickly. I love seeing their work, though, and don't find them to be bothersome, if anything I enjoy meeting as many people as possible. Luckily for this particular artist my favourite colour is purple and I could not resist the antler pendant.

Sorry about the picture quality, it's much nicer in person.

My Second Trip Up North!

It is now the end of November and I have signed on for another trip to Nunavut. This trip I will be staying in two communities within the Kitikmeot region. Cambridge Bay is first on the itinerary, followed by a new community, Kugluktuk (formerly known as Coppermine). This trip will be quite different from the last in terms of daylight (and temperature!). In June, I got to experience the midnight sun, which was wonderful at first, but eventually it takes its toll making sleep impossible, I was so tired I couldn't even write my blogs for the last week of the trip. Before I arrived I assumed it was going to be twenty-four hours of complete darkness, however, I was glad to see upon my quick stop in Kugluktuk that there are actually a few hours of twilight. I asked a local about the sunrise and sunset, currently sunrise is 10am and sunset is 3pm, but everyday they lose seven minutes of daylight. This means that by the time I leave there will be complete darkness.

On Monday, I flew into Edmonton, stayed the night with friends, then left for an 8am flight to Yellowknife, NWT. As I was signing in at the airport I was warned that we may not be able to land in Cambridge Bay due to bad weather conditions, but an attempt will be made and the pilots will decide whether or not it is safe to land as we get closer.

I met Terry at gate one at the Yellowknife airport waiting for our flight. We didn't have long to chat as we only had about 20 minutes connection time between flights. We crossed our fingers and were hoping the weather would clear so that we would be able to land safely. We had a scheduled stop over in Kugluktuk, followed by a disappointing announcement that we will be flying back to Yellowknife due to blizzard conditions and no visibility. Apparently when the weather is that bad everything is shut down in the community, even adults get snow days up North! So, great news for the adults and children in Cambridge Bay, but not so great news for me.

Our major concern was finding somewhere to stay for the night. We met a very nice gentlemen named Glen on our flight who was in the same predicament as we were. He happened to have a cell phone that actually worked in Kugluktuk (good old-fashioned 2G), so he started calling all of the hotels from the phone book in Yellowknife. Not one hotel had a room to stay in, and we were looking for three rooms! As a last resort, Glen contacted a travel agent who was thankfully able to find three rooms at the Arnica Inn.

After our lovely round trip flight we returned to the Yellowknife airport and hopped in a cab to the Arnica. We were greeted at the front desk by a lady who looked like she was straight from the eighties, which happened to match the décor of the Arnica Inn perfectly. She was probably in her fifties, with short puffed up hair, huge red rimmed glasses and a few to many layers of dark blush applied in a straight line across her cheeks. The motel was two stories and in desperate need of renovation, as I said before, it came from the eighties too. I was grateful enough to have a room for the night, but there was a reason that this was the only place in Yellowknife with vacancies. My room was relatively clean, but there were holes in the wall and someone took the case from the thermostat so there were exposed wires and I couldn't change the temperature. The heating system rattled and woke me up almost every hour. When my alarm went off at 6am I couldn't have been happier to get the heck out of there and get back to the airport.

Second attempt to get into Cambridge Bay.

It's the summer solstice today, but I certainly can't tell the difference.

I am really enjoying my time here in Cambridge Bay. The people are friendly, the town is clean, and there are more places for me to go and explore. I unfortunately didn't end up going on a hike Sunday because I came down with a bad migraine. Poor me. I spent the day on the couch watching Top Gear, not a bad alternative, though, the show is hilarious. Terry and I will explore the land sometime this week when it is a bit warmer and less windy. The temperature is hovering over zero, but the wind blowing over the icy water makes it bitterly cold.

Monday was our first day in clinic. We are working out of a pretty large office building, so there are lots of people around to chat with when I have a second to myself. I mostly stay with Rosie, my interpreter though, I really like her. She is a sweet lady with three children and two grandchildren. She likes telling me where I can go around town and tries to make me feel at home, and I do feel happy here. It is not quite home, but it's a close second.

Office building we are working out of.
It is a less than 5 minute walk from the Green Row.

We got to leave early for lunch, so I decided to check out one of the stores Rosie was telling me about. I walked up the road to The Arctic Closet, a super tiny shop that sells souvenirs, soapstone carvings, seal skin mitts, and some other great things. I walked in to find a young girl working, she looked bored out of her mind! I found out that she is from Nova Scotia and came here with her mom who is teaching at the high school. I asked her if she liked living here, her reply was "I hate it!" (it's not for everyone!). I would feel the same way if I was a teenager living in such a remote village with nowhere to go and nothing fun to do. At least she gets to work in a cute store for the summer and meet a lot of new people visiting the community.

The Arctic Closet!

After my little shopping spree it was back to work. We had a full afternoon of patients to see and I was really busy. Between patients I was sterilizing instruments, when all of a sudden Rosie came running into my op yelling, "Rebecca! Rebecca! There is bannock! Come out here, we have to buy some bannock!". It took me a second to remember what bannock was and why there was so much excitement over it. I followed Rosie into the waiting room, coming closer and closer to the sweet smell of freshly baked bannock, a traditional native flat bread. It smelled so wonderful, I had to have some. There was a choice between plain and raisin, so I asked Rosie advise on what I should get. "Both!", she said. So, I bought plain and raisin, as did Rosie,and all of the other people in the waiting room with a dental appointment did the same. I picked up my loaves, which were still warm, and put them aside, disappointed that I was too busy to try some right away. Our day finally finished and I brought my still warm bannock home, it was a delicious doughnut-y treat after my always disappointing re-hydrated supper. I restrained myself from devouring the two loaves and froze the rest, hopefully it will survive the plane ride home so I can share some with my family.

View down the street.

Tonight I was visited by a local artist named Robert. This was the third time he came to visit me at my home selling soapstone carvings. He stopped by the first night I was here and politely asked me if I might be interested in buying some soapstone jewelry that he made. Of course I was! I am always interested in buying jewelry, especially if it is from a local artist. He had green and black necklace pendents, both beautiful, but I had to ask him to come back later so I could go to the bank. The second time he came back a bit to quickly and I hadn't had a chance to go to the RBC, but I finally had some money for him tonight. I bought the green pendant, an inukshuk, beautifully carved for only $20. I asked him if he had earnings to match, he said "no, but I will find more soapstone and can make you some before you leave."! YAY! 

Home Sweet Home

Saturday - Another Flight and Cambridge Bay

By 8:30 Saturday morning, I was packed up again and on board the shuttle going back to the airport. I have certainly had enough of flying this week and was looking forward to staying on the ground in Cambridge Bay for a solid week.

Cambridge Bay is slightly larger than the other communities, and I could tell as soon as we arrived at the airport. It was still one room, but a larger room, they even sold snacks and some souvenirs, there was also a small conveyor belt that our luggage came in on. The other airports were simply four walls with some chairs to sit in. We gathered our bags and found Dan driving up the road to bring us to our home for the next week, the Green Row Suites.

Drum dancer picture in my room

On our drive to the hotel I noticed that the community is much cleaner, there are bigger houses and more amenities. They have the local Co-op, the Northern, an arena, and even the Royal Bank. The other communities felt more like third world countries to me, with garbage everywhere, and houses that were falling apart or abandoned, but here it seems much different. ATV's are the vehicles of choice for the summer months, in Gjoa and Kug I would see whole families including babies crammed onto one ATV. I was shocked to see people drive by with helmets on here, actually taking safety into consideration.

My suite is gorgeous! I had no idea that I was going to have the luxury of staying in such a nice place. It is a two bedroom, with a kitchen, living room and eating area, I even have my own personal washer and dryer. I was told that I may have a roommate for two nights, but I don't care, this place is certainly big enough for two people.

I unpacked my things and made myself comfortable. It was then time for a little walk and some grocery shopping. I walked up to the Co-op to pick up a few things, my total bill was over $50.00. I bought two bottles of water, two cans of soup, and two tuna snacks (the small ones that come with crackers). That was it! $50.00!!! I am still in shock when I have to buy something at these prices...When I was in line at the cash, I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see families buying bags of candy, chips and little else for their weekly groceries. At the end of each of the two cash registers, there was a slushy machine. I thought to myself, "this is just great. Another contribution to the dental decay that everyone is suffering from". At the end of their purchases the entire family would each get a large slushy each. I will be adding this to my list of things I need to educate people on...

Living room/eating

Kitchen!

I'm Not Sure Where the Past Four Days Went...

The past few days have been extremely busy and have just flown by. My trip to Kugaaruk has come and gone, Yellowknife too, I am now at my final destination in Cambridge Bay. I only have one week left until I say goodbye to the North and go home to the South. I never thought I would say this, but I am going to be so glad to see a dark night again! At the beginning of my trip I loved the extra bit of energy from the constant sunlight, but I am now exhausted from waking up at three every morning and not being able to fall back asleep. My circadian rhythm has been seriously messed up. Despite my fatigue, I have been having a great adventure and need to fill you in on the past few days!

My last post was Tuesday, when I was worried about Wednesday, which now seems like a distant memory. Fortunately for me, only half of our patients showed up. This means that at the time of their appointments the little ones were not in any pain, otherwise they would have shown up. Unfortunately, the pain will most definitely return. By then a new dentist will be in town and will have to take care of it. Our day went as smoothly as it could considering we what we were doing. After we saw our patients it was time for me to shut the clinic down, which is quite a large task. Wednesday afternoon we headed over to the Gjoa Haven Airport to catch our little plane to Kugaaruk.

Kugaaruk

After a two hour flight we arrived in Kugaaruk, where Jackie was waiting for us from the hotel. Kugaaruk is very beautiful with pretty, snow covered rocky hills and still frozen water surrounding the town. The people are also very friendly, always saying hello when I walked by. I didn't get much time to enjoy the scenery before we arrived at the hotel though,  dropped our bags and walked up to the health center where we had a small dental room. I spent a couple of hours there setting up for the next day, while Terry had gone back to the hotel to watch the very important hockey game. Since we were only there for one and a half days, Thursday was going to be a long thirteen hour day. 

I arrived at the health center the next morning to meet the nurses, one of which I had already met at the Yellowknife airport. Her name is Aileen, she has been coming up North for the past 23 years and now lives in Cambridge Bay. There were only four  nurses who were working for the health center, all on contract and coming up from the South. They are extremely busy dealing with everything from mental health issues to the flu. There are rarely doctors in these communities, so the nurses are nurse practitioners with extended duties, they are able to prescribe medications and preform a lot more tasks than they could in the South. You can imagine how hard it would be for them to return home and lose so much of their responsibilities, so many of them make a career coming up here.

The Health Center!
The second floor is the nurses living quarters.

I met my new translator/clerk, Bonnie. She was so much fun to work with! She has worked with Terry before, and she wasn't afraid to poke fun at him. She lovingly called him "Melbourne", not Dr Mebourne, just "Melbourne". I told her I thought it was hilarious that she was calling her boss, who is also a doctor, by simply his last name, as if they were old college buddies. She didn't seem to understand why I thought it was funny, which I found even more humorous. Bonnie and I had fun together when we didn't have patients, we learned about each other and asked questions about our different cultures. Before I knew it my thirteen hour day was already over.

Typical Street in Kugaaruk

By the second day I was starting to realize that dental health was a little better in this community. Patients were keeping more of their teeth and we even had a few opportunities to do some cleanings. This made me very happy. Between patients I had Bonnie call a local artist to stop by. It was my mission to buy something locally made in each community. The artist was a younger woman who carves ivory into beautiful pieces of jewelry. Normally I would not buy something made from ivory, but up here I know that they respect the animals that they hunt and let nothing go to waste. I bought a seal pendant and some pretty earrings, I can't post a picture though, as Bonnie and I decided the earrings should be for my Mom. Mom already knows that I bought them for her, because I can't seem to keep a surprise to myself,  but she has no idea what they look like. :)

After an exhausting two days, it was almost time for us to head out to the airport again. But after all of that I decided to treat myself to some pizza that the hotel was serving for lunch. I had two slices. Two slices that cost me $21.00!!! It was worth it though, my freeze dried food is barely edible anymore. The cost of food here is ridiculous. I bought a 1.5 L bottle of water for $8.00, and a can of soup for $5.00. It's a wonder how people can afford to live here.

Doggy I ran into while I was exploring before work.
And no, I did not go up to pet him, as tempted as I was.

Yellowknife

There was a minor complication with our flight. They were unable to land at the first stop, Gjoa Haven, due to bad weather so our flight was now overbooked and two people had to be kicked off. We waited for two hours before they could finally get two people to stay behind. Our supposed to be non-stop flight to Yellowknife then decided to try landing in Gjoa Haven to get people home. We landed safely, just before the fog rolled in again. I should mention that up here there is no radar landing, it is all done the old fashioned way, by eye, so weather is a major factor that can really ruin travel plans. Since the fog had just flown in, the second and last flight of the day was unable to land and pick up it's passengers. This caused for another two hours of waiting at the airport so those passengers could transfer to our plane. Eventually we were able to board and take off to Yellowknife.

View from my room at the Explorer Hotel.
This is the hotel where Prince Will and Kate will be staying!!

We finally arrived in Yellowknife, for our one night stay. We only went down because there was nowhere to stay in any of the communities, I know this seems like a huge waste of money, but it was our only option. I was glad to have a fancy hotel for the night though, and Terry was glad to go to the Black Knight Pub for a beer. I got to my room with just five minutes to spare before room service closed. I had to make a quick decision of what to order, my eyes quickly scanned the menu to zero-in on a desert called "chocolate three ways" - perfect! It came to my room, in all of its chocolaty glory, with a sprig of mint, a fresh strawberry and strawberry sauce. Delicious!

Heaven.

I have internet again!

We lost internet up here all day yesterday and for the better half of today, but thankfully, I am back online now. I don't know if I would be able to last a month with no communication back home. I know that it is a pathetic dependence to have on technology, but the sense of isolation up here can feel huge.

Tomorrow is our last day in Gjoa Haven, our flight leaves at three o'clock to reach our next destination - Kugaaruk.

I have had some sweet patients in the past two days. Yesterday I saw a young woman around the same age as me. She already had all of her upper teeth extracted and needed some of her bottom teeth removed as well. Even though she had been through all of this before, she was still incredibly nervous. I told her that she was going to be fine, and to be brave, she could get through this. My words were of little condolence to her though, and frankly, I don't blame her. It doesn't matter how many teeth you have had extracted, the nervousness and fear doesn't go away easily. I told her to hold my hand and squeeze as hard as she needed to, despite the fact that I was probably going to need it in order to do my job. This finally reassured her though, and made her much more calm and relaxed. She stared at me nervously for the entire procedure, much to the dismay of Terry who needed her to be facing towards him. Whenever she squeezed my hand harder, I would look at her, smile and tell her she was doing great. She bravely made it through her three extractions, and with a mouth full of gauze, she looked up at me, sighed a breath of relief, smiled and could not stop thanking me. She was so grateful and all I had to do was give her my hand. It is such an incredible feeling to help someone who is scared, even though I really did nothing at all.

Today I had the pleasure of treating the cutest brother and sister, ages ten and six. We examined the little girl, and everything was fine, with nothing to do. We saw her big brother next, and everything was fine with him too, so I was going to do a cleaning and a fluoride treatment. The little boy was shy, while the little girl was outgoing and curious. She wanted to sit in the chair that I had been sitting in when Terry was in the room, my assistant chair. Since I was now in the hygienist chair, I told her that she could be my assistant, this offer made her incredibly excited. She "helped" me with her brother, sometimes moving the chair up or down when I was trying to work in his mouth. I didn't mind though, she was happy and her brother seemed to think it was pretty funny. The little girl was enjoying her role as dental assistant, but something was missing for her...she wanted a mask like the one that I was wearing. I gladly gave her a mask that she put on immediately. We continued having fun together, but eventually the appointment had to come to an end. They both happily left the office with their Mom. I peered out the window to see them all going home, the little girl with her mask still on.

I still saw many sad cases. There were still lots tears, still massive amounts decay, still young girls needing their front teeth pulled out, I still saw bruises peaking out of the collars of women's shirts, and I still had to add to my Wednesday list of babies with ECC. I wanted to focus on the good things tonight though, the things that make it all worthwhile.

Cecilia (our translator/clerk) and I.

Finally a day of rest!

After a long week in clinic, we finally have a day off! I was getting pretty tired and was really looking forward to relaxing for the day. I slept in for three whole hours, waking up at eight as opposed to five, it was one of the best sleep-ins ever. When I finally got up, I looked out my window to see big, beautiful fluffy snowflakes falling down to cover the roof tops and add to the collection of snow that has still not melted. As the day warmed the snow turned into freezing rain, and then finally rain. The puddles have grown into small lakes!

I spent the majority of my morning reading a great book; The Little Princes. It's about an orphanage in Nepal and one mans vow to return all of the children home to their families, despite the danger of the civil war. I highly recommend it....Eventually one o'clock rolled around and I was eager to take a little walk to the Northern, which had just opened. I am getting really tired of eating the same gross food everyday; oats and a vegan shake for breakfast, Nile Spice soup, a LaraBar and applesauce for lunch; freeze dried dinners-that I can barely stand for supper; while dessert consists of some dried fruit and a few pieces of 70% chocolate. I have been living off of this menu for 11 days now, and still have 14 more to go. I was desperate to find something else to eat. So, off I trekked to the Northern in order to hunt something down. The following is a picture of my triumphant catch!

I spent $28.44. Here is a breakdown of the costs:

• Small bag of carrots - $4.15 
• Wheat Thins - $6.19
• Tetley Green Tea - $4.49
• 500g of Unsweetened Peanut Butter - $5.69
• My best find of dark chocolate covered goji berries! - 200g - $7.29

I haven't had vegetables, besides the minuscule pieces in my dinner and soup, that don't really count, since I left. These are the best carrots IN THE WORLD! Of course I packed chocolate for my trip, but my supply has been dwindling quickly and I have been very concerned that I would not have enough to make it the rest of the trip. Finding dark chocolate covered gojis was an unexpected and incredibly delicious find.   

The Northern Store!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to buy some work from the local artists. They came to visit me at the clinic to show me what they had created.

 This wall hanging, by Helen Rose, is of an arctic char and seal. She came to see me earlier in the week, hoping to sell a very large wall hanging for $200. It was beautiful, but a bit out of my price range. I asked if she had anything smaller, so she made this one for me.

This is an ink drawing by Danny Aaluk. My photo really doesn't do it justice, there is so much detail in this drawing, it's beautiful. He stayed for a while to chat with me and tell me some great stories. He is working on a coloured drawing for me too. I am looking forward to seeing it tomorrow. 

The good things

I have been spending a lot of time on the negative aspects of life in the North, and there is a lot of sadness that needs to be shared in hopes of starting change, but there are also many good things that need to be said. I want to make sure that I am painting the right picture, where there is both good and bad.

It doesn't matter what time of day I look out my window, whether it is five in the morning or eleven at night, I see children playing. They are out on their bicycles, swinging on swings and jumping in the fresh mud puddles that have developed from the recent warmer temperatures. It's great to see the little ones making up games, having fun and getting some fresh air.

One little boy has needed multiple appointments with us. He always comes in with his father, I can tell that they have a very close, loving and happy relationship. The father sweetly refers to the boy as "my son". He always asks him, "my son, are you doing okay"?,  the boy raises his eyebrows widely to his father, meaning "yes". At the end of the appointment the father looked up at me with intense and concerned eyes, asking me if it would be okay for his son to go out on the land with him. I told him that it wouldn't be a problem. He was grateful as they had made plans to go caribou hunting that night.

I have been seeing a few patients with minimal dental problems, which always brings a smile to my face. Some are lucky enough to just need a cleaning and are then sent on their way. Some people may have lost all of their upper teeth, but now realize that they have to take care of their mouth if they want to keep the lowers. The remaining teeth are perfect! They brush and floss every day now, determined to keep the teeth that they still have.

I saw a really nice gentleman yesterday that works in the health center. He is in charge of recreation and fitness for the long term care residents. People living in the health center are either the elders or physically or mental disabled. He loves his job, and is grateful to be able to help people.

I hope that this post shows some of the positive aspects! It's not all sadness. I myself am quite content here, though I do miss home, but I don't think I would be able to stay here if it was complete sadness with no hope for the future. There are many people here trying to make a difference to improve life.

 I took this picture from the plane :)

I guess if I were awake all night enjoying the sun, I wouldn't want to wake up for my dental appointment either

Today was a no show day. Our clerk/translator didn't show up, and only six out of sixteen people came for their appointments. Everyone's excuse was that they were sleeping because they were up all night. Great. It made for a long and boring day for me. Our clerk finally called me at 2:30 to say that she had just woken up and would be on her way, I told her to just take the rest of the day off, but please come back tomorrow morning. Needless to say, it was a frustrating day. I would call people one to two hours before their appointments to make sure they were coming, only to get a cancellation call five minutes before the appointment was supposed to start. I had one person come in without an appointment wanting to see the dentist, I told her to come back in 2 hours, she came back 2.75 hours later drunk. I was not impressed and we obviously could not treat her in that state.

The patients we did see were mostly young, either babies or adolescents....There were a lot of tears today. One young girl was really scared, so the mom called the dad to come and hold her hand. A part of me thought "oh, this is so sweet" while the other part was thinking that the parents presence is only making her cry more. Kids are often much better with the parents out of the room.

We had the cutest two year old boy come in. He was all smiles and so excited to see me. I always try to make the appointment fun for the little ones, I give them stickers, rides on the dental chair (they love how it goes up and down!), and whatever else I can  think of. This boy could not stop laughing and smiling at me. My heart began to break when he opened his mouth, though. Complete decay and an abscess, another ECC to add to our Wednesday list. He may have loved me today, but by Wednesday he will think I am a monster. My only condolence is that we will be taking away his pain for the long term.

I was glad to see the water truck come by today. I don't think the locals realize the court people are here yet, and they may decide to not bring water tomorrow. The court people are here for the next week.  I'll be keeping my water bottles full just in case.

Violence Against Women and Children

I was too tired to write about this subject last night, so I have given up my morning yoga routine in order to make this important post.

I am lucky to be alone with my patients often, I get to hear so many stories that I would never get to hear if the doctor was in the room. I seat them, get a brief health history, wait for Terry who does a quick exam and freezes them, he then leaves for ten minutes in order for the freezing to take effect, and then it's just the patient and myself again. Some patients like to tell me all about their lives, others are quiet and I can barely get one word out of them.

Domestic violence is very common up here, something that takes place in far too many homes. I have seen many women, as young as 19, come in with bruises peaking out from the collar of their shirts or all over there arms, some have swollen lips. I have patients that are missing front teeth, that they say is because their boyfriends/husbands have knocked them out. Sometimes we have minor domestic disturbances in the reception area, where the couple is basically just yelling and cursing at each other. Thankfully, it has never elevated to more than that, the man usually just leaves. Many are single moms who tell me that life is better without a man.

My first patient yesterday morning was 45, about to be a great grandmother! She works as a cook in the health centre. She was telling me about the violence here; she feels that the Inuit men cannot cope with so much of a southern influence and that they are taking out their anger on the women and children. The south has come with churches, crappy "food", TV shows with an "envious" way of life, and most importantly drugs and alcohol. Most communities are dry, meaning alcohol is prohibited, while drugs are obviously illegal everywhere. Unfortunately, people from the South are all to happy to send drugs and alcohol to the North. Perhaps they don't realize just how much destruction they are causing, or maybe they just don't care. Back to my patient though...I knew the moment I saw her that she was a strong woman, she told me about her life and all of the men that had come and go. She told me that people always come to her with problems, because she is not afraid to speak up. She told me that she is trying to start programs and bring awareness to the abuse that is far to common, she wants to make a difference. I was so glad to hear that someone has finally had enough, and hopefully, will be able to help change things for the better.

On a lighter note...The court people are coming to the hotel today to have meetings. Apparently the locals don't like them very much and may decide not to bring water to the hotel, which we have to receive daily. They cannot bury a sewage system here as there is perma-frost. Water and sewage are held in above ground septic tanks which need to be maintained daily at the hotel because there are so many people. Anyways, I made sure to wake up early to have a shower and have filled a couple of water bottles just in case.

I Don't Like Seeing Babies Cry...

A word of warning, this post is depressing and you may not care to read it.

Early childhood caries, also known as baby bottle caries, is when an infant has severely decayed teeth and often infection caused by sugary drinks (this includes milk and formula), bottle feeding at night, and not cleaning their teeth etc.

This is a Google image, but exactly what I was seeing today.

We saw four children today with ECC, and treated three. This was by far the worst dental procedure I have ever had to be a part of. The parents come in with their babies (our patients were between 1.5-3 years) saying that their front teeth are bad, and they want them to be taken out. Up here that is really the only option that we have. Terry hates doing this, we were talking about it yesterday and were trying to make a plan where we would screen, and then have all of them come back for one day. This way we would only have one awful day instead of multiple bad days. Our ECC day (next Wed) already has two patients booked and we have only been in clinic two days...remembering that we ended up treating three today as well. 

ECC is often the first time the infant comes to the dentist up here, talk about a traumatic first experience! I am not going to go through all of the details, but it takes three people to hold the child down, we freeze them and then extract the affected teeth. The poor babies scream and cry, it is just a horrible experience for all that are involved, and setting the child up for life-long dental phobia.

We are trying to educate parents, this is a pamphlet in Inuktitut on ECC

Here is some information from the College of Dental Hygienists:

http://www.cdho.org/publicbrochures/oralhealthmatters_yourbaby.pdf

Anyways, not the greatest blog, I know. Life is very different here and I have a feeling that this is not the first of my depressing blogs. In fact, I could share quite a few more sad stories tonight but I wont. I am still very happy to be here doing what little I can to help. I am learning a tremendous amount about a different culture and hope that I am opening up the eyes of those who may be reading this. I don't think many people realize that we have so many issues that need attention and help, right here in Canada.

First Day in Clinic and Learning to Gesture "Yes" and "No"

Finally we got to work on some patients! My first day went really well, especially considering these procedures are completely new to me and I have never assisted before. Thankfully, Terry is really patient and laid back, he didn't mind coaching me along and waiting for me, as I was a bit slow at the beginning of the day. By the end of the day I think I had a pretty good grasp on things.

Procedures are basic here...radiographs, restorations or extractions, and that's about it. Dental IQ is extremely low and most people don't brush their teeth at all. The local philosophy is basically that if it doesn't hurt there isn't a problem. Most people came in with huge cavities and just wanted to have the tooth extracted. So that is what we would do. Other people would have four teeth remaining on the top, for example, and we had to give them a choice of; one - leave them until they are painful and need to be extracted; or two - pull them out now before they get painful so they can get dentures. Not having teeth is commonplace up here...it's very, very sad.

On a happier note, I have a cute story for you...We had a patient who was about nine years old today. Terry was asking him a bunch of questions about his teeth and as far as I could tell the child was not answering, but Terry kept on asking different questions and he seemed to be satisfied by some sort of response . They clearly had some sort of communication going on that I was not aware of. Then he looked over at the boys father and said "show her how you say yes and no up here". The father looked at me, raised his eyebrows as high as they could go, and that meant 'yes'. Then he furrowed his brow, squashed his nose and squinted his eyes, and that means 'no'. Makes sense to me! As I was talking to the little boy, he was much happier to use facial expressions than to speak. It was so cute to see his little face wide with expression when I spoke with him. In case you are worried as to why the little boy was here to see us, he just needed a small restoration and I made sure to teach him about keeping his mouth healthy.

And I thought I would have nothing to write about...

My day started at 5:30 am yet again, I seem to be stuck in Ottawa time still. I woke up planning on having a rather boring day. Since I am up so early I have been staring my days with an hour of ashtanga yoga, I am so glad that I decided to bring my yoga mat. So my big plan was yoga, reading, skype, checking on my instruments in the clinic, and maybe a little walk if there wasn't a blizzard...

Since there wasn't a blizzard and I was beginning to get a little bored, it was time for me to go on a stroll with my camera.

I put on my winter boots and my matching purple jacket (No, I did not coordinate on purpose, purple just happened to be the only colour available. Thankfully I really like purple!). I decided I didn't need my mittens as it was a balmy -3C outside, however, I definitely needed my sunglasses with the sun reflecting off of the snow. In fact you will never see people outside without sunglasses or ski goggles on. This very necessary habit leaves everyone, and I mean everyone, with a lovely raccoon-eye tan line.

I walked out of the hotel and grabbed a couple pictures of the inn...

Those are houses in front...

I reached the end of the street wondering which way to go first...

I chose to go left, but first I had to stop so I could change my camera lens. As I was wishing that I had an extra set of arms a gentlemen came up to me and asked if I would like for him to take my picture. Of course I did! We decided to find a better backdrop for my photo and started walking down the street. Please remember that I am in a village and not a city so I was perfectly safe. I promise! Also, I would not walk off with just anyone. Anyways, I learned that Rob is the principle of the elementary school, he comes up from BC but is originally from Ottawa! We ended up walking past the school and since he just happened to have the key took my in for a tour. What luck! 

Children's blocks!

After my little tour we got a halfway decent picture of me decked out in purple!

In the middle ground you can see the sled dogs. This is how they are kept 24-7, tied to a chain. Up here dogs are not treated as we would treat our pets, these are working dogs that are given the basic necessities. 

As I walked around I saw bear, caribou, and quite possible wolf pelts hanging basically everywhere. It is a different world up here.... My next picture is a typical street of houses.