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.

Things Move Slowly

I woke up at about 5:30, looked out my window to see people already on the streets. Children were playing on their bicycles and people were driving around on ATV's. I guess they really take advantage of having 24 hours of daylight. I must say that it was a very strange feeling to wake up in the middle of the night and have sunlight shining through my curtains, but it does give you extra energy.

So, today we were supposed to start seeing patients, but that didn't exactly happen. Our number one problem was that we still didn't have an interpreter. This person is obviously very important for us as we do not speak Inuktitut (although most locals do speak some English) she is also responsible for calling and booking our patients. So we were scrambling to figure things out when Helena (one of the newfie hotel managers) finally got a hold of someone to work for us. She wasn't going to make it for a couple of hours.

Cecilia, our interpreter, arrived at about one o'clock. We put her to work right away and will now be seeing our first patients on Monday. The day is booked solid. It was interesting listening to her make phone calls and answer the phone. You  know you are in a small community when she answers "good afternoon, dentist", or she would call people that were on a waiting list "the dentist is here, do you still need to see them".

Since we didn't have any clinical work to do Terry took me on a tour of the town. No one seemed to mind that there were gusts of wind up to 70km and snow blowing absolutely everywhere. By the time we got to the co-op my face was soaking wet and frozen from the snow and ice. The co-op was small and had mostly food items and hunting supplies. Our next stop was the Northern Store, which is like a very mini Walmart, it has everything from food to appliances, to clothes. Apples were four for 5.95$, after that I didn't bother looking at other prices, although Terry told me that cigarettes cost 20$ a pack (not carton!) not that either of us smoke. So that concluded my tour, we hit all of the hot spots! Tomorrow the weather should hopefully be better so I can walk around a bit more and take some good pictures.


Here are some pictures of the clinic...

Reception/waiting area

                                                                           Our "op"

Sterilization/storage

Instruments.

I Have Arrived!

I have finally made it Gjoa Haven, Nunavut! After a one night layover in Edmonton, I flew to Yellowknife this morning where I got to meet the dentist I will be working with for the next three weeks. Terry (Dr Melbourne) didn't arrive to the airport until about five minutes to boarding time...I was starting to worry that he wasn't going to show! And what would I do without the dentist! He made it though, and he is a very nice man who has been coming to work in the Kitikmeot region for the past four years.

We boarded our 18 seater plane for the 2.5 hour flight. I m not sure if you could really call Gjoa Airport an airport, it's really more like a landing strip with a little one room hut. We had to wait forever in order to get our baggage, as passenger baggage is behind all of the community necessities stored in the Turboprop planes. We were picked up by the Inn keeper and his wife (both Newfies, not locals) and brought to our lodging in an old van with a flat tire on the front. Less than 5 minutes later we arrived at the Amundsen Inn.

Dr Melbourne didn't want to waste time so we went to the clinic right away. We left our baggage in the reception area and headed to the clinic, which to my surprise was just down the hall. Yes, the dental clinic is in the hotel! It is a very small one room operation, there is a small waiting area with about four chairs and basically an ally kitchen for storage, sterilization and radiograph developing. Instruments were everywhere, the place was a mess and I have an autoclave that looks to be fifty years old...though I did a test run and it seem to be in fine working order, just very slow. My developer is also slow, I didn't realize it could take over ten minutes to develop some radiographs, but at least it works. We start our first patients tomorrow and I will be sure to take some pictures of our little clinic.

After a couple of HOURS tidying and organizing the dental clinic I headed up to my room. It's quite big, and very comfortable. I have two twin beds, one for my bags and one to sleep, a coffee maker, big flat screen TV and a little window overlooking the town. My bathroom is nice, too. I ended up opening my window even though there is snow everywhere and about minus 5C, for some reason they keep the heat in here about 25C...too hot for even me!

I forgot to mention where exactly Gjoa Heaven is located. The community is 250 km North of the Arctic circle, very North! They have been in 24 hours of daylight for the past month and it should stay that way for at least two more.

The view from my little window