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