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
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| Sterilization/storage |
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| Instruments. |
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