Friday Night in Resolute Bay - Let's Go To The Dump!

Resolute Bay has a population of approximately 250 people, and many polar bears. Resolute is considered the gateway to the magnetic North Pole and, therefore, is frequented regularly by adventure tourists. There are three hotels in this small community, most communities only have one. 

The town.
A plane crashed in the mountain a couple of years ago...let's not think about that.

I have to tell you that this small community quickly became my favourite out of the nine communities I have had the opportunity to visit in the North. The people here are SO friendly and warm. You feel a great sense of family and community spirit. Everyone looks out for each-other. People even take turns on voluntary polar bear watch in order to keep the children and community safe. 

It goes on forever!
Watch out for polar bears!

Speaking of polar bears....It is Friday night, so what do we do for fun in the High North? Well, we decide to drive down to the dump to watch polar bears, of course! Four of us piled into a van, with cameras in tow, hoping to get a glimpse of a real, live polar bear. There are so many polar bears in Resolute that the community has 30 tags per year, (compared to 20 in most). Half of these are sold to Southerners who hunt for sport. The dump had some arctic foxes and a polar bear popping up in the background. Honestly, I couldn't differentiate the bear from the piles of snow.

This photo was taken a couple of days before I arrived by a man staying at the hotel.
The bears go to the dump to eat, they don't seem to care if it is still hot and on fire.

At the airport.
This is the closest I got to a polar bear.

We worked in clinic for a mere two days before we decided to head to our next destination, Grise Fiord. 

Health Clinic

Proof I was in Resolute.
Arctic ocean in the background.

High Arctic Adventure - Arctic Bay

After leaving Pond Inlet, I arrived home for a four day mini vacation. Next stop was Iqaluit to meet my new dentist for the high arctic trip. Our first stop was Arctic Bay on Northern Baffin Island. The plan was to stay for two weeks, but we cut our visit down to ten days due to the fact that we were struggling to get patients in. There was a dental team in just a couple of weeks ago, and the community seems to have been over-serviced. I welcomed the slower pace since I have been working a lot of overtime and could use a bit of a break. Did I also mention that I caught a horrible flu that made it's way around town not once, but twice. Not fun to be sick in the Arctic!

Arctic Bay has a population of approximately 1000. There is a Northern Store, a Co-Op, a couple of convienient stores, and a heritage centre where they sell local carvings, mittens and artwork. There are also three churches in the community.

Street and Skidoo.

Northern Store, just three houses from the health centre

The Bay. Too frozen to use these. Two dog teams are tied up on the ice.

Church to the right of the health centre

Stuart and I had the opportunity to visit the school and meet some great kids in grade 5 and 6. This school has a dental therapist who takes care of all of the children's oral health needs, so instead of doing a dental presentation Stuart showed pictures from his trip to Africa, which the kids loved!

Grade 5/6

All giggles. They loved having their picture taken.

I was thrilled to see the toothbrushes in the classroom!