I'm baaack!

Well, after 3 glorious but too short weeks, I have returned to the great North! I took the opportunity to visit friends and family while home, and did lots of shopping, shopping, shopping!! I spent a fabulous week in Holguin with my Mother on our first Mother-Daughter trip. The weather and the company could not have been better, and I came back relaxed, full of rum, and tanned.

Just before my return to Montreal I accepted a full time job in the village of Inukjuak. The work/time off ratio is the same but I will have a permanent position based in Inukjuak and will always return to my own apartment in this village. Which means I have my own place in which I leave my stuff while on vacation, and I can not be moved to another village. I am really excited to be based in Inukjuak, I have developed a genuine love of the community here, and they have accepted me with open arms. I also appreciate that the nursing team here is very stable and a great team to work with.

So, I came back to Inukjuak on April 22nd, and have already settled back into the routine. I have to admit there was much less homesickness this time around. It almost felt like I was coming home when I landed on the tar mac. It feels like I am back to the simple life of walking to work, doing my job, and coming home at the end of the day to do whatever I feel like doing. No stress, no hassel....just living life.

Although...the weather was a bit of a shock. Leaving Cuba, after a week of more than 32 degrees, I returned to Montreal where we seemed to have skipped over the spring season. So I arrived here after a week of 20 degree temperature in Montreal to a spring season of about minus 10 with a mix of snow and rain for the past week. But, it is more the winds, strong, blow through your bones, humid wind. Plus, there is no sewage system here, so the melting snow just creates huge puddles that freeze again at night and never seem to go away.

The other sudden change is that the run rises at 4:45 am and, well...it is now 9:20 pm and the sun is still out, but on its way down. It is rare to see a skidoo now, almost everyone has taken their 4 wheeler out for a spring ride, as the streets have melted and I can see the concreet.

I guess thats it. I have another 11 and a half weeks to go before my next vacation. I am already looking forward to July 18th when I fly home, but not so much that I am not enjoying all that there is here for me to enjoy.

The Igloo Built by the Elders

On March 15th, the elders in Inukjuak built some igloos and invited the community to come up and play games and have a feast. When I arrived at the site, I could not believe my eyes. Our little igloo looked like a shack in comparison to this mansion igloo. It was 3 igloos attached together to make a multichambered home. Even the dogs had a passageway to a small separate igloo for them. They built an entrance wall leading up to the front entrance, and a window on the top of the igloo made out of thick ice. They even had a ventilation stack!!!

Inside the biggest chamber of the igloo, they had dug out the floor and put in 2 by 4wood planks, so that you could sit with your feet dangling. Then the sleeping area was covered with cardboard, tarps and animal skins. They had a contraption build out of wood in order to hang clothes out to dry. And a coleman stove was heating water for tea.

It was great to see the elders teaching the young members of the community about their roots. I think it is sad that there is suck a loss of culture and tradition in this community. The elders have so much to teach the young, but the children seem interested only in soda, chips and video games.

Out side of the igloos, there were dog teams pulling sled rides, and soccer!!!! In the snow!!!

It was a great day, and the temperature was a still minus 30- no wind. It actually felt warm. I had my snow goose jacket wide open I felt so warm!!!

Building an Igloo

I am actually in Montreal now. But now that I have access to high speed Internet, I will catch you up on the 10 week contract I just finished!

On March 1st, the doctor in our clinic: Francois Prevost, who has been working up North for some time, decided to show the nurses how to build an igloo. It was actually much easier than I had anticipated. First you cut blocks of snow out of the ground with a saw. Since the snow is so hard and packed together, the blocks life right up and stay intact. Then you draw a circle of the ground and start laying the blocks of snow on the circle. When you place a new block next to an existing block, you tap 3 times on the side of the block and on the top of the block to make it stick to the blocks next to it. You keep doing this till you reach the top. Then you fill the cracks with snow, and the person on the inside of the igloo who was placing the blocks, cuts a hole for the door.

It took a little over 3 hours for us to finish the igloo. They told me about the igloo making competitions that are held every year in Inukjuak, and how there is a man named charlie who can build his igloo in 25 minutes!!

Apparently the temp inside the igloo at night is about minus 5. Too cold for me, so I slept at home........that and I am scared of the wolves and polar bears!!!!!

A Long way to Go

The weekend..........and I am not on call, yeah!! I moved yesterday to yet again another house. Hopefully it is my last move for my 10 week stint, but that is yet to be confirmed. Moving was a pain in the ass. I had to clean the other place, move all my stuff, and then clean here. This house has been closed down for at least 2 months, and was in dire need of a spring cleaning. To put it lightly, I was exhausted by the time I went to bed.

Today was a relaxing day. I did nothing much. I read (I am on book 3 so far this trip), watched some DVDs, and went for a walk. Tonight there is a get together at a friends house, and I am looking forward to seeing a bunch of nurses who returned from vacation earlier today.

Not much is new in town, we had another blizzard on Thursday, and I was on call (big surprise). It was a busy night on call, and I spent a fair amount of time at the clinic. I returned home from my last call at 4am and then had trouble falling back to sleep. Luckily I have slept well every other night here, so it did not affect me too much to wake up at 4am to go to work the next morning.

I went on my first ski doo ride yesterday, thanks to one of the local women who work at the clinic. It was a lot of fun, and I was awed at how fast those machines can go. It has the negative side affect of an added wind chill though. When we went out for the ride it was minus 43, and then the wind whips you in the face and I thought my nose would fall off. Today I have an even redder face than usual, maybe its a bit of a wind burn?

I will only be home March 30, and today that feels a long way off. For no reason, I feel down today. Even though I am enjoying myself and I like the work, I feel like I miss being home with friends and family and Ginger. I did not call anyone, just out of fear that the homesickness would worsen and I might shed some tears. This way, I can just struggle through until the feeling passes and then I can continue on with the adventure. Just know that I miss you all and hope all is well at home!

Back In Inukjuak

Well, here I am.......I am sure you thought I had fallen off the end of the earth! I arrived 2 weeks ago, and the time has passed quickly! The flight up here went off with out a hitch, and I was in town by about 3pm. I passed by the nursing station quickly to say hi, and then headed off to the hotel where I spent the night. There was no other lodging available until some of the nurses left the next day. The hotel was nice: communal kitchen and dining area, cable TV in the room, single bed. I started work the next morning, and I seemed to slip right back into the routine. I moved into a nursing apartment on the second day, and its a really nice place. It belongs to friends of mine who are permanent here, but are currently on vacation.

The nursing team who replaced us all while we were on vacation said it was really busy the last month. The clinic was busy, and the nights on call were heavy. They spend many an all night-er in the clinic. And since I have been back, they have spent 3 more all nighters at the clinic. I am fortunate so far (knock on wood) that my on call nights have gone well. But i will admit that the clinic has a much faster pace than when I was here last month.

We have had really different weather too. This week we had 2 major blizzards with 70 to 80 km winds and gusts over 100km/hour. The snow was blowing and visibility was nil. Cars were no longer operational, and the only way to get around was by foot or skidoo. Neither were really a smart option, and most people stayed home. By mid afternoon, the streets were empty, and you could not see 1 foot in front of you, everything was white. We thought we might have to sleep at the clinic, but the wind started to die down, and we braved the walk home in pairs. The wind had created huge mounds of snow in the roads, and walking was good exercise, especially against the wind, which continued to blow. 2 days later we had another blizzard which was worse than the first. It continued blowing for over 24 hours. The house shook in the wind and the windows rattled all night long. It was hard to sleep, and I wondered how it was possible that we still had power despite the weather.

Besides that, not much is new. The regular team of nurses that I worked with last stretch will begin to arrive during the next 2 weeks. I will be happy to work with them again. I miss the consistency and the knowledge that they bring to the work environment. It has been somewhat lonely without them, and I have had to keep myself busy. I have already read 2 books and watched quite a few flicks. I took a 3 hour stroll in the tundra with 2 co workers on my weekend off, and then had them over for dinner after. It was a good day off, and we definitely worked up an appetite! That's it for now, write again soon.....

Home For The Holidays

Hello everybody. What a busy trip home! I leave for the North again in 5 days, and my vacation flew past. What did I do......lets see.....

1. Visited friends. I saw many of my co workers and friends from the ER. They are working hard (as usual), in very rough conditions. Although I miss the job and my friends, I felt some relief to not feel the stress of their situation.

2. Went out for dinner....many, many times. Had some great food and shared meals with many special friends. One of my favorite outings was to Linguini's with Jenn, Denise, Angie, Brenda, Christine, and Angelique. Many interesting conversations and topics, lots of good wine and a great meal. I also loved my time with Carole and Francine and Nancy.

3. Shopping day with Genevieve. Luckily she found a babysitter and the 2 of us hit the malls hard. To top it all off was a long session of catch up at a restaurant. Even better was going to visit Gen at home and spending time with Alexandra. She has grown so much in my 2 months away, and is really gorgeous. Plus, gen made my meal of choice that night......fajitas!!

4. Movie day with Erin.....Atonement. I had bought the book to read up north, but saw the movie before I could read it. After the movie, we did some shopping and then had fondue dinner, yum, and hung out with her fab family.

5. Visiting the family. I went to Ontario and hung out with the folks for a couple of days. I got to catch up with them and see some pictures of their trip to Japan. My dad is getting super good with his computer and digital camera. As usual Mom spoiled me by helping me prepare to leave for up north, and filled my belly with great home cooking. We had a family reunion with both my brothers and their families, and my Grandma and Uncle. I got the chance to have a small family Christmas, including a nice turkey!

6. Snuggled with Ginger. I missed her sooooo much. She is as sweet and as much of a trouble maker as ever.

7. I spent a ton of time with Jenn. There is always so much to talk about, yet never enough time. As usual, we drank, ate and played games, in between the gossip that is!! Her family made me feel at home as usual, and I scored another Turkey dinner shared with Jenn's family.

I did a lot of other stuff, but I think I will stop there. Thanks to all my friends and family who made it a great trip home. See you all in 2 months!

Merry Christmas

Although I am sad to miss the holidays with family and friends, I am happy to be relieved of the stress of holiday preparations. We have celebrated somewhat here in Inukjuak, and plan for several more get togethers in the coming week. I wish all of you a Merry Christmas, and I will see you in the new year (only 5 days left!!!!).

We had our work Christmas party on Friday. All of social services, the mid wives, nurses and interpreters were there. There was tons on "southern food" or non Inuit meals, and I tried some "country food". It was a very interesting experience. They opened up some cardboard boxes and laid them on the floor as a table. Then took out frozen fish and seal and caribou, and used an axe to cut the frozen meat into bite size pieces. I tried a little of everything just for the experience. We then played games for prizes and had a gift exchange. The best gifts, of course, were home made Inuit crafts.

On Christmas eve the nurses are having a traditional meal with turkey and tortiere. I will bring a home made pie and Christmas goodies that were sent to me from my mom, YUMMY! On Christmas day we will be doing a fondue with cheese and meat with chocolate fondue for desert, no calories in that meal! We will all be working both days. The clinic is not technically open, but we are all working, stocking the rooms and doing paper work and seeing patients who call. The support staff will all be off for the holidays.

Yesterday I went for a 2 hour walk. The river has frozen over, so I crossed it to climb the hills of rock on the other side. It was quite the exercise, and I was soaking wet under my jacket when I returned. But it was worth it, I got some great pictures and it was a beautiful day. Sunny and bright, about minus 25. After that I finished the last of 9 books that I had brought with me.

Today I am on call, and so far I have only gone into the clinic once. Its a good thing too, because its minus 41 today, and it feel bloody cold out. I have done over 70 hours of overtime in the 8 weeks that I have been up north, which seems incredible. I don't think that I did that many hours of overtime in Montreal in a whole year!

Well, that's it! merry Christmas to you and your families, I will be thinking of you while I pass the time here. I will see you next week. Get ready to PARTY!

The On Call day From Hell

The last blog entry said that we were waiting through another blizzard, and what a blizzard it was. I was on call, and the day was quite busy. The phone rang pretty consistently and I went in to the clinic to see patients about 6 times during the day. What made the day so bad, was that the roads were not plowed, and I could barely see anything due to the whiteouts. I really thought that that was the worst on call day I could have, until........

This Friday I was also on call. There was a nursing get together, a club sandwich night, yummy!! I made it through the evening without a call (amazing). At 20:30 I went in to see one patient. Then at 22:00 the police called, and I went in again for 30 minutes. I made it home and was in bed at 23:00, until the phone rang at 00:35. I was told that there was a skidoo accident, and that I needed to come into the clinic. When I got to the clinic, I had 2 patients with head trauma, and a third patient walked in with a open fracture of the arm. After a quick 2 minute panic session, I called in my second on call. I was in luck though, the local doctor was also on call that night, so I gave him a wake up call as well. It turned out that after we stabilized the patients, they should have been evacuated by air to the hospital. Of course, with my luck, I discovered that the pilots were grounded until 8am for having too many flight hours already. So, the second nurse and the doctor went home, and I stayed with the 3 patients until 10 am, when the plane came to medivac them and the next nurse became on call.

24 hours of working is just too much. I complained in Montreal that doing a double was tough, but this night was just plain stupid. I slept the next day from 10 am to 6pm. The whole day was shot. I missed the only time that the local store was open for the entire weekend, so I could not buy any milk or necessities. I started to feel sorry for myself, and also think that now I understand why nurses do not last up north for long. But after seeing the nursing team today, they reassured me that it is rare to spend the night at the clinic, maybe once in 6 months. I am still nervous for my next night on call, which is tomorrow, but I only have 3 nights left on call to do before I go home, which is very doable.

Today was really cold, and I can tell that the temperature is dropping a little each day. The sun rises at 9:30 am now, and is gone by 2:30. The town is preparing for Christmas. There are a couple of houses with Christmas lights. The clinic has a Christmas tree. We are having a staff Christmas party with the interpreters, nurses, mid wives and social services this Friday. Everyone tells me that there are alot of competitions and games during the week of Christmas. I guess the fishing competitions are something to see, if not participate in.

Today I did vaccinations for Hepatitis B at the elementary school. I was quite nervous about it, and lost a little sleep over it last night. But in the end it went very well. I vaccinated 31 grade 4 students, and they were all really sweat and funny. It was good to get out of the clinic for the morning and do something different. I got to see the school and talk with the students. For some reason, they seemed to find me very funny, because they kept laughing when I said things, but never answered my questions!

Well, its 8 days to Christmas. i am sure that all of you are busy shopping and having Christmas parties. I had thought it was nice to fell free of the Xmas rush and stresses, but I miss a lot of it too. It made me feel better when I received a care package from a friend of mine, Denise, today. Some goodies and wine. I cried when I opened it! Comfort food and something to piss away my home sickness with, what could be better than that!! Thanks Denise, you are the best! XXOO