The Mentees First Stitch

The Mentees First Stich
Originally uploaded by albinoblackbear.

We were lucky enough to have a patient who agreed to let Kayla and Sandy try their hand at suturing--on his head. A great guy who actually fell asleep during the procedure, giving credit to their gentle, expert touch. No he didn't fall asleep because he was unconscious.
Actually outcome was good. And they obviously were enjoying themselves.

Early Morning (instant) Coffee

Early Morning (instant) Coffee
Originally uploaded by albinoblackbear.

Me and the Man. The Good Man. The missed man. A moment of weakness forced my hand to upload a pic of John and I. Thought the masses who read my profession of love should at least get a look at him.

Love Love Love

It's a fact. Hollywood is known for creating these cheesy romance scenes where some guy is yelling the middle of a huge department store "I LOVE YOU! I WANT THE WHOLE WORLD TO KNOW IT!!" I have always rolled my eyes at these manufactured, unrealistic expressions.

But let it be known. Even the cynic, the jaded can be converted. It's true.

I am in love. There, I said it. Truly a man was never more deserving of love than John, and a woman so lucky as I, to have his.

There may be no big department stores, and yelling it out in the Co-Op store here in Cambridge Bay, though dramatic, would likely result in a call to the mental health nurse here in town, and my boss.

Despite the lack of physical proximity to the man--let me proclaim, to the world wide web, at least, and the 4 people that may someday read this: that love, yes love can grow, even in -50 degree climates. When the beloved is hundreds of miles away and only connected by a telus phone card and a dodgy internet--he still makes me smile, and sigh, and laugh, and blush, and shake my head everyday while thanking the stars I have such an amazing man in my life.

And so, thank you for indulging me in my own cheesy Hollywood scene here in front of my computer, in the central arctic.

You Know You Are In the Arctic When...

So picture Saskatchewan. Now go straight up, through Nunavut. Over all the rocks and trees and tundra. Over the caribou, lichen, streams, and ravens. Drop off the top of Canada's mainland, cross the frigid waters that will turn you to ice in minutes, then stiffly climb onto the shores of Victoria Island. There you are. In Cambridge Bay.

Imagine a flat, white, landscape. Depending on the day that white will be cut in half on the horizon with blue-bird sky that surrounds you 180 degrees or with a matching shade of blowing white which makes you feel like you are in one of those snow globes someone is shaking vigorously.

Welcome to the North.

It has been cold up here. Not just "oh I think I'll wear a coat today" cold but more like "oh, I think I have to bring my blowdryer and an extension cord to work today so I can de-ice my lock when I get home" cold.

My walk to work is approximately 5 mins (or 1.5 Lucinda Williams songs I've discovered). And in that time all kinds of fun and interesting things can happen to you when it is -50 with the windchill.

Things like: -your face freezing to the inside of your coat from the moisture in your breath. As if you licked the entire front of your face then stuck it to the side of a metal door.
-your eyelashes freezing shut
-a trail of snotcicles (icicles made of snot) clinging to your upper lip
-a pain, burning, immobility of movement in the fingers which leads you to believe that your fingers are actually freezing. It is not just an expression any more.
-your earphone cord seizing up to a taught, brittle, wire instead of the normally flexible plastic handing loosely by your side.
-tendrils of hair coated by breath moisture turning into wisps of ice hair framing your face, which then melts and plasters to your forehead imediately after stepping indoors.

It's fun. It's something different all the time. Today it is only -37 with the windchill so people are outside snow kiting in the bay to celebrate the chinook like change in weather.

Got to love those hearty northeners, hey?

Revelling in Revelstoke

Back in the Southern bits of the world, a nice change again. Moved into a wicked pad and just going through the slow process of unpacking and organizing my so called life. The boxes have been collecting dust from past 6 months to 2 years.
Today I found my Braun hand mixer and actually squealed with delight. Such pathetic things excite me these days.

But on to non pathetic things...

Anne Marie and Ryan finally had their baby! Shheeeesh! It's already been nine months of waiting!!

So great! Wee Tobin Gill burst onto the scene on Valentines Day at 7lbs and 2 oz. He's such a cutie! Thatch of hair and high ape index, the child will surely be the design of all the new baby girls in this town.

Have managed to tear myself away from Physics (ahem!) a couple of times to create havoc on the ski hill at kicking horse, and by havoc I mean weaving about like an old lady whose lost control, ever widening turns with arms circling wildly behind me.

Well, it is no quite that bad...the AT gear has improved my downhilling somewhat. As some might say to my former Tele venture, "fix the heel, fix the problem". But I say DAMN them! tele just looks sooooo much cooler (except when I am doing it, granted).

So for now I busy myself bopping around the house, cooking, drinking champagne (that's right, Champagne, not sparkling wine--okay the odd sparkling wine), stoking the fire--ohh yeah--my new favorite activity. I feel so primal splitting kindling and lighting stuff on fire. And doing Physics from time to time. I have noticed an inverse relationship with amount of people I meet to hours spent doing physics.

Which brings me to Saakje and Heenke. Oh how my liver quivers when I mention their names. Many good nights already filled with Saakje's stories from around the world and Heenke's Finnish perspective on everything. Great laughs and equally good wine drinking skills. Hope to be uploading photos of Heenke in his Manties soon. Either that or the leather thong he claims to own.

Lucky for John I didn't have my camera handy after our apres party from two days ago! A mistake I shant make twice. A jovial man when he's heavily imbibed, yet strange sleeping patterns under his desk curled up with a paderno pot under his arm.

Who said small towns are sleepy??

Pond et al

The mountains see the sun before the town. We wait still for 2 days before it crests above the horizon for us.

Jenny and I pick up where we left off in Iqaluit nearly two years ago.

And Apphia, a continued quest to find me a hunter so I'll stay in Pond!

Lap(top) Dance

Ahhh, my shiny mac. How I love you so. How I missed you while ticking away at dial up drudgery for the past few weeks. How I longed to plug my photos onto my websites and check my email without having to make tea while my inbox opened.

So today is Feb 10 and I am in Ottawa for a few hours before getting on my version of a red eye (the 0700h flight to Kelowna).

Pond Inlet was grand. Cold and grand.

The chubby thighs of wee babes that I immunized 18 months ago are now running up and down the health centre, clad only in diapers and slippers. For now a few pics with more details to follow.

Jenny, dear Jenny. Self described as the "crazy lady with two toned hair and clothes that don't fit" was again a great source of energy and laughter during my trip. In the north friendships are made fast and full on, the distance of time and miles doing little to dilute the original concentration. Thank you Jen for the Zin and for, as usual, teaching me many things about patience and patients.

Apphia (my Inuit surrogate mother) cooked an amazing caribou feast on my last day. One of the elders had donated it to the health centre. Earlier that day, the womens auxillary and town elders were in the health centre to bless the building and all the staff. A touching and much needed gesture from the community that let all of us know our efforts were not in vain.

A busy time over the last few weeks there have left most of the staff tired and fighting various bugs. Most days someone was home nursing a strep throat, gastritis, or another all nighter at the clinic. Dr. DeMaio had her hands full helping us with medivacs during the day while watching her ever growin list of referrals grow to over 100. Flo (the nurse in charge) as ever remained even keeled with her dry wit to keep us chuckling even on the bad days...."as good as can be expected, under the circumstances" right Flo??

For now, a pillow. 5 am comes early. Later more photos and yarns from north of 70.

Rankin Adventures

Snow snakes are seen across the parking lot in Rankin Inlet, its -49 degrees. My hair was still a bit damp from my morning shower which froze imediately in a snarl of icy knots. I instinctively went to cover my ears with my hands, ice cold already they felt like two foreign objetcs stuck to the side of my head. Every follicle of hair on my legs was raised in the most pathetic attempt to increase warmth under my pant legs. Cold. Tried to go to my happy place, put myself above the cold, transcend the cold. HA! Useless.

Note the time 2am in Ottawa, again, having spent 8h on a plane and 9h in an airport to end up back at your original location. Frustrated would have been an understatement.

How I Got Here and other pathetic travel anecdotes

Let me preface this blog with a disclaimer regarding my cortex being well marinated in a tasty little Italian Barolo (wine, not person).

So let's answer the question "how are you?" with an abbreviated itinerary from the last couple of days...

Wed, Nov 24th 1445h---leave for K-Town by car (not a bad drive, though nearly killed by several logging trucks whist refilling windshield washer fluid on shoulder of highway)

Thurs Nov 25th 0615h---wake up call drills my brain to get ready to catch 0830h flight, see heavy fog, hit snooze button. Wake up seven minutes later and spend the next six hours in my hotel drinking hot water through the coffee maker and refreshing the aircanada screen every 17 minutes while my flight continually gets pushed later. Then cancelled. Then a new one for 1300h.

1200h--while pushing 126lbs of luggage up the ramp outside, my cooler full of southern nibblies falls, spilts open, and my cans of tuna, baby spinach leaves, and soy milk hit the tarmack at high velocity. Nice.

1225h--Air Crapada Check In Hags hassle me for being late (for the flight that is again delayed over an hour), apparently air canada can be 5h late but you can't be 5 mins late. Go figure.

1235h--cans of salvaged tuna confiscated by airport security for being "a liquid". John labels me "the Tunabomber".

Friday Nov 25th 0005h Arrive Ottawa airport.

0130h Check in guy at Southways Inn notes bedragled traveller, puts me in room with a jacuzzi because "I need it". He is the first nice thing that has happened today (except for the two cans of tuna that I bought and consumed for dinner on the 4h flight from Calgary to Ottawa.

Friday Nov 25 0730h wake up call #2 blasts me out of slumber.

1030h--get on delayed flight to Iqaluit.

1400h--arrive in Rankin Inlet. Thats right. Rankin Inlet. "hurricaine winds" in Iqaluit cause us to make a diversion to Rankin. It is -49 degrees c and I learn for the first time what being in the frozen equivalent of hell must feel like.

1900h board plane to return to Ottawa as Iqaluit not improving.

2000h deplane as right engine starter not "starting".

2200h start to ration protein bar bites as it looks like Rankin Airport will be my home for the night. Call dibbs on 1ft by 6ft patch of carpet behind luggage carosel as mine. Note ratio of 100 travellers to 2 pay phones while waiting in line for the third time to make calls south.

2205h approached by fellow strandee "did you see the sandwich that lady was eating? it looked really good, I think there was salmon in it!" I point out she has clearly been in airports too long if that is what she is checking out.

2210h engine starts, we plane again. Ears freeze despite hat and mitts in 4 mins outside getting on plane.

0130h arrive Ottawa Airport...it's like deja vu all over again. Get dropped off at Shell terminal as could not go through security in Rankin, and therefore, not secure.

0230h bags arrive from other terminal

0300h open suitcase in hotel to discover my "greens plus" powder has exploded all over my clothing...hotel room now looks like spore experiment gone wrong

0730h wake up call #3 clangs me back to consciousness

0830h told by airport folks flight might be diverted due to storm, I seriously consider quitting my job.

1500h arrive in hotel room in Iqaluit.

and that....is how I got this far.

Only two days, one stop over, and 2 airports left before I get to Pond Inlet.