Bear Paw blog

Back in Boston

2010-05-04T03:53:00.001-07:00

I safely returned on Sunday after leaving Zanzibar 30 hours earlier! Thanks again to all of you who have followed along and commented! It was so nice to know that so many of you were interested in what I was doing in Kenya.

The Sun!

2010-04-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

The sun has come out in Zanzibar! Its a beautiful place! I have now been to all the oceans in the world, and swam in all the swimmable ones!

Masai Mara

2010-04-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

My trip to the Masai Mara did not go exactly as anticipated, there were a few bumps along the road, both literally and figuratively. But what would a trip to Africa be without a few unplanned adventures?!

The drive to the Mara took about 4 hours from Kijabe, about half the time is on “paved” roads and the other half is on dirt roads. The second half of the drive was very cool in that there were lots of Masai villages and camps along the sides of the road. They are very beautiful as you drive by, you see the bright colours of the Masai clothing along the sides of the roads. The homes tended to be very primitive, most were mud huts, some had tin roofs held down with stones, but many were made of mud as well. In the center of each group of houses was a fenced in circle for their animals.

Arriving at our lodge in the Mara was quite a change from life in Kijabe, we were greeted with warm cloths to wash our faces, fresh mango juice and of course tonnes of food on the buffet! I unfortunately got sick the night we arrived so I didn’t get a chance to enjoy much of the food. It also meant I missed two of the four games drives, which was really disappointing. I was thankful that I had gone to Lake Nakuru the weekend before as we had been able to see so many different animals there. The Mara is also such a big game park, so the safari experience was very different from Nakuru, in that we would drive for long periods of time without seeing any animals.

What I did experience in the Mara on one of the game drives I was able to go on, I will likely never forget. It was the first elephant we had seen, he was a large male, all alone eating grass. We were able to get quite close to him and were taking pictures and watching him, when all of sudden he became very agitated and upset. His ears came out and he turned and began to charge our van. To make matters worse, the van would not start as we had been having problems with the battery all day. We all really thought we were going to be trampled to death by an elephant that day. Fortunately he stopped about 6 feet from the van, watched us for a while longer while we cowered on the floor of the van, and then slowly began to walk away. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. And has changed my perspective on elephants entirely. The next day when I was sick, the girls did see more elephants in a heard and had a much more positive experience, I’m sorry I missed that. I was feeling better the last morning, and was able to go on our last game drive. We saw lots of giraffes that morning as the sun rose, it was very beautiful.

the elephant right before he started after us

I’m now in the not so sunny Zanzibar, with fingers crossed that the weather will improve. It can’t rain for 3 days straight, right?

Last Day in Kijabe!

2010-04-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe today was my last day at CURE. Before I arrived, two weeks seemed like a relatively good length of time to visit. But these two weeks have flown by! I have learned a lot about Kenyan culture, disability and disability services as well as being again reminded how fortunate I am to live and work in North America. I also have a great list compiled of what to bring the next time I come! =)

This is the rehab team, Elvis the OT on the left and David the rehab assistant on the right.

I am now on a week of "vacation", three days in the Masai Mara and then five days in Zanzibar! I can't wait!

Disability Services in Kenya

2010-04-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel to Nairobi with a team from the hospital to see what other hospitals are offering with respect to rehab and what equipment they have. CURE has been invited to put together a proposal for a therapeutic play room and so we went to do some research.

We were gone for over 12 hours, so it was a very long day. But I really enjoyed it and learned a lot! I love learning about disability services, and it was great to see what Kenya is doing. We visited three different facilities, as well as a bunch of shops to pick up hospital supplies and to price items for our proposal.

First stop was the Association for Physically Disabled in Kenya. They had a very modern rehab department that looked very similar to anything you might find in North America, if not nicer. The funnest part for me was their wheelchair workshop. They manufacture all of the custom wheelchairs for Kenya. For all you wheelchair people out there, check out the front castors on this chair! They know how to make chairs for rough terrain!

We also visited Gertrude's Children's Hospital, very nice also with a great rehab department and very friendly staff. I was very popular yesterday with all the Kenyan OTs we met! I love meeting other OTs, no matter where I am in the world!

Our third stop was a private hospital that looked like a 5 star resort from the outside. It had marble floors, balconies. Very chi chi! However, besides their hydrotherapy pool, they don't really have any OT services. Overall, a GREAT day!

I'm not usually a flower picture taker, but this is a real life poinsettia tree! They grow everywhere around here and apparently are always flowering, not like us at Christmas!

Lake Nakuru National Park!

2010-04-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I traveled to Lake Nakuru National Park with some friends who are working at Kijabe Hospital. It is about a 2 hour drive from Kijabe and is a small game park, home to both black and white rhinos as well as flamingos. Here are a few pictures of some of the many animals that we saw! We had a fantastic day and we fortunate to see so much more than just that, even our driver agreed we had a very lucky day!

a rare black rhino, it crossed the road right infront of us!

a pride of female lions

a family of white rhinos

hyenas

cape buffalo and antelope

the lake of flamingos (the picture doesn't do it justice, it was so beautiful!)

Clubfoot Clinic

2010-04-16T09:56:00.003-07:00

Today was my first clubfoot clinic! We literally saw about 25 kids in a few hours. Most of their current caseload have finished with the casting portion and are now on the maintenance part in which they wear special shoes to maintain the correct foot position. At first its all the time, then its only at night as to not limit motor development. I also was able to watch a few tendon release procedures which was hard because the babies were screaming and in some cases the parents were crying too.

One of the coolest parts of today was that we had a few babies come in who are at part of the Masai tribe. It was like I had stepped into National Geographic. I wish I could take pictures, but we are not allowed and it would be quite unprofessional. It took everything I had not to stare the whole time! Its amazing what they can make their ears do. I really didn't know it was possible.

Tomorrow I am headed to Lake Nakuru National Park in hopes of spotting some rhinos! (and other animals of course)!

Thumb spica anyone?

2010-04-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

Today my splinting skills (or lack thereof) were put to the test. Fortunately there were no clients involved. Elvis and I honestly spent a good 3-4 hours today working on making templates for a thumb spica hand splint for a kid we have coming in on Monday! It was terrible considering we both were trained on how to do this. I also realized how reliant I am on the internet, because as home I would have just googled it, not spent 30 minutes trying to draw one only to finally realize when I did get online that I had the shape entirely wrong. We did eventually get it and made a really nice template for future reference!

I had a few more babies today with motor delays. I've learned that toys for children and especially babies are very uncommon here in Kenya. No rattles to teach hand grasp, etc. So when trying to give parents strategies on how to get their baby to turn its head to the other side, or position their thumb correctly, is a challenge. I thought getting parents to do "tummy time" at home was hard! Here, I think the babies are carried for the first year of their life at least. Its no wonder their motor milestones are delayed. I did have one really cute little guy who was talking up a storm and he isn't walking independently yet. Its fairly common here to put children (no matter what age) into the parallel bars to promote walking. I was in charge of this kid and I was staying far away from the parallel bars, but that was all he was interested in. He was going back and forth in them like no bodies business! He wouldn't walk anywhere else but in there! It was kind of funny.

We have some nursing students this week and they have been spending the afternoons with us because they run out of patients to see. They have been great to have around because their english is very good and they have been teaching me many things about Kenya and Kenyan culture. One of them took me up to the market this afternoon after work to get some tea and some fruit. I'm so excited to eat fresh passion fruit again!

Below are a few pictures of the Rift Valley because its just so beautiful! I went on a walk yesterday and was able to get a few more pictures from a few different angles. Enjoy!

We've had some beautiful rainbows the past few days, the picture doesn't do it justice.

The blue roof is Kijabe Hospital.

My digs!

2010-04-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

So I've decided not to move up the hill to stay with my friend Leah who is also working here because I have really nice digs! I went up to visit after work today just to make sure. While it would nice to have the company, I don't think you can beat my porch view!

Covered porch, so I can sit in the rain (I've made it home every day just in time) and watch the lightning over the Rift Valley.

My own bathroom, with hot water!

And my room.

Work was challenging and thought provoking again today. I felt today like my time in Iqaluit has helped to prepare me for the some of the challenges here. Today was a clinic day, which means people were here from all over the country to follow-up. Some of these people won't be back for a very long time so we had to do something for them today and we had to do it quick.

One of the hardest things I saw today were two boys, each about 10 years old and each had broken their elbows. When they were casted, their arms were positioned very poorly and as a result, the are unable to bend or extend their arm fully. When asked to do this, they were in incredible amounts of pain. This however, only seemed to matter to me. Their parents and Elvis reefed on their arms so badly and so often, I almost had to leave the room. These kids were screaming out in pain. It was horrible to watch. I don't usually make kids cry in my day to day job and I certainly have never caused pain like that! I wasn't even sure where to begin with them because in North America, I'm sure we would approach this quite differently.

I also had the chance to try and teach some developmental stuff as kids were being sent up to us to "learn to walk" when they can't even sit independently.

I think my favourite part of the day was taking the kid I talked about yesterday who is visually impaired, outside. He doesn't go out very often according to mom, and we went out into the sun and I had him feeling flowers, rocks and sticks. It was fun! He was much happier than yesterday which was nice to see too!

No time for chai breaks today! Hopefully tomorrow!

First full day of rehab

2010-04-13T10:01:00.001-07:00

This entry my be fairly OT based, so I apologize in advance to any of you who aren't OTs. Today was my first full day at the hospital and some things were very similar to my job in Boston and others were very different. We saw a lot more kids today and outside of our two "chai tea" breaks (yay!) we were pretty busy. So much so that I even saw a few kids on my own. That was a challenge since most people do not speak english that well, or they don't understand my english!

One of the main differences is the attitude towards rehab. We were dragging young, sleeping kids out of bed, less than 24 hours post-op, to start walking. There is no coddling, some of these kids were clearly in a lot of pain, but no one gave them a break or told them to take a rest. They are super cute though, I just want to hug all of them!

I observed/participated in my first clubfoot casting today. From what I understand, this is only performed by specially trained pediatric orthopedic surgeons in North America. Here, there is no precision or measurement to it. We casted a two month old baby, by turning the foot as far as it would go. He will stay in the cast for a week and then come back and we will do it again. Once the foot is as close to midline as possible, then we will start to put it into dorsi flexion. Again, just by holding it as far as it will go and casting it. I think the part I found the most amazing was that the parents totally accepted it. I've seen parents crying about things at home that seem so menial compared to this.

I think the toughest kid we had today is a boy about 6-8 years old. He is blind, but is at the hospital for surgery to his leg. He does not ambulate, his mom carries him everywhere as he also does not have a wheelchair. I think he should also have a diagnosis of developmental delay or autism, as he is non-verbal and is totally dependent for all of his self-care. He lives with his mom as his dad left them once he was born and it was clear there was something wrong with him. Since he is only at the hospital for surgery, the plan is to discharge him in a few days. From an OT perspective, he would really benefit from some intensive therapy to try and increase his independence a little bit and get him mobilizing or at least in a wheelchair. The challenge is they live 7 hours away, so we have three days to try and make some significant changes in his life! This one was hard for me as it really demonstrates the difference between services in Kenya and those in North America.

This is the CURE hospital, the rehab room is the windows on the front, left side.

On a more positive note, just after I arrived home from work today there was a sun shower and a beautiful rainbow! I enjoyed sitting under my sheltered porch watching the rain fall over the valley.

Arrived in Kijabe!

2010-04-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

After a long couple of days of travel I have finally arrived at my home for the next two weeks, Kijabe, Kenya! There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the fact that I am not a doctor (most of their visiting guests are) so I was even greeted at the airport with this sign...

The CURE hospital (where I am at) is very small compared to the "large" general hospital next door. We only have 30 beds, Monday's are a quiet day for rehab, we saw 3 kiddos today. On Wednesday and Friday they run clinics which seem like it will be much steadier. The rehab department consists of Elvis, a Kenyan trained OT. It was interesting to talk with him a bit today about what OT means in Kenya and why he choose this profession, etc. I think my splinting skills are really going to improve over the next two weeks. There is also a brace making workshop where I am looking forward to spending some time.

My accommodations are great, but I am planning to move tomorrow so I can stay with my friend Leah who is also working here. But my current place sits on the very edge of the Rift Valley which is beautiful! I may have to come down here to hang out just for the views.

More to come! I hope all of you are well!

Kubeba Paw Blog

2010-04-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome back! The bear paw blog is temporarily being renamed to the Kubeba paw blog (that's swahili for bear paw).

For those that didn't know, I'm headed to Kenya for three weeks on Saturday! I'm going to be at the AIC CURE International Children's hospital in Kijabe, Kenya for two weeks, teaching and learning from the rehab staff there. And then my friend Leah and I are going to be vacationing for a week, our plan is to safari in the Masai Mara and beach it up in Zanzibar!

I'm hoping to post regular updates on my time at Kijabe here (fingers crossed the dial-up internet will be cooperative!) And I would of course love to hear from all of you while I am away.

Back home

2008-11-12T17:24:00.001-08:00

I have returned from the north and have been eating fresh veggies and all sorts of wonderful things since I got back! Its good to be home, but it was a great experience being up there. I met some fabulous people and had some amazing experiences. Something I will never forget!

Thanks to everyone who followed my blog, it was great sharing these experiences with you! I am now moving to Boston, perhaps I will need to change the name to the "Beantown blog"! Keep in touch!

Nicole

Grise Fiord

2008-11-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to share about this community for many weeks but never got to it. Grise Fiord is Canada's most northern civilian community. (Alert is farther north but is just researchers) The settlement was created in the 50's by the Canadian Government who moves people from northern Quebec promising them housing and hunting and that they would be able to return home in one year in exchange for sovereignty in the high arctic. The offer to return was later withdrawn when the government realized they needed to keep people there in order to maintain their sovereignty. Oops! So its now a community of approx 120 people, surviving in the far, far north!

Kamik's contined

2008-11-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

So the kamik story has gotten worse. Today I found out that my friend Janna not only wears smelly boots, she had to chew on the soles so they would be soft enough to sew! Ewww! Based on the smell, I can't imagine how they must have been to suck on. She said she almost threw up and the teacher did the other boot because one was enough.

Here is the house I walk by on my way to work, see the boots hanging?

Kamiks

2008-11-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

As the snow continues to fall here and the weather gets cold, more parkas are coming out as well as kamiks (boots)! My co-worker Janna made a pair for herself last year, they are made of seal skin with several layers of fleece underneath. They look really cute, many people were grippers over them for walking on ice. The uppers are made of treated seal skin and the bottoms are untreated and as a result... they STINK! But my favourite part is that she has to store them in the freezer over night because they would ROT if she left them out. Ewww! People usually keep them in their front room where it is cold enough but because she is an apartment she doesn't have one of those. I saw some kamiks this morning hanging on a hook outside someone's house. Just hanging there, being kept from rotting! I know that's what I want in my boots =)

Inukshuk

2008-10-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

Igloolik is known for its giant inukshuk. It was too cold to get up close but here it is from a distance. Its at the entrance to town on the way from the airport.

Animal Watch

2008-10-29T16:46:00.000-07:00

baby huskies

boat trail through the ice

People have been asking me about animals and while I haven't seen anything but the extremely large and scary ravens, since arriving in Igloolik I've heard about more and seen more skins.

During visit yesterday, someone told me a few days ago there was a polar at the dump. And today there were a bunch of boats out in the bay because apparently the belugas where in the bay and they were hunting. I still haven't seen anything though!

I have decided that the smell of country meat (or blood, I'm not sure) is really quite distinguishable and not my favourite smell. Many of the houses I have entered this week have fresh meat in them and the smell overpowers you when you walk in the house. I wish I could capture it like a scratch and sniff but I don't think its a smell I will ever forget.

The Health Centre

2008-10-29T16:31:00.001-07:00

I'm very impressed by the health centre, its much bigger and nicer than I expected. It's new, less than 2 years old but is a great space! There are 5 nurses, a home care team, a community health worker (who does health promotion), a couple of admin staff and this also the home of social services (although social workers have been cut as of yesterday!).

front door

labour and delivery room

"in-patients"

waiting room

front desk

the ER

radiology

my office - usually the doctor's office

staff room

A white world!

2008-10-28T16:50:00.001-07:00

I can't get over how white and clean the snow is here!! A few pics from inside the health center today... it was too windy and cold to go outside!

The Igloolik research centre

views of the town and the bay

Hours of Light

2008-10-28T16:45:00.001-07:00

Prior to coming up here, when I thought of the arctic I thought of cold and dark. Its been cold (although not really any worse than January in Ontario), but it hasn't been that dark. Until I got Igloolik.

The sun rose this morning around 9:30am and set again at 4:45. So I went to work in the dark (which was a really weird experience) and left in the dark. Fortunately I had home visits all day so I saw the sun. The other things that's different is when the sun is up, it doesn't really go up and over head, it just passes over a bit of the sky. The light feels a bit like the late afternoon sun, never really that bright outside. I'm not sure I could get used to that!

Traveling to Igloolik

2008-10-27T16:53:00.001-07:00

I have decided that air travel in Nunavut (and perhaps the north in general) is quite unique! My flight to Igloolik was scheduled to leave at 8:15am this morning. When I asked a colleague what time I needed to be at the airport he said 8:00. Being a semi-frequent flyer I thought this was a bit extreme (and a joke) so I of course aimed to be there about an hour before (usually normal for domestic flights). Well, not in Nunavut! You literally walk in, go up to the ticket counter and check your bags and then you wait for boarding. There is no security!

All of the flights were delayed this morning due to understaffing in cargo, so all the planes had to wait for the cargo to load. Fortunately my friend the dietitian and the SLP were both flying out this morning so I had company for a few hours. However, I did wait for an extra 3 hours for my plane (with 3 other passengers) to leave. When our cargo was finally loaded, our flight attendant walked us out to the plane and we took off.

The perk about flying up here is actually give you meals on the plane (unlike down south) very old school airplane food. And you get candies when you land and your choice of snacks. Its not too bad!

Coming into Igloolik really felt like the arctic! It is so white and flat here! I can see why every time is snows it turns into a blizzard! There is NOTHING to block the wind. We landed on a snow covered runway, literally. And all around is nothing but white. Its really neat, but totally weird. The town apparently has grown to ~ 2000 people (lots of babies born here).

It feels very arctic like, there are no roads like in Iqaluit, just snow. People ride snow machines everywhere (even the health centre has one). And the houses I visited today felt like true cultural experiences. People eating country food (ie animal meat from the bones), skins drying outside, women sewing. It feels very isolated and cold! Very different from Iqaluit, no colourful buildings, no mountains, very few cars.

the runway

coastline

ocean with ice chunks floating

sea ice forming (apparently this basin has ice almost year round)

Igloolik is also spelled Iglulik

I'm so happy to be here and having this experience!

Community Visit to Igloolik

2008-10-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

So, I'm back online again and hopefully that means I will be able to post a little more often again.

This Monday, I am headed out on a week long visit to the community of Igloolik to follow-up on clients, do some new assessments (in person) and hopefully discharge some people! We try to visit each community (I think there are about 11 total) once/year. Due to staffing shortages that hasn't happened quite as well as they would like but it means I get to do a visit which I am pretty excited about!

Its hard to tell on this map, but Igloolik is not actually on Baffin Island, and its in the arctic circle which means I will get to see (but not touch) the arctic ocean! It's not a very mountainous place, but one of the larger communities in Nunavut (1500 people). I'm most excited to see the big inukshuks in town! I'll keep you posted on the hours of daylight, from what I can tell online, it doesn't get light until about 9am. And they have already have 4 blizzard days, so there is a high likelihood that I will get one too! (I'm not sure if I am happy about that or not)

I hope to be online while up there, but I'll be sure to add pictures either way and I'm sure I have some good stories when I return.

Another weekend, another hike

2008-10-19T13:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I hiked with our speech language pathologist Michael, his wife Regina and our physio Nancy and her boyfriend Jamie. We went west of Iqaluit, the pics are cool because snow was threatening all day so the clouds look very dark and ominous! It never actually snowed and it was a great day. I was super tired when we got home, we were out for about 4.5 hours. The tundra is fun because unlike the forest where you need to follow a trail, you can pretty much go where ever you want and now that its cold all the water is frozen so that's no longer an obstacle. Enjoy!

Northern Lights!

2008-10-19T12:54:00.001-07:00

I saw my first northern lights ever this week! Pretty amazing! They are almost always green up here (I don't know what that means in other places because I haven't seen them) but it was cool. Also, the moon seems bigger here, I know it can't really be because I am only a few thousand kms closer, but it seems like it sometimes. It was really beautiful the other night I was out for a walk!

Apex

2008-10-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

So you saw what it looks like past Apex, this is Apex. Its up the bay slightly and home of the original Hudson's Bay Company trading post! Pretty cool!

More hiking on the tundra

2008-10-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

More skeletons... caribou skull?

ice with the tide out

These are from my hike on Thanksgiving, I went with Meaghan and her dogs past Apex out on the tundra.

Hiking pictures

2008-10-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

whale bone?

polar bear bone?

all kinds of bones!

my hiking buddies Michael (our SLP) and Regena

hiking on the tundra

Us on the suspension bridge

Arctic char nets

It's a bit cold and windy!

I've found wireless so am going to try and add some hiking pics from the weekend! More to come!

Movies

2008-10-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

I have found the cheapest thing in Iqaluit!! Renting movies! They only cost $5 (that's right, you pay more at Blockbuster in Ontario!) You only get them for one day and the selection is VERY limited, but still, its the first thing I've found that is cheaper than down south!!

The other thing you need to check out is the movie hotline up here. The guy who owns the movie theatre in town leaves a recording of what movies are playing this week (it changes every Friday). But he also gives his commentary on the movie. I just called to see what he's got on there today, its not that great but try it sometime, I've heard some pretty funny stuff on there. 867-979-3500

Thanksgiving!

2008-10-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

I've always associated Thanksgiving with hikes in the forest, falling leaves around your feet. This year I got lots of hiking and some excellent turkey but no leaves! It didn't really feel like Thanksgiving weather but still a great long weekend and lots to be thankful for!

I got three really great hikes in this past weekend and I would love to post some pictures but very sadly I don't have the internet at home anymore and I can't upload any pictures to the computer at work. So I am still trying to figure out if there is wireless anywhere in town to do it that way! So my communication may be a bit lacking, hopefully I can figure something out. =)

One of the hikes was to a community just up the bay called Apex. It is the home of the original Hudson's Bay Company store and trading post. There are two buildings, still standing, one has an art gallery and they were built in 1690! Pretty old for Canadian buildings! And especially to have survived that many arctic winters!

Its also finally a winter wonderland here, we woke up yesterday morning to a snow covered town. Its helping to control the dust and makes everything look so clean and white. I think its here to stay now, we will see how it interferes with my ability to safely walk on the tundra!

City Views

2008-10-11T07:33:00.001-07:00

I took these pictures last weekend but wanted to share with those not on facebook.

Nunavut legislature

New the part of the hospital (one ward for everyone)

Great views over Frobisher Bay

View of the city

More city views

The "Eight Story"

The North Mart, filled with all kinds of expensive items.

One of the elementary schools - no windows because of the blizzards and wind pressure on the windows

Surviving in the North

2008-10-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

Since I decided to come up north, I've been thinking about how we as white southerners prepare to survive life up north. We buy special gear, we bring up food, etc to make life comfortable for us here. For many years, the Inuit have survived up here without all of the things that we bring up. Today I was really struck by that as I worked with my friend Amy the dietitian, for someone with rickets. Rickets is a disease most often caused by vitamin D deficiency. While all liquid milk has vitamin D added, in the south we are more regularly exposed to sunlight and have enough vitamin D to not have any problems. Up here, all babies and children should receive vitamin D drops as malnutrition is common, as well, the exposure to sunlight is significantly less than down south. Some babies spend all their time outdoors covered in the amauti (parka with a pocket on their back to carry their baby) and receive no sunlight.

What's cool is, before the "white people" showed up with their vitamin D and grocery stores people survived off the land. Country food (seal, caribou, whale blubber, arctic char, etc) are FILLED with vitamin D! The amounts WAY exceed that in milk, etc. (more than double) Basically, if we were able to prescribe seal liver instead of vitamin D drops there would be no more rickets! But because of a lack of jobs and money, many people can no longer hunt and as a result they are not eating as much country food and not getting enough vitamin D. It just shows how well the Inuit community is able to survive here in what we perceive as this cold, barren land!

Items for Sale!

2008-10-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

I read a stat this week that said 80% of this community is involved in producing Inuit art. As a result, they all need a place to sell this art so that happens everywhere... literally. We have people coming through our office (at least one/day) selling their work. Today we had some hand drawn pictures, yesterday there were beautiful children's parkas. Last week some soapstone, rings, seal skin money pouches. We always need to have cash on hand in case we want to buy something. And its not just work, I have been approached in the grocery store too. Its interesting, no farmers markets or craft shows here!

Run for the Cure Nunavut styles!

2008-10-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

In past years, the Run for the Cure has meant a decision between shorts or capris or is a t-shirt warm enough. This year, it was how many shirts should I wear or should I wear a toque! Today was a very blustery day, wind gusts up to 50km/hour and it was hailing! We did get to run a in a beautiful place, a territorial park just outside of Iqaluit.

And because the race only had about 40 participants, I was the top female finisher! (actually three of us finished together) Right in front of us was the premier of Nunavut. A very different race experience overall! Not as much of the emotion that's usually attached with this event, there were no pink shirts and you couldn't see most people's "who are you running for" bibs because it was so cold! All in all, a great experience! And they had draw prizes after and I won a free snowmobile rental for a day! Now I really need it to snow before I leave so I can use it up!

Food Prices!

2008-10-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

I think I have mentioned how food is at least double the price, if not triple for most things. To go out to a restaurant for dinner will cost at least $50. We had the best lunch deal in town yesterday at the hospital cafeteria... $18. it was a good meal, soup, salad, chicken and ribs! Here are a few pics I took at the grocery store today.

$13.99 for 4L of milk

That says $45.99 for laundry soap!

$29 for a pumpkin, I don't think I will have a jack-o-lantern this year!

$7.99 for some not so great kiwis

Politicians

2008-10-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

So today I met both the Premier of Nunavut (at a Wii tournament) and Jack Layton was in town. It was my first political rally, kinda neat, Nunavut style. It included a dinner of country stews (musk ox, seal) and some Inuit music and a very small venue. Jack talked to I think pretty much every person there. Apparently Dion is going to be here tomorrow, all the rallies seem to be a bit hush hush (not sure why) but interesting that the main party leaders are all coming to Iqaluit after years of not coming.

Interesting People

2008-10-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

My friend Erin got me thinking about some of the interesting people that I have met since I arrived here in Iqaluit. There have been two that stand out:

1. A soapstone carver who travels the world demonstrating his carving abilities. I saw some of his work (he only carves polar bears) and they are very well done!

2. I have been paired as a mentor to a student who is training to be a therapy assistance in her community up island. I am privileged and excited to get to know this woman and find out about her life, her family and her community.

Going to this classroom was interesting today too... some of the students bring their babies to class! Very practical but very different from the south!

My apartment

2008-09-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Its pretty nice, great location, right in the centre of all of the action! =)

Meeting people

2008-09-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

Its true, people really are very friendly here. Almost everyone I walk past says hello, I phoned the pharmacy today and after I said who I was was she said "welcome!". My funny story of today was a cab driver I had (cab's cost $6, anywhere you want to go). He has only been in Iqaluit 3 weeks and is actually waiting for a job with the federal government but is driving a cab until he gets hired. Good on him. That's motivation to be up here if you are willing to drive a cab until something else comes up!

First Day

2008-09-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Iqaluit and immediately remembered what winter feels like! Cold! After dropping off my luggage at my apartment I went straight to work and had the afternoon to orient myself. My first trip to the North Mart after work for a few groceries was funny! I had been warned that food was super expensive, but its humorous to see just how much.

A woman on my flight was bringing a pumpkin home with her and I overheard her say to the flight attendant that pumpkins were $40 here. Its true! In the last two days I have bought about 8 grocery items and spent about $80. Some of my biggest splurges: OJ for $8.49, spaghetti sauce for $5.49. 4L of milk is $14. I think you just get used to it but it makes buying groceries very entertaining. How much more will things cost! I will try and take some pictures in the store one day.