TGIF

We made it through the week. Actually so did the entire health centre. Staff and building, we survived. I don’t think I‘ve had a week of work that was more of a more roller coaster ride in a long time. I told you about the floods at the centre and while they could have been a catastrophe, that proved not to be the case. There was a flood that did affect the entire town this week. It seems that over at the CoOp, a pipe burst sometime Monday during my first arctic blizzard.

What resulted has affected most residents very deeply. The burst water shorted out the cable TV system for the entire community. Hence on Monday we had no stations. They’ve been coming back slowly but a few are still not “on line”. We had the movie channels but not the listings station. OLN was great and I learned so much about sled dog racing one lunch hour.

I had been making a list of the stations we were getting on sunday and their home towns. NBC and ABC were Detroit as well as WGN. the Chicago superstation. What really amazed was that WIVB out of Buffalo was the CBS affiliate, so I was watching basically some familiar newscasts. The local Buffalo-Niagara Falls weather and news presented with a smattering of canadian content, eh?

Sunday night while watching the news, we had a polar bear sighting. I’ve included a photo for those that are non believers. I don’t think I’ll ever look at those “swims” the same now. But hey it’s Friday so what’s everyone doing for the weekend? There’s a whole bunch of activities.

I found out there is bingo down at the hall. Well I asked a stupid question, if they called the numbers in English or Inuktitut. Eyebrows were raised and the question was answered. What they didn’t tell me was it wasn’t a social occasion down at the hall, you just picked up your cards there. Then you went home and played alongside the radio as the numbers were called. As soon as you got a bingo, you called the station. I didn’t dare ask if they answered in english or…

But hey it’s Friday, and we are ready to party...but a slight catch. Across the parking lot from the health centre there was a building with a snow covered sign. Finally today at noon the sun came out. I ventured forth from the safety (and warmth) the health centre. Without bundling up I was able to take some photos with the long lens from the front and rear entrances. Lo and behold, across from our parking lot less than 150 meters away was...The Canadian Legion Branch #169. TGIF. I’m not sure anymore with some things they are telling me. I’ve become somewhat cynical…possibly 12 dollar beers?

As always, there is a “gotch ya” here in RI, as I’ve now come to know it. Branch #169 only opens at 8:30 p.m. It has a maximum number of patrons allowed (due to fire regulations) and that’s all provided they can find a bartender for the evening. It closes late but how can you tell when at 845 this a.m., the sun was just starting to show itself in the most beautiful of sunrises.

What will Saturday bring…GOK (God Only Knows…at first you thought it was an Inuktitut word didn't you?). Under the B 15…

When is the rainy season in Rankin Inlet?

I’ve received a few comments and many emails from those who have been reading about my trip. This is number 32 in the series and I fully expected to hit fifty before this arctic adventure is complete. Thanks to one of my neighbours, however, that may not be possible. You see, for the past week, I had been using a wireless connection to the internet to check facts and details about the territory and hamlet. That ceased today with “linksys” now using a WPA. There is good news on the horizon though. I can access the internet through my Nunavut government connection. Yes, tech support finally came through yesterday (as well as my contract today) and now I am both connected and officially an employee. bbriggsjude@gov.nu.ca will reach me at least until the 18th. I hope the cookies arrive soon! I HAVE ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT !!!! Where has this time gone?

I will tell you I have developed a new skill set while here…baking and bailing. Today was cleanup day (again). I talked about our flood of requests on Tuesday at three p.m. After yesterday’s final case of the day, I expected it to be a somber day of both reflection and mourning. Everyone who comes to the clinic knows everyone. They smile and hold each other kids and pass the time while they are waiting to see the clinic staff. They may be a neighbour, relative or friend. In a town of 3,000, people pick up their mail at the post office and when death occurs everyone knows the person, the family and many times they were friends as well.

Folks here meet each other at the various stores and socialize at each others houses. Only outsiders lock their doors and knock when they enter a friends house. I thought I would be able to report how death is handled in a small town “north of 60” but that didn’t happen.

Instead it was raining cats and dogs when we arrived at the centre today. That’s tough to do when the outside temperature is 25C (again please note the minus is understood). Water was everywhere on the floor from the elevator all the way down the hall to pharmacy. We had at least an inch of water on the floor ranging from reception to medical records into transcription and registration and into a couple of the nurses stations including the fridge and the coffee maker room.

Again, the crew of staff members from the entire centre pitched in until within an hour, the place was bailed and we could turn our attention (once again) to the flooded boiler area. This time it was less water, in the hold, than before but it had to be done. What happened today you might ask? I’m starting to get the blame. Some of them are now counting the days till I leave town. It seems that the effects of xray room’s sprinkler demise of Tuesday afternoon had also affected the elbow at the end of the run directly in the front storm porch entranceway of the health centre. It must have happened just before the NOC (nurse on call) had arrived at eight. The ceiling was spewing gallons of water. It got shut off just as I got in. Nobody changed. They dropped their gloves but no fight broke out.

Instead, bailing, vacuuming, and general mopping as well as sweeping occurred. I was asked if I was bringing in muffins, again, on friday. I replied “sorry guys but today xray is dry!” And so, what had thought to be a somber day was a genuine diversion of huge importance. We had all pitched in and moved medical records, computers, faxes and gallons upon gallons of water. It had a huge therapeutic effect. People had accomplished the near impossible with the most minimum of losses.

I have suggested that floor drains be installed this spring so we just have to mop up the boiler room. It would save a lot of work. I’m still looking for the employee’s suggestion box now that I am one. Maybe I’ll get a free trip to Winnipeg!

The KIVALLIQ Health Centre

I have shown and talked about the various commercial things in town but until yesterday I didn’t have an opportunity to show the health centre. I guess it would be more realistic to call it a health showplace.

This is the third health centre to be built in Rankin Inlet. The others, I believe, had been built in the late sixties and early eighties by the Northwest Territory government, who at that time, were the central government in charge of health. The last one had a fire, started in the boiler room, which cause extensive damage just as our current centre was nearing completion. You can imagine that with no heat in a building this far north, severe consequences occur. I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

Anyways the good news was that they were almost finished building and three years ago this facility officially opened. You’ll notice from the accompanying photos that I will post today and tomorrow there are many features that some of us are less than familiar with. First the building stands on the top of a knoll with lots of drainage all around it. There are no basements here (One of the local fellows asked me “who would want to live in the ground anyways?”).

In the main heat of the summer you can dig about four feet until you come to permafrost. You then wait a week until it melts and then go further in. Hence there is a lot of heaving and shifting in their structures. The designs reflect that. The next most striking thing about the outside is the size of windows. They seem small and are for a very good reason. You loose heat from those components so this reduces heat loss. The building is huge.

We have the only elevator on the west coast of Hudson’s Bay here in Nunavut. There are usually up to three midwives working from the centre with a birthing centre onsite and the midwives travel out to the surrounding communities as well. The Laboratory has three techs, xray has one, and ultrasound is currently looking for a full time person. They come in for a one to two week stint at the moment.

The building is two story and has a main entrance in front and a staff entrance located off the rear parking area. The parking area is equipped with plugs so those with vehicles can keep the oil warm. The outside entrances have metal steps and ramps for handicapped access. The tops of the steps allow snow and ice to fall through so that you always have a footing. The building is raised so that snow can blow away from it rather than building up at the entrances and a moat like area can fill with the blowing snow as well. There is a rampart across the ambulance entrance.

The heated ambulance bay that is equipped with no less than four snow shovels so that the area can be cleared quickly if needed. We have a loading dock for things being shipped to receiving and stores. We have a Central Service area and a staff lounge of course. Our television is perched on the wall and doesn’t seem to wander as in some places, I’ve worked. Currently, we do not have inpatients. Anyone requiring care and treatment not available here, or hospitalization, is shipped out to either Churchill or Winnipeg by Kivillaq Air, the medevac service. The option to transport to Iqaluit across the bay is used occassionaly. We have a morgue and the nurses work as the attendant if required.

My first patient was a chest and the second a person was injured in a dog sled race. This week I’ve done hips, knees, hands, and an assortment of other things including a finger on a guy who cut some tendons while butchering his caribou in November. I’ve done a set of facial bones who’s owner was immediately transferred to the plastics on call at the Winnpeg Health Sciences Centre. My Friday callback snowmobiler was medevacued to the ortho on call in Winnpeg that same night. Sometimes I get the impression that health care here has a higher priority but, hey, this is the north!

HEROES

Each of us has a definition of a hero. It’s usually thought of as someone who has rescued someone from a burning building or but can be someone who has spent time giving support and providing care for a friend. There are all kinds of heroes out there. Today I met the local Fire Marshall. And today I brought in a couple of dozen of carrot muffins that I had baked last night to thank the support staff of the health centre (remember there is no Tim Horton’s is all of NUNAVUT territory). Their combined efforts yesterday kept the xray equipment from suffering extreme water damage. Let me tell you what happened.

When I arrived a week ago today, and reported to the department the first time, the xray room was quite cool…18 or 19C. But when you are new to an area you hate to go around looking for thermostats to change so I didn’t. Maybe I should have, in hindsight, but I was warm, had extra layers with me and found I didn’t need the Henry’s fleece I had brought, just in case, to keep me warm at work. I still haven’t had to use it.

There was a portable electric heater present so I used it. Later in the morning, the area was still cool but bearable. We were busy since the department had really been closed since Christmas. Nothing emergent but everyone was returning. When the manager of the centre came by, she noticed that it was cool and in conversation about a lot of things told about the problem last year in the room next door. Cold weather had burst some overhead pipes.

I found a thermostat in the office and turned it up. It didn’t seem to make much of a difference by late afternoon but it was hard to tell from the added heat of the viewboxes and the processor. On Friday, I had fewer people being introduced and the work flow was a bit easier since the processor problem of the day before was behind me and I was a bit more comfortable with the equipment. Saturday evening I got called back to the centre and found the room was extremely cold but the doors had been closed and the equipment had been off for twenty four hours.

No calls on Sunday. Monday a.m., I arrive at the department to find some oil or grease splatters at one end of the room just a couple of feet from the xray table and the generator panels. I looked above it and there was a fire sprinkler head. We contacted the building people and then notice there were splatters of the same substance on the wall. We cleaned up the mess and decided to put some plastic just along the generator panels just in case and moved any unnecessary equipment from the immediate area. I figured the plastic would reduce our cleanup of the goo. I told the staff helping me that we had just found oil and PetroCanada had nothing on this find. Room temperature remains cool but we are now in a blizzard at this point with winds and a wind chill factor of around 50C (the minus is still understood).

They decide to keep the access panel above the xray table open to let in some warmer room air and we kept the doors open for added circulation and heat. Just to be sure we also add more plastic over the Image Intensifier, xray table, and added additional plastic from the ceiling down over the generator panels. I fully expected a call back that night. It didn’t happen. The weather continued cold and blowing and on Tuesday a.m. there was a little more goop on the floor but hardly anything. I though we were in the clear.

About three o’clock that afternoon, there were a few of us talking about my hometown of Niagara Falls while having our break in the staff lounge. Some of the local Inuks had been there. One had done a course with Fort Erie Fire Department Search and Rescue so we were talking about the river and how important it was to our region when someone yelled that the sprinkler had burst. We all responded and the steady stream of people exiting the staircase grabbed mops and pails as we tried to soak up the water spewing from that sprinkler head.

They had to shut down the sprinkler system and drain it so no more water would come out. That took some time but we all worked hard and soon the floor was dry and we had dried the plastic coverings as well. The sprinkler head was removed and a temporary plug was inserted. I was relieved that the xray equipment had been saved and decided that no more xrays would be done with that machine until the morning when it had a chance for any moisture to dry. We have portable for backup. The danger had been averted.

Not so fast! Down in the boiler room we had another flood. It seems that the sump pump that drains the sprinkler system had froze solid. So all the water from the entire two story building was now underfoot in the boiler room. My area was already dry so I pitched and we mopped and bailed…and eventually the problem was resolved. I told the Inuks “tomorrow at lunch you guys are getting swimming lessons.” They all laughed. I was serious…so were they!

Today, our department thanked those heroes. It was a small token of appreciation for what could have been a major disaster to the community. The second boiler has now been going a full day, several sinks with no water running are working again. The xray room was up to 19C before lunch. That access panel remains open and we close it when we have a case that requires the table bucky since it hangs down and would interfere in the overhead tube crane travel. So by the end of today all was good with the world here in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Territory, Canada.

That was, until about 4:45, when I heard the siren. It was eerie and reminded me of my early years at the General in St. Catharines before 1970 when ambulance services were run by the fire department. We had no radio link with them and so when there was a bad case they would sound the siren at the street entrance to Emerg. You then had about thirty seconds until things were flying through the door.

As bad as the flood in our xray room yesterday from the fire sprinkler and the flood in the equipment room, they pale with the realty of late this afternoon...another suicide in this community. Fourteen years is awful young...hug your kids tonight!

The Twins are HERE!

Today I met the twins. I‘ve been in town a week now and thought it was time. More to the point I had to. You see I was down to an extra work shirt and a couple of pair of gotchies. Socks had just about maxxed out. The twins are located just under the staircase. The same one I climb several times a day.

When I get within two steps of the top, I have the most amazing view out my dining room window. It’s the INUKSUK, the stone marker. I have to find out if he/she/it has a name. But day and night in swirling snow and sunny bright periods it’s there constantly reminding me of the heritage this place holds so dear.

The residence is serving me well. There are other apartments closer to the health centre but this one has an aura about it. Its distinct shape and design make it quite unique. I’ve figured out that it faces due south, hence, the reason for the three 14 x 36 inch windows across the top of the ceiling. Duh, mention Solar heating? The living room is bright with this feature. At least, it was Sunday (three days ago) when I was last there during the daylight hours (count ‘em). The official forecast does not list blizzard anymore.

The daylight hours are getting longer now. Someone said it’s increasing at 11 minutes a day here. I think that they are in denial of the weather. It’s amazing when everyone comes into the centre in the morning. The staff entrance has a rack for holding your boots, When you arrive you are supposed to place your boots on the rack to reduce the wet floors and mess that melting snow can cause. If we did this at home our foot wear would have wandered. And salt and mud are a southern person’s nightmare…none of that here.

So when you greet folks the first thing they complain about is weather related…sound familiar? Susie, with the nice boots, the other day complained how cold it was and then without pause said “But I’m half white, I feel the cold!” That just about sums up the vast diversity of people that are working with “up here”.

I met Santa, yesterday. He was in to the health centre getting his annual check up. He didn’t need an xray though, so I was a little disappointed. He wasn’t dressed in his famous red suit that the Mounties have adapted. No, he was in street clothes, so if one of the workers hadn’t introduced him, I would never have known. It seems this time of year things are winding down and he gets his checkup so he has time to get ready for next season.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here a week and its now the second week of January 2008. I had that shocking reminder in a phone conversation with my wife yesterday. I guess the charge card bill has come in. The $200 in cold weather gear (actually over $300 if I include the boots that she may have missed on the other card) didn’t seem to be as much of a problem as those golf clubs that I bought her for Christmas. The trouble is with the nice weather back home I think she wants to go practice and right now she’s ready to hit my balls!

Grace had a hard time calling Rankin Inlet last Friday. After she had educated about four telephone assistants (is it proper to call them operators these days?), she eventually got hold of the health centre. It was after hours, of course, so she got the nurse on call and had a radiophone experience. I finally got a picture of one and will post it as well.

Well I’m off to visit the twins. I have choices of hot/cold, warm/cold, warm/warm and hot/hot. If it’s anything like the first four seconds of the shower each morning cold/cold will be an arctic awakening.

Communications up here!

Phone, fax, emails, and the occasional snail mail package are the means of communication in most places these days. The phone is now accentuated with text messaging and blue tooth access and for those that don’t like the aural adornment you can always hold the handset to your ear.

Up here, cellular technology appears to have a replacement. As I said earlier I haven’t seen any cellular towers and my phone hasn’t found system access so I have to assume the service doesn’t exist. Enter the famous radiophone. I tried to get a photo of one today but we had a flood of requests and I couldn’t get to it.

Our health centre is open 8:30 to 5:00 and closed for an hour at lunch. I’m one of the few who doesn’t go home for lunch. Here’s my reasoning. By the time I dress up and get home and have lunch, get dressed for the outdoor temps again and head back, I can spend the time more wisely exploring the health centre and reading things on the various bulletin boards.

For medical services after hours and on weekends, there is a nurse on call to handle the emergencies, consultations and general inquiries. If you call the centre after hours, you get two numbers - one for midwifes and one for the nurse on call. The nurse on call answers your telephone call by means of their radiophone. They immediately ask for your phone number and call back on a land line directly instructing the caller what actions to take.

If the fire department gets a call for the ambulance, they too, inform the nurse on call by radiophone and then will relay more information about the call as it becomes available. The nurse is already on their way to the health centre to meet the ambulance upon arrival.
Those of us on call and away from our phones have pagers to keep us attached to the health centre. I know it happens for xray and I believe it happens that way for the lab folks as well. Use phones first, then pager if needed.

As you can see from the outside shots that I’ve attached there is no end to the number of cables and lines that are on posts here in town. Everything from electricity, cable TV and telephone service depend on those “life” lines. With the winds that have been blowing the past few days I’ve been amazed that we haven’t had power or phone interruptions.

The cable, however, is partially out since Monday night. I was all set ready to watch THE biggest college football game of the season LSU vs. Ohio State. It didn’t happen. Well, the game happened, but not the viewing (at least not in my apartment). A blackout seemed unlikely from a sports franchise standpoint since I don’t think there are a lot of LSU and OHIO STATE interests locally. Naw, it was just the cable out from the storm.
I could get Fox from Detroit, The Toon channel, Discovery and the Outdoor Life Network and that was about it!

That same afternoon at coffee, I had been talking to some of the staff. Here it seems we go from topic to topic about the north as I try to get their impressions of the changes that have occurred here. One person related a story he read in the paper this summer about a telephone repair man. It seems this repair fellow climbed the pole to do some checking on the lines, etc. while a family of polar bears decided to hike near him. That wasn’t enough, though, as these bears decided that the area near bottom of his perch would be a good spot to rest. And so they did.

It seems the telephone man did the next best thing. While up on the pole, he used his testing equipment. He dialed up someone and reported the bears so that they could send help along and to shoo them off. We all laughed and said it was a good thing it was a telephone man. Could you believe the havoc that would have happened if it was Larry the Cable guy on that pole instead? There would have been Morse code interruptions in the cable service as he tried to draw attention to his plight.

On Monday night I looked out my window to see if there was any one at the top of the poles that I could see that needed rescue…so that I could get my football game back

Rankin "Inletters" or "Rankinites" ?

They prefer to be called INUKS. They may have come from Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Arviat, Whale Cove or other settlement besides this one. The collective term that is used however, is INUIT. They are family. Their forefathers were nomads wandering the windy and snowy deserts of this region to survive.

They followed the caribou, the fish, the seals and the bears. They hunted and fished and used what the animals gave them to live their lives. Nothing was wasted. Every thing was sacred. Their life was hard but their reward was family.

I’ve met folks this week who 20 years ago were nomads and lived that life…but no more. They may have grown old and weary but they are enjoying the fruits of their loins, their children and grandchildren. The “elders” are respected for their ways and those ways have often clashed with the modern life we have brought their way.

It seems there are no more of their people travelling this vast area along with the herds…but they do try to protect and preserve their ways and cultures. Often times their actions and reasons are misunderstood by those of us from more southern climates. Dialogue and understanding are the hope for the future of this region.

I’ve been listening to their stories and trying to appreciate the hardships of the past and their hopes for their own future. With that in mind, I’m pleased to introduce a “calendar” girl. I met Leila today at the health centre. Leila’s mom works at our travel office.

You may ask why our building would need its own travel consultant. It’s very simple we ship and receive. Yes, just like UPS, we send people out for testing and care to other centre like Churchill and Winnipeg. We also get people sent to us from smaller health facilities that do not have certain testing or procedures available to them where they live. The patients and their families have to get there. Air is the only way this time of year. Medivac is the option for serious injury or disease and the region’s base is here in town.

Well, Leila, along with her sister and brother appeared on the 2007 Arctic Co-Op calendar. The photo was taken in July 2006 when the wildflowers were abundant “on the land” as it is referred to here. The INUKs like to go back to the tundra. It’s almost spiritual to them. I’ve never photographed a calendar girl before so eat your heart out!

I talked a few days ago about the coats and the kids and their content with riding quietly along on their mother’s backs. I found a mother and daughter today along with Grandma who were willing to show me their coat and demonstrate its design and use. Enjoy the photos. They speak for themselves.

AND for those of you who didn’t have the mailing address of the health centre I found it today and it shows just how isolated we really are. KIVALLIQ HEATH CENTER, P.O. Mailbag 008, Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. XOC OGO….You could pronounce the postal code “Chicago” but after the raging winds and blowing snow of the past few days this is truly the “windy city”.

Observations about the Inlet

The cookies are going quickly. When I got called in on Saturday and signed in on the computer, the Inuit word of the day was “SIVALAAQ” (Pat, can I buy an “A”?). This also means biscuit or cookie but from a dialect called North Baffin. It is quite intriguing that the locals can speak the language and also the various dialects as needed. I’ve also worked with quite a few different translators over the past three days. My Inuktitut has definitely improved, I think.

Mondays are elder’s day at the Co-op so I plan to go there after work. Their discounts are 10 percent to everyone over 55. I hope my Costco card gets the “deals”. I have to check out their baking section. I found muffin mix the other day at the Northern (just add egg whites). I picked it up and the muffin papers. By the time I was finished at the fur section in notions and checked out in line, the mix was no longer a purchased object. So the senior’s…oops elder’s discount may be appropriate in this case.

I’ve been here since Wednesday and the garbage in everyone’s barrels alongside the roads has increased. I asked when I should put mine out for pick and was told they get to it when they can. Strange thing here is that for the number of dogs around, I have yet to see one running at large. Likewise, the number of green bags in and outside the barrels has increased as well…also no mess. There are no recycling blue boxes here. They would have blown away years ago, if implemented. Any paper is put to use for heat, I’m assuming.

Anything shipped up here and arrives that contains a wooden frame has someone standing in line for the packing before the object is uncrated. It was very similar back at SCGH at Christmas time. Since pop is so expensive, those 2 litre bottles are few and far between.

What you don’t see here is everyone walking about with water bottles in their hands. First, they would be solid by the end of the block and they would also cause their hands to freeze as well. Bottled water is not something that I noticed either in the store this week. Tomorrow I will check it out. With the cost of shipping and the weight involved, I would not expect to see bottled water except for the tourists coming this summer.

At the breakfast yesterday, a large glass of water was supplied for each guest without asking. It was a pleasant change from home. The humidity inside buildings is so dry that I find myself drinking more water. It also accompanies most distilled beverages.

Other things that you don’t see are those instant messaging devices or ears locked to cell phones, blue tooth or otherwise. Maybe that’s something that we should look into, after all the median age here is 22.2 years. They wouldn’t hear the beeping or the ringing with the wind, snow machines and quads driving about. Oh, they could still use vibrate unless, of course, they were in a meeting. Just kidding when I checked my cell phone this morning it was still looking for a network.