Humour & other interesting things from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut!!!!

It is warm day when it is 0 degrees

It can be cold outside and you can be sweating.

There are not garage sales because only few houses have a garage…it a house sale.

A cab ride anywhere in town is $5/person.

There is one car in town…the rest of vehicles are ATVs, SUVs and pick up trucks.

In Rankin…all ATVs are called Hondas, no matter who is the manufacture is.

Snowmobiles are called machines.

Don’t make friends with a dog who pulls a dog sled.

All the babies are cute.

In the winter, your plane trip will strongly depend on the weather.
Mail from Richmond Hill, Ontario takes 1. 5 weeks to get here.

Courier service takes just as long and is way more expensive.  Hubbie found out the hard way!!!! Lol!!!

The cost of mailing a 10lb box from Rankin Inlet to Richmond Hill is about $45.

It has snowed about 6 times since mid September.

There has been snow on the ground and ice on the puddles and the lake outside my window  in the last week.

Seeing Marble Island from Rankin means that the wind direction is changing and is a rare occurrence.

Dress warmly if you are going out on the land.

Inuit women are very quiet when giving birth.

In the 2 1/2 months I have been here the location of the sunset has gone from my north window to west window…and heading south.

When I got here there was 4 hours of darkness at night and when I leave it will be close to being the reverse.

The Internet is extremely slow and gets even slower near the end of your monthly anniversary date.

As a nurse, when asking questions watch the body language of your patient because eyebrows are raised for yes and frowned for no.    Even the little ones do this.  And many of the nurses learned the hard way.

The terrain is not for wearing high heels.

Running shoes or hiking boots are the shoes of choice in Rankin Inlet.

The number of strollers you see in town you can count on one hand.

The ATM can run out of money.

Who delivers the money to the ATM machines in Rankin Inlet?  Just wondering!!!

Chum FM is one of the radio stations we get.

News is mostly from Newfoundland and Manitoba.

The local radio station is bilingual…English and Inuktitut!!!

If you are on Weight Watchers…activity points are easy to earn…you walk everywhere.

Everyone is friendly and says hi or waves to you.

If you have come here from elsewhere to work, the locals are always interested in where you come from and about your family.

You can do a lot of crafts when working night shift when everybody is asleep.  I have completed 2 ½ so far!!!

You get the best sunsets and sunrises in the north.

The northern lights are beautiful to watch.

There are many talented crafters in Rankin Inlet...crocheters, carvers, sewers & drawers and they can make just about anything.

I think the 2^nd highest population in Rankin Inlet after Inuit is the Newfoundlanders.

More pictures!!!!

A view of the Airport on one of my walks about town

It is official

Plan must be in...traffic jam at the Airport

Jackie's interpretation of no in Inutiktut.  Inuit people frown their eyebrows to say no.

A gorgeous carving of an Inukshuk

Jessinta, our unit clerk and interpreter

Jackie's interpretation  of yes in Inukitut. Inuit people raise their eye brows for yes 

Mushrooms on the tundra

More mushrooms on the tundra

Very interesting rocks on the tundra

This plant has berries similar to cranberries and are ready around Thanksgiving

Back drop is the Hudson Bay

Interest rock

This is one cool looking rock

A stream at low tide

Pictures!!! Has to come in installments!!!

a rare sight in Rankin Inlet

this type of license plate is being phased out

low tide from the health centre

another view

moss on the rocks

view from the dock where the barges come in 

view of the lake in the middle of town from my home

causeway through the lake

home- the open window is my bedroom

Inukshuk-behind my home

view of my place from the Inukshuk

a view from the Inukshik

another view

me at the Inukshuk

for the hockey fans!!!!

another view from the Inukshuk

And life goes on!!!

I have been in Rankin Inlet for 8 weeks now.  5 days until the half way point of my contract!  Sorry for not posting the pictures, I have been working a lot.  We have had sick babies in the unit and they keep you hopping.  As a grandmother, I get my baby fix, when the mom's go out for their smoke!!!!  The birthing centre has been busy too.  The Health Centre has been doing so good team work recently.  When a challenging birth happens and labour was progressing too fast to transferred the mom to Winnipeg, we pull together.  Think about the number of people involved in a birthday down south and the number of staff in our whole Health Centre.  Both doctors, about 4-5 nurses and 2 midwives.  And we had medivac on standby on the unit.  And the clinic had to still run and the inpatients still needed to be cared for.  I ended up in the clinic doing preliminary assessments for the RNs.  Boy did I learn a lot in a short period of time.  My interview skills were challenged to get the information needed to do a full assessment, the Inui(t) people are very quiet people by nature. Even the kitchen was involved to take care of everyone's nutrition.  It was an awesome day, and great to see some really great team work.

Labour Day weekend, my room mate Millie and I were taken for a 3 hour drive out on the Tundra...way out by Sarah another person who works at the Health Centre.  The terrain is not dull here.  We do live in a beautiful country.  There are so many lake up here and what impressed me the most is that they are on different levels of terrain.  None of the pictures will ever do justice to what I saw.  You have understand that it is not flat here...there are rolling hills of rock and they are what hold some of the lakes.  There are a few lakes that you can actually drink from.

I saw the new Elders cabin being built.  The community takes elders out for a day of picnicking,

drumming and good fellowship.  On the most part Elders are taken care of.  There is a conservation park that is huge out this particular road.  We also drove the other road that took us to the Diana River.  It is a river for lots of fishing.  Since the weekend weather was great the roads were busy.  As the roads are basically one lane, people are very polite and let others pass.  Lots of families were berry picking.

And the pot holes on the road were big enough to swallow a small car.

There are lots of little cabins out on the land.  It you want a place on the water, pick a spot, build the cabin and it is yours.  Anyone can do this!!!  So you can live in town which is on the Hudson Bay or be at your cabin on Hudson Bay, a river or a lake.

After our day on the land, Millie and I were invited to dinner with Sarah, her husband and some of their friends.  It was a Jigs Dinner..a Newfie meal and a great berry dessert.  Good food  + good company = good time.

There was a Penny Sale recently.  Now what is a Penny Sale?  Basically it is a fund raiser/draw raising money for a wheelchair accessible van to get the Elders to community events.  I bought 1 $5 ticket and placed in the bag for a polar bear carving.  I won!!!  And it by a reputable carver and made out of marble.  There is so much talent here!!!!

Other than my Polar Bear carving, I have met the carvers. Very cool to have a carving and know the carver.  My 2 carvings and ulu from Caribou antler are made by a young artist of 17 and he has been carving since he was 6 or 7. His name is Etwah Noah. I met him the other day at work. He is skinny, timid and humble young man. The colour of the carving is based on the age of the animal it was killed.

Inui need to hunt for their food and as with other aboriginal people who hunt, they use most of the animal. They eat the tongue, the brain and may parts of the gut.  The few left overs are left on the land. If the Inui do not hunt and fish for some of there food, they would be under nourished. The food that comes of the land is called country food. I have eaten caribou and arctic char and they are good and very nutritious.

Millie and I are going to host a pot luck Thanksgiving supper.  We inviting our neighbours and a few people who do not have someone to share Thanksgiving with.  We have our turkey already...you got to buy when you see it at the store or it won't be there the next time.  Millie has been transferred here to set up the mental health program in the Kavalliq Region.  She was working in Cambridge Bay before this.  She will be moving her things here over the Thanksgiving week/weekend.  Because of the convoluted travelling up here she will be flying through Yellowknife....so there will be wine at our celebration.  They have a liquor store.  We get ours by going through the RCMP to get a permit to order it in.  Easier to not have a drink.  The only place in Rankin Inlet you can order a drink is at the legion.  You have to be a member or be invited by a member and I think that is only Friday night.

The days are short here now.  When I got here the sun set in the north west and now it is in the west and going more south.  Daylight when I arrived was for 20 hours of the day.  Now the sun it setting at about 7:30 pm.  Not sure about sunrise.  We had the first snow yesterday.  It was wet snow and did not stay....the ground it not frozen yet.  There are fall colours in the north...it is on the vegetation on the ground.  Just a few adjustments of the north .

If you don’t like bananas don’t come to the north!!!

Well I have been here for 4.5 weeks and well settled in to Rankin Inlet.  I have been for some good hikes out on the land.  I was out today with fellow nurse Andrea (from B.C.).  We walked 8 kms and that is on rough terrain.  It was warm today with minimal wind, so summer attire with no jacket today.  The draw back when we have weather like this, there are thousands of black flies.  The result of this is I probably swallowed at less a dozen bugs because I am a mouth breather and have a couple of dozen black fly bites on the exposed skin.  They even got in behind my sun glasses.  When we were off the tundra we looked down at our legs, which were covered with long pants, there were hundreds of flies on us and we had to brush them off.   We saw some interesting things while were out.  We saw lots of caribou skulls and a few rib cages.  There are bones everywhere when you are out on the land.   We saw what we thought were herons.  And we also saw a flock of Canadian Geese…go figure!!!  When Andrea and I were out on the weekend, I collected some interesting rocks.  I wish I knew what they are.  There is such a variety.  Today we picked up a few shells and we took lots of picture.

I now officially have some Inuit art.  I have a carving of a drum dancer that is made of caribou antler.  I have an Ulu, in which the handle is carved from caribou antler.  An Ulu is a woman’s knife. I have a smaller one. It has a 4 inch blade on it and it is sharpened on one side.  It is a great tool to use in the kitchen to cut with and it is also used to skin an animal.   It is also good for me because of my rotator cuff injury, no strength needed for cutting.  The artist is Etwah Noah; He is a 17-year-old young man with great talent.  He learned from his 3 uncles and started at the age of 7.  I have earring carved from caribou bone in the shape of Kamiks.   Kamiks are what you would call Mukluks.  Kamiks are hand made from seal hide with seal skin trim.  I have two zipper pulls one is miniature Kamiks and the other is small crochets toques.

The housing here is very simple and small, probably about 900 sq. feet max. You will see the snowmobiles, cars and ATVs all sitting out side the home.  There are no driveways or garages.  Have seen caribou antlers sitting on the roof of some of the homes. All buildings are built up off the ground…no basements.  This is because of the perma-frost in the ground.  One thing that upset me when I was talking to a young mother with her oldest about 7 years old, what that she had to make a choice between housing and post secondary education.  She had a job with Social Service and would have liked to go to college to be a Social Services Worker. She would have to move to Cambridge Bay for 2 years.  She just got her own house recently and would have to give it up for school.  This would be a difficult situation for anyone. 

Another friend Heidi, is supply teaching at the high school and loving it.  The classes are very small, like about 10 kids.  They are eager to learn.  The building that the high school is in also houses an elementary school and the town library.  I will be checking it out tomorrow.  I am thinking, I would like to volunteer with the elementary school on some of my days off...for something to do and to get to learn from the kids.   After all I do have my Early Childhood Education Diploma along with being a nurse. 

As for work, we have a few inpatients now.  This is nice.  We have tidied and cleaned everything possible on the unit.  And there are only so many games of fish and crazy eights that you can play.  I always make sure that I take a book and/or a craft to work to fill in time too.  The current book that is making it its way through the nursing staff is “Becoming Sister Wives”. LOL!!!!

My next posting I will put up pictures only and I will probably do it tomorrow.

Now to explain the title for those with inquiring minds!!!  Bananas are in abundance at the Northern Store and the Co-op.  I wanted to get berries this week as they were on special.  If you snooze you loose.  Therefore…bananas again this week. Lesson learned…if you see it…need or want it…buy it!!!

Hope all is well!!!

Reality has set in!!!

It has been a while since I added to my blog.  Work, sleep, work, sleep, and work.  Well, you get the picture.   Work is interesting. I am learning to do intra venous, which is a skill I need.  I even have had one doctor and one nurse who have volunteered to practice on.  Real people when I am ready.

There are a few health issues that are very prevalent here.  The first is respiratory issues with both adults and children.  First is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which comes from smoking.  Asthma is high here too.   As for the children is bronchiolitis.   I have been told that there is a high incidence of SIDS.  And there is obesity with both adults and children and its associated health conditions.  Rankin Inlet is very fortunate to have midwives and a birthing centre.  There are a lot of very young moms.  Mom and midwives walk in about an hour or so before the birth and walk out with baby about 3 hours afterwards.  The way it supposed to be!!!   There are about 50-60 births a year.  I don’t know the statistics with this versus the number of births in the territory.  The other option is to go to Winnipeg at 36 weeks and wait for labour to begin.  There is an Inuit Centre for people to stay to wait for births, for patients who are having treatments or procedures.  Also patients have an escort who travels with them and this is covered by the health system.  In Rankin, we feed them when their family member is hospitalized if they are from another community.  They stay in the housing in Winnipeg.  For the smaller communities like Arviat, Whale Cove and Baker Lake, when people are too sick to be handled in their own community they are medivaced (air transported out) or sent to us by a regular airline and afterwards returned home.  Again the health system covers this.  If they are critically ill, they are medivaced right to Winnipeg.  The health system is set up so that residence can go south for the more complex health issues.

Things that are different at the health centre here.  First, both the doctor and the nurse from the clinic come up to the unit to give report.  If people are from other communities and they are stable enough, they may be fortunate enough to get a pass to leave the hospital to go shopping or visit family in the community.  Post discharge at times they go to a hotel in town for a few days before they travel home.  If blood work needs to go to the lab, you take it to the lab yourself.   Going for x-ray or ultrasound…you take the patient.  As for long-term care, not every community is fortunate enough to have a facility within it.   Long-term care is used as a last resort; most families take care of the elders.  When nurse work the inpatient unit at night we are provided a dinner since we cannot leave the building.  This is great because the food is great and freshly made (even steamed veggies).  Even the snacks are fresh.  There is also a staff member who is responsible for taking care of the staffs’ housing issues if we are transients. Need a Brita filter, call Sarah; have problems with your phone, call Sarah. Get the picture???

Now for the Internet issues…very slow!!!!  Appreciate you high-speed people and the amount of downloading you can do.  I get 1/6 of most southern plans and I had to buy the modem to get this plan…the best or you pay ++++$$$$$$.  Gee, downloading will not happen at home!!!!  Before I leave I will post that I will be selling the modem on the Facebook buy and sell page.  It is a very active site and anything goes.  It is cheaper to sell than to ship or take it home. 

Down south you have door-to-door sales people who will sell you anything.  In Rankin Inlet we get door-to-door soapstone carvers with their artwork.  The pieces are different than I have seen before, so a few will have to come home with me.  I have learned who the good artists are in town.  I have asked someone to make me a parka but I have not heard back yet. 

As for the weather!!!!  Since I arrived, there has been 2 days warm enough for shorts and sleeveless tops.  I need to make that 3 days.  Today is warm and I am heading to bed ( worked the last 3 nights).  I usually have a sweatshirt or fleece jacket on and long pants.  Most days it is windy and it is usually cool.  We actually want some wind because it keeps the bug level down.  I have swallowed a few.  When there is no wind you will see people waving their arms like crazy to get the bugs out of the way when walking.  The one thing I really like is the clean air…no asthma problems for me.  But it is interesting that it can be cool outside and you can be sweating…and it is not a hot flash!!!!!

There are some cultural differences that are prevalent. Inuit people eat things raw…caribou, arctic char, seal and whale. Yuck!!!!  They tend to wear their day clothes to bed, not pajamas.  There is a lot and I mean a lot of adoption here.  I talked to one mother who gave birth to 6 children of which she is raising 3 of them.  Another gave birth to 3 children and is raising 2.  And women are a little too free with giving children away.  One of the nurses has been offered a baby or two in the last year.  Some of this came from the time when they were nomads and if a parent died and could not care for all their children another family related or close friends would take one or some of the children and raise them as their own.  I don’t know what they do from a legal standpoint.  Apparently the children still know who their birth mothers are.  The young mom today I was talking to is 23 and one of her children is about 7.  She told me her cousin is 21 and has no children yet.  Interesting!!!!!

Then there is the food…expensive when bought locally, even though the federal government subsidizes nutritious food.  The choices aren’t that good.  I bought 7 boxes of groceries from a Winnipeg company, having free shipping on the nutritious stuff.  With the combination of fresh and frozen I should be good for quite a while.  It took about 5 days to get here.  Just an example of prices:  24 cans of pop - $35, 4 litres of Chapman Ice Cream - $15, and a tin of crushed tomatoes $5.  But I pay the same for eggs here as you do in the south…. subsidy!!!  Get the picture??   This would be why there is a northern allowance with your pay.

I will post some more pictures soon.

Take care!!!

Want you want to know about Rankin Inlet and were afraid to ask!!!!

I have been here 6 days now. There are things you need to know about my new community!!!!

In the hood has different meaning here than in the south. In the hood means the baby is in the hood on mom's back to travel around...not many strollers here. What do you mean when you say I have a Honda..Civic, CRV etc. Up here Honda refers to the ATV that you drive around town on. There are even kid sized Hondas. There is 1 car in town. The modes of transportation are Hondas (mostly), pick up trucks, SUVs and your feet. I walk to work, shopping, visiting friends, banking and getting mail and anything else. Walking is not on nice flat sidewalks, it is on gravel roads and paths. It is down hill to work. The up hill after work is tough because I am tired. I have been on one paved road so far. In the winter you drive your machine...we call is a snow mobile. The terrain is not flat. My legs hurt so much the first few days here...now I am used to it. We go to the cottage here you go "out on the land" to a cabin that you have with squatters rights. Most of the locals are out on the land in the summer for hunting the caribou that has been going by Rankin Inlet. Apparently there have been 2 herds in the last couple of weeks. I have been invited to go out on the land to hunt caribou if I can get a Honda.

The Mountain store is where you buy everything....groceries, electronics, clothes, kitchen ware, furniture, pharmacy needs, craft needs (not a lot), Hondas, bicycles and that is just about it. You really have to think about your shopping as it is very expensive for most things but some stuff is the same as in the south. Eggs and milk are much the same price as down south. A case of 24 pop is $35. Crackers are double.

There are 2 banks in town CIBC and RBC, a post office, 2 hotels, a college, a high school, 2 elmentry schools, 2 churches, 1 cemetery, 1 baseball diamond, 2 soccer fields, CBC radio/tv station and an area. The Tootoo brothers are from this community. I will become a hockey fan when the season starts. There is a radio station in town is interesting and local. If your elderly mother is looking for you and they can't find you..just have it announced on the radio. Not many places to hide!!!!

Now for internet...I will never complain about slow internet again. Our internet is external slow and some times like today it didn't work. I have been told that after some storms there will not be phones or internet for a couple of days. 

As for the weather this week. We have had 2 days where you did not need a light jacket. A couple of days with a jacket and the days when it is windy and cold. I am making a head band to keep my ears warm on those days. Snow will start in September and I will see a few blizzards before I leave. Planes will not fly when that occurs...may not make out of here in November!!!! LOL!!!!

Everyone is very friendly and say hi to you or smiles. There are many, many people from Newfoundland here, then New Brunswick/Nova Scotia then it is Alberta. And for my nursing friends 1 of the nurses I work with worked for SEHC in Kingston. Small world!!! There is a handful from Ontario.

The accommodations are basic. I live in a 2 bedroom townhouse in a complex that is 4 units. I share with another nurse...Carol who works in the clinic. On the main floor there are the 2 bedrooms and the laundry alcove. Up stairs is the washroom and and open concept kitchen/dining/living room. We have a small chest and cable tv, and the phone....so work can call us.

As for work, I work in a 10 bed inpatient unit that will have a mixture of adults and children. Now the census is low. There is a clinic that is manned by about 3 nurses and 1 doctor during the days and on call after hours, that acts as an emergency department/regular clinic with mostly nurses. We currently have 3 doctors in town but they travel to other communities in the region. The inpatient unit has 2 nurses on duty no matter how many patients. Patients will be medivaced or regular air to our health unit if we can handle it. If it is too complex they are off to Winnipeg. There is a birthing unit run by Midwives. We have x-ray, ultrasound and a lab in the health unit. We are not called a hospital because of the level of care that we can provide. The food at the hospital is not the in situational hospital of the south....it is good and fresh and appetizing. If we work night we get a meal to eat because we cannot leave the hospital for our shift. During the day you go home for lunch. The town shuts down for 1 hour from 12-1 for lunch.

When I leave here I will have many more nursing skills than I arrived with. I have assisted with a procedure, EKG and IV insertion and I am the resident wound care nurse. I can present a wound inservice for the weekly in services that are held by televideo conference. For my community nursing friends...you think we improvised with supplies....we have you beat when the doctor is improvising to create a piece of equipment we don't have. The current statement is T I N meaning This IS Nunavut!!!

As for the pictures. The first bunch are the walk to the health clinic. Then is is the sun rise at 4 am. The the rest are pictures while taking a walk today!!!!

health centre

walk to work

walk to work

walk to work

terrain on walk to work

Arctic college

patient for career day

Jackie checking patient

Drinking urine....not!!!

laughing so hard I am crying

patient needing night nurses!!!

sunrise at 4 am

sunrise

sunrise over hudson bay

more sunrise

even more sunrise

love the sunrise

beautifull

nice

I am obsessed

love the colour of the sky

view from the health centre

looking the other way

the terrain

ooopps another sun rise picture

over looking the town from the dump road

more terrain

the cemetery

cbc radio and tv

old bombardier snow mobile

kid size Honda

????

nice view of the health centre