Making Kamituinaq

A couple of times a year the elder women teach the younger women how to make kamituiaq or kamiq for short. These are the boots made out of seal skin or caribou skin and their fur. The men and children are not invited to this teaching and it takes place over a number of weeks.

I was invited to go and watch with my friend Kelly and they let me take some pictures.

The men hunt the seal and prepare them for the women who either dry the skins with the fur on or take the fur off and the inner layer of fat off. They dry these skins also it is time to sew the pieces together they chew on the leather to make it soft.

There was a big bucket of raw seal in the room for when the women got hungry and sometimes they ate it with bread.

The women use a traditional knife to skin and cut the seal but I can't remember it's name. They sharpen it often with a bigger knife and don't even need to watch what they are doing. It is very sharp and they always have a box of bandaids available.

The smell in the room was very strong.

Kelly was very brave and ate three pieces of raw seal but I wasn't so brave.

It was very special to be invited to watch.

This time is an important time for the women and for teaching.

NASA calls Salluit

I forget to mention that the International Space Station called Salluit last week. The elementary school was chosen by NASA for a phone call from space. It was a very big event and the community was very proud. We all went to the school at 8 in the morning and waited while mission control in California called and got everything set up. There were a couple of NASA type people from Ottawa there choreographing everything including showing a couple of videos ahead of time, sound checks etc.

The children had obviously been preparing for a long time and had decorated the entire school with various space related crafts and projects.

I think almost everyone from the village was in attendance.

Contact occurred around nine and 15 children had been chosen to ask their prepared questions. It was really cool and the astronaut gave us a live feed tour of the space station - floating about the entire time.

One interesting fact:It would take 2 minutes and 17 seconds to fly from Salluit to Montreal in the space station, that is how fast it is travelling.

Sunday Brunch

Was invited to Sunday Brunch at Kelly's apartment. In attendance were the nurses Kelly, Mirianne, Rene, and Andre Luc and the doctor Annie with 5 month old Maxime. We had a huge spread of smoothies, bacon omelette's, bannock, french cheeses, fruit, cinnamon buns, brownies, lattes - the best food I have eaten so far!

We all arrived in our pajamas - all flannel pj's.

After Andre Luc took me for a snowmobile ride up one of the trails through the mountains - terrifying and so much fun! Next week he says I will drive it myself.

Making friends here is similar to going away to camp. By necessity you spend alot of time together and become quite close - and then you say goodbye till the next session.

The Health Centre

Quiet week on the midwifery front - one call out to assess abdominal pain and saw some northern lights on the way back home at three in the morning.

The students practiced their iv techniques as you can see in the pics. Lucky for me they decided my veins were't good enough. Unlucky for Jonassee as he had nice big fat veins. Jonassee is the office manager and pretty much runs the health centre.

Got invited to go kite skiing this weekend with the nurses. We'll head out on the snowmobiles to the middle of the Hudson Straight where there is some good wind. Hopefully no polar bears.

Maggie is going to drop off an arctic char this weekend from her husband's fishing trip. Hopefully it will be cleaned and ready to throw in the oven.

Lab Monday

Today I had two students with me for the entire day. I am slowly figuring things out clinically. The students like to see me fail first and then help later. They seem to think it is funny. I am taking it as a good sign that they are starting to accept me.

After lunch I took a call from a mom, whose 4 month old was having a seizure. She put her baby into the hood of her coat, hopped on to her snowmobile and made their way down to the health centre pretty darn quick. I helped triage the baby whose temp was 41, heart rate 240, and clearly very uncomfortable. They recently had to medivac four babies to Montreal with meningitis so they were on pretty high alert for this little girl. So incredible watching the nurses and the doctor all working together as a team, blood work, an iv, O2 sats, antibiotics. One nurse was even giving the baby a cool sponge bath. They were all so sweet to the baby and so respectful to the mom. Seems by the end of the day they were happy with her and diagnosed a probable urinary tract infection, to be kept overnight and treated locally.

It was a good day and went by very quickly.

I will get some pics of the nurses and the doc soon.

Valentine's Day

Have not made it up the mountain yet. Instead went for a long walk in to the village for some provisions. $64.00 worth or provisions: bagels, pasta, cereal, milk, peas, ground beef, a movie, bag of chips.

Absolutely beautiful day here today, I think it is about -20, no wind, sunny. It is actually impressively sunny given that the sun never rises higher than about my shoulder.

Look out my window every night in hopes of hearing and seeing some northern lights, but nothing so far.

Apologies for posting the same pics - it's not me I swear.

End of Week 1

Well I have now been in Salluit for one week. It has been a most pleasant week. I am less afraid of the cold now and have stopped putting pretty much everything I own on just to walk to work which can take as little as 90 seconds if I take the quick way.

I love my long walk home after work and always say hello to Buddy, Cutie, Fluffy and Taly, the beautiful huskies who are being trained to pull the sled. There are two new puppies now who arrived from Quebec and who will be trained as well for the team.

I have been invited to a crib tournament tonight at the docs house and if I can get out of my pj's might go.

My scope of practice has expanded significantly and am now treating sexually transmitted infections, put the vacumm together and read the manual just in case, and gave a depo shot today.

The weekend weather is supposed to be beautiful and sunny and I plan to walk to the top of the mountain overlooking the fjord that runs alongside the village and take some shots of the Hudson Straight.

How the SUV came to Salluit

How the SUV Came to Salluit, by Andrea Lennox

Thre years ago the villagers of Salluit travelled by snowmobile, dog-sled, boat or plane. A couple of years ago, a big mining company started mining a few kilometres from Salluit. The land belong to the village of Salluit. This was a problem for the big mining company. It was quickly resolved however, by giving each man, woman, child and baby 40,000.00 dollars.

Now the villagers felt very rich.

They each went out and bought themselves an SUV.

Instead of two Great Lakes freighters arriving the next summer, three came. One freighter was filled with oil. One was filled with building material, medical supplies and food. The last freighter was filled with SUV's.

The last freighter was filled with SUV's.

Day 2 of clinic

Now that crazy lab Monday is over, the health centre seems much calmer. The water is back after no water yesterday and so now the toilets are flushing and hands are getting washed. Water is filled up in the tanks of the houses and the buildings every other day or so and sewage is emptied from the tanks. Not the same tanks. Tough to run a health centre/birth centre/emergency room without water. Didn't seem to stress anyone out too much so I guess it happens fairly often.

I bought two soapstone carvings last night from Maaley Alaku the "carver man" as he refers to himself. He spends the day hunting or fishing and carving soapstone while he waits. His hands are always very black and he would like to sell me something every day if he could.

From my living room window, watched a snowmobile take a couple of tele-skiers up the mountain - I think they were there most of the day, taking the easy way up and the fun way down. A few kids tobogganing too.

Here are a couple of pics of the students and the Maternity.

First Day of Clinic

Walking to work this morning watched a 'sundog' peeking over the mountain as the sun attempted it's slow climb.

Monday is lab day. This means that everyone in the entire village who needs some labs done are supposed to come before 11:30 so that the tubes can be spun and prepared and can get to the plane for the afternoon flight. The system seems to work.

The midwife that I am replacing (Jennie) left also on the afternoon plane. The midwifery student of the afternoon disappeared for seemingly an eternity and I was left trying to figure out what today with three women who showed up at once. One client helped me find a form for another client because she knew where we kept them. Confidentiality does not seem to exist, nor does seem to need to exist.

The health centre is buzzing with various health care needs: one family doc, 4 or five nurses, a dentist, maternity, social services. The offices of social services seem to take up most of the square footage.

It was a very pleasant day and I took the long route home to say hello to my new friends: 4 huskies and two puppies.

Sunday the 8th

Went to a party last night at the doctors house and played guitar hero. Pretty cold walking home, -45 with the wind chill.

The wind seems to blow 24 hours a day. Today is supposed to be warmer with only a windchill of -30.

Watched a red fox walking along the mountainside outside my livingroom window this morning. They are supposed to be white at this time of year, it seems to be confused.

Heading over to the health centre soon to do some work to get ready for the week and then a little walk later today.

Saturday in Salluit

I am starting to settle in. Jennie and I are staying in our apartment until she departs for the south on Monday.

I arrived after an incredible flight first stopping at the top of James Bay to drop off a few people and refuel. The land was certainly rugged and could feel the cold. Our next stop was in PUV where the land was treeless and barren and very flat. Said goodbye to most of my new friends from the plane and the remaining four of us flew on to Salluit. Suddenly mountains arrive as we flew over the Hudson Straight, took a wide sweep and there was Salluit nestled in an inlet surrounded by treeless mountains.

Spent today orienting myself at the clinic, a couple of incredible walks and now getting ready to go to a gathering at the docs house.

Funeral for a young man murdered in Montreal and body arrived yesterday.

It is currently -45 with the wind chill. Jennie got frostbite on her cheeks walking back from the funeral but didn't seem to mind.

I am cozy in my winter gear.

February 5, 2009

Safely arrived in Montreal and hanging in my hotel room. Sadly had to leave a bunch of yummy items in the car as my suitcase weighed too much.

Tough goodbye's to the kids and Alex.

Leaving 7:45 tomorrow morning and should get in to Salluit in the early afternoon.