I recently spent four days in Pond Inlet, a community on the northern shore of Baffin Island. I was doing portable ultrasound service at the local health centre. Usually when a person needs an ultrasound they are flown to Iqaluit and they stay in a hotel or boarding home while they are here. All of the expenses are covered by the government, but many people don't like to leave their homes and families for the days that it takes to have the test, see a doctor and have return travel arrangements made. I got the chance to see and experience a bit of life in the high arctic, was told that I saved the government about $45 000 in expenses, and was thanked by many of my patients for allowing them to stay in Pond Inlet.....I am considering it a win-win-win situation!
The health centre is the building with the red roof, and you can see a glacier in the distance - it's one that I could see from my office window. The entire town stretches out up to the top of a hill from the shorline, and so it seems like there's multiple levels to the town. The area around Pond Inlet is mountainous, with countless fiords and glaciers. The sky was a bit overcast on the flight in, but the views that I had were spectacular.
The Northern store...one of two grocery stores in town. Most of the commercial buildings don't have windows as it saves energy, and becomes a non-issue once the 24 hour darkness comes! Notice that there's more ATV's in the parking lot than vehicles!!
A stop sign in English and Inuktitut. (We have those in Iqaluit too!)
The sun setting over Eclipse Sound.
