Definitely the arctic!!!

Ok, so it's been pretty chilly here lately, usually hovering around 1 or 2 degrees for the last week. I snapped this photo yesterday on my way to work (across the gully!). There's been snow on the ground a few times, but it has always melted during the day. Until today, that is. Iqaluit is in the middle of a full-on blizzard right now!!! It started around noon, and just keeps building - enough that I was wishing I had my winter boots on for the walk home! September 25th and I'm wading through snow drifts. Yep.....definitely the arctic.

I'm cultured!

I got the chance to go to a Cultural Orientation seminar a little while ago. I spent the day on the tundra in a tent listening to stories and learning about traditional Inuit practices from a couple of the local elders. I had caribou heart stew, bannock, and muktuq for lunch, along with tea made from plants gathered from the land. I actually enjoyed the muktuq this time - it was more frozen than the last time I tried it. I even cut it up myself with an ulu - a crescent shaped cutting tool - the same tool that I'm using in the photo to clean a seal pelt! I also went berry picking - the tundra is covered in blueberries and crowberries, which are more sour than blueberries. I had a fantastic day, and it was a great reminder to continue to go looking for 'local flavour' even though I'm beginning to feel like one of the locals.





This is a photo of a qulliq - it was often the only source of light and heat inside of the igloos and tents. I have a hard time imagining that, because it does NOT throw off a lot of heat! Apparently it would take most of the day just to boil water for tea. I think I know why Inuit people ate their food raw - they would starve just waiting for it to cook! The seal oil gets wicked up by a combination of moss and arctic cotton and burns very slowly. This lamp burned all day, and the moss did not have to be replenished at all.

Definitely not the arctic!

I've been back in Iqaluit for a few weeks now, but I still keep dreaming of the lush, humid forests of Vancouver Island.....especially since I woke up to snow on the ground yesterday morning!! It melted by mid-morning, and was quite pretty while it lasted, but I'm more than happy to wait a few more weeks before it's here for good.

I just learned that I will be travelling to one of the other communites to do portable ultrasound service, and I'm really excited about it. I will be going to Pond Inlet, which is on the northern end of Baffin Island. It is apparently one of the most beautiful places to go, but I'm not sure that I'm going at a great time of the year - in between the 24-hour sunlit days, and the pretty blankets of snow. I'm sure I will enjoy it, whatever the weather is like....I think it will be amazing to be so far north.

The QGH

The hospital that is my second home here is the Qikiqtani General Hospital. I've been told that qikiqtani means 'on the island' or 'of the island'... the island in this case being Baffin Island. It is the only hospital in the eastern arctic, so anything that the community health centres can't handle gets sent to us, and anything we can't handle gets sent to Ottawa or somewhere else 'down south'.

This photo is of the atrium of the hospital, which also serves as the waiting room for the emergency department. I really like the colours...they have a very non-hospital feeling. The floor is also inlaid with similar designs along some of the hallways. The 'new hospital' was opened in 2007, and is attached to the 'old hospital' which serves as a clinic now. The staff is a fairly close knit, fairly dysfunctional group! The general consensus is that you have to be a bit crazy to be up here in the first place, so all of us have something in common right off the bat!!

Hungry, anyone?

There was a big community celebration for Nunavut Day, part of which was a feast of 'country food'. There were large tables set up, with volunteers at each one handing out portions of traditional local food. On the plate above, going clockwise, are two different kinds of bannock, muktuq (narwhal skin and blubber), raw char (a salmon-like fish), and dried caribou. Also available, which I did not even bother to put on my plate, was raw caribou meat. I have to honestly say that I did not eat very much of what was on the plate, but it was a very.....interesting.......experience!! My friend and I ended up eating hot dogs, which we knew were much worse for us, but somehow still more palatable!

Yep...more flowers

Flowers, lots of flowers!

The tundra in the summer is beautiful!! Everywhere you look there are tiny flowers covering the ground in large patches. They look so delicate, and totally contrary to what you would expect to find in a harsh environment like this. The season is short so they appear quickly, and I'm told that they will disappear nearly as fast. I am thoroughly enjoying it while it lasts!