A Beautiful End to a Wonderful Day

This beautiful sunset was the end to this wonderful day. It did not start auspicously. The "Severe wind chill warning" was over. Mind you, as I checked the weather before work this morning, it was -38 degrees Celsius, with a wind chill of -52. I think that maybe it has to be more than -55 to be severe!!

I was up early so had time to check the weather. Our Supervisor, Chris, arrived back from New Zealand yesterday, and we had signed her, and ourselves, up for a day long workshop called "Coaching Practices on Tackling High Workload". It sounded very good when we registered for it, and it was suggested that as many of us as possible take it.

At 8am I used the remote starter to start the car. It tried hard to turn over, but could not. (Yesterday I had plugged it in at work, with one of the electrical cables there, and the one in the back of the car "disappeared", so last night had plugged it into a cable that works, but that the car plug did not plug into well. Usually attached the shorter one to the longer one, and knew it worked.) So, went outside and tried to start the car with the key. That also did not work. Luckily Chris lives very close to Diane and I, so she would take us to work.

We arrived to lovely Christmas gifts that Chris had brought us from New Zealand. For me a pen with sheep on the end was the greatest. She also brought Kiwi candy for all of us to share.

At 9:00 we went to the workshop. Although we were the first people registered, they had none of our names. However, they made the best of it as there were four midwives, one support staff, and one maternity care worker. They made us nametags, for the tables, and adapted well. Then the workshop started. Must say it was amazing. If anyone gets a chance to take it...DO. It was put on by the Canadian School of Public Service, and content was really good.

The best exercise was each person taking a complaint they would like to make, and a second person, who was an interviewer, asking questions, so that the complaint turned into a request. The most amazing thing was that the anger we had at our complaints dissipated with the questions, and became a much more energized and positive request. Although not surprised by this, it was really fun to feel and see it happening.

At lunch I tried to call Huka, the mechanics here, and see if they could jump start the Vitara, which we, somewhat affectionately, call the Shitara. Like most cars here it is missing pieces, due to weather losses, and as needed a lot of repairs recently.

Had already decided that we needed to get to Umingmak to get a new electric cable and also a dowl, to hang my new wall hanging today. Did not want to risk the car not starting again tomorrow.

Call came from Huka at 4ish to say that they had needed to tow the car in, heat it up for 45 minutes, and then start it. It was plugged in, and they would leave it going until I got there. Workshop did not end until 16:30, so knew that it should be warm when I got there. It was. I drove to Umingmak and left the car going while I went inside. This is normal, and two trucks were outside the store also running, although Umingmak really looks like a big warehouse, with a tiny door, and no windows, rather than a southern store. Was able to get both the dowl and the cable. Decided that I needed to drive a lot further to keep the car going and ended up seeing this beautiful sunset.

Was near the aeroport...well really everything is near the aeroport, since it is at the top of the town, and Rankin Inlet is only a mile from side to side, with aeroport atthe south of town, and ocean, or at this time of year sea ice, at the north. Took two lovely pictures of the sunset.

Realized that one really needs to be careful when taking pictures at -38 degrees. I did not have on my hat or mitts when I took the first, and the 30 seconds was quite unbearable. Hands did not move well when I returned to the car. Second photo I had my hat on, and it was still VERY cold on the hands. It took about 20-30 seconds only.

You are problably wondering what made this day special. The coaches at the workshop commented on waking up this morning and seeing the light and the space. It is something that we need to be reminded of, although it is here every day now. At 7 the sun is not up, but it is light and beautiful colours abound. There are no trees, and the horizon is white, with colours reflected from it. Sunset, as you can tell, at 17:00 ish is also very beautiful. The other amazing thing, for me, today was the workshop. It is one where you take your thoughts of, why am I managing, and how am I managing, and what am I doing, and leave with a much better idea of how to handle situations, and also where you are going.

Sometimes it is surprising how an inauspicous day can turn so quickly into a day of wonderment, beauty and self learning.

February 20th...a perfect day to be a Midwife

Some days I wonder why I am doing this job, and other days I know it is a vocation. Today is the latter. The call came at 04:44. An auntie was calling for her neice who was in labour. How far apart are the contractions...three minutes...I'll meet you at the health centre. Second call came about three minutes later from the ambulance service sayiing someone had just called them about someone in labour. Could I call this number please. Of course, and luckily, it was the ssame woman. Called the second Midwife because she has asked to have at last twenty minutes to have a shower before she has to come. As the client was a gravida 8, para 6, with a last labour of 45 minutes, we knew she would unlikely take long.
Car was warming up, I was washed, and off to the halth centre. Nurses upstairs was all excited that we were going to have a birth. She had worked in Inuvik in Labour and Delivery. Nobody else was around.
Client arrived and was seven centimetres dilated. Perfect. Got her settled, basically walking the halls, and went to get her some water. (The kitchen was now clean and organized. When I was in during the evening, with another client, water was flowing out of the wall coffee maker at a remarkable rate. It was all over the floor and through the cupboards. Not sure what was wrong, but eventually we discovered who should be called, and they much have come, cause it was all cleaned up).
At six am she had not had her baby. I was in our postpartum room. Looking out the window, one could see the sunrise starting...not that the sun was rising yet, but the beautiful colours on the horizen were lovely...purples/pinks and yellows.
She had her baby at 6:30. Loevely birth on her hands and knees. Half an hour later shew as ready to leave the centre, but we keep everyone there for three hours. She left at 9:30, and I went home.
A flat mate had arrived the night before, and we almost walked into each other as I walked into the main part our our town house. She told me she had been quiet, so she would not wake me, since she had woken up, and had not put on the washing because she did not want to wake me. How hilarious. We talked for a few minutes, and she was off to get her plane. Put the laundry in the dryer, had a lovely vegetarian fry up for breakfast, and went to lye down, expecting to play sudoku and read my book. Was I wrong. Half an hour later I was asleep.
Now it is a beautiful day. Have to go visit Mum and babe at 5, have slept for 2 hours, and am looking at a beautiful Arctic day. It is clear, visibility is unlimited, although since the tundra is flat, that is not really that far, and it is -30 so nice and crisp. It is now still light at 5pm, and living here is thoroughly enjoyable.
As a Midwife it is hard to resist a day like this.

My First Blog

I have been wanting to make my own blog for several years. Thought it would be hard and probably not worth it. It is not so that anyone will read it, but rather, so that I have a place to put my thoughts.
It is called "Adventures and other Bits of Life". It made me think about what adventures really are, and what life really is.
My guess is that adventures can be anything happening to anyone. What is an adventure to me, may not be an adventure to the next person, but what is "life" to me, has to be "life" to the next person. It is not about "good" life or "bad" life, but about all life.
Adventures, can be good or bad. I had a very bad adventure today. It would not have mattered to many, yet, just a small thing that has me flustered, and thinking of crying, and wanting to go and walk and walk and walk. Only it is cold out. And my knee is not so good today. And probably I could come up with at least three or four more reasons for not really going for a walk. There is also the fact that I am on call, and so may not be able to get back quickly enough. (A guffaw needs to be put in here. I am in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, and the whole town is less than one mile from side to side. There are a few outlying cabins, but most are not used at this time of year. It is winter. They don't have heat. This is the Arctic).
So back to Bits of Life. Guess these could be great, or good...which is what I was thinking on the day I picked that title. Today they could be great, or good, or bad, or depressing, or pitiful. Will probably write the whole gamut at some point or the other. And they may also be interesting, or not. The advantage I see, of a blog, is that it is mine, and I can put in anything I want, at any time I want.
So, today, I am writing about adventures in general, and life, in less generalities, so I can depict what I might actually be going to write about. And now I know, that I am not sure. So hope that nobody reads this, and if they do, maybe it will be after "Adventures and other Bits of Life" knows where it is going??