THE FIRST WEEK IN INUKJUAK
First weeks in new communities and at new jobs can be challenging. Inukjuak was no exception. I arrived Friday afternoon, and later than expected, since I was not expected! Nobody met me at the airport, and there are no taxis here. The health centre has a driver who picks up and drops off, and in a pinch, so do nurses and other staff.
My first afternoon started at 16:00 and everyone left at 17:00. That seems to be the same all over the Northern areas. The midwives were still seeing some clients on Friday afternoon at this time, because they had three births last week, so we still doing post partums. And all visits were done in Inuktituk. It was interesting to watch, as the student midwives conducted part of each visit.
At 17:00 I was given directions back to my house...not too difficult as Inukjuak only has a population of 1700 so is quite small. I walked up the road from the health centre, past the co-op on the right, and the municipal office, also on the right, then the school was on my left and I turned right just by the church. There is only one school and only one church in this village, so that was easy. My building was the green one just down the hill from the church. It was easy. But I needed groceries, and was told that the Northern, just below (down the hill) from the Co-op had more produce and better prices. Prices were much better, on many things than Rankin Inlet. Of course I was not as far north. Transport prices depend on how far north you are, at least in Nunavik. That was not so noticeable in the Kivalliq, the region where Rankin, Coral Harbour, Repulse Bay and Arviat are located.
The weekend was a write off. I got settled, cleaned, went shopping and for a walk. I had no internet service and no TV so was a bit on my own. It worked out fine though. Read all the “Welcome to Inukjuak information and the orientation to the work here. Found out on Monday that it was almost all old and not relevant anymore!! It talked about the role of the “southern” midwife being to teach and supervise the students, plan education for the midwives and help out as necessary. By Tuesday it was very clear that I was here as a locum, and mainly to be a second midwife at births.
I was asked what my specialty was. The student who was here this week actually came and asked me to do something for her on routine lab work. The program here is totally apprenticeship, and although there is quite a lot written, doing a hand out on the routine lab work here was very useful to me. There are tests they do here routinely that I have not heard of previously. So, my computer came to work with me, and I prepared a handout of all the tests routinely done here, and why they are done.
The biggest insight for me was that the Midwives are not necessarily familiar with why they do tests, but just that they are protocols, they have been told to do them, and they do. So, the job entails being on call for births, doing the odd bit of education, and sitting on your thumbs, or doing whatever has not been done. There are three midwives here, two student midwives and they appear to do about 40 births a year.
The health centre staff work largely in French. (This is Quebec after all.) The nurses and doctors are bilingual, English and French. The Inuit are largely bilingual, English and Inuktituk. There are also clerk/translators who work the front desk and help as necessary with translation. The health centre is very friendly.
The town is small, and the Midwives said that Inukjuak has the largest population on social assistance in Nunavik. The houses all appear in relatively good condition. In this community there is no pumped water or sewage. The water and sewage trucks come to the houses every day but Sunday. (We do not do laundry on Saturday or Sunday because of this.) The water comes from up the Inukjuak River, and I am not sure how they get it here. When walking today I saw a building called the water building, and am wondering if water is actually pumped there and then delivered by the trucks. Sewage is taken daily, by small tanker truck, to the sewage lakes. It is allowed to settle there, and I understand that it goes from there to the ocean, eventually.
In orientation books it said that you need to boil the water before you drink it here. By Monday I asked the midwives if they did this for their families. No, they did not. They suggested that I might want to because my body might not be used to some bacteria they had here. I had boiled water before making tea and coffee, and had already started a routine of boiling a kettle in the evening, then moving it to the Brita in the fridge before I want to bed. That way I had boiled drinking water. What I did not realize is that the water is to be boiled for fifteen minutes before you drink it. There would be nothing left! I am now boiling water for tea and coffee, and at night boiling some for the brita. So far, I have no stomach bugs from the water.
Roads here are mostly paved. The people drive, mostly, ATV’s. These do not have to be licensed, and nobody wears helmets. There are some cars on the road, maybe one to every seven or eight ATV’s. The boats are bigger than they were in Nunavut. There are lots, and they use E-Z loaders and pull the smaller ones behind their ATV’s. Today, while walking, I watched a woman with a trailer behind her ATV, pulling camping gear and children. The average number of people on an ATV is probably 3. Although lots of people are sole drivers there are also lots with three and four people on them.
There are few dogs visible here. Apparently they all live out of town, where they will not bother anyone with their howling, and someone goes out and feeds them every day or two. I have seen no cats, and no wildlife, other than birds and bugs.
Although it can be windy here, it is nothing like the places I visited in Nunavut. There definitely are bugs, and I am using bug spray, which is not making a lot of difference. There are mosquitoes, same size as in the south, and black flies, and these tiny bugs that swarm you when you walk. It is annoying, but part of what I should have anticipated. Bugs bother the Inuit as much as they bother the southerners. Yesterday someone left the back door of the health centre open, because it was muggy. We closed all our doors, and still somehow we were swatting moszies all afternoon. Finally one of the Midwives declared that if there were two more we should close the door. It was closed about three minutes later!
The land here is beautiful. There is more definition that Rankin had. Inukjuak is on the end of a peninsula between the Inukjuak River and the Hudson’s Bay. There are Islands off the Bay side. It is not as cold as Rankin, being further south, and so has more flowers and bushes, and they grow larger. Today, while walking, I saw lupins and daisies. The daisies were 3-4 cm across, which is very large by northern standards. There was also Arctic cotton, but it was a good fifteen inches tall. The lupins were not huge, but were over a foot tall, with beautiful purple and pink colours. The only flowers that reminded me of Rankin were tiny white stars, and they are the same size, but taller. I suspect the height is due to less wind and less cold. There are also grasses, not to make a lawn, but marsh type grasses. When you look across the river you see grass green.
The weather is cool. It has been foggy for several days, rained twice and have needed my hoody and waterproof jacket two days. Two days it was also warm enough to not have on a hoody...except for the bugs. The teens and children swim in the river. One of the interesting things is an upside down sled, extended, and used as a pier. Watching some teens one day is when I realized they dislike the bugs as much as others. The swearing as they got out of the water and were trying to swat them was English. I had thought all the words myself!
I am understanding why the “southern” midwives say they use Inukjuak as a retreat. There is a hotel here, but no restaurant or coffee shop. There is no industry. The people fish, hunt and carve, or not. There are a few jobs in the Co-op, the Northern, the arena, pumping gas, sewage and water and for the municipality. There are a few jobs at the health centre and at the half way house for mental patients. Other than that, there is not much happening here, relating to work.
This village, like many Inuit villages, has a much smaller population in the summer, because the families are out on the land. Where exactly, I am not sure. Walking today, I did get to the outskirts of town, which is not far, and the roads turn to gravel and there were many ATV’s and some cars going along them. If I am lucky, maybe it will be a trip I take before I leave this little village. In the meantime I am enjoying what is here and the slow pace of the workload and friendly smiles and hellos of the people.