Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part IV

I know it's been a while since I've written, but mainly, I've been working. And working, for the most part, isn't funny enough to write about. For those of you new to this series, welcome! This is Julia's little series of sometimes humourous, often brilliant (har har) observations of the world at large.
So, I am currently working in a little town called Chesley. Very small. And, for those of you wondering why I hadn't written more about Wiarton Willie while I was there, well, there wasn't that much to say, apart from the work. Work is just work, although, admittedly, I haven't come across any "eyebrow plucking" stories yet up here in Chesley.... Actually, today's postcard is less funny, but more introspective, so please just put up with me for now...
Most of you (myself included) have NO IDEA where Chesley is located, except for one thing: It's nearest bigger town is Walkerton, which is where I am living during this locum. (Not only am I covering a practice for a doc, but I'm also housesitting for them simultaneously) Now, everyone knows, vaguely, where Walkerton is. I don't know how many comments about the water I got before I left to come here. The reason I mention this today is because the medical community here invited me to have dinner tonight. It was interesting to hear their stories of what happened five years ago. How every single person in town was NOT left unaffected by what happened. How many of the people around the table had children and grandchildren evacuated to Owen Sound, London, Toronto to help save their lives. How there are still kids today in Walkerton that are still affected, not just emotionally, but also physically by what the infections left their bodies with. How amazing the Walkerton folk were at pulling together and dealing with Fox News helicopters buzzing around,and all the families that were mourning, etc etc that whole summer.
Which made me think a bit harder about the jokes about the Walkerton water that I heard before I left for here. I was thinking about what a miracle is the fact that we can drink our tap water directly, despite our obsessive attempts to Brita-ize and reverse osmosis our tap water. About what a huge tragedy that it is that we can't drink the water from (Southern) Ontario's streams and lakes (cause you can in some parts of Northern Ontario, that's for sure). About what an even bigger tragedy that the majority of people on the planet don't have any water at all.
I know I'm getting a bit into my preachy and my non-amusing mode, but it really did strike me at how something as essential and good as water can still be utterly screwed up and messed up by humans. I am sure that there are theological implications for that, but I will spare those who don't believe in the same stuff as I do. Off my soapbox....
At any rate, I'd be glad to hear from all of you! I PROMISE to be funny next time. If you'd please like to drop me a note, just to let me know that a) you're alive or b) that your email is still working/still accepting email from me or c) just to let me know what you're up to, I'd be glad to hear! Promise that I WILL be funny next time, but all my thinking about water was just particularly striking to me today.
Love you all.
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part III

Hello! I know I haven't written since my first few impressions of Sioux Lookout, but after that, I was mainly working and going to church, so nothing terribly earth-shattering...
I am now, however, in Wiarton, Ontario, home of Willie, groundhog extraordinaire. For those who are geographically retarded because they were raised in Toronto (like myself), Wiarton is found on the Bruce Peninsula, a beautiful little part of the province that is, not surprisingly, a peninsula. It juts out between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Wiarton is found on the
Georgian Bay side, on the edge of a bay called Colpoy's Bay. Nice town. I'm also doing a clinic in Sauble Beach, which has been voted best beach in Ontario. It actually is quite nice, and, so far, less touristy than Wasaga.
However, it's bigger claims to fame lie with the fact that it lies right on the Bruce Trail, and, of course, the groundhog. I just walked by Willie's house today. Did you know he actually has a corrugated metal HOUSE???? Holy cannoli, who would've figured that one little albinio groundhog would outsmarten a whole bunch of humans to make him a two-storied (for a ground hog) house, with windows, little (caged) porch, and all the straw you could throw a matchstick at? Also, on the edge of the bay is a statue of Willie, which I, of course, took a picture of for CERTAIN people who wanted to know
what he looked like. :P
At any rate, it's quite a nice place to do a short w/e trip, especially to do some of the trails, so anyone in the Toronto area who wants to make the drive up, lemme know!
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part II

So I had totally the best weekend. Lemme tell you what I did in this little town... firstly, they had a grand opening of a brand new supermarket (well, actually, the owners re-opened their little food shop and opened a supermarket, and it happened to co-incide with my arrival...), which was REALLY COOL! Who would've thought that it would be exciting to walk through a new supermarket!
However, it's really quite nice; I felt like I was in a Loblaws or something... now don't think that that's lame that the whole town got excited about a supermarket (snobbish urbanites....)... it actually was like participating in something really really nifty... So I got to buy bananas at 29 cents a pound... now that's a thrill! :)
THEN, I got invited to go to a pow-wow. My very first, honest to goodness, pow-wow. What was really helpful is that some of the women there were kind of explaining what was going on so I wasn't entirely clueless to the whole thing. It was also kind of nice, being the only non-native, that my face kind of blended in with the crowd :) . I must say, there's something about drumming in every culture that it just primary, like you can feel it deep inside... thinking about the various drumming events that I've been to with various people groups is making me want to look more into percussion... At any rate, it was beautiful drumming and chanting... and then there was dancing (and yes, I know I can't dance)... and then, I was given the gift of these beautiful (what I call my) Ojibway princess earrings... well, at least I kind of feel like an Ojibway princess when I wear them.... :P
ALSO, (How much more fun could there be in one weekend???) the church that I've visited is so welcoming and kind. One thing that I always hope to see in a church is how it welcomes its visitors and newcomers (one thing I LOVE about CGC), and I must say, I was a bit overwhelmed at the love... I'm already in a Bible Study group, and tonight I'm going to one of the Baptist camps outside of town for a little shindig :) I was even invited over for lunch and stuffed my face full of blueberries... sigh... I cannot believe how much I've been blessed in just a week of being here... God is good. Speaking of which, I did my very first emergency shift, and it went OK!!!! So that's pretty stupendous too. God is really good.
AND! as a bonus, I also got to watch A Bug's Life and Bedknobs and Broomsticks... could life get any better??? :)
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode XI Part I

OK, so now this is in line with my Pembroke series of PFTEs, as I'm still in the province, but over the next few months, as I'm going to be seeing different regions of our (well, most of the mailing list is in Ontario) beautiful province, I figured I'd share some stuff, though I also know some people on this list have much more experience in the north than I (you know who you are :) )...
So I'm up (at my very first real life grown-up job!!!! It's about time! :P ) in the Sioux Lookout region, which, basically, if you look at a map of Ontario, is almost the entire "thigh" region of the chicken thigh/leg shape that is Ontario. If you look at a map, Sioux Lookout is just north west of Thunder Bay, near Kenora, and is actually halfway between Winnipeg and Thunder
Bay. It's the main hospital for the native reserves that are scattered north of there, serving, I think, about 150,000 people who are mainly of Cree-Ojibway heritage. (or maybe that's 15,000... I'd have to look it up; Steve, do you know the answer to this?). I'm actually sharing a time zone with Manitoba, so that's kind of interesting....
Due to an influenza outbreak that's currently affecting the north, my hospital in Sioux Lookout's been closed down except for essential services. So instead of standing around and twiddling my thumbs, this week they sent me even further north (I think... to be completely honest, I don't know where I am right now... I just got on the plane and four hours later, I got off). I in fact may actually be west, I'm not sure. At any rate, this week, I've been the local country doc in a small reserve of about 300 people. That's right; three hundred people. And, strangely enough, it's been OK. I know I've expressed worry about how well I'd function 'on my own', but it's been OK, so far.
Admittedly, it's hard to get a lot of 'emergencies' when there's only 300 people to take care of, but that's besides the point... It's actually been a nice introduction to work, so that's been excellent.
This week, the town had a 'drum social', where the elders tell stories and the townspeople bring their drums and instruments to play, but, due to workload and such, I was INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTED that I couldn't go. Darn it all...
Incidentally, I've been watching Breakfast Television in the mornings, and guess what? It's actually MUCH warmer here than it is down south... I can actually get around without my coat (which is saying a lot)... bwa ha ha ha haaaaaa to all those people who say that it's much colder up here than in Toronto...
Love,
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth VI

Despair, despair! Oh wail and weep! This has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with New Zealand, but it's impt to me nonetheless; NZ information will be found below. I just found out the other day that U2 released its concert dates and 1) they're not playing in Toronto or Montreal, at least not at this point and 2)I don't have tickets yet. This is just a subliminal message to all that whoever can snag me a ticket to go with them to see U2 will be forever owed my affection and devotion...
Back to the point: I am now winding up my New Zealand leg of my trip and am flying out to Fiji in the morning. Since my last postcard, I have seen mountains, glaciers, blue lakes, waterfalls, beaches, ancient towering forests, and great fjords. Of course, I've been playing on the South Island of New Zealand. I've actually been on a helicopter that dropped me on a glacier, and then I went hiking on blue ice! And I didn't slip and fall down! That was an experience! I also went sailing on the Tasman Sea (briefly), and have climbed a few more small mountains. I actually also just missed out on a free bungy jump, but that's a whole other story, but suffice it to say that I didn't end up going :(.
As this was the last weekend that I'm here in New Zealand, I finally travelled to the city that my sister lives in (Christchurch), in order to spend some more time with her before I leave. Lovely city. I like it quite a lot, actually. At any rate, in order to help educated her about why New Zealand is so important in the order of nature, I finally got her to watch one of the LOTR movies. Now, this is a girl who has never read any of the books, and has never tolerated sitting through any of the movies in its entirety. (Yes, yes, I know: Hard to believe she's related to me) So we had some takeaway fish and chips and watched The Fellowship of the Ring. And she disliked it greatly. Siiiigh. On the plus side, I did actually recognize some of the scenery (well, OK, mainly the mountain ranges - a field just looks like a field after a while).
I fly out to Fiji tomorrow, so I suspect that this will be the end of this series of PFTE this time around: I have been told that internet in Fiji is pricey (in the range of 40 cents/minute for dial up service), so I may not necessarily be able to write you directly from the beach havens of Viti Levu. However, if the internet rumours are unfounded, then I will endeavour to write something about Fijian culture, outside of the well known facts that they were a major cannibalistic culture and their narcotic national drink of kava.
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth V

(Another caveat: Some ppl can't take any photos at all, so this is the non-photo attachment one)

(Sorry if you receive this several times: Most ppl's email wouldn't let me send as many photos as I would like, so I've been culling them down to try and send one at least...)
I think I must secretly be a vacuum... why? Well, nature abhors a vacuum, and I think the same applies to me... I'm not entirely sure why, but so far since I've been here, I've sustained (with the caveat that I -know- I'm very klutzy): several bonks on the head (by trees, branches, one by a bird hide - hard enough to make me fall down!), one fall into a pond of mud, a bumble bee sting, one twisted, bunged up knee, one gash over my chin and neck, falling into streams... it's gotten to the point where the rest of my team with the environmental volunteering look at me with a little bit of concern every time we leave in the morning... they're concerned I may fall off a cliff or fall into a volcano or something... I think I need to take up tai chi or something...
I think this may have something to do with the fact that I'm in an organized program.. I didn't hurt myself at all until I got here to 'help out the planet'... I'm half wondering if it doesn't really want my help in the first place... :P Doing all the other stuff I was doing before I got here seemed to be OK... it's making me a bit paranoid... tomorrow we're going on a sailing trip to identify dolphins and seals, and I think they're packing an extra life jacket for me, so I can have two... :P
That being said, this weekend was a holiday weekend in Wellington. (Each major city has a "City Day", ie Wellington Day, during the summer time, so each region gets a long weekend for free during the summer, neat, eh? Next weekend is Auckland Day, but I'm not in Auckland, so it doesn't count for me.... it kind of spreads out all the long weekend chaos to certain regions of the country only)
At any rate, because it was the long weekend, I decided to go back to conquer previous mountain that I had mentioned before (Postcard II) since the weather's been nicer.
However, as mentioned, I had twisted my knee two days prior to when I was gonna do it. At any rate, stubborn ass that I am, I went anyways, bought a tensor bandage and some medication, and had a walking stick lent to me. Did the Tongariro Crossing ("the finest one day walk in all of New Zealand"), which basically climbs between Mt. Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (ie. Mt. Doom) and then back down again. Perfectly fascinating. And I did it in a little bit over average time, despite my bum knee (although I must say, there was a little old Japanese man that kept on overtaking me on the trail). God is good. And the weather was completely gorgeous. Highly recommended walk. Also note: I didn't fall into a crater. I didn't fall off a cliff. I didn't roll down a mountain. I didn't burn myself with lava. Heck, I didn't even get a sunburn. My knees, of course, regret it today, but I suppose that's part of the price to pay for ultimate beauty.
Enclosed, you will find several pictures from the hike, courtesy of Caitlin, one of the girls that I went with.
Love you all!
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth IV

To clarify: I haven't seen my sister for about three weeks now. I was blessed with only having to walk with her for about three days, and then I was allowed to go at my own pace :) :) I will be joining up with her later, but more about those adventures (I'm sure my feet are already pre-regretting it :) )
I have now been with my volunteering job with an environmental organization. I must say, this time around, I've been learning a bit about ecology, volcanoes and their effect on land formation, animal adaptation and NZ nature in general. It's quite fascinating, actually. New Zealand is actually quite strict with what kind of biological material you can take in and out of the country. They actually have a place in their airports where you have to declare your shoes and sleeping bags, etc, in case they have any foreign soil or seeds that could contaminate New Zealand. The fruit I was carrying in my bag was confiscated at the airport when I arrived, due to the presence of seeds. One of the people on my team is from France, and her parents are cheesemakers, and they confiscated her parents' cheese that she had brought to eat!
At any rate, I am living in the volunteer hourse of the Nga Kaitiaki (Friends of the Earth) just outside of Wellington (which is why many of you have seen me online quite a bit). I have just returned from a three day camping trip out in the New Zealand countryside. Not very many mozzies (mosquitoes), but on the other hand, I got stung by a bumblebee!!! My tricep now has a lump the size of a kiwi! At any rate, I've been busy removing and killing introduced plant species, such as many very pretty flowers, mainly because they are non-native and they 'squeeze out' the native flora. I've also been busy planting native trees and plants in various wetlands and parks. It's also been neat because I've been watching for various birds, introduced and native species. Next week, we're supposed to go looking for seals and dolphins. It's really quite neat, and I'm glad that I'm able to help out, even though a lot of the plants I've been killing have actually been quite attractive... interesting that some things can be so beautiful and yet be so damaging....
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth III

I've noticed that a lot of Kiwis walk around barefoot: on the streets, in the supermarkets, basically everywhere. Very strange... but then again, very hobbit-like.
That being said, I have also been struck by the general goodwill of Kiwis. So help me if I ever get the strange notion of hitch-hiking or accepting a ride from a stranger in Canada, but for some reason, it's OK to do that here. I'm not sure why... I've already taken rides from little old ladies, to big strapping young guys, to families going in the same direction as I anyways, and I'm not dead yet... very strange... It kind of comforts me that there are still nice people in the world who aren't going to strangle you and steal all your stuff....
The weather has cleared up quite a bit here in the last few days, and now it finally feels like summer. On the last of the rainy rainy, gray and gloomy days, I went on a winery tour... at first, I could actually tell the difference between a Chardonnay vs a Sauvignon Blanc vs a Reisling, though I must admit, as the day went on, honestly, it just all tastes like wine at the end of the day...
why do I bring this up? I must say, travelling through this country, I'm meeting some of the most interesting travel stories... in this winery thing, I met a very nice older couple who had had it with the rat race and were taking a four year sabbatical to travel around the world (now even I think that's a bit too long....)... there have been various travellers who had come from the devastation in Thailand and Indonesia that I had met, who, for various providential reasons, did not get injured... the 70 year old man from California who was here for a fishing trip, waiting for his wife to arrive in New Zealand after she had left for a two month trip on an Antarctic ice breaker... interesting stories all, I must say... various people have asked me about backpacking through Canada, and it's making me curious about our own country, and how to explore it better...
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth II

It's amazing: New Zealand has this reputation of being this adventure-seeking nation, or, at the very least, able to help you push your limits. But I think my 'pushing limits' is b/c of my sister; she's a bit of a sadomasochistic dictator :) . A -small- part of it lies with the fact that I over-estimated just how much I could really do, but I think most of it is b/c of Mussolini existing right in my own household.
I like the idea of walks. Really, I do. However, the idea of doing a 13 km walk, one way, with three mountains and several hills intervening in what would normally be a very nice walk, is verging on a little bit of a tortuous idea for someone who hasn't been walking in long long distances for a while, especially in new shoes (ie. myself). HOWEVER, for my sister, her feet could be cut up and bleeding, with a toe hanging off her foot, and gangrene setting in, and she would yell, "Onwards, Christian soldiers!". For some reason, it is still FUN at that point. Anyways, not having walked for a very long while, for a very long time, in new shoes, led to soreness, to say the least, on the first day after arriving in New Zealand. Auckland is a city made up of a lot of old volcanoes, so it is quite hilly and actually has a few small mountains interspersed in the city. This makes it hilly, like San Francisco (but worse), so a bit hard to walk around easily. At any rate, I was very very sore after the first day out. To compound matters, we decided to take a ferry out to another island the very next day and climb ANOTHER extinct volcano which was about, I think 300-400 m above sea level, and then come back down. I've never had arthritis in my knees before, but I think I've had a foretaste of the future... and I don't really like it...
On the other hand, I think I've been blessed, a bit... it's started raining today, and I was planning on tackling a mountainous 20k hike in a few days time (like, really mountainous.... this would be the mountain range amongst which Peter Jackson chose one to play Mount Doom), but it's looking like the weather won't co-operate in making the hike safe (ie muddy, very windy, poor visibility, ice formation and snow in the mountains)... it's a bit disappointing, but on the other hand, I think God is intervening and setting limits for me that perhaps I'm not quite ready for... (although I'm sure I could do it if I steeled myself for it... I know if I had my Urukhai-type sister along, I would definitely get it done... :) )
That being said, however, I have been (kind of) pushing my limits. I've already been rock climbing (!), rappeling down caves (!!), caving through small crevices in wetsuits (!!!!), and doing stuff I wouldn't normally think would be stuff I'd do. However, I refuse to pay these silly tourist sums to bungy jump, despite the fact that this is the birth place of bungy jumping and the like. Others have suggested Zorbing, which is basically putting yourself in a gerbil-like clear plastic ball, which they put cold water in, and you roll down the hill at 50-60 km/hr, while getting a good wash.... There's also this other sport where you put on this special suit and then they put you over this really strong fan/vent, and then you fly over this vent about a metre in the air... I don't really understand some of the offerings that I've hard about... maybe I'll go find somewhere to shear a sheep... now THAT's extreme sporting....
julia

Postcards from Middle Earth I

Welcome to the 10th anniversary edition of the PFTE! Whoo hoo (fireworks, etc)!
Congratulations to those who have stuck through every single edition! I wish I still had all the old ones from wayyyy back...
After a long and harrowing journey of 38 hrs + to get here, I'm finally in New Zealand. It's really quite nice here, but, being in a big city initially, I'm not sure what I think of the whole thing yet. Looks much like San Francisco, if that helps anyone...
This will totally not be very entertaining right now, as I only have a few minutes left on my time, however, I'm here safely, and there's ppl from all over the English speaking world! Brits, Scots, Aussies, Yanks, etc etc... I haven't actually heard anyone speak Kiwi English yet...

Postcards from the Edge Episode IX Part IV

Ireland is very green. Apparently it's known as the land of "60 shades of green". No kidding. You can easily get green fatigue out here... :P Too much nature... Too beautiful all of the time... too much blue sky and green grass and trees... too much Irish dancing and Guiness and whiskey...
Now, of course, the most obvious thing I would do once I personally got to Ireland is do my little U2 pilgrimage... did my homage to the various studios that they've recorded in, visited sites that they've recorded videos in, seen old places that they've played in, signed various walls and locales to prove that I was there... even visited a pub that Bono hangs out in when he gets the chance... Of course, no one else was even remotely interested in coming along with me (what??? Why not??)... :P Didn't meet any of the men themselves (yet! Can you possibly imagine???? That would be superfragilistically wonderful!), but we still have several days to go... I even went to visit Larry Mullen Jr's childhood home!!! Whoo hoo!!! OK, I know for absolutely every one of you, this is totally not interesting, but, as you well know, this is a BIG DEAL for me :) Big like discovering the cure of cancer... no, OK, more like Big like... uh... actually, I can't really think of any parallel... Big like winning the lottery? Becoming PM? (Can someone please tell me who won the election?)
I've been landscaping the grounds of a castle in the Irish countryside for the past few days, earning my keep for my accomodation... now that is neat-o stuff... mainly raking and weeding so far, but hopefully will get into some trimming and pruning.... actually it's been quite exciting to look at the potential of these grounds for true beautification... I'm proposing returning next year to do some more gardening work... does anyone else want to come on a working holiday to Ireland next year? I think it's a great opportunity to travel and see Ireland with free accomodation... if you think you'd be interested, let me know! We'll talk! It's this lovely castle an hour out of Dublin in the country with grounds that could really use some grunt work... I'll take pics to show people who're interested in coming to garden for a bit, and then travel for the rest... :)
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode IX Part III

Greetings from bonny Scotland! Lemme tell you something: Sleeping on marble ain't all it's cracked up to be. For various reasons, we ended up having to sleep at the airport last night... I thought it would be fool-proof; who in their right mind (besides myself) would sleep in an airport? At any rate, for some of those various reasons, we ended up pulling up into the airport at 1am, believing that it should be deserted by that point, curling up on some lounge chairs and waiting till morning... do you remember that Simpsons episode where Maggie gets sent to the Ayn Rand Nursery and saves all those pacifiers and then when the Simpsons come to get Maggie, all the babies are in the gymnasium sucking on their soothers, and then they back away out the door because of the weirdness?... well, it was exactly the same way when we got to the airport, only it was adults, not babies, and no one was using pacifiers... however, the whole freaking airport was full (!) of people lying on the chairs, on the floors, under the cafe tables... it was weird! People were pushing each other around go-karting with the luggage trolleys! At any rate, because we were so 'late' we ended up sleeping between some Americans and some Brits on the marble overlooking the control tower... weirdness... I've also learned something else: Marble doesn't retain heat. 'Nuff said.
Some stereotypes preserved, others not: We passed about FIVE golf courses on the train from the airport into Glasgow, and we actually saw some men (OK, well, one guy) dressed in a kilt playing golf (aye indeed, my laddies!) on a Monday morning... Men do not walk around normally in kilts... I haven't seen anyone that looks like Willie the Groundskeepers... The wedding shoppes actually have bridal gown models besides models with full Scottish regalia, kilt and all... There was a busker playing the bagpipes (do they pay him to stop?)... I actually haven't seen any restaurants deliberately trying to sell haggis, nor do they sell 'instant haggis stuffing' in the supermarkets... I know it's a Robbie Burns day kind of thing, but still...
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode IX Part II

So here we are in the south of England (alas, not the south of France...) visiting our good friends Pastor Dave and Linda (for those CGYGers who know who they are). We are having a jolly good time wandering the English channel coast and looking at carnivals and castles. They are doing quite well and have a lovely home near the seaside... did you know that most of the English can reach a coastline within two hours and get to beachfront? Niiiiiice... except for the English beaches are made up of rocks, not sand. Mind you, they are small, round stones (and yes, Dave and Denis, I got you rocks), but it's still rocks... Yet the English will sit and lie upon them like they're the sands of California... weird... personally, I like feeling like I'm lying upon cushions, not in a Shiatsu session or on a bed of nails...
Furthermore, being coastline, there are a lot of seagulls. Except unlike being 'pigs with wings' as I so affectionately call them in Toronto ('mine, mine, mine')... these guys are actually CLEAN. They're actually quite beautiful birds, relatively speaking. They're actually quite white and have clean beaks, and don't have that kind of disease, 'I-have-the-equivalent-of-bird-rabies' look about them. They're also HUGE! They're the size of toddlers, kind of like around the size of the Arctic ravens... honestly, they look like if they teamed up, they could do a lot better than leftover bagels and popcorn and actually go for a small child... yummmm.... Atkins for birds...
For those of you who know that I decided to go to the UK this time around because I figured "They speak English, just like me... how hard could it be to get around?".... uhhh, I'm realizing English isn't all it's cracked up to be... We've actually had a hard time a)reading b)understanding and c)being understood by other people. Hunh? What the?? I've had to repeat myself several times to a police officer the other day as I was looking for a PARK to eat my lunch in. He thought I was looking for SHOPS and was trying to explain how to get to the nearest shopping area. Then he got really confused when I was explaining, "You know, a park, that has trees and grass and stuff"... "Oh, I'm sure that there are trees over in [said shopping area], see, there's one over there..." "no, no a PARK, PAR-KE" "OOOOOHHHHH, you're looking for a PARK with trees and grass in it... oh well, in that case..." (oh dear Lord, please help me...)
On the other hand, some of the words I've learned, vaguely:
Yob, or yobbo: Jerk, hooligan, much like drunken English thugs who beat up people with blue shirts
Slapper: Refers to women who sleep around
Wanker: jerk
Bangers and mash: The British delusion of high cuisine :P
Uhhhh, so basically, I've learned some insulting slang... I guess that's not really helpful... oh well...
julia

Postcards from the Edge Episode IX Part I

Hello all! Welcome again (already?!?!) to another set of PFTEs. For those of you new to the series, I just send out periodic updates from places I've travelled with bizarre, strange or interesting observations that I note. If you'd like to be taken off this list, please let me know!
This time around, I'm in the UK for the next few weeks, cruising through England, Scotland and Ireland. As you know, of course, I've already met Bono, so most of my motivation for going to Ireland's already dealt with (har har har).
Airport security post 9-11 has taken great heights... on our way in through Pearson, they stopped a NUN. A nun... come now, what is this world coming to if you're going to stop a little 80-something year old nun??? They emptied out her bag with the jellies and jams that she was taking home... right, weapons of mass destruction via blueberries and rhubarb...
Otherwise, the Brits are stereotypically staid and formal. So much so that we have never encountered such bad service. I don't remember it being this bad last time I was through, however, it is stunning the lack of desire to actually be helpful. We've noticed that most of the people we ask directions to, who bother to stop and answer, don't have British accents. We've had our food practically thrown at us in restaurants, have had to beg for napkins, and use puppydog eyes to get some water. I think in North America, despite it's many faults, we've at least gotten the customer service thing down pretty good.
Not surprisingly, as the Euro Cup 2004 is on in Portugal right now, the British are rabidly following the proceedings. Actually, on Tuesday night, they were beaten by the French, mainly b/c Beckham missed a goal. And, of course, drunken British hooligans started beating up police officers and people on the streets that night. It's funny that the country that gives us Keats, Shakespeare, Cromwell, Wilde, Dickens, etc etc etc etc, is also famous for beating up random people in a drunken fury...
julia

Nunavut IX

Signs that I've probably been up North for a while:
1. It's 'only' -20 outside, and I think, "Gosh, it's awful warm today! I won't even need the hood on my parka!"
2. I can tell, looking out my window in the morning, whether it's blizzarding. Well, mainly that means I can't distinguish the white in the sky from the white on the ground from the white of the sea, and it all just looks white, with the occasional house popping out for flourish.
3. I hang out at NorthMart, just to chat with the neighbours. D'you understand? I'm hanging out in a SUPERMARKET!!! :P (Produce aisle:" Hey Pete! How's it going? Taking your truck out tonight?" Crackers section: "Hey Anita! What time do I need to meet up with you this week?" Pasta: "Elizabeth! How was school this week?" etc etc... sadness... :P
4. I'm used to being told that I look like someone's sister or their aunt or their mother (their MOTHER???) now...
5. I'm used to people saying "Hi Doc!" (Doc? Doc?? What kind of nickname is that???) to me on the streets...
6. I eat meat, whether originally walking, swimming or flying, at every single freaking meal...
7. My boots have been utterly destroyed by the snow out here. Snow 2 Boots 0. We've been trying to hold them together with crazy glue and industrial staples long enough for me to get home and chuck them...
8. I actually want to go out and kill animals and wear their fur (FYI Fur is beautiful and it is warm, much better than any poly-ethyl-vinyl-chlorphyll-ite material despite what the politically correct may say)... although I suspect I would be a pretty pathetic hunter (Oh dear... I think I killed it... do you think I hurt it badly? or, even worse... Oh dear... I think I accidentally pointed the rifle in the wrong direction... do you think they'll be able to salvage that limb?)
9. (A medical one) I wonder, "What the heck is taking so long???" when a woman's in labour for more than 30 minutes. (I've been doing a lot of obstetrics up here, which is great, cause I love it, but it's been less than challenging/educational. The women here are INCREDIBLE! Most women would probably envy them. Obviously, we only have one anaesthetist up here, so it's rare that someone gets an epidural (I actually haven't seen anyone get one, but who needs one when you're in labour for such a short time?). These ladies are able to push their babies out in less than ten minutes! (I know some of you moms are green with envy :P) One woman made one short grunt, looked up at me and asked, "Is the baby out yet?", which it wasn't, but it only took one more short grunt and the baby was out...
The only non-Inuit lady I delivered up here pushed for 1 1/2 hrs (which actually wasn't too bad for a first baby), but I -forgot- that labour usually takes that long, but I remember thinking at about the fifteen minute mark, "What's the hold up, man?" :P I think I'm going to have difficulty getting used to waiting the length of labour with my patients again... :P
And sadly: 10. I am no longer surprised or truly horrified at ghastly stories of domestic violence, incest or assault (actually, just plain old brokenness) within the homes of families up here anymore. I find I am more surprised when I find a functional family, which is truly a sad and lamentable situation. I think that may be one of the parts of my heart that will stay here...
julia

Nunavut VIII

So, I've attemped going caribou hunting. I went for a whole day out onto the tundra, looking for the elusive animal, searching over wind-swept plains seeking the furry-deer-with-antlers, all for... nothing.... sigh....
People were so generous! Feeling, I guess, that I was a pretty wimpy city girl, various guys lent me all this gear... and I thought I was the Pillbury boy with my parka... I had a caribou skin face mask, balaklava, goggles, skidoo helmet, seal skin mitts up to my elbows, goosedown ski pants, wool soocks, vests, and boots... I could barely fit on the skidoo after all that, but I must say... I was totally toasty the whole afternoon, though I suppose I was just -that- much more additional deadweight...
I was probably the most useless person on the expedition. I couldn't talk, cause I had too much stuff over my face. They wanted me to have some tea at the halfway point since they were worried that I was getting too cold (how could they tell? I couldn't tell them anything!), but realized the huge effort it would be to get all my stuff off my face to actually have some would not really be worth it... I couldn't hear anything. I could barely hoist my leg over the skidoo b/c of the great weight of my legs in their boots... it was pretty much sadness :) :) :) And, most importantly, if a polar bear did show up, since I couldn't shoot a gun, I'd just waste get-away weight on the skidoo.... sigh... :) :) :)
At any rate, it was fun! It was kind of like riding those zhemi-jahns in Benin, but even more scary... I just had to keep repeating to myself, "It's just like riding a horse, it's just like riding a hose..." ... except for I had no reins, the horse could go 60km/hr over rocky tundra, and it wouldn't stop if you thought it was going too fast! However, I've been having the post-horse-ride gait since then, walking kind of bow-legged since my thighs are killing me! :)
It was gorgeous. The Arctic is terrifyingly beautiful. I can see how easy it would be to die out here alone, not only b/c of the cold, but the disorientation, and the vast distances... no caribou were found, but as I was told, it's been getting harder to find them as they've been heading norther with the encroachment of global warming... oh well. I was kind of looking forward to help hack off caribou head and skin the animal... they figured my surgical skills might've come in handy...
So for the whole expedition, I ended up catching a bit of frostbite on the end of my nose... it just figures; cover my face with a caribou in order to hunt caribou, so the guardian angel of the caribou afflicts me with frostbite for such war-mongering thought....
Love you!
julia

Nunavut VII

Since it's Easter, and a time for renewal and resurrection... it's feeling kind of like spring time here in Iqaluit, if you can believe it! The temperature now is hovering around -18 to -20, and for some incredible reason, some of the snow is starting to melt (I dunno, I always learned in school that the freezing point of water is 0 degrees, but hey, what do I know?)... It's very strange, seeing icicles dripping, and mud puddles, and, for crying out loud, actual dirt pathways for the first time since I've been here, but being bundled up, hood and all, b/c it is still cold out... it's a bit confusing... (however, don't get me wrong: there is still A LOT of snow out here; I've only seen two small mud puddles)
Someone was actually surprised to know that there are taxicabs up here. They thought I was riding around in a sled (:P not to name any names :) )... Well, the very fact that there is enough business to keep two taxicab companies going is probably something, however, there are cabs. Obviously, vehicles are pretty expensive (especially when you figure the transportation costs up here: there are no dealerships up here, per se... people buy their cars down south and then work to transport them up here. The cheapest way is by sealift in the summer time; apparently fleets of cars that people have ordered during the past year finally make it through the bay. If people really really need a car or a skidoo quickly, they either buy it used in town, or, if they've got the cash flow, they fly in the vehicle... that's nutty! Sometimes it costs more than the actually vehicle to fly it in!)... lots of people drive around in skidoos, carrying around their babies in amautis and slinging a few kids in the back. Mostly, people drive trucks and SUVs (probably one of the few places I can imagine it's justifiable to be driving massive vehicles... Tim, you'd have a field day :P ) However, I have seen a Penny lookalike on the streets! I cannot believe that a poor little Toyota Echo survives up here! :)
Anyways, about the taxis. Fares are a flat rate of $5. It doesn't matter where you go in town: $5. One night when it was -70 outside, I took a cab the distance of a block rather than freezing and dying half way. It can get pretty expensive for people who depend on the cabs to help them get their kids to schoo, then to work, then to grocery shopping and home again... that's one reason why people have a hard time to finally get the money together to get their own car, especially if they're spending $40 a day just to get two parents and two kids back and forth from work and school.
On another note, as I was earlier complaining about the incredibly poor oral hygiene in children b/c of pop consumption, alcohol consumption actually is not as big of a problem up here. Most of the Nunavut communities have chosen to be completely dry. Here in Iqaluit, there are several bars and restos that sell alcohol (and that's only b/c it's the capital), but no LCBO-type stores at all. This, I think, has helped the communities by at least reducing the number of alcohol-related injuried and problems. I guess it's kind of hard to gauge. On the other hand, I have seen a lot more binge drinkers that totally go on a HUGE bender when someone imports a whole lot to share with their friends. Also, it makes me that much more angry at all the spousal abuse that I see, since there's a LOT of it out here, and the stupid louts don't even have the 'excuse' of alcohol for their behaviour... grrr... grrrr... OK that's another heartache that I've been having to deal with out here that I'm just not going to start on today.... getting off soapbox now...
I've been very confused as to how timing kind of works out here. There's an Arctic Bible Conference that I'm supposed to be volunteering at this coming week, with people coming from all over, from Siberia to Greenland. However, no one can really tell me when things are really starting, or when I need to be anywhere, or what the final date of the conference is. They've told me to just 'show up'... now, seeing as I don't even have a good idea as to what time, let alone what day, I should be showing up, this is a bit confusing... sigh... I suppose it's just my western worldview of time-centredness that's getting in the way... well, at least I know (I think... uh, I hope...) -where- it's taking place... uh, maybe... uh, I guess we'll see if I end up at this conference or not...
Love you!
julia

Nunavut VI

Thanks again to all who've sent pictures (thanks for newborn Susanna's pics from the proud Beck grandparents! :) )! Thanks to those who've sent mail; if you're planning on sending anything, I would send it, uh, yesterday, to make sure it gets to me before I leave (or so they tell me)...
A few observations: The only wildlife I've seen so far have been the ravens. There are many Inuit legends of them, none of which I know, except that they are characterized as greedy creatures. They are jet black, in stark contrast to the snow, and are biiig birds. They are sometimes the size of a small toddler! Well, OK, I've seen fish too, but I don't think that really counts...
Due to the fact that the doctors in eastern Nunavut are based out of Iqaluit, they get sent out periodically to the other communities in order to have a physician presence there, at least (ideally) once every 4-6 weeks or so. I've made it out to Pangnirtung (place of the bull caribou) and to Qikiqtarjuaq (I dunno), but, unfortunately, have found out today that I likely won't make it out to any other communities before I leave, either b/c they are too small and don't need two physicians to go, or b/c the doc is going too close to my departure date, and they don't want to risk me missing my flight home. Which is always entirely possible. I was snowed in Pang for an extra 1 1/2 days due to semi-white out conditions. I must say though, coming back to Iqaluit, I was struck at HOW BIG and cosmopolitan (seriously) Iqaluit is... It kinda feels too 'big city' now...
It's amazing at how quickly the sun moves across the horizon. Every day, the sun moves further across the skyline, and sets in a different place, further west, every day. I suppose if I was up early enough, I'd also notice how the sun would rise further east every morning, but I haven't yet :P
I have seen Northern lights! Apparently they are even more beautiful the further north you go, but, unfortunately, I won't be making it out to Arctic Bay or Grise Fjord ... sigh... :( :( :( Just more encouragement to come back up here! :) But they are beautiful; just like you see in cartoons on Sesame Street...
My kids' choir is doing well; I missed the last practice as I was snowed in Pang, but we have one more practice before Easter :)
Love you!
julia

Nunavut V

There is, to my great disappointment, no indication that I'm going to see a polar bear while I'm up here at all. I've seen a bunch of them as rugs with their heads still on them in various bars and stuff in town, but that's about it. I'm told they are quite big and quite dangerous, and they are, without a doubt, one of the few animals left on earth that considers humans to be fair game as prey. In January, there were apparently a mom bear and two cubs that were hanging around the outskirts of Iqaluit that wouldn't go away, so the city had to shoot them, b/c they would've started hunting humans. Also, I've heard many stories of polar bears: easily reaching 10 to 12 feet in height on their hind legs (holy crap!!!), able to look into second story windows... guys having to stay underneath their trucks for six or seven hours until the polar bear got tired of them and went away... the sheer stupidity to go travelling outside of towns without very strong and big guns, b/c then you're just asking for trouble from polar bears... pretty scary! There was another story that I was told about one guy who saw a polar bear coming towards him, started shooting at him from 20 feet away, but the bear finally didn't die until 2 feet in front of him! Scary!
On the other hand, in my never-ending saga of getting a huge kick out of visiting Chinese restaurants in the most unlikely places... there are about 30 Chinese people living up here. However, most of the time they pass for Inuk, so it kinda doesn't matter, but they do sell bok choy, oyster sauce, a whole range of Lee Kum Kee sauces (ha ha ha, Hary...) and even dried straw mushrooms in the supermarket (!). I'm supposed to be going out for Chinese food in the next few days at the only Chinese resto in town, so we'll see how that goes... :P
Hope all is well!!!
WARNING: The rest of this postcard will only really be applicable to the medicine people in the crowd... sorry... so potentially boring stuff ahead... You can skip the rest if you'd like :)
I must say, sometimes it's quite discouraging to be working in these environments, even though the locales themselves might be quite exotic. However, to see active TB, SIDS, ++++ ODs, STDs++++, tons of bilat. perf'd TMs, bottle caries etc etc etc in CANADA, of all places... it kind of wears down on you after a while... I think also it doesn't help a lot that I feel like a bit of a walk-in doc, so I only see them come in, but I don't necessarily see how they turn out.. part of it has to do with the fact that preventative care doesn't really register with this culture, and secondly, since the consultants only come up once or twice a year, the consult note doesn't come back for a year or so... like on little girl I just saw who's got bilat perf'd TMs with chronic d/c: there's no audiology up here, we're not going to fly her down for audiology, ENT's not coming for another five months, and there are hundreds of little kids with hearing loss/perf TMs/ chronic OM to be seen as well... what the heck to do with that? Do the tympanoplasties myself???
On the plus side, I suppose, I haven't really seen that much in the way of acute internal stuff. No AMIs, CVAs, well, at least not a lot (we've got one CHFer on the floor, but that's about it). Actually, there haven't been that many MVAs either, but with the speed limit being 30, I guess it's kinda hard to do, though there are lots of skidoo trauma... I dunno, it's just kinda frustrating with the lack of continuity of care and the lack of resources here... Actually, I think it's the lack of continuity that's the big problem... like the one woman I had to cut off her codeine cause I was the only one who bothered to look back in her chart and realized that she'd been getting about 800-900 codeine tabs a year for the past three years! (Well, besides the fact that I'm not big on prescription narcotics for non-CA pain...)... I dunno, gripe gripe gripe... :P ... thanks for the ASCM-like debriefing, guys... :P
Love you!
julia

Nunavut IV

OK, so really, to be completely honest, the main reason why I wanted to come up here is because the babies are soooooo freaking cute!!! Also, there are tons and tons of them; I'm delivering one every two days or so, although this hospital averages about 1.5 per day or so. They are sooo round and soft (I mean, I've been told that I'm pretty soft myself, but these kids feel like goose down or something :) )! I'm trying to remember to take some pics of the kids, cause frankly they're funny in their fur hats and their kamiks :)...
Some of you have been asking what the heck I've been eating out here: caribou? Polar bear? walrus?? etc etc... good question! :P Actually, they are incredibly gracious to me here and provide my meals in the hospital caf, which is actually totally not as bad as it sounds. A lot of town comes here to eat for their meals actually; today I had striploin steak for lunch... I think that's nutty! :) It's quite nice as you get to meet a bunch of folks from town over lunch... However, I have had arctic char a lot (which is apparently a cousin of the salmon, and they do taste quite similar), I've tried caribou too (I dunno; tastes like chicken?? Maybe a musky beef? I dunno... everything tastes like chicken, doesn't it?). Muktuk is another story... (that's seal blubber)... apparently I will get a chance to try it (so the guys in the caf promise me), as long as I'm prepared to chew for a couple of hours... apparently it's like licorice, but you can't really chew through it, you just kind gotta let it slide down.... uhhh, that doesn't sound terribly appetizing nor nutritious, for that matter...
At any rate, the guys in the kitchen are great here, and incredible gentlemen, which is just as well, since food prices here are extravagant at best... part of it is b/c there's really only one store to buy your food at, so being a monopoly helps at jacking up prices, as well as transportation costs to bring fresh produce etc up here. Most food costs about 2-3 times more than it would down south. I went for a tour of the store (it's the biggest store in Iqaluit, possibly all of Nunavut... I can't believe I was a tourist in a supermarket in Canada, now that's sad and pathetic, possibly comparable to visiting IKEA, right??? ... :P ) the other day: Bananas cost about $1 each, my precioussss Vector cereal costs $15 a box, a loaf of Wonder bread costs $7, a ten piece bucket of KFC is $30... crazy crazy... one of my friends up here says that buying $600-700 worth of groceries a week for a small family is not surprising...
Pop and chips, however, are only marginally more expensive than they are down south, which makes me think conspiracy theory all over the place. The Inuit have notoriously high rates of obesity, diabetes and realllllly bad dental problems (Nathan, Steve... they could use you up here!), which I KNOW the pop and chips are not helping to prevent... sadly, for some reason, babies start getting pop in their bottles when they hit about 5 or six months, which I totally don't understand... So they're still really really really cute... just that their teeth start rotting before they've even come up... ewwwww....
Hope you're all well! Love you!
julia