A little taste of Europe in the North

So last night I heard that the Gameti store carries croissants about once a month. Not Pillsbury croissants, not frozen croissants, but real fresh french croissants. I also heard that there was a food shipment for the store on the plane last night. Naturally I hit up the store first thing this morning. Sure enough there had been a shipment in last night. You could tell cause there was still pop on the shelves and the freezers were full of overpriced TV dinners and icecream. If you looked hard enough you could find 1 virtually empty freezer in the back with a box of frozen berries. I think my preceptor and I are the only ones in town who care about this freezer.

I went through the 3 grocery isles and got my usual potatoes, oats and 1/2 rotten bananas for double the price of any grocery store in the south. With doubtful optimism I asked the young boy behind the counter with an ipod in 1 ear who was eating something that looked suspiciously familiar, if they had an croissants. He looked at me like I was speaking another language. My brief glimmer of hope faded. I said "Oh I just heard you got these pastry like things in sometimes and I thought maybe...." He pointed to the bread shelf. To be honest, I didn't even notice a bread shelf amongst the Mr. Noodles and canned soup. Sure enough the only thing on the shelf that wasn't white Wonder bread was a small plastic bag of croissants from Yellowknife. Sweet success! I bought 1/2 of them and came home to make some milky coffee that I pretended was as good as a latte from Stevoreno's. It's a good morning :))

Small Town

This is the Gameti phone book. 2 pages, 3 sides. Including businesses. Our receptionist knows all the numbers by heart and whether or not they are in town. No cell phones to squander people's memories up here.

Whoa! What a day. I started with the usual sick clinic drop in in the morning, but after lunch I was checking the schools cumulative scalp for lice and then back to the clinic for pap tests. Ok, so checking every dry scalp in school is only 30 heads, but still!

The rug rats were on spring break for the last 2 weeks so things in Gameti had been quiet. But when I got home from work (ie. down the hallway) I was swarmed by these 2 little kids in the yard. Being the naive southerner who wants desperately to integrate with the community, I made the mistake of letting them in. I realized after they started going through everything in sight like a pair of ferrets, that I needed to keep an eye on them despite the fact that they weren't even half my size. Some local teenage girls were drawn to the action and came in too.

Finally I was able to kick the boys out. And by that I mean I pushed them out the door hopping with 1 boot on the other toes bare, boot in hand. I locked the door. The girls stayed around long enough to teach me how to say "your underpants stink" in Tlicho and then I had to kick them out too. This is when I found the 2 boys in the front yard eating the Bounty bar I'd just bought from the store. Little shits. I questioned them about it and told them they weren't welcome back in a firm but unperturbed tone. I knew they were just hungry.

Spring break is over. But the trouble has just begun.

Sweet Ride

Welcome to Gameti. All the houses you may or may not be able to see, are it. The big brown building in the center with lots of space around it is the Health Center and if you can make out the greyish line to the left behind the community, that's the ice highway.

Our post-clinic walk yesterday took us up to the airport. The airport is a little tin shack about a mile out of town that sees 1 daily bush flight from Air Tindi. It's pretty much the opposite of Heathrow; there's no security, no people, no huge lists of arrivals, no getting lost. The helicopter we had heard around lately was just landing. We went to watch the event. It was the most action we had seen all day. As the men covered in gortex and helmets got out of what looked like a big yellow dinky, they waved enthusiastically. Turns out it was the (live) caribou trapper who had been to the health center earlier in the week for a sore tooth (actually I think here was just board and couldn't find the store). He was on a wildlife mission with his team of 4: a biologist, an engineer & a helicopter pilot. They seek out caribou, shoot a trap around them (like you see on the national geographic shows) and put these incredibly high tech collars around their necks to monitoring the population, find out the health of the species and other biological data stuff. Once they trap it and are on the ground with the massive hooved creatures they do their work and get the hell outta dodge in 15 minutes. Fast!

We had a little chit chat and told the flying biologists that if they took us for a spin in their helicopter we'd make them all dinner. Despite the abysmal conditions of their Motel, I didn't really think they'd take our offer seriously. But guess what? Yup. They called us this afternoon telling us they would take us for quick spin if we got their asap. Myles and I dropped everything we were doing (good thing we weren't sewing anyone up or they'd be SOL) and ran over to the airport. It was snowing and windy which is why they were calling it an early day. Guess the caribou like to stay in in a storm just like us (I wonder if they have scrabble and hot chocolate too?)

So up we went! I felt like a little kid at an amusement park, relishing every tummy tickle. We flew backwards a bit just for kicks and then we went over town to get new perspective on our geography. Despite the ridiculous amount of fuel that big dinky eats up..... It was a fun!

After we had insisted we feed the crew of 4 big men, we got home and realized we were both pretty much out of food. My food order was late last week and wont be in til Tuesday and Myles and Jen aren't ordering til next week. We dashed to the store to see what wilted vegetables we could find but it was closed. Shit! We scrambled through the freezer and used the last of our chicken, the few vegetables we had left and I whipped up some hearty rolls.

I'll be living off canned tuna and potatoes for the next 3 days. But it was worth it!

Frosted Tips

This is me after a 5 k backcountry ski in -52. I'm smiling only because I had no idea of the short-lived but excruciating pain I would be in when my boots came off and my toes started their slow burning thaw. Yeeeouch!

Puppy Love

I introduce to you Spirit and Max. Max is the big lovable, attention sucking Golden Retriever on the right. Spirit is the Huskie on the left and the love of my life for the next 2 months. He was rescued after being attacked by a pack of wolves (or locals, the jury is still out) and he had such a strong spirit when they were stitching his body back together that he earned his name. They live in the apartment next to me so I go over for sloppy cuddles whenever I can :D

Bloody Cold

This shot does not do justice to the icy winds we had today. The type of wind that makes your eyelashes freeze together instantly and the hood of your jacket look like the entrance to an igloo, icicles hanging down and all. My camera was too cold to take pictures and my zipper froze shut.

This is the front to my home for the next 9 weeks and is pretty much in the center of the community. After a nice lazy morning/afternoon I finally decided to brave the weather. I put on my standard: thermal running pants, fleece pants and ski pants with my sorels. Then came the thermal MEC sweater, wool doeskin, jacket #1, jacket #2, nose warmer, fleece headband, an incredible fur hat and 2 pairs of warm mits. I was exhausted before I'd even left the house!

I waddled out to see the village of 300 we call Gameti or Rae Lakes in English. It is not a reserve, but it is poor. Working here is considered the same as working in 3rd world environments according to some employers.


Here is another photo to give you an idea of the odd mix of houses here in Gameti. There are some little old (and functioning) log houses next to these 70's suburbain type houses. Some are in OK shape, but many have a dilapatated wall or stair case. And everyone has trucks. Big ass trucks with snowmobiles on the back. I was nearly run down by an elder on snowmobile on my way to the store today. "Look out honky" I swear I hear her thinking.

There is 1 store in town that sells a few overpriced pieces of produce, mockasens from china (!??!?) and lots and lots of junk food. Sadly, it's no wonder diabetes is common.

On my way back, a truck stopped beside me and a big man with his 2 friends (or kids?) inside. He asked me how I liked the weather. Ha! Not only am I white, but I'm wearing a jacket with a hood like Kenny from south park. Seriously. How do you think I like it? "Great" I managed to say once I pulled the frozen layers of fleece away from my face. We chit chatted a minute, no probably 1/2 a minute or less, and then he said maybe next time he was in town I could make him a coffee?? Every feminist cell in my body cringed. I made some snide comment and then he said if my husband wouldnt mind. "You married?" he said. To which I replied with a definate "Un hun." and walked off.

Guess every town in Canada you'll find a douchbag in some big truck looking for action...

Dog Day

This is me with what felt like 2 sheep dogs on my hands. Only quieter. In fact they were massive mittens that I borrowed from Lola, our guide, to go dog sledding on my second night in Yellowknife. After chowing down on quite possibly 1 of the best burger's I've ever had, a real buffalo burger, we went off on a sled lead by a dozen dogs straight into the Northern lights. Contrary to my preconceptions, the dogs weren't all huskies, they weren't big and really hairy, and nobody said "mush, mush". *FYI - Mush came from the french word "march" as in walk. At least that's what our french guide told us *

Mush or no mush, I was not disappointed. The dogs howled and pulled at their chains to get running from the moment they saw the sleigh. As soon as the brake came off so were we. Like a bat out of hell too. I suppose when your in -20/-30 degree temperature all the time any excuse to warm up works. Even if it is lugging around a bunch of lazy humans.


The lights were pretty cool as you would imagine. Green and bright and dancing in the cold clear night sky. I would tell you what I've learned they actually are, but it's kinda like finding out there's no Santa Clause. Some small element of magic is stripped away by reducing them to their physics rather than taking in their whole wonder.

The Long Ice Highway

This is the "highway" I took from Yellowknife to Gameti. The whole snowy, bumpy 200 kms in a VW station wagon loaded down with weights, food and 3 nurses headed to the great Canadian bush for 10 weeks. It's only open a couple months a year, when the ice is 8 feet deep. Although we did see some unnerving pylons along the way that appeared to be wet. It took us 3 & 1/2 hours on a beautiful sunny day and we saw maybe a dozen other vehicles (all of them trucks), and not much else.

The opening of the ice highway is an exciting time for these dry communities that usually rely on bush flights to get in and out. Now is when they stock up on party supplies for the year. Hence the need for trucks. Apparently the people here drink enough to make Nova Scotians seem like nuns so they must need a LOT of booze.

It wasn't actually as bumpy as it seems in the crappy little video I posted. Lets just say I'll leave the filming up to my roommates :)

Notice the ice on the window. If I wanted to see out, I literally had to thaw it with my hand first.