Of the five, yes five churches in town, the one shaped like an igloo is the most unique.

The Fruit-legger!

Slowly but surly, I'm getting to know Inuvik's little gems.


I went into my patient's room yesterday evening to find the call bell at her ear and the phone in her fist. As I rearranged her and tried to explain the difference between the two modes of communication, I couldn't help but notice a big bag of gorgeous cherries on her table. This is not a common sight  in the north, exotic fruit that isn't frozen, wilted or bruised. At least not for the majority of us who can't afford the grapes at $8.99/lb at Arctic Foods everyday.  So I asked my patient, 'where did you get your beautiful cherries?'  I simultaneously narrowed in on the asian pear nestled amongst the apples in the fruit basket behind her. 'The Fruitman brought them',  she said casually. Now given her previous predicament with the call bell and the telephone I figured she was either referring to her son or has a very active imagination. None the less, I gave this elder the respect she deserves and accepted that there may be some truth to this 'Fruitman'. 'Who's the fruitman?' I said, 'I would like to have a Fruitman'. 'Oh, it's Bill', she repeted, 'the Fruitman.'


Probing her  a little more, I was only able to determine that this man's name is Bill and he delivers fruit from the South. I figured if this man exists, I likely have the wrong color skin to receive his juicy deliveries and thus would have to bribe a local for some fresh cherries (such is my plan for the fish-man anyway.) Alternatively, I thought,  everyone in Inuvik will know him because here, everyone knows everyone's business. Not unlike the small town I'm from in Nova Scotia.


So I ask my co-workers: 'who is Bill the Fruitman?' 'Oh the fruit-legger!' they exclaim. 'He's here tonight with his truck from the South, let's go check him out'. Yeeeeeees! I was right about two things: 1) the elders deserve respect and 2) everybody knows him.  I promptly report off on my two patients and jump in my co-worker's truck to go check out the north's version of a farmer's market.


Apparently Bill Rutherford has been doing this for 20 years. He used to be and apple farmer and then gave it up to deliver fresh produce to northern communities year round. In the summer he drives the gravel road up the Dempster highway from BC and in the winter he treks up the ice road to Aklavik and Tuktoyatuk. He's written a children's book about the ice road and CBC's On The Road Again did a documentary about his adventures (which I've yet to find a way to view online.) Apparently he occasionally fills up his empty truck with cardboard on his way back down south to recycle, since the only recycling done up here is drink containers. Granted they're likely the majority of the recyclables anyway.


We find his 53 foot Mac truck parked in the parking lot across from the cafe, right next to the chip truck with a small neon light on the back that says 'Open'.  Inside you can find everything from watermelon to soymilk to free range eggs; all things hard to come buy up here. Although the watermelon was $15, most of his prices are considerably cheaper than the local grocery store, as you can tell by the 'celantro'  for $1.25 ;-) 
I introduced myself to Bill. He's a friendly older gentleman with a the sun-baked skin of a farmer and working hands to prove it. I bought a big box of groceries and before we went back to work my co-worker took me on a tour of the town; he showed me the friendship centre and the boat launch. We were back to the hospital in ten minutes.


My fridge is considerably happier now and I'm starting to like this town more and more. 


I just need to find myself a Fishman up here. 

The Northmart is a 1-stop shop; you can pick up your 529$ fox fur while you're there getting your giant plastic flower cross anyway! Can't do that at Wallmart!

lazy boy ride down the river ?

Land of the Midnight Sun

It's been almost 3 years since I was in the Northwest Territories and where I was then was worlds apart from Inuvik. Gameti was a community of about 300 people, 1 Legion, 1 Health Centre, 1 school, a tin shack for an airport and 3 nurses. The only way in or out was by bush plane or ice road and it was technically a dry community. By contrast, Inuvik has a population of 3500, a hospital, a post office, a couple of bars (The Trapper and Shivers;), a real airport where you can buy pretty tasty muskox burgers, a library, a community greenhouse, a youth centre, a homeless shelter, about 5 churches including the northern most mosque in North America, 3 grocery stores with exorbitantly priced food and even an RCMP unit. It's a small city up here. Or as my friend likes to call it, it's 'the north, light'. What she means is that unlike many northern communities there's infrastructure and even conveniences making it a lighter, easier way of living in the north. 

It is sunny most of the time here and it's wonderful, but a bit strange. I've been trying to adjust by putting tin foil and cardboard over my windows and making sure I'm in my bedroom by 9/10 to trick my body into thinking it's really night.. although I'm not sure I'm fooling anyone. I bike to my shift at 7am in sunglasses and leave my shift at 8pm still needing my sunglasses. It's wild! Although it rains and clouds blow in at times, it usually doesn't last long until it's bright again. It's incredibly invigorating, which is why I need to be in my bedroom so early on work nights. I can't wait to do some midnight fishing though!

Thus far I haven't seen much other than the inside of the hospital. The Inuvik hospital is much nicer than most hospitals I've worked in down south. You'll hear me refer to 'the south' a lot and when I do I don’t mean Cuba, beaches and pina colatas, but the rest of Canada. It's like people in Toronto who call cottage country 'up north' (which took me a while to figure out they didn’t mean the land of the midnight sun which seemed like a long way to go for the weekend.)

Anyway, the hospital has 51 beds; 15ish long-term care, 14 acute care (where I work) a couple labour and delivery beds, a couple OR beds, 5ish ER beds and a couple palliative beds. There’s always a doc oncall if not actually in the hospital and specialists make their rounds up here every few months. I don’t think I’ve met a nurse older than 35, maybe 40,  most are around my age, relatively early in their career and few have been here for more than 2 years. There’s a high turnover rate despite the high wages. I assumed it’s the long dark winters that send ‘em running back South but more than 1 person has told me they love winters here. ‘There’s lots to do’ they tell me, ‘skiing, dog sledding, watching the northern lights.’ I’m not entirely convinced though; Most people have big flat screen TVs and extensive movie collections. Eitherway most of the nurses are from away and likely that contributes to the transient nature of the staff. In fact I think over half of my co-workers are from the east coast. I even graduated Dal with some of them! Small world. And even smaller when we all run off looking for better work I guess.  In many ways I would say we’ve found it here. The work load, although a varied population of adult, pediatric, maternity, acute, palliative etc., is much lighter.  Last night for example I spent my night shift bathing and feeding newborns..  not exactly my speciality but a nice change from bedpans and needles. In Toronto I would have 5-8 patients per shift, sometimes with very complex care whereas here I have 3-4 on average. And either because the team is relatively fresh in their careers or because they’re from the East coast, they’re all super helpful and friendly;)

There’s also a greater feeling of respect for nurses here it seems. I’m not quite sure why or even how to explain the difference. Maybe it’s that the docs are a bit more laid back, because it’s only their locum, they're here for a few months and then gone again so they have to be more collaborative. Or maybe it’s the type of people the north attracts. Eitherway, it’s refreshing.