Krisanne Landry: Through Her Eyes

Living in the north is my normal now. Unfortunately the sheer beauty of the landscape here passes my eyes every single day and I've become immune to the dramatic nature of it. I think this phenomenon must be related to the one that makes us immune to the smells of our own house, but this week, we have a house guest, and not the four legged variety.

I've been thoroughly enjoying sharing Cape Dorset with our friend from the south and it has been fun to again see our community through the eyes of someone first experiencing the Arctic. It's similar to the feeling of when a person travels for a while, comes home, and realizes what their house smells like, and in this case (metaphorically speaking), my house smells fantastic!

Side note: (Leah (my friend from the south) is visiting the north to speak with students about science and promote secondary education. As well, she is here because she has a strong desire to be a doctor in northern parts of Canada and this is a great opportunity for her to see a northern community. The excitement I felt when she first told me what her goals are after she completes her first degree was intense. We desperately need doctors who will STAY in northern communities, and the fact that, that this (or communities like this) are where she wants to work is wonderful and encouraging. I certainly am not a philosopher, or a theorist, or a politician or a doctor, nor is my lovely roommate Gail. But many evenings we sit in each others company and discuss things that would help our community and help us. A permanent doctor is often at the very top of our list.

We are fortunate right now to have some amazing nurses who care for the sick, fix injuries, and do an amazing job with what they've got available to them...they really should all be awarded medals for providing the care we do have. However, down south a hospital has nurses AND doctors, they work as a team... the doctors need the nurses and the nurses need the doctors... and here our small health centre is lacking the latter of the two. People often have to wait for extended periods for the doctor to fly in for certain procedures, or referrals, and all the other things doctors do. I can unfortunately think of circumstances where a doctor might have been able to sooner diagnose or recognize a medical issue that would have prevented or lessened certain people's realities now. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that as well our nurses are stretched to the limits, and fortunately for us, they keep doing their job. So, like I said, I was REALLY happy to hear she wanted to work in the north!)

Leah arrived on Friday, and yesterday, her, my friend Jean and I went for a walk to see the iceberg that is still hanging around. I've done that walk quite a few times, and seen the iceberg quite a few times, and I was eager to do it again just for the fun of it, but as we walked and I saw the excitement on Leah's face and her joy of seeing what she was seeing, I too became super excited. It reminded me of the first time I did that walk and the first time I looked up at the rocky mountain sides and the first time I thought "I'm actually in the north!".

We had a great time! We walked, we explored, we became tourists and I loved every second of it. I am hopeful someday to be able to explore with more friends and family as it is pretty special when someone can come visit! Unfortunately, I still am awful at taking pictures. I definitely didn't inherit my mothers talent for it. However Jean and Leah seem to be adept at understanding how to snap a good shot, so the pictures I've attach to this post don't really do it justice (I plan on collecting pictures from Jean and Leah to add to this post at a later date).