Week one

Back to the land of ice and snow. Week one in Arviat. Weather was good this trip- cold from Winnipeg on, but good enough for flying with no weather delays. Pilot delays? Still an issue. Two extra hours delay getting out of London. Day 2 spent half the day at the airport in Rankin Inlet waiting for the connection- a scheduled wait- but you know the nice thing about Toronto airport, if there is a nice thing, is there are stores and restaurants if you have to kill a few hours. Here I did get a seat after an hour when another flight departed, the gum I brought not so filling. But the flight in had a nice egg and sausage breakfast so I wasn't starved. I know, the northern airlines still serve complimentary meals and snacks!
Arviat (formerly called Eskimo Point), means "place of the bowhead whale". On Hudson's Bay it's 200 km north of Churchill in NU. Much warmer than Taloyoak you might think?? No. We've had temps in the -40s and -60 windchil. BRRRRR!
This is a view out to the water, to the right would open up from the inlet to the open Bay. Frozen and snow covered here, but further out its cracked in large sections and then open water. The community is twice as large as the last one, so more facilities and easiser to get lost in trying to find address to pick up staff to drive them in to work. I think that theres quite a bit of snow here, but the locals don't think so. Apparently the snow comes when it starts to warmup- like mid March- like blizzards- that can shut things down for days! Hopefully not around the 20th?!
The House that we are in is nice- 3 bedroom with laundry and lots of space about a block from the Northern Store and five from the Health Centre. We are provided a vehicle to drive back and forth- and drive doctor and nurses between the Centre and residences. Not enough cars for everyone! The Facility here has a Doctor, 5 Nurses and other specialty staff- and is of course much busier.
SUNDAY Just an add before week 2 starts- I know, already! It has warmed up dramatically, into the minus mid 20's- windchill more mid -30s, and there is always a wind. Good news- apparently wolves aren't a worry here, they don't come into town. Just foxes, polar bears...But the good news is the bears are out on the ice this time of year and don't need to come into town. Late summer to early winter is heads up time.
So my mistake, Arviat is more like 3 times the size of Talayoak and is one of the larger communities. The feel really is more like a small busy town. Light now is Spring like- maybe like 7ish to 620ish Sunset looks nice, right?
It's hard to get a picture of the vastness of the horizon. I tried a video panoramic- that sucked and I can't get (or haven't found) a wide angle to encompass it. Looking out back of the building towards the penninsula and inlet is just so wide and flat and stark. I could really see thinking that you would fall off the edge if you went out too fay. No trees, no hills, no- nothing. There are a few cabins, and believe it or not a team of dogs out the direction of the picture, but they are so far out you won't see them. the whole area is flat like this- unless I can find a roof to access there won't be any area shots.
See you week 2.

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