MAKING CHILDREN LAUGH AND WATCHING POLAR BEARS...AMAZING JOB!

On Monday, I placed PPD’s on 57 children ranging from pre-school to 12^th grade.  The kids are absolutely precious—some curious, some afraid, some shy, some friendly, some extremely funny and some self-reported to be very brave.  I set up an area off of the teacher’s lounge to place the TB testing and let Amanda, the school secretary know I was ready to start.   Miss Catherine brought pre-schooler’s one by one in to see me where I explained the shot and how important it was.  “Is it going to hurt?” most wanted to know.  I assured them that it probably would hurt a little bit, but that I’d be as fast as I could and that Miss Catherine was there to hold their other hand if they wanted.  Another woman, Marie, lent a hand when holding a little arm in place was required.  I promised bubble blowing afterwards and saw many concerned little faces brighten up and then laugh, saying “that didn’t hurt at all!”  They were good advertisements for the children who came after them, I thought, although most still asked “Is it going to hurt?”  One little boy leaned over to where my syringe was, obviously not far enough away, pushed the plunger and asked, “What’s this for?” Yikes--a dose wasted and a lesson learned. 

As the children got older, they seemed more relaxed and quiet, willing to talk about the sports or classes they were enjoying or whether or not they were on a whaling crew.  I left the school feeling very happy to have spent most of the day there, meeting new staff as well as getting acquainted with the children.  When passing in the hall on my way out, I received many warm hugs from the affectionate little ones and smiles from the older ones.  I found myself often throughout the day, mostly mid-bubble blowing, thinking “I can’t believe I’m getting paid for doing something I love so much!” 

On Tuesday, I worked out of the clinic, giving all of the children on my due list under 11 years their immunizations, did well child exams and met with ILP (Infant Learning Program) staff, Carrie, from Barrow and Angie, from Fairbanks.  They were there to assess children for learning disabilities or unusual findings in any of the health aides’ or my assessments.  They’d been picked up at the air strip (there is no terminal there) by George Tagarook, who works for the fire department and he’d taken them to find napping nanooks before coming to the clinic.  Carrie took these great pictures with a telephoto lens from where they were parked close by.  Carrie has a little traveling companion, a small stuffed animal.  Her photo of it next to the bear's paw print shows their difference in sizes!

George’s brother said that there were four brown bears in the village and that we should be careful.  Someone else said that their brother opened the door to his house and was face to face with one.  Fortunately, he had a loaded rifle in his hand, shot it in the air and frightened the bear away.  Whew!

I finished up the day’s charting close to 9:30 pm.  Michelle, a more experienced public health nurse I work with in Barrow, said that her village trips were very productive because she stayed up as long as it took to completely finish her work, chart reviews and charting for the day, ready with a clean slate for the next day’s work.  I’ve been practicing this in Barrow and have found it to be very helpful, so was grateful and felt satisfied when done this night and looking at the clock, was wrapping things up right on time.  Stephanie had invited Carrie, Angie and me out to see more nanooks and we were all grateful and anxious to go.

Stephanie and Mya arrived and we set off, Carrie with a camera that she had taken some great shots with of the napping nanooks earlier in the day, in the front seat at Angie’s and my insistence, wanting her to be in a prime position to get some good photos tonight.  We pulled up alongside of several other vehicles at the bone pile and could see in the headlights a large group of nanooks.  We counted 25 there, could hear much of the sounds they make, huffing and growling when vying for pieces of whale that other bears were intent on partaking in too.  We saw at least one young cub, following its mother closely until she intruded into a pack of bears already arguing over a piece of whale, seeming to insist that she was getting it for her young one.  We all laughed and commented about, “How like a mother to provide at all costs for her child!” 

Carrie stood and got some shots with her camera through the vehicle’s sky light.  When looking at them later together, many looked surreal because of the fast movements the bears make.  They almost look like impressionist art.  Will post these in a separate entry…they’re beautiful.  I passed my cell phone up to Stephanie for some shots and have posted some of the better of these here. 

Stephanie pointed out three more nanooks to the left that were more difficult to see because of the darkness.  They were walking west along the ocean away from the bone pile.  I happened to turn around where I was sitting in the back seat on the passenger side and saw one walking up from behind towards our, what all of a sudden seemed like a very small vehicle.  The bear might have been curious about us and thought getting a closer look was in order.  He/she stood, leaning on the vehicle, just about 8 inches from where I was sitting.  It was difficult getting coherent words out, letting Stephanie, Carrie, Angie and Mya know about that we had some very close company.  It didn’t stay long—maybe it doesn’t enjoy the sounds excitable females make.  Another curious bear from the group ahead came close to the car while Carrie was standing, allowing for a great close up shot from there.  The other vehicles pulled out and we were close behind, thinking that it wouldn’t be good to be a small target for a large number of hungry bears.