Nursing in Barrow

I couldn’t stop laughing as Jennifer and I, both cold to the bone, made our way from Simmonds Field, along the dirt path and then through mud puddles, each clad in heavy jackets, hats, gloves and tall rubber boots, both hanging onto a handle of her cooler that was filled with gallon sized zip lock bags containing fermented and unfermented whale meat, intestines, kidney, heart, tongue, maktak and whipped caribou fat.  A collapsed folding chair was balanced on top as we walked, with me making brief stops to double over laughing at what we must look like and how different my life is here.  Jennifer laughed too while saying "What are you laughing about!?  We live in Barrow...this is what people do here!"  I know, I know, but it still strikes me as very funny for us to be doing it.  We had arrived empty handed and curious at close to noon to partake in Saturday’s Nalukataq, a celebration of the spring whale catches by the Hopson and Adams crews.  We saw many people sitting o

I fell into bed Friday night exhausted, but happy, having returned from a successful five day nursing trip to Point Lay.  I’d put in 14 hour days while there, wanting to see all of the 36 children who were due for immunizations and also do well child checks and developmental screening on all those three and under.  Seeing clients in the evening, making calls to parents after dinner to arrange appointments, charting--handwriting details about each encounter and making notes about need for follow up with referrals I’d made, kept me working late with the good company of serial cups of hot tea.  I didn’t feel that I could afford to start each new day with the previous one’s work left unfinished so soldiered on past my fatigue and was grateful when I had finished and filed the last child’s chart each night. The sun shone brightly on my first day there.  On the ride from the airport to the clinic and looking out the windows once there, it was glorious and one could see for miles and mil