Several of the team members visited the community Anglican Church this morning. The service was held in the Inuktitut language. When the speakers up front looked up and saw seven white faces in the congregation, they made an effort to announce the bible verses and song numbers in English for us. They seemed pleased to have us visit them for church. The other team members went out to check on a few of our patients from the previous days, and at 1 pm headed out across the tundra, on foot, to vaccinate and deworm another team of dogs, this one owned by a musher named Natalino. We were told that one of his dogs was part wolf and less than a year old. The dogs were then fed walrus meat and we were told they are only fed once a week. Ice was carried up from the shore and this would eventually melt and be their drinking water.
The afternoon hours were spent on the other side of the island to a “camp” area where we spoke to the people who were living out there. The area is mainly rocky, white shale to a large extent, and very desolate looking. It almost reminded us of a desert, the Arctic Desert. Very barren. Most of the people we came to talk to were out hunting walrus and fishing that day, so only a few people were spoken with. One very old gentleman held out his hand when Chris walked by and said hi to him. As she shook his hand to say hello, he pulled her down to where he was sitting and gave her a big hug. The rest of the team had trouble containing their smiles, and began to tease Chris about him liking the strawberry blondes the best.
As we were hiking, we came across some very old remains of sod houses, which we found very interesting. We also saw some bones from a Bowhead whale, including his skull, which we found quite fascinating. Apparently, the people here are allowed to hunt bowhead whale only once every few years, as their numbers are becoming quite low. Nearby there was a hunter’s small cabin where we noticed he had started carving a piece of stone, and also saw a boat he had sewn together out of hides over a frame. The people here use every part of the animal they kill, and are very creative at what they make with all of it.
We headed home for a wonderful spaghetti dinner prepared by Annette and Chris and called it a day.
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