So the other night I had the strangest dream....I was walking through the forest with a wolf who was talking to me. It's not like he was actually physically talking to me, but we were walking together, and there was a Native voice talking to me, and it was just obvious it was coming from the wolf. Strangely, the wolf had the energy of Casper. Anyway, it was telling me how to love the Earth, and how to take care of the Earth, and the circle of life, and how to love, even those whom I don't want to love. The wolf then disappeared and left me in a large field filled with joyful rabbits, who I jumped around and danced with. I woke up feeling a large sense of responsibility.
The other bit of strangeness is that Louis Riel has been popping into my life lately. For those of you who don't know Canadian history, Riel was a Metis leader who led his people in a revolution against the Canadian government in Manitoba in the 1800s. He was a rather contoversial person, and some say he was even crazy. In the end, he was hung for treason, although how fighting for your own land is treason, I have no idea. Anyway, when I went to Winnipeg a few weeks ago, I started a book called The Diviners by Margaret Laurence, having no idea what it was about, or that it took place in rural Manitoba. The book is basically about a middle-aged woman, who is a writer, trying to understand the strange antics of her teenaged daughter, by reliving her own younger years. Anyway, while I was on a tour of Winnipeg, the tour guide told many stories about Riel, both historical stories and the stories passed down to him from his elders. Later on, in Grande Prairie, I continued reading this book, and each of the main characters tell their stories of Riel, also passed down to them from their elders. Each character told the same story, with a slightly different slant, or with slightly different details, based on how their elders experienced the revolution. Anyway, it made me realize that everyone has their own truth....
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Friday, June 17, 2005
Trip to Grande Prairie
Grande Prairie turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. It is really quite beautiful here, both in terms of the friendliness of the people and the landscape. I chose to stay at a B&B, rather than another dreary hotel, and boy am I ever glad that I did. If you ever have reason to come to Grande Prairie, I highly recommend staying at Maple Meadows Country B&B. It is owned by a retired couple from Edmonton, and they run a top-notch establishment here. The yard is lush and green, and very quiet. The house is a perfect blend of country simplicity and modernity. My room is amazing – big, fluffy queen sized bed, a lovely soaker tub, a big red leather chair parked in front of the satellite TV and the fireplace, the private balcony, the fresh flowers on a table in the corner….this has turned out feeling more like a vacation and less like work. And don’t get me started on the breakfasts – I feel like I am getting way more than what I’ve paid for!
The people of Grande Prairie have been so kind to me, both in the hospital and out-and-about. They have a great trail system here, and last night I went for a run. True story! I actually ran. Don’t ask me where the motivation for doing such a thing came from. I got the giggles because there are frequent signs reminding trail users of the presence of moose and bears. Of course I thought of Shelley and her bear attack. Anyway, people always smiled and said hello to me. It’s nice to be in cities where this happens on a regular basis. Grande Prairie is used to seeing lots of business people (in fact this city has the highest number of millionaires per capita of all cities in Canada) and tourists (it’s a gateway to the North). This comes in handy – wait staff are used to seeing lone diners in their restaurants and are quick to offer magazines and newspapers to their patrons. The people in the hospital were amazing as well – so helpful and chatty. Some days I spent more time talking than working (this is not unusual for me!!). Of course the presence of another lesbian in the department didn’t help matters much.... :)
Despite the chatting, I managed to finish my patients early and decided to drive to Fairview to view a couple of patient charts. It was about an hour’s drive, and it was beautiful – very green and hilly. I especially enjoyed driving down into the Dunvegan valley and over the largest suspension bridge in Alberta. Fairview is your typical Albertan small town: no fast food joints, lots of hardware stores, all the lamp posts on Main Street had baskets of flowers hanging on them, and every house had a vegetable garden out back. The hospital had a boot rack at the entrance, and there were actually boots sitting on them! The health records staff knew the charts by the patient’s name rather than their number. And again, they were so chatty! And unlike the small towns Shelley and I encountered in the Badlands, the theme song to Deliverance never once came to mind!
On the way back to Grande Prairie I stopped at the Dunvegan Provincial park and took a wander around, learning about the history of the area, from when the North West Trading Company came, to when the Hudson’s Bay Company took over, from the arrival of the missionaries, to the signing of Treaty 8 with the Natives of the area. I always enjoy a good history lesson, and a good walk down by the river.
Anyway, I head home tomorrow morning. I’m anxious to see Shelley and the dogs!! And I wonder where I will get sent to next….Calgary I think!
The people of Grande Prairie have been so kind to me, both in the hospital and out-and-about. They have a great trail system here, and last night I went for a run. True story! I actually ran. Don’t ask me where the motivation for doing such a thing came from. I got the giggles because there are frequent signs reminding trail users of the presence of moose and bears. Of course I thought of Shelley and her bear attack. Anyway, people always smiled and said hello to me. It’s nice to be in cities where this happens on a regular basis. Grande Prairie is used to seeing lots of business people (in fact this city has the highest number of millionaires per capita of all cities in Canada) and tourists (it’s a gateway to the North). This comes in handy – wait staff are used to seeing lone diners in their restaurants and are quick to offer magazines and newspapers to their patrons. The people in the hospital were amazing as well – so helpful and chatty. Some days I spent more time talking than working (this is not unusual for me!!). Of course the presence of another lesbian in the department didn’t help matters much.... :)
Despite the chatting, I managed to finish my patients early and decided to drive to Fairview to view a couple of patient charts. It was about an hour’s drive, and it was beautiful – very green and hilly. I especially enjoyed driving down into the Dunvegan valley and over the largest suspension bridge in Alberta. Fairview is your typical Albertan small town: no fast food joints, lots of hardware stores, all the lamp posts on Main Street had baskets of flowers hanging on them, and every house had a vegetable garden out back. The hospital had a boot rack at the entrance, and there were actually boots sitting on them! The health records staff knew the charts by the patient’s name rather than their number. And again, they were so chatty! And unlike the small towns Shelley and I encountered in the Badlands, the theme song to Deliverance never once came to mind!
On the way back to Grande Prairie I stopped at the Dunvegan Provincial park and took a wander around, learning about the history of the area, from when the North West Trading Company came, to when the Hudson’s Bay Company took over, from the arrival of the missionaries, to the signing of Treaty 8 with the Natives of the area. I always enjoy a good history lesson, and a good walk down by the river.
Anyway, I head home tomorrow morning. I’m anxious to see Shelley and the dogs!! And I wonder where I will get sent to next….Calgary I think!
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
The story of Molly
I forgot to write about this major event earlier - Shelley and I got a puppy! To make a long story short, we found Molly and thought she would be a great dog for my brother. His wife obviously wears the pants in their relationship, and vetoed the dog. So, Shelley and I decided to keep her. She is an absolute delight and has the face of an angel. She is a retriever cross, 8 months old, and has attitude. She takes none of Casper's guff, and in fact gives it right back. I'll keep you posted on Molly, as I'm sure she will provide me with lots of stories to tell...
Gooooing to Winnipeg!
Here I am in rainy, dreary Winnipeg. I'm on a lunch break waiting for the next event. Despite the wet weather here, the unfortunate lack of hot water in my hotel, and the fact that my flight here was delayed by over an hour, I am having a blast! It started with the flight (once I actually got on it!) where I got to sit at the front with my legs stretched out in front of me. I spent some quality time with my book, then fell asleep for the rest of the flight. The taxi ride to the hotel has definitely been a highlight so far. The driver is from the Sudan, and he has just published a book on village life in Africa. We got on the topic by him telling me all the festivals Winnipeg has in the summer, one of which is similar to our Heritage Days in Edmonton. He went on to talk about the importance of experiencing other culturs and enhancing your world view - the basis of his boook is the moment in his childhood when he realized there was life beyond his village. I'ver got his website and will definitely read his book.
This morning I walked to the Health Sciences Centre for the first day of the conference. It was a nice walk....Winnipeg feels a lot like Edmonton, only a bit smaller and a bit older. In fact, I forgot I was even in Winnipeg a couple of times. I had some problems getting my poster up. The velcroe was only sticking on one side and the thumb-tacks I had the forsight to bring in the event of velcroe failure kept popping out of the board. I felt myself getting frustrated, but then I would just look at my poster and remember Uganda and all the obstacles I faced there, and then I realized that this was not a big deal. Evenutally I got the damn poster to stay. Several other people didn't bring tacks, so I was a bit of a heroine, the tack-supplier.
I had my judging first thing this morning with two basic scientists whose first language was not English (isn't that a nice way of saying it?). It was a bit frustrating, but at the end of my talk they asked very good questions, so I know they understood me. After that was over, I felt free to be able to sit back and enjoy everything.
I spent the entire morning at "the lab" - the only level 4 containment lab in Canada, and the only facility housing both animal and human labs/pathogens in the world. It houses every single major deadly pathogen known to man, including ebola/marburg, lassa fever, some of the hanta viruses, etc. It was pretty damn exciting. Inside the labs just looked like labs - what was so fascinating was all the containment and security measures in place. Since they obviously couldn't take us in to the level 4 area, they showed us a video on how you first enter the low-pressure containment area, inflate your space suit, get into your space suit, and hook into your oxygen supply. They communicate to each other and to the control office by radios inside the suits. As exciting as the whole thing sounds, to have to spend your whole day in one of those things (it takes 20 minutes!) would be a huge pain in the ass, I think. We also got to see the area below the labs where are all of the waste goes to get decontaminated. We went above the labs as well to see the hepa filters where all of the air coming out of the labs gets filtered before leaving - the entire building has extremely clean air.
The building has this central communications office with 12 big TV screens where they moniter global outbreaks and all the major news channels. It is also very high security, and no papers are allowed to come out of there. It either stays in the room or gets shredded. We also got the see "the store". Before getting dressed in your suit (or scrubs, if you're working in a level 3 area) you go to pick out your underwea, bras, and scrubs. They have every brand, in every size. Isn't that insane? All personnel have to shower before leaving the containment area, and they also supply whatever kind of shampoo you want (I should've asked if they have Aveda).
Everything about this building is smart - from the way they mixed and poured the concrete to make sure there would be no pinholes or cracks, to the way they didn't tile the ceiling to ensure easy access to fix things, to the way they arranged things so that you could replace a broken lightbulb from above without having to actually go into the lab. It was a neat tour.
And of course I've made some friends. I've met a girl who did her undergrad at the UoA and liked my poster because she had recently been on an East African tour. I met another girl from Dalhousie who is just finishing her PhD and wants to come to Edmonton for her postdoc. And I've met this hilarious guy from UBC who also did a project on TB. And to top it all off, I ran into someone I did my undergrad with. It was strange running in to her - I haven't seen her in 8 years, but I think of her often. She said the same thing. We have plans to meet up tomorrow.
So it's been good. I have to head off now - it's a tour of the city, then a river boat cruise. Ciao!
This morning I walked to the Health Sciences Centre for the first day of the conference. It was a nice walk....Winnipeg feels a lot like Edmonton, only a bit smaller and a bit older. In fact, I forgot I was even in Winnipeg a couple of times. I had some problems getting my poster up. The velcroe was only sticking on one side and the thumb-tacks I had the forsight to bring in the event of velcroe failure kept popping out of the board. I felt myself getting frustrated, but then I would just look at my poster and remember Uganda and all the obstacles I faced there, and then I realized that this was not a big deal. Evenutally I got the damn poster to stay. Several other people didn't bring tacks, so I was a bit of a heroine, the tack-supplier.
I had my judging first thing this morning with two basic scientists whose first language was not English (isn't that a nice way of saying it?). It was a bit frustrating, but at the end of my talk they asked very good questions, so I know they understood me. After that was over, I felt free to be able to sit back and enjoy everything.
I spent the entire morning at "the lab" - the only level 4 containment lab in Canada, and the only facility housing both animal and human labs/pathogens in the world. It houses every single major deadly pathogen known to man, including ebola/marburg, lassa fever, some of the hanta viruses, etc. It was pretty damn exciting. Inside the labs just looked like labs - what was so fascinating was all the containment and security measures in place. Since they obviously couldn't take us in to the level 4 area, they showed us a video on how you first enter the low-pressure containment area, inflate your space suit, get into your space suit, and hook into your oxygen supply. They communicate to each other and to the control office by radios inside the suits. As exciting as the whole thing sounds, to have to spend your whole day in one of those things (it takes 20 minutes!) would be a huge pain in the ass, I think. We also got to see the area below the labs where are all of the waste goes to get decontaminated. We went above the labs as well to see the hepa filters where all of the air coming out of the labs gets filtered before leaving - the entire building has extremely clean air.
The building has this central communications office with 12 big TV screens where they moniter global outbreaks and all the major news channels. It is also very high security, and no papers are allowed to come out of there. It either stays in the room or gets shredded. We also got the see "the store". Before getting dressed in your suit (or scrubs, if you're working in a level 3 area) you go to pick out your underwea, bras, and scrubs. They have every brand, in every size. Isn't that insane? All personnel have to shower before leaving the containment area, and they also supply whatever kind of shampoo you want (I should've asked if they have Aveda).
Everything about this building is smart - from the way they mixed and poured the concrete to make sure there would be no pinholes or cracks, to the way they didn't tile the ceiling to ensure easy access to fix things, to the way they arranged things so that you could replace a broken lightbulb from above without having to actually go into the lab. It was a neat tour.
And of course I've made some friends. I've met a girl who did her undergrad at the UoA and liked my poster because she had recently been on an East African tour. I met another girl from Dalhousie who is just finishing her PhD and wants to come to Edmonton for her postdoc. And I've met this hilarious guy from UBC who also did a project on TB. And to top it all off, I ran into someone I did my undergrad with. It was strange running in to her - I haven't seen her in 8 years, but I think of her often. She said the same thing. We have plans to meet up tomorrow.
So it's been good. I have to head off now - it's a tour of the city, then a river boat cruise. Ciao!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)