Like you can a freight train,
So I'd best be on my way,
In the early morning rain.
-- Gordon Lightfoot, Early Morning Rain
In a few hours, I'll be leaving Yellowknife. I have a lot of photos I haven't posted, but I think I'll leave that project for another day.
I have unfinished business here still. My plans to see the aurora, to take out my star chart and gaze upwards, to drive out of town on a clear night and be alone with my own thoughts were more or less dashed by cloudy nights and full moons, although I did get a good look at Mars while I was here. Oh well. Two of those things I can do in Ontario.
I also didn't buy any gifts for friends and family back home. I really don't think my family would get much mileage out of it anyways; we aren't really "souvenir" people. I also didn't see much that I wanted to buy for any single friend of mine; I respect them too much to buy them something hokey or "Made in China," and I didn't really have the budget for anything more beautiful or authentic. One day, though.
Aside from getting back into touch with some skills that I think every doctor should have, I've also got a taste of what life is like in this climate. As I said before, I don't think that modern living - heated homes, fresh fruit year-round, institutional education, top-of-the-line medical care an hour away - is really sustainable up here. That last point was driven home to me today when I was told that one of the medevacs coming in to the ED was from Ontario, and that OHIP didn't cover transport costs.
"It doesn't?" I asked, feeling like I should have known that.
"Yeah. You know how you get taken to the hospital, and then you get an ambulance bill for like $200, and you're like wow, that smarts. This guy's gonna get a bill for $15,000."
"Is that how much a medevac costs?"
"Yep. It's not cheap."
The climate, the distances, the low population density, all militate against it. Gas in Yellowknife is at around $1.16/L. As the price goes up, as it must, thing around here are going to have to change. Maybe Northerners will have the ingenuity to solve the problems, but maybe they won't.
My trip here was Socratic, in the sense that I realised how little I knew. I have a fairly solid grasp on the general history and politics of many Asian peoples, and an inkling about South America, or so I hope, but I have understood thoroughly here that I don't know squat about Aboriginals in Canada. I couldn't tell Doghrib from Vietnamese if I didn't know the origin of the speakers.
In some ways, I fear for the Dene. Their language is disappearing - most of the adults speak fluently, but lots of the kids don't. I'm happy about Yellowknife's diversity - I was driven from the Islamic centre to the Hospital today by a Jordanian telecom engineer whose wife is an IMG, applying for a Canadian medical license. The growth of those ethnic communities though, seems like it could grow into a second wave of colonization. I pray that the new immigrants (especially the Muslims) don't mimic the attitudes of the Europeans who came before them.
Enough pondering for now, though. I'd best be on my way.
I have unfinished business here still. My plans to see the aurora, to take out my star chart and gaze upwards, to drive out of town on a clear night and be alone with my own thoughts were more or less dashed by cloudy nights and full moons, although I did get a good look at Mars while I was here. Oh well. Two of those things I can do in Ontario.
I also didn't buy any gifts for friends and family back home. I really don't think my family would get much mileage out of it anyways; we aren't really "souvenir" people. I also didn't see much that I wanted to buy for any single friend of mine; I respect them too much to buy them something hokey or "Made in China," and I didn't really have the budget for anything more beautiful or authentic. One day, though.
Aside from getting back into touch with some skills that I think every doctor should have, I've also got a taste of what life is like in this climate. As I said before, I don't think that modern living - heated homes, fresh fruit year-round, institutional education, top-of-the-line medical care an hour away - is really sustainable up here. That last point was driven home to me today when I was told that one of the medevacs coming in to the ED was from Ontario, and that OHIP didn't cover transport costs.
"It doesn't?" I asked, feeling like I should have known that.
"Yeah. You know how you get taken to the hospital, and then you get an ambulance bill for like $200, and you're like wow, that smarts. This guy's gonna get a bill for $15,000."
"Is that how much a medevac costs?"
"Yep. It's not cheap."
The climate, the distances, the low population density, all militate against it. Gas in Yellowknife is at around $1.16/L. As the price goes up, as it must, thing around here are going to have to change. Maybe Northerners will have the ingenuity to solve the problems, but maybe they won't.
My trip here was Socratic, in the sense that I realised how little I knew. I have a fairly solid grasp on the general history and politics of many Asian peoples, and an inkling about South America, or so I hope, but I have understood thoroughly here that I don't know squat about Aboriginals in Canada. I couldn't tell Doghrib from Vietnamese if I didn't know the origin of the speakers.
In some ways, I fear for the Dene. Their language is disappearing - most of the adults speak fluently, but lots of the kids don't. I'm happy about Yellowknife's diversity - I was driven from the Islamic centre to the Hospital today by a Jordanian telecom engineer whose wife is an IMG, applying for a Canadian medical license. The growth of those ethnic communities though, seems like it could grow into a second wave of colonization. I pray that the new immigrants (especially the Muslims) don't mimic the attitudes of the Europeans who came before them.
Enough pondering for now, though. I'd best be on my way.
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