A busy last day- Shawn MacKenzie

A series of posts, not published on the website before, from the 2009 Chinook trip.

Originally published at http://www.cbc.ca/pei/features/chinookproject/posts/a-busy-last-day.html

Thursday, May 21, 2009 | Posted by Shawn MacKenzie

Team in Cambridge Bay

Today was our last full day at the clinic (and in the north). I only have a few minutes to blog, because I need to get back to work and help get the lab cleaned up tonight. We are all exhausted from a long couple of weeks but are still having a lot of fun.

We will be sad to leave the north, but glad to see our family and friends again; we’re also looking forward to sleep—it will be good to be back in the south where it gets dark at night! Here, in the lead-up to the summer solstice, it’s never really gotten dark at night, so, even with tinfoil covering our windows, it’s been hard to sleep.

The clinic in Cambridge Bay has been very busy; we’ve had 20-30 wellness appointments a day and 5-10 surgical procedures. Today, we saw a variety of different cases such as dogs with skin infections and dogs with lump removals; we also saw many cats. There has been quite a wide variety of medicine cases and surgery cases during the trip, so it’s been a great learning experience for us students.

Days get longer as solstice approaches.

Tonight the Chinook Project coordinators for our clinic here in Cambridge Bay have made us a traditional German dinner! (Not typical northern fare—but a good example of the diversity that comprises many northern Canadian communities). The dinner is sitting in the other room getting cold as we finish the clinic work and the packing, and we are hungry and eager to sample our feast.

Nicole and I will be posting a farewell blog tomorrow wrapping up our time in the north.