Gifts from Labrador -- Nichelle Peck

November 20, 2012

Nichelle Peck, AVC 2013, travelled to Hopedale as a student participant on the Chinook Project. As part of the experience, the students craft various pieces of writing.

The scenery on the flight from Goose Bay up the eastern coastline of Labrador was breathtaking.  The front of the little plane, just behind the pilot’s cabin was full of cargo.  The cargo was covered with netting and secured down with canvas tie-downs. It felt a little like we were in an India Jones movie!  The flight was a “milk-run” trip up and down the coast line stopping to unload and pick up cargo.  The passenger area had two rows of fold down seats – one single seat on the left and doubles on the right.  The seats were simple – metal tubing for frames with a dingy blue canvass pulled taught around the frames.  They reminded me of lawn chairs.  The pilots revved up the twin propeller plane and with only a few bounces – we were airborne and on our way!  We all had our cameras out snapping shots like crazy people.  The scenery was beautiful.  Soaring above the land in our little plane peering down on the landscape was amazing.  The vast, barren expanses of rock growing out of the emerald green water for as far as the eye could see.  I felt myself giggle like a little kid.  A gift from Labrador to us.

Every night, just before 11 pm we walked from the clinic back to our billet’s house.  Each day started at 7 am and was very busy every moment.  We were exhausted at the end of the day.  Our short walk took us up and over a knoll of rugged Labrador rock.  Woven on and around the rocks was a carpet of scraggly, tough ground cover-the only greenery that survives.  As we crested the top of the knoll, we were rewarded with the night sky.  We would always pause and stand there in silence and in awe as we drank in the beauty of the night sky.  We only had a few minutes to drink in the view as the sun slipped away for just a few hours before it started to rise again around 3 am.  The sky was full of shades of pink, blue, purple and grey.  The clouds mixed in, around and between each colour like smoke drifting from a fire.  Off in the distance, the dark mountain ranges rose up from the dark brooding ocean water.  They were scattered with bright white patches of snow that would be waiting there tomorrow for the sun to melt away.  This was our view every night.  A gift from Labrador to us.

As I mentioned before, the days were long, really long.  Every morning we were greeted by our billet singing out “it’s 7 o’clock” – our signal to get up.     We would get ready and make our way to our little makeshift clinic in a vacant office building.  Once inside, we were there for the entire day.  There were plenty of windows to let in the beautiful natural light.  We could see that the days were gloriously sunny.  We were gifted with beautiful weather for the majority of the trip.  During the day, I tried to get a chance to step outside.  A chance to stand and face the brilliant spring sunshine and let its warmth melt into me.  I would take long, slow, deep breaths pulling in the cool fresh air of the north deep into my lungs.  I would stand like this, motionless, breathing and taking in the sun for as long as I could.  Then, feeling refreshed and re-energized, I would turn and walk back into the clinic for the remainder of the day.  A gift from Labrador to us. 

The Band Council generously arranged for a fishing and sightseeing excursion for us.  We scheduled a short day at the clinic so we could go.  By the time we were able to get our surgeries done and patients recovered it was 3 pm.  We hoped it wasn’t too late to go!  Luckily, it was a beautiful, warm day and the conditions were perfect for boating.  We shed our jackets and let the sun kiss our bare arms.  The wind was calm-with barely a whisper felt.  The ocean was still with hardly a ripple on the surface.  As the boat gained speed and pulled away from the dock we looked back on the town.  We spent the next five hours under the beautiful blue sky boating from inlet to inlet fishing for Arctic Char and drinking in the scenery.  A gift from Labrador to us.

Our gift to Labrador was via our mandate of giving back to the community via spaying, neutering and vaccinating their pets.  The gifts we received from the people of Labrador and from Labrador herself can never be matched.  Our lives are forever touched by the people, the animals, by the land and by the ocean.  A lasting impression was made on each of us.  Perhaps the true gift is that many of us will go back – we won’t be able to ignore the mountains and oceans calling us back.