Joey and Bee, and the sea

September14, 2024

Camryn Seymour, AVC 2025, travelled to Nain and Postville as one of the student participants on the Chinook Project.  As part of the experience, the students craft various pieces of writing.

On our final day in Nain, the Chinook team had the absolute privilege of being taken on a boat tour before our flight to Postville. This boat tour was led primarily by Joey, a local fishman. This tour included breathtaking views of the northern landscape, a visit to a nearby quarry where Labradorite, Labrador’s official mineral, is mined, and bottom trawling for local aquaculture including starfish, scallops, and sea cucumbers. To say the very least, this was an amazing cultural experience for all the members of the team, including our local community coordinators. However, I found this experience particularly impactful because of my earlier experience with Joey, our captain, at the Nain clinic.

Earlier in the week, I had a wellness appointment with a middle-aged German Shepherd cross named Bee. I noticed immediately that Bee was quite nervous to be in the clinic, but I managed to complete her physical exam by going very slow and with lots of distraction by her sweet owner, a young woman. When we got to the end of the appointment and only had vaccinations left, Bee let us know that she had enough and refused to sit still long enough to be vaccinated. Her owner told me that the only person that Bee would listen to when she got this stubborn was her dad, Joey. She informed me that she was going to call him to see if he could leave work to come and try and get Bee to cooperate to get her vaccinations. Joey was there in a flash and sure enough he was able to get Bee to relax enough for me to administer two vaccines. The look of relief on both Joey’s and his daughter’s face once the vaccines were complete, quickly demonstrated to me of how much I take for granted having easy access to vaccines. For me, vaccinations have become so routine and automatic it is easy to forget the anxiety that may be associated with not being able to acquire them easily for your pet. This difficult realization was further understood by hearing recounts of a recent disease outbreak in the community. 

Joey and Camryn

Nain, in recent years before our clinic, had an outbreak of Rabies, which was transmitted to many dogs in the community by wild foxes. I remember Bee’s family expressing to me how thankful they were to be able to have the peace of mind that she was now vaccinated against such a devastating disease. It meant the world to me that I was able to provide them with that protection and that they saw the value in our team’s care enough for Joey to leave work just to receive it. After this appointment, Joey generously offered to take our team out on a boat tour as a thanks for our service to the community. During this boat ride, Joey shared his extensive knowledge of the aquaculture in the area. I found it so special that we were able to share our team’s knowledge of veterinary medicine to provide care for his dog and then to have Joey return this favour by teaching us about local fishing and aquaculture. In the attached image, I am pictured with Joey on the boat tour while he is showing me some coral he obtained from bottom trawling.

Emily and sea life

I cannot put into words what overwhelming kindness and gratitude we experienced in both the Nain and Postville communities. Not a day went by where we were not flooded with love, whether it be a hot bowl of soup, fresh laundry or a boat tour. The communities went above and beyond to support us and show their gratitude. I hope the community members saw the profound effect their kindness had on each member of our team. We would not have been able to accomplish all that we did without their constant support. I thank the members of both the Nain and Postville communities for all that they have taught me, challenging my perspective and showing our team unconditional kindness.