Adjusting to Barrow

Monday October 22, 2012 
This morning we were dropped off at the college and checked into the dorms. The student who is interested in applying to the nursing program at Gustavus is one of the student services workers so she helped us out. I am hoping to interview her sometime this week! She is very nice and welcoming. After we dropped our luggage off the pastor took us to the Public Health building where we met with Julie, the deputy director of community health. We also met with Doreen Leavitt, the PHN who traveled to Gustavus last year to talk to us about circumpolar health. She is now the director, so that is exciting! She booked us two free seats on the charter flights out to the village health fairs on November 5, 9, and 13. We are both very excited for that opportunity. We can add three more remote villages to our list of “places” we’ve visited in Alaska. Throughout the day we got an orientation and history of the PHN program, the services provided, etc. We also did a bunch of reading on immunization information, as that is primarily what the wellness clinic participates in during the day. It was a fairly slow day. Life in Barrow is definitely different! It just takes awhile to slow your system down and get used to the way of life here.