From Band-Aids to rubber gloves

MIRIAM HILL

KANGIRSUK — The door of the army tent unzips and a young man wearing a Junior Canadian Rangers sweatshirt enters looking for the nurse.

“You again?” jokes the woman with long blonde hair as she stands and moves towards him.

Veronique Laniel, the 25-year-old nurse hired by the camp to act as medic, is a popular woman. The young man cut his finger yesterday and this morning is looking for a rubber glove to protect it while he participates in the caribou-skinning exercise.

Laniel is in demand for more than just her stock of Band-Aids. Many of the 230 junior rangers and Rangers at the site near Kangirsuk are suffering from colds, thanks to the unrelenting brisk wind that’s been blowing since the camp began July 3.

The clinic averages between six and eight visits a day.

“It’s been mostly tonsillitis and ear-aches,” Laniel explains. “I would have expected more cuts and stuff.”

Aware of the activities campers would be doing, skinning, carving and a 30-hour survival camp farther out on the land, Laniel came prepared. Her tent, marked with a red sign, has bandages galore as well as a hefty supply of antibiotics.

In a situation where 230 teens and adults are living in close quarters under rough conditions, health becomes a major issue.

“If someone gets tonsillitis or pneumonia, for example, there are six others staying in the same tent and using the same things, it’s possible contagious diseases can spread rapidly,” she says. “You want to make sure they wash themselves, not just for the others’ sake, but for themselves. You really have to be careful.”

The camp toilets are barrels dug into the ground placed in specially marked tents. Each pit has a wide tube sticking up from the dirt, topped with a plastic toilet seat.

Those on site are reminded often to wash their hands each time they use the facilities, because there isn’t an easily accessible sink with running water nearby. Tubs filled with water and anti-bacterial soap placed near the entrance to the dining hall with rolls of paper towel help jog the memory of the forgetful.

The campers are also able to go to Kangirsuk for a shower, or use the facility at the site. A special bag is filled with warmed water and hung from a pulley system in one of the tents. The bag, which has a no le and showerhead contraption, offers a 10-minute cleansing.

“People who cough and don’t wash as often as they would in their own homes, things pass between campers,” Laniel says. “Some people can get diarrhea,” and when skinning animals and spending much of the day on the land, hygiene can’t be emphasized enough.

Not all health problems can be prevented. One young man was medivaced out on Sunday evening because of complications with an existing heart condition. A girl with a high fever was evacuated to Kuujjuaq by helicopter Saturday, but the nature of her illness was yet to be determined.

Once properly outfitted with rubber gloves and a clean bandage for his finger, the young man leaves to join his caribou skinning class. Laniel sits back to enjoy a brief moment of solitude before her next responsibility unzips the tent door.