Bush flight to Selawik and caribou for dinner!

                                

An 8:30am flight to Selawik.  5 seater plane, more room for cargo than humans!  Uneventful 30-minute flight over the frozen tundra.  We were greeted at the gravel airstrip by snowmobiles, quads and cargo sleds!  It is a bit of a walk to town over a bridge, or, since everything is still frozen, over the river!  So we walked over the river, a snowmobile trailing a dog sled took our suitcases and supplies to the clinic.

A large, modern medical/dental clinic, fully staffed on the medical side, dental has been closed due to covid.  We spent the morning organizing and cleaning the two-chair dental suite and saw our first patient at 2pm.  I relieved him of two infected molars, he was grateful for the care, I was pleased to start doing what we came up here to do!  Two more patients followed.  A good start.

Hannah, our assistant is calling a long list of locals who have indicated an interest in dental care hoping to fill our next three days.

Now, the dinner menu.  Actually, Gloria made Thai curry in the kitchen tonight.  But, after dinner we decided to walk around town.  Just outside the clinic an older gentleman invited us in to the community center for caribou!  He went on to explain that someone just died so they were having a potluck.  So, we went in and found the bar-b-qued caribou ribs, a few other parts, yet to be cooked, and the casket!  Caribou is chewy.

Raw caribou in front, Gloria in the middle, casket in the back