I
have only lived in urban communites, and with Toronto being the
biggest one in Canada, it has been a big adjustment moving to a
Native reserve with a population of only 2400 people.
There
is a big doctor shortage in Canada but I was lucky enough to have a
family doctor just down the street from me growing up. Here, there
is a nursing station open Monday-Friday, but the doctor only comes in on
Wednesday and Thursday mornings, so it's very hard to get an
appointment with her. Most of the nurses are hired by an agency so
they are only here for 2 weeks at a time. If you need to go to a
hospital, then you have to drive an hour into Thompson or call for an
ambulance to take you there. Thompson is the closest city and it has
a population of about 13 000.
The
one place to shop in Nelson House is the Northern Store. The store
sells groceries, school supplies, clothing, etc. It is like a very
small Walmart but with higher prices and a smaller selection. It is
sometimes hard to find what you want and the quality of food is
inconsistent. Sometimes the store will close early without notice.
I do my grocery shopping in Thompson, making sure to buy enough food
for at least 2 weeks. In Thompson, there are 3 places to buy
groceries: Safeway, WalMart, and ExtraFoods, which is similar to No
Frills. The post office is there too. There are no mailboxes here,
so you need to mail letters from the store. I think people have their
mail delivered to the store because many of their addresses are
listed simply as Nelson House. All teachers receive their mail at
the school.
Many
of you are busy after school with dance classes, beavers or girl
guides, and sports teams, but kids here don't have those things.
There are 2 baseball diamonds at the school, a hockey rink, and small
community centre, but it is hard to find anyone to run teams or
clubs. Apparently there was a big turnout for soccer this summer.
Kids who signed up would board the school bus Sat mornings to go to
Thompson where they played in a league. Hockey is popular. Rumor
has it that they just put the ice in! I'm not sure when the rink is
open but I'm excited to finally have a place to get some exercise!
There
is one restaurant in the community that serves a wide selection of
food. The only problem is that sometimes they run out of certain
foods so you don't always get your first choice.
Speaking
of food, it's time to start cooking my supper! Talk to you soon ...
