Step 4. Know the dirt.

Wow- what a crazy week. This week I went to the traveling trade show with friends, taught my first high school STI workshop, set up 3 more workshops (woot!) and almost lost it on a drop in client. People with addictions have a few needy tenancies. One of the is that they often latch on to whomever is nice to them, and then feel very rejected when that person can't do what they want. One of the clients asked me to do something that I didn't have time for. I said I couldn't help her, and she asked, quite whiny, “why can't you?” Blame it on short nights, or her sleeping in our office for 3 days, coughing and complaining all over, but I almost asked “well, why can't you not be a crack addict?” It was at that point in the day that I excused myself from the front desk and went to work somewhere else.

So I am working new modules, writing grant applications, and teaching kids about chlamydia. Lots of stuff is going on all the time. One of our few constants here, however, is the dirt.

Fort Mac is a boom town, 100%. The municipality is working to expand infrastructure. The roads are clogged and filled with potholes. The only bridge in and out of town is being replaced. Two more lanes are being added to the highway. And there are new buildings going up all over! Not just residential, either- warehouses, stores, and industrial facilities are in the works everywhere. That is why there is dirt in the air.

It really is in the air. I wish I could get a picture that captured the hazy glow of the particulates in the sunlight. The fine brown dirt that makes up the soil here -fluvial sediment (no bigs, I studied geography)- actually floats in the air around town. The streets look dirty all the time. In fact, instead of normal street sweepers, this town has pressure washing trucks that drive around and hose off the streets. The cars are constantly covered with dirt, and people just don't care anymore. You see a lot of vehicles that are covered in brown, save for license plate, which they was off. I get it, too. Why wash a car when it will be dirty again tomorrow?

The brown blends in nicely with the now brown skyline. The leaves turned yellow and fell off the trees in the course of one week. The above scene is no more. Now we have brown naked trees, a brown river, and brown brown roads. The cars are mostly brown, and many of the building have developed a fine coat of seasonal brown. The occasional rain or hail storm blend it up nicely into a pervasive mud.

Driving around town would be a little boys dream. There are amazing pieces of machinery! There are trucks like I have never seen. Gary and Liz took me on a drive the other day to see the Syncrude factory. The vehicles out in the fields shoveling dirt were larger than the house I live in. And they are all working on a beautiful canvas of brown.

And let's not forget the olfactory sensation of dirt! The ground here has oil in it- we know this. But I hadn't really thought about that till I moved here. There is oil in the dirt. Sometimes, after it really rains, the oil comes up to the topsoil and runs out of the ground. It is a testament to the resilience of nature that trees and grass grow in a soil that is sweating out petroleum. Sudden changes in weather do something to it, and the town has stunk like oil for a few days.

There is also the dirt of the office. That client, who was sleeping in the sitting area of the office, was coughing all over. She has Hep C, and probably pneumatic TB. The office is very very cramped, with 9 new staff coming on in the last 5 weeks. There is one sink and a half sized fridge. We have to take turns eating lunch so there is room to sit! Thrown in street people, drug users, and the needle exchange, and you have an environment rife with infectious body fluids. I have actually started relying on my old nemesis, antibacterial hand lotion. Sometimes I really wish I didn't know what I did about communicable disease. It's not like I am at risk of catching anything deadly (even Hep C is hard to get unless you are trying), but it does make me feel a little dirty at times.

Step 3. Scout for Resources

Assessing your surroundings is one of the first things to do after any more. Now that I have been here for a whole 2 weeks (almost), I figure it is time to get a lay of the land. I want to know the city, in case I ever need to buy something, or go somewhere, or run from zombies. (Ha! Of course we all know that is a joke, because if there were zombies, a city center is probably the last place you would want to go.)

Fort Mac has your major store chains. There is a giant Wal-mart, offering lots of stuff from China. Then there is the Canadian Tire, the highest grossing in Canada, offering lots of stuff from China.

This is the local Borealis Park. We had the first annual Scotiabank AIDS walk here last weekend. The river here cuts straight through town and can be quite pretty. The walk was attended by our staff, and then 3 community members who are heavily involved in our programs. As you can probably imagine, most people here want to ignore AIDS. Either that, or they HATE walking.

This is Franklin, the main drag through town. This is the lovely view from outside the office. I cannot see the street from the office, because there are no windows. But the lack of windows won't matter too much in the winter, when there are less than 5 hours of sunlight a day. Ha!

Here are my co-worker Kyle and I, enjoying our $4 coffees from Coco Jo's, the coffee shop right by the office. And finally, the is the exotic dance bar that our office is right beside. I bet this one makes my father quite proud. You can only imagine how awkward I felt standing beside the main road having this picture taken.

And as an Aside: One of this town's best resources is cheap clothes!

In the shopping mall there are your basic chain mall stores. Right now all the summer clothes are on sale, and it is amazing! I bought some killer jeans for $10 and a bunch of $5 t-shirts. When I asked the clerk why the clothes were so cheap, and all in my size, she explained that a 29” waist wasn't normal for here so they couldn't sell them all. So not only are my clothes cheap, but I feel quite skinny. See the pic above for my killer jeans.

And check out all the garage sale signs! I got into town in time to enjoy the last day of the garage sailing season. I got some great stuff! As an ardent thrifter, I have now learned that the only place better to shop than a Mennonite thrift store is a rich person's garage sale.

Among other treasures, I bought a box of lego and never worn Dr. Scholl's leather shoes! I had been told to go garage sailing here in Timberlea, the newest and most expensive part of town. Things were very high quality and very cheap because nobody needs the money. This is the only town I have been in where people want less money for their possessions than is on the price. I was having money given back to me all morning long! A fabulous town indeed.

About work this week: The outreach staff have been overwhelmed with new clients while homeless people look for a place to stay over the winter. This means that I am getting to do a bit of frontline stuff, which really keeps me on my toes. On Tuesday I was driving Larry around, to 4 different places, trying to get a notorized letter because he doesn't have photo ID, and can't apply for disability without proof of identity. Yesterday I drove DJ out to the detox center- it is her umpteenth time trying to get clean. The crack here is dirty and is giving a bunch of the users open ulcers. The clients are smart and with it and I really like hearing about their lives. No one grows up hoping to be a crack addict.

Step 2. Get a job, hippy!

It's snowing. Snow. Not light snow, either. It was dumping earlier today. I was going for a walk and had to turn around. By the time I got to the house, it was so heavy that I couldn't look up from the ground or my glasses would get covered! And, in light of the cold, it is even more important for a person to have a place to live, and to get that, you need an income.

I moved out here for a job that I am really excited about. I am working as the Community Education Co-ordinator at the Fort McMurray Health Promotion Centre. It is also known as the Wood Buffalo HIV/AIDS Society. I am designing and running education modules on topics of sexual health and STI prevention. The workshops are for service providers, teenagers, street people, and other risk groups.

The offices are brightly painted, and packed with staff while we wait for the new facility to open down the street. We can be found right beside the Oil Sands Hotel Exotic Dance Bar. Spiffy, huh? A lot of us staff are new. Eleven of us have been added to the original staff of 4 over the last 3 months. The office is in a major time of transition.

I am really excited to teach modules out of town, in work camps and on reserves. Syphilis and hepatitis C are major problem in the work camps. Reserves deal more with addiction, hep C, and AIDS infections. In town, with high levels of prostitution, drug use, and homelessness, there are high levels of just about every STI and addiction you can think of. The Centre just started a needle exchange, so I am learning a lot about rigs, pipes, and cookers, too.

Other exciting news is that I found out today that I am also the person who teaches kids how to use condoms. Huzza! I talked to one of the ladies in the office and she showed me a whole stack of videos I can refer to, and gave me a few lesson guides.

My work in India is what got me interested in public health in the first place. The stigma of HIV/AIDS was so challenging to fight against. The same is true of Alberta, but the vectors are different. Here, HIV/AIDS is not transferred through unfaithful husbands, but through commercial sex and the drug trade. It is a different scenario, but the same rules apply: people are people first, regardless of the mistakes they have made. And part of the work here is to keep people healthy and safe, that they may have more of a life to live when they learn how to recover.

My job does not pay like an oil job would. But it is exactly the kind of work that I want to be doing. It is meaningful. This position will also help me determine if I want to work in public health long-term. And it doesn't hurt that my co-workers and I have a laugh every once in a while.

But it is cold.

Step 1. Secure Housing

Winter gets cold. So the first thing you will need to do, intrepid traveler, is find a place to live.

It's the Valley of the Dolls! In the suburb of Timberlea, where I live, the houses have all been built in the last 5 years. And they are all the

same.

One of the major obstacles to living in Fort McMurray is the inflated cost of living. Fort Mac has gone through a major population explosion in the last 5 years. In 2006, there were 50,000 residents; now there are over 100,000. An additional 200,000 are expected in the next 5 years. The municipality has not been able to build infrastructure to keep up with demand for residential land, and as a result, housing is in major demand. A prefabricated 4 bedroom home in the suburb of Timberlea is easily over $800,000. Million dollar homes are everywhere, and offer little more than the typical suburban home: http://www.remax-fortmcmurray-ab.com/properties/featured.html.

The city has worked to make these suburbs as livable as possible by adding ponds and walking trails, but that doesn't distract much from the otherwise desolate surroundings! Some people move here for work and quickly end up homeless, unable to find a place they can afford. So although the well groomed recreational spaces are inviting, camping out in the winter is not an option here.

Apartments are hard to come by. Major oil sands employers often buy whole blocks of apartments to make available for contract staff. The high level of demand inflates market rates. Before I moved out here, I was looking at a single bedroom in a house for $800 monthly, or a 600 sq.ft apartment for $2000! Not cool. Some people try to avoid these high costs by purchasing a house in groups. It is not uncommon to see a house with five or six cars parked outside where a bunch of people have gone in together. Most employers offer a housing subsidy of $1000 monthly to help their staff; my workplace, however, can not.

Knowing all this, I would not have moved to Fort McMurray unless I had a steal of a deal. And I do! The parents of a good friend have taken me in as a boarder and are giving me a fantastic deal. The best part is that Gary makes my lunch for work each night! I have a bedroom and a bathroom in their basement. It doesn't hurt that they are friendly and welcoming people. Not many transient workers get as lucky!