Step 20 - Get on site.

Site is where the money is! People come up here for the cash, not the scenery. But site life is hard- those guys really earn their money. Most are pulling 12 hour days for 14 to 21 days straight. It's just working, eating and sleeping. Site workers often comment on how their life is a lot like prison. There are even guards to keep them in line.Living quarters really aren't easy on the eyes. Home sweet home, anyone?

Every week or two I get the brilliant idea to quit what I am doing to go earn a ton of money on site. Then I could take that money and blow it all on one great adventure. But then I remember I don't have a trade or the physical stamina that these jobs require. And working a monotonous job just for the money would drive me NUTS! But a girl can dream, right?

And so, I work for Syncrude now!

No, not really. But last week I had the very unique opportunity to go up to camp and talk to the guys about syphilis. Right now the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is amidst a syphilis outbreak. It is a fascinating combination of epidemiological factors that typify the very specific circumstances that Fort McMurray finds itself in- a large transient population, a growing population of immigrant from nations where syphilis (and HIV) are endemic, a busy pool of commercial sex workers, and a very rural (read: stigmatizing) cultural environment. This culminates in a social reality that limits discussion on sexual health while the bacteria is introduced at a higher than average rate. What does all this mean? Syphilis, a highly infectious-though highly treatable- bacteria, is running wild. So time to get the message out; quickly now, over 200 km of backwoods highway and 30 more of unpaved site road!



Apart from talking with kiddies about where they should and shouldn't put their goods, I am supposed to get up to site and distribute information and 'harm reduction supplies.' The Health Promotions Centre practicum student and I went up to a local site last week and spent the lunch hour getting these materials into the hands of workers. Ever wonder what 500 sexual health goody bags look like? Wonder no more:



We hit up about 126 unique individuals in the course of an hour. Apart from the condoms in the goody bags we gave away, an additional 200 were collected. In total, we went through 700 condoms in an hour. Not many people can say that.

We also heard some pretty scary stories from management. At one point, this camp we went to had a CSW (commercial sex worker) living underneath a housing trailer over the summer. She would come out at night and turn tricks. This carried on for a while before she got caught. Most of the time the sexual activity at camp is between staff, with visits into town to see CSWs, but every once in a while we hear of something like this. What a nutty place.

A lot of the companies up here want the education for their guys, but camp management is resistant. Right now I am in the middle of a tug of war between one of these battles. There has been a lot of "come up on the 24th!" and "we don't want you here- all 5000 guys work all 21 days completely celibate!" It is uncleear when I will be hitting up another camp. So, until then...

Step 19- Follow the lights.

One of the big complaints about living in Fort McMurray is that there is nothing to do but drink. And while local establishments do provide ample opportunity for one to find oneself briefly in possession of alcoholic refreshment, I just don't get how anyone can complain of boredom. What does anyone expect of any city? How is one city "more fun" than another? We have a movie theater and everything (yes, I realize how pathetic that sounds). Granted, coming from Abbotsford, my standard of an "interesting" city is quite low. A city is what you make it. If you are a boring person, you will be bored. And if you aren't...

It was only a matter of time before a bunch of us got into our trucks and drove around for hours trying to spot the northern lights. One of the benefits of having friends who are tourists is that they are not afraid to be tourists! They'll say “let's go drive northward!” And we'll say “okay!”

It started at Tim Horton's, with the necessary pre-adventure provisions. It was the usual suspects.

To the cars, gentlemen!

Our first stop, in hopes of seeing the lights, was Fort McKay, about an hour out of the city. For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to get out of our trucks en route and take pictures in the middle of the road. Yep- it's a four lane highway. And yep- we are this bad at taking co-ordinated photos.

We carried on right into McKay, which is a reserve. The Germans thought it would be interesting to see where First Nations people live. Once they saw it was just houses, they weren't very impressed. At the end of the road we got out and enjoyed the novelty of being in the middle of NOTHING. Here's the view towards the end of the road.

Time for some impromptu shoe-ski practice. I haven't quite mastered this one yet.

After tromping in the snow and freezing our toes, while technically trespassing, we carried on to Syncrude. Is that bitumen I smell? Learn it well; the odor of money!

The site is so impressive at night. The lights made everything glow. We drove right into sight. Security doesn't pay a lot of attention this late at night. We took turns in Nick's hard hat, pretending we had real jobs.

Ahhh, nothing like having our own photographer along for the ride. One of the benefits of keeping tourists on retainer.

And back on the road! No lights yet, but we decided to make one more stop at the Wood Buffalo turn off before we headed back. The turn off had little walking trails with undisturbed snow. Pretty nice stuff. The guys decided to troop around while Jess and I stayed by the cars- you know, unless a bear came and we had to drive away quickly.

In some places the snow gets really deep...

Throwing snow? Really, guys, that's inspired.

Once reunited, we discovered that you can blow snow back up! When it is falling heavily and you face upwards and give a mighty puff, it just goes back up! Not shocking, but still cool too see. The only problem is that constant puffing makes you a bit dizzy, hence:

So no northern lights before the Germans left us all too soon.

The irony is that two days after our Germans left us- without getting to see the lights- we saw them outside the Germans old house. Just a quick passing glimpse, but still pretty amazing. It's a dream of mine to really see them, when they are bright and active and shimmering about. It's such a beautiful phenomenon. I'll let you know how it goes!