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...