Travelling is fun, but so very tiring!

I have to preface today's update by saying that I have always wanted to (a) live near the water, and (b) travel a lot. It certainly seems that my wishes are coming true. I had just figured that I would be a bit more southernly-located in the process, LOL!

Here is the view of Eskimo Habour that I see every single day from my porch, and on the way to and from school. It is worth the trip.

Now, on to the details of my trip. I began in Sanikiluaq, and flew out via Air Inuit to Montreal. They certainly are not cheap, but they treat their passengers well. We had dinner service, and my meal choice was smoked salmon, served on a bed of mixed spring greens, and a couscous pilaf. A nice crusty ciabbata bun, a salad, and a two-tone (tiger?) brownie filled out the menu. Oh, yummmmmm!!!!! I landed in Montreal just after 7:30 pm, got to the bank, and then waited while the flight to Ottawa was delayed for a bit. I got into Ottawa late, as seems to be the case with hotels and I, arriving about 12:30 am.

The next morning, I arrived at the airport and was breezed through security in about 5 minutes! I was not expecting that, and had to cool my heels for over an hour while I waited on First Air to Iqaluit. Again, a short delay, and then off on a direct flight. Breakfast was cereal, fruit, yogurt, muffin, coffee and juice, again all included. They sure know how to pamper people! We flew over the strait and into Iqaluit, and my first glimpse of Baffin Island was complete with a small iceberg.

It is beautiful, and very strange to see nothing but rocks and lichen. Apparently the lichen is blood-red at this time of year, but it was hard to tell due to the cloud.

The airport in Iqaluit is rather strange as well. It looks like a series of cargo containers welded together. It is also very cold, as they usually have the cargo loading doors open, and as it is the capital city of Nunavut, the airport is always crowded. I grabbed a sandwich and waited for the flight to Cape Dorset.

We were airborne just after 2:00 pm and again, a surreal landscape from the plane. As we crossed over yet another strait, we could see more icebergs, but the windows of the plane were a bit dirty, and all I caught in the snapshots were pictures of dirt smears! Oh well! Here's a pic of the aerial view leaving Iqaluit anyhow. See if you can spot the dirt on the window...

The Cape Dorset Suites, where we stayed, was beautiful. It was a housekeeping set-up, although that would have been handy to know before leaving Sanikiluaq as I could have packed a small container of things like milk powder, jam and peanut butter. The Co-op had all we needed, though. I got individual juice containers, eggs, bread, yogurt, and frozen dinners. We ate just fine. Coffee was provided. Here's a few pics of the airport, the hotel, and my room.

The town is built in amongst several valleys and rolling hills. We overlooked the harbour, and it was only a short walk down the hill to the school. The weather was nice but windy and cool. No surprise for Nunavut, LOL! And me the one who always said that I was moving to Arizona because it was warm...

The yellow building is one of the Art Studio Co-ops that is run by the local artists. I browsed and shopped carefully, buying a small statue of an owl and a polar bear, both soapstone carvings. I would take a picture, but they are safely bubble-wrapped for transport and I don't want to chance opening them. In Cape Dorset, a full 25% of the population makes a living in carving, print-making, or other forms of artistic expression. It is the largest per capita concentration anywhere in Canada.

I left on Friday morning, flying out to Iqaluit, and toured the town while I waited for my flight at 4:40 pm. We went to Kuujjuaq first, and then from there to Montreal. Dinner was filet mignon, a crusty roll, salad, all the red or white wine you wanted, and a gooey brownie. It was delicious, but by the time I landed in Montreal I was feeling ill. I don't think it was the dinner, as today I am sore and achey and slightly feverish. I suspect I have picked up whatever bug Kelly, my roommate, was battling. It didn't stop me from shopping at Pennington's, Staples, and the Dollar Store! But now I am going to relax in the tub, stretch out, and enjoy a nap. I will talk to everyone once I get back home on Monday.

TTFN!

Never a dull moment!

Ah, life in the north, where nothing is so certain as the fact that everything is never certain!

I was busy preparing for my trip tomorrow. Like a good little traveller, I bathed myself and then tossed a load of laundry into the wash in order to have nice, clean, people-friendly unsmelly clothing and body. Poor Kelly, who has been sick all day, used the bathroom after me and came out to announce that the toilet would not flush. We've had three instances of the water being out due to high sewage levels, so out into our back room I go, look into our tank, and OOPS! no water! Egad! A sick roomie, all my clothes in the wash, and not a drop to wash or flush with!

A call went out to our principal, who raced over to assist. He and I grabbed our two 18L jugs and our 10L jug. We filled the 10L with drinking water at his house and took the other two to the river, where we climbed into the stream and held them under to fill up. Where was the camera when we needed one? It would have been a shot worthy of the yearbook! We did not fall in, and we managed to get the water home for emergency flushes. But it was rather comical. We were apparently a spectacle, for a few children came over to see what the heck the silly teachers were doing, and why they were doing it.

Life is anything but dull up here!

Is it still September?

Somehow it seems like there has been far more time passed here than the calendar says. I'm feeling like it is into late October and yet here we are, barely into our third week of school, and already with 2-1/2 days of extra closure that should have me feeling refreshed. I cannot figure out if it is the disorganization or the effort that has me worn out. I need more storage space than there is in the classrooms. I miss filing cabinets to store work and papers. I miss my filing slots on my desk. I miss the extra room for tables, upon which I could store pencils and erasers and glue sticks and other paraphernalia. I miss functional calculators! And mostly, I miss my electric pencil sharpener. I am going to buy one next weekend when I am staying over in Montreal.

I am enjoying the small successes, though. My grade 7 class has gone bonkers for the whole concept of the "Good Student" tokens. I walk into the class, hold up the tokens, and announce that I am always watching for students who are seated and ready to work. The mad scramble to the desks ensues, and a sea of smiling faces with zippered lips beams at me. Ah, tokens, how I love you! For Mr. Murray, whose idea it was originally, many thanks.

My grade 10 students are another kettle of fish...too cool for school, stuck with a mandatory credit course, they are steadfastly resisting any effort to get them to work. Even the use of a "job" and "payday" system did not go over too well until today. Today was the first chance they had to spend some "cash" on free-time coupons, or iPod time coupons. I'm trying to lure them into paying a lot ahead so that they won't have enough to pay the "rent" on their desks...talk about real-life applications when I "evict" my "tenants" for not paying rent! Bwa ha ha!

Anyhow, the payday was actually being well-received. And then I threw a wrench into the works. I dragged out a jumbo tub of homemade cookies. Well! Pandemonium! They could not part with their cash fast enough. Most of them have nothing left in the bank now, so my scheme is going according to plan. And the few who never bothered to show up more than once a week realized that they had not earned enough cash to participate. Life is hard, and I think they got the point.

The grade 11 class, who is also learning to budget, is a study in contrasts. Every one of them banked all of their money whereas the 10's banked only what they needed to pay their first "bill". Every one of the grade 11's attends daily and works hard. Some earn extra money as tutors and my banking helpers. The cookies also went over well there, and a few who had desperately craved the free time chose the food instead, but most went for the iPod day. Interesting....and they all have cash left for their next round of bills. Very interesting!

I'm going to be working like a beggar for the next two days. I have loads of marking to accomplish, lessons and materials for the week I'm away to prepare, and work ahead for the week back. I also have several tests to prepare for the 10's (who will likely fail en mass) and the 11's (who will almost all pass with flying colours). Interesting...

Hope everyone is well, and I am looking forward to my trip to Cape Dorset on the south-west part of Baffin Island. There is a store that specializes in Inuit art and soapstone carving, so I will allow myself to browse. Here's hoping that I get a direct deposit cheque today! TTFN!

Some random things about life in the north...

There are many interesting things about life in a remote northern area.

Random thing #1...there is rarely such a thing as free delivery when it involves Nunavut. I tried to order something from Staples last week, where they offered free delivery. Surprise A, they charge for deliveries in remote areas. Surprise B, they consider Nunavut too remote to even be able to pack something in a box and mail it. Maybe Canada Post should inform them that mail can actually arrive here.

Random thing #2...as in Fort Albany, school closures are a common occurrence. We lost the whole day on Wednesday to allow the teachers the time to visit the family of the community member who passed away from cancer in Winnipeg. We will be closed on Monday afternoon to permit the community to attend the funeral. And suddenly we have a workshop on Tuesday, so no school again. By the time my day book is reorganized, I have already done my planning for the week. I'm not complaining too much!

Random thing #3...I have to take a trip to Cape Dorset, a community much further north. In order to do this, I leave Sanikiluaq on Monday afternoon and fly with Air Inuit to Montreal, arriveing at 7:30 pm. I then fly to Ottawa at 9:50 pm. I stay overnight in a hotel. I then fly with First Air to Iqaluit on Tuesday. From Iqaluit I change to Canada North Air and fly to Cape Dorset, arriving at about 3:30 pm. The conference is on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, I fly Canada North Air to Iqaluit, then Air Inuit to Montreal, arriving at 9:00 pm. I get to stay, expenses paid, in Montreal until Monday when I can catch the Air Inuit flighr home to Sanikiluaq. There is no such thing as a straight trip from here to there anywhere in Nunavut.

Random thing #4...what you think might be expensive is very cheap, relatively speaking. Milk is only $3.87 per litre. It was almost twice that in Fort Albany. Eggs are only $3.85 per dozen. I would have thought that, being fragile, they would be very pricey. Nope. But a single onion or pepper will cost about $6.00, and a single can of pop almost $3.00. Not a case, not a bottle, but one little can. I drink a lot of water, needless to say! My roommate and I are making lavish use of the food mail program.

Random thing #5...while my students are all wonderful, I am saddened by how low their language levels are. I know that they are immersed in Inuktitut until the 4th grade, but they do not seem to have solid skills in basic language patterns. One interesting note may be that Inuktitut is much like German, with a root word that has many affixes and prefixes to denote change in gender, tense, place, and character. Thus a sentence like, "I had to walk to the store to get medicine for my son" would in Inuktitut become only one word, with about 18-20 syllables. Perhaps it is the phrasing into many small words that is defeating the attempts to read and write English. I'm going to study up and see what I can find online. However, it is fun to compare the Cree syllabics with those of Inuktitut, and my students and I carefully try to sound out and spell in both languages. Many laughs, especially the day I was trying to pronounce "Niliq", which I think means "goose" if I have it correct. The way I said it was the word for "fart", and cause a great deal of hilarity on all parts in the classroom.

Anyhow, my thoughts for the day. I plan to use my Montreal weekend to stock up on Halloween candy. Better that when I can bring 70 lbs free on Air Inuit, than to pay $25.00 for a small bag of assorted candies at the Northern! TTFN!

Incredible...

Kelly and I stepped out last night for a moment and this is what greeted us...

The sky was full of light...

There was a huge ring all around the town and over the harbour.

I got the pictures by resting the camera on the porch railing and using the "fireworks" setting.

I only wish that I had a panorama setting so I could have taken a wide-angle shot.

The camera did not capture the streaks of orange and pink on the bottom of this incredible streamer...

I'm thinking that a really good camera will be a worthwhile investment when I come south for Christmas!

Absolutely incredible!

The first week is done, and on with the work!

The first week went by, and I can not believe that I have only been here 11 days now. It has been such a busy time that it feels like a month or more. Kelly and I are settling into our house very nicely. We have been tidying and organizing, and amusing ourselves watching the power struggle between the two cats. Nermal, all 3.8 pounds of her, loves to sneak up and attack Tigger from the rear. Tigger has now taken to stalking her like a bulldog, slowly marching right up to her and making her run for cover under the nearest bed. Nermal naturally waits until Tigger walks away, jumps on him, and the fight is on again.

I worked with a few community members on Friday night, selling cards for the local bingo that raises money for the Day Care. It will be a very good way to meet the community and get to know people. One lovely elder saw me and came straight over, her face wreathed in smiles. She held out her hand and greeted me in Inuktitut, welcoming me as a newcomer to the community. The teachers are very valued here.

We had a great get-together on Saturday with several of the teachers and the two RCMP officers, Mike and Sheryl. Lots of laughs, which were sorely needed after two very hectic days with the students and many days of very windy, very wet, very cold and very gray days. Yecch! But the sun is out today, and we have been ahrd at work at the school to get things organized, so things feel much more normal.

The first two days of school were wild. With my Math classes, I had a register of 16 students for grade 10 and 19 students for grade 11. I now have about 25 students in grade 10, and 33 in grade 11! It is almost impossible to keep my attendance in order! The students are much lower in language and basic skills than I had hoped, but I am well prepared. My grade 7 class in the afternoon is going to be a piece of cake, although again I have some very low students with many language exceptionalities. My years in Fort Albany have prepared me for working in that type of setting, and I am grateful for the time there that helped me to be ready for this position.

However, the glitches are still getting worked out. My first paycheque arrived...literally. Somehow they did not get the direct deposit information set up, and I have a lovely paycheque with no bank anywhere near me! Plan A, call the bank to find out how I can get the cheque to them. Plan B, cash it and send money orders to cover bills. Plan C, save it and deposit it when I go out for my Math conference on the 24th. Decisions, decisions! And we are working with virtually no supplies in the classrooms until the sea-lift delivers supplies on the 9th of October. Almost no paper, no photocopier, no pencils, no markers, almost no books, missing texts...just another hurdle to overcome. And my last job has not sent my statement of experience despite repeated requests...I have to make a phone call very, VERY soon to inquire as to why that is the case. Grrrr!

I'm actually very excitied about my Math conference. Thanks to Kelly taking the grade 9 class, I get to fly to Montreal on September 24th. I then get a paid weekend stay, and fly out to Cape Dorset on Monday. From there I fly back to Montreal to stay, and then back up to Sanikiluaq. There are no direct flights, and the airlines do not fly daily, so it is a round-about way to get there, but a great chance for some shopping for necessary essentials! I think I will get some pencils, markers, lined paper, folders, and also look for a wire rack for kitchen storage. Woohoo! MWAH! Kisses to Kelly for letting me have the fun!

That's all for today, I am still up to my ears in paper work and planning.

Out on the land, or "When in Rome..."

We had a brief staff meeting this morning, and then set to work trying to create some semblance of order out of the chaos created by unloading our resources in the classrooms. But before we got to work, there was the requisite photo op with the resident polar bear in the Cultural Museum that is located in the school annex. And yes, the bear is really that tall! (And yes, I am still losing weight...minus 63 lbs to date! WOOT!)

At 1:00, we met back at the school to be driven out onto the land for some berry-picking and tea. We had a caravan of ATV's loaded with people along with a four-wheel drive truck. The roads are just loosely packed rocks, and without the four-wheel drive, the vehicles would sink into the loose rock and become stuck.

Once out in the tundra, we set out to scrounge for our snack: late-season low-bush blueberries, and some pownuk, or crow berries. There were also cranberries, but they are not yet ripe.

The berries lay in thick carpets on the ground, and the approved method to gather is to sit or lie on the ground and grab as many as you can from where you can reach. Then, stepping carefully so as not to squish the good berries, you move to the next piece of ground and get comfy, and keep filling your pail.

These ones are the pownuk, or crow berries. They are tart, and quite crunchy, but tasty. They grow on stubby plants whose needles look a lot like those of a yew or a balsam fir.

Our next treat was tea and a bit of a feast. The people here share whatever they have equally, and you only have to ask to have as much food as you can eat pressed upon you by many hands. The women cut up fresh and smoked arctic char with the curved ulu knife. Here you see them using the ulu to prepare beluga muktuk, or the blubber from the back. It looks like bacon.

So I got to try fresh, uncooked arctic char: rather a strange texture to eat raw, but very much like trout. Then I tried the smoked char, which was very similar to smoked salmon, and a bit fatty like salmon or trout. Quite tasty! Finally, I willingly tried the beluga muktuk. Yes, raw again. It was far crunchier and firmer in texture than I would have thought, and very fishy-tasting, but hey, when in Rome you do like the Romans!

It was a great day all in all, and every day has brought something new. I am thoroughly enjoying myself in this wonderful and welcoming community.

Kelly and I are snuggled in for the night, planning furiously for the opening of the school tomorrow as we listen to the wind howling outside. We are down one roommate, who sadly was terribly allergic to our two cats. Otherwise, life is cheerful at 825 Cat Scratch Alley, Sanikiluaq, Nunavut!