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!
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