Excitement abounds as the sealift arrives!

Today, at long last, the sealift is in! Our dry goods (courtesy of Jenn), school supplies, and a PHOTOCOPIER have arrived!!! Huzzah! The waterfront is rocking as the tugs go back and forth to the barge, hauling in loads of sea cans (as the containers are called). The large ship does not come in, staying just outside of the harbour in Hudson Bay proper, so the barge is actually the smaller ship.

You can see one of the tugs at the side getting loaded. They ferry the rafts back and forth to the beach in front of the Northern Store, where the forklift unloads the containers.

Meanwhile, we had our big Halloween extravaganza at the school yesterday. A few of the teachers got a bit silly at lunch. From left to right, my roommate Kelly, Annette, Julia (long-term resident and teacher), and moi. We had the door-decorating contest, which my class won, again.  They worked really hard and deserved it.

We all went to the gym, where they had a costume parade, movie, and races organized by Kelly and Jenn.

To my left is Allie, and to my right is Quentin.

The monsters are Annie, Karuula, Jimmy Sam, Moses, Quentin and Eric. The glam doll in the hot pink wig? Some crazy qallunaat (white person)! Just can't help fussing with the hair, LOL! The kids thought it looked so good that I should dye it that colour forever. Maybe when I'm 70 and retired to Arizona! No wait...that's when you go with the blue wash...Hee hee!

So tata for now, and I'll keep you posted from the far, still-not-white-yet north! Mwah! Kisses!

Not every day is upbeat...

I'm inside, listening to the wind howl outside AND inside, thanks to leaky windows that are scheduled for replacement but are still with us to date. The wind has been howling for the better part of the past week, knocking out a lot of communications such as internet. It has been frustrating. Add to that perpetual grey cloud and frequent horizontal drenching rains, and it has been a grim week and a half. Oh, and did I mention that our coffee maker broke? Yep. Been a great time here. Note to self...staple smile onto face before leaving house...

The kids were absolutely crazy by the time I returned from my travels. Happy to see me, but still climbing the walls. Sigh... One step forward and two steps back. Even now it is a daily, hourly and even minute-to-minute challenge to get their attention and keep it focussed. On Friday, I had kids running in the hall, who just neglected to actually show up in class. Chased them out of the hall and into the office, and another student grabbed a knife blade and tried to self-injure. Lovely. Yet every time the principal pokes his head in, he tells me that what he sees in my classes makes him very, very happy. So maybe it's not all grim. Just feels that way. Who knows, maybe the endless days of sun and warmth are tiresome? LOL!

We are currently awaiting our Food Mail order. The planes could not land today, so they will try tomorrow. On the plane should be all of the fixings for a big Thanksgiving dinner, hosted at our house. Should be fun, but still I wish I could be home with family. We have ordered a huge turkey, although it may be a challenge to find a pan! I had Katie (bless her heart!) go shopping for me, but the mail service is rather slow. With luck, it will arrive for Christmas, ha ha!

Anyhow, this is a bit of a vent. There again, maybe a non-wind-related word would be better. This is a rant, so I will sign off for now and hope for brighter days to come. TTFN!

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!