...it's been a while...

Sorry I haven't kept up with the posts - the internet is slow and uploading pictures uses a lot of broadband and we tend to run out of it at the end of the month (aka. our internet slows to a crawl...rather frustrating).

At any rate, here are some photos of the boots I made over 'March Break.' We don't actually get the week off; staff have to participate in "professional development" activities. I decided to make these boots. I worked with an elder in the community and it took me ALL week. Everything was sewn by hand. The design was mine and it's not entirely 'traditional' but is more 'Indian' than 'Inuit.' They tell me the boots are more like 'mukluks' than 'kamiks' and that they are more like 'Metis boots.' Still, everyone seems to think they're pretty cool, and a few of my students didn't even believe I'd made them myself! Ha!

I'm pretty proud of them!

If you're wondering when I am coming home, my flight is booked for Friday June 26th....coming to a community in Ontario near you, soon!

Huzzah!

...to update or not to update...

That is the question....obviously, I have been going with the latter lately. I suppose there hasn't been too much wild and fabulous going on...but there have been a few highlights:

I went to a traditional 'feast' a number of weeks ago. The only food to feast on was raw, a fabulous spread of raw seal (of which there were three, split down the centre, guts pulled out, no longer swimming in sea water but seal blood), raw clams, and raw narwhal (muktuk). Mmm, mmmm, good! I had some narwhal (chewy, a bit like squid) and actually ate a raw clam, so fresh it was still moving and I had to murder it with my bare hands by squishing out its guts (it looked a bit like a disembodied tongue lying on my very own slab of cardboard). I couldn't bring myself to eat any seal, having tasted it cooked already I can't imagine the raw variety being more enjoyable. The image that is imprinted in my memory is of all of the women in the washroom after the feast, their faces and hands smeared and covered with blood, cleaning up after this delicious meal. Did you know that the word "Eskimo" means 'eaters of raw meat?'

One afternoon all of the students from the school took the pier by storm because narwhals were sighted off-shore. All of the hunters were out in their boats and we were able to see the spray from the blow holes of 3 narwhals. We didn't see the narwhals themselves per se, but still it was very exciting to shout at the boat circling around their prey.

I've bought a few knicknacks from some artists who come selling their art door-to-door. Yesterday, Karen and I bought a polar bear and a pair of earings for $45, we did a bit of bartering. The young man we bought from agreed to our price and we exchanged goods and money. Tonight, the same young man came back, demanding more money for us saying that we had agreed to a 'down payment' (which of course was not true). He became more and more aggressive and one of our neighbours finally called us and we asked her to call the RCMP. As soon as he heard that, he took of running and we haven't seen him since. We do have the whole night ahead of us.

Karen and I have started a 'dance club' on Fridays after school. I don't really know what I'm doing, but the kids seem to be having fun, it's a workout, and we're going to choreograph something for the Christmas concert which is going to spring up faster than we imagine.

Only 7.5 weeks 'til Christmas!

...a picture's worth a thousand words...

Water, Earth and Sky: Staff Day trip out on the land

Heading Home: Fishing boats we travelled in on our Staff Day

Ain't it pretty?

Inukshooks on top of the mountain we climbed a few weeks ago. Remember that...I call it: The Mountain Climbing Fiasco.

Today I walked out of the school and had to laugh at the fact that I am, indeed, living in the Arctic. Sometimes I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday I was living in the tropics...and as I smile at the memories and shake my head in disbelief, I turn and watch a 6-year old boy pop a wheelie on the snow-dusted dirt road and wave at a woman driving by on a 4-wheeler.

Yes, this is Qikiqtarjuaq. And it's started snowing already.


This is the view from the mountain we climbed. The picture I have of this mountain is not very impressive...but trust me, it's a high mountain and currently completely snow-covered. Karen and I hiked this mountain...twice. In one day.

This is the mountain. Trust me, it's more impressive than this in person. I swear.



And in case you're worried I'm not getting my balanced diet of fruits and vegetables...we picked some 'black berries' on our Staff Day as well. Can you say muffins and pancakes?


Who is this devilishly handsome brute? Oh wait, it says. One day, maybe I'll take art classes too, Dad. :)

...really, kids? REALLY?...

I'm a little grumpy (shocking, I know) from a lack of sleep.

As I've mentioned, the children run around like banshees up here. Last night, there was a group of 6 youths lurking around the Co-Op Store and the Hamlet Community Centre (we just happen to live in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in town. It has its own stop sign) and these 6 youths were bludgeoning an empty plastic oil can with a 2X4.

Why?

Who honestly knows.

And do they really have to do it at 1am? FOR 40 MINTUES??

Other things that happen for 40 mintues:

1. Supposedly this is how long I'm supposed to teach each subject in a single period. As if the students actually achieve or accomplish anything in this amount of time. I've already started 'doubling up.'

2. Children incessantly ringing our door bell and knocking on our front door and calling 'Eeeemmiiiilllly" in high pitched, banshee-like voices. Annnooooooying. This is why we bolt the outer porch door. I suspect we appear highly anti-social.

3. Our walk around town last night where we collected rocks to make our own miniature Inukshooks, almost adopted a puppy, and were scared half to death by students careening around town on a 4-wheeler. I don't care if it's the kid's 13th birthday - don't scream at me on a road where I could be attacked by Polar Bears!

If you're reading this blog, you should also check out Karen's (www.karenversluys.blogspot.com) as she has a few more pictures up plus a hilarious story about our mountain climbing adventure last weekend.

Painful.

...i can see clearly now...

the fog is lifting...for about 30 seconds.

Just a few quick observations:

1. The hot water temperature here is unregulated. It must be regulated in Ontario and other places because here it is scalding. Always. I could practically brew tea with what comes out of the tap but not quite, because the water does need to be boiled and filtered before it's actually drinkable.

2. Non-potable water, empty water tanks, wild dogs, swarms of children, phone delays, and endemic tardiness are just a few of the things about living in the North that remind me of living in Africa.

3. The kids here are like wild banshees. They roam the streets at night until all hours, unsupervised and uncared for. Sometimes, for fun, we watch them throw rocks at each other from one of our upstairs bedroom windows. It's like Lord of the Flies, but instead of a dead pig it's a seal carcass they're fighting over. And in school, it's a circus and I'm the ineffective ringleader.

4. I'm going to need to order more wine. Every day is 'one of those days.'

5. They don't actually pay me enough. Show me the money! (Love you, Tom).

6. Seal meat tastes like a cross between some sort of fish and animal liver. Narwhal tastes like a cross between lobster, and squid/octopus. Let's just say I don't think I'll be making seal meat stew any time soon.

In other news....

If you want to reach me, my mailing address is:

Emily Harrison
PO Box 167
Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut
X0A 0B0

Our phone number is:

(867) 927 8978.

Our phone plan is horrible so please call me because I can't call you that often!

Photos of our staff bondage...I mean bonding day out 'on the land' will follow soon.

Have a great weekend.

I plan to....drink....

(kidding Mum; I don't have a problem...just a solution).

...out and about...

Well, it's been a bit of a foggy, rainy week here... there was one day that was nice, but it happened to be the day we were in school so I didn't get a chance to snap too many pictures. I took these over the weekend.

This is the view from my bedroom. Note the functioning power lines. The icebergs are starting to move into our bay now as well and eventually all of the water will freeze over.

Don't worry, I brought my skates.



It seems to take FOREVER for the pictures to upload here - I feel as though the signal in Qikitarjuaq is worse than that in Freetown. Who would have thought?

As I wait for the next photo to upload, I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you that our Sea Lift order of frozen foods has yet to arrive, as does any of my cargo shipment. For the last week I have eaten pasta and pizza almost exclusively. For variety I add the occasional serving of canned peaches or applesauce. Delish.


This photo is taken on the way to school (it's a short walk down an unpaved road...as are all the roads here). In the distance you can see a hill with an Inukshook on it. Karen and Tara (one of the other new teachers here) went for a walk up the hill but I didn't join them. Along the way a wild husky dog jumped out at them and Tara's dog, Mavic, and tried to take a bite out of Mavic's hind quarters. Needless to say, I won't be walking alone here.

We had a long weekend this weekend only there were no docks, barbeques, or sunset beers involved... Today, Monday, most of the teachers were at school planning for the rest of the week's classes. On Thursday the staff are supposed to be going to the national park here, weather permitting.

Can I just mention again how SLOW it is to upload pictures? Oiy.

Eventually...when it finally loads, you'll see a picture of the outside of the school - Inuksuit School. The school is fairly well equipped and I'm not worried about supplies or anything like that. We even have a coffee fund. It's wild.


My classroom is pretty typical - a bit bigger than the one in Sierra Leone and I have a view of something more inspiring than just a stone wall growing moss. Super!


And now, to end this update, a warning to you all... make sure that when you enter the computer lab you abide by the sign on the door:


And I mean it.

...At the top of the world...

Well, after a frantic run around at the Toronto Airport Karen and I managed to catch the flight from TO to Ottawa in one piece. But no joke, we both just barely managed to get on the plane in time. There was running involved. So much for 'meeting up' at the airport beforehand. Otherwise the travel portions of our trip were smooth. There was some chaos with the small size of the Iqaluit airport and the extreme number of excess baggage articles that everyone on the plane had...but it eventually was all sorted out. Karen's bags weighed a ton. Almost literally. Together we had 13 pieces. Good times were had in the transportation of all of our stuff from the Iqaluit airport to our hotel room on Sunday night and then back to the airport at 6am the next morning. In fact, things were so rough when we first arrived in Iqaluit that the military jumped in to help us. No, it wasn't planed. I guess we just looked pathetic standing outside the airport and wondering why the hotel shuttle doesn't run on the weekends. At any rate, it was immensely helpful that these three military men loaded all of our suitcases into the back of their truck, drove us to the hotel and then unloaded everything for us again. They kept exclaiming about the amount of stuff we had and couldn't believe there were only 2 of us. Imagine their continued shock when we told them we were only staying for 2 weeks. "Um...well, we're only up for 2 weeks but we just couldn't decide what to wear!" Yeah...good times. :)

We were met in Qikiqtarjuaq (Kick-ick-tar-jew-ack) by the principal and dropped with our two 'priority suitcases' at our newly renovated house. It's a lot nicer and larger than we expected. It has 2.5 floors, tons of storage space and lots of living space. We'll be happy there. Photos will follow of course just as soon as all of our other suitcases arrive, not to mention our cargo shipment. As it stands, no flights came into Qiki today because of the high winds and fog but we're hopeful that the other 9 pieces of our baggage will arrive at the end of the week.

Luckily, part of our Food Sea Lift order had arrived! It's a good thing, because there was no where to buy dinner in the town. We made pasta with tomato sauce and cheese. I even had grapefruit juice and canned peaches for dessert. It's not so bad. In fact, I think food options will be fairly decent. Of course, I think we're eating pasta again tonight so it might loose its appeal sooner rather than later.

Our school has wireless internet which is nice, although it's been a bit difficult to set up phone and internet service for our house. We basically have to sell our lives away to set up phone service. I let Karen do that. Because I'm just that nice.

I puttered around my classroom this morning/afternoon. The students start school on Thursday so I have to come up with some 'back to school activities' for the rest of this week and then get down to some serious lesson planning over the weekend which is a long one since there is a holiday on Monday. The other teachers from the South that I've met have seemed really nice. Karen and I live next door to a young couple who have been teaching in Korea for the last couple of years and have a wrinkle dog...you know, the kind from 'Pound Puppies.' I used to have a wrinkle dog toy when I was a child. The real thing is even cutter!

Alas, I haven't taken any photos yet as I haven't been in a particularly 'snappy' mood. I will take some soon and upload them and let you into the aesthetics of my new world. Qiki has some mountains so there is visual appeal and at the moment most things are brown, yellowy-brown, or greeny-brown. There is no snow, but today is overcast, foggy and very windy which makes it a lot colder.

I'm heading home now to fix myself some pasta. Sweet.

Gotta love those carbs.