Time seems to be flying by these days, I can’t believe that it has been 4 weeks since I last wrote. For some of you, it has been longer, my apologies to you as I had some problems with my email contact lists. It seems like all I must talk about these days is how much sun we get now, but it is rather exciting when you are deprived for so long, we are getting about 12 hours of it these days, and it is quickly making the days a lot brighter and I feel a lot more energy, even if the temperature is still in the –30s or –40s, life seems much brighter!
So, what can I tell you of adventures from these past weeks? I got to go to Yellowknife for a week in February for our professional development week, we get all our days in one shot so that it is possible to go out to a conference somewhere. It was so great to return to the fringes of civilization and go for walks amidst the city’s stubbly trees. To be able to go out to a restaurant for a meal and wander around a decent sized grocery store and go to the barber, I guess it’s the small things sometimes. It was also refreshing to meet a lot of other young teachers from around the north and share similar joys and frustrations in teaching up here. I also returned to Gjoa Haven with a new supply of tropical fish, including an aquatic frog, and it has been great to see students come to my class to watch with interest, from the oldest high school students, about age 30 to the youngest from kindergarten and grade 1. My students love to feed them, and they very promptly remind me if it’s their turn to feed them when it slips my mind. I am teaching keyboarding/computer skills as an elective to a small class of junior high students this semester, and it is quite enjoyable. They are so interested in the computers, but have so little knowledge and experience with them, so they are quite curious and helpful. We have also been planting some seeds and bulbs as part of our science in our class, so I look forward to seeing some flowers in my classroom soon, as I won’t be seeing any outside around here any time soon.
Some of you know that I applied to lead a group of northern young people on a trip to Botswana this summer. I received an interview and did quite well, but in the end the organization decided to go with a couple of married couples as leaders of the groups, since the leaders were already familiar with each other. I am not disappointed as I think the summer is going to be great wherever it finds me, but its hard not to imagine what an experience leading on a trip like that might have been like, and wondering if I’d have been going if I was married. But I have much to be thankful for, especially as I help fundraise and prepare to lead a group of our high school students to BC in May. It’s a fun adventure working with the students, doing baking etc. to help raise money. I have been doing a lot of corporate letter writing and filling out of applications the past couple of weeks to help raise funds, so that has kept me out of trouble.
I also find myself managing to find a healthier routine in being active. I’m getting out to play badminton a couple of nights a week and I’ve also managed to get my roomate’s bowflex set up and started to figure out how to use it. It’s nice to be able to come home and crank on some tunes and get some physical exercise. I’m also kept busy working away on a personal investing course that I signed up for, the union/government pays for teachers to take courses here as part of their professional development, so that gives me lots of new information to try and make sense of. So, by the time I cook and clean around the house and get bundled up for the occasional outdoor adventure there aren’t too many spare moments.
I think I am starting to wonder more about the future, though I’ve been rather busy to truly stop and think, but I have to tell my principal by April 9th whether I will stay or leave. There is so much that I miss in being up here, and yet I am starting to see that in the midst of many difficult struggles I am beginning to gain some perspective (perhaps it is the return of the sun) and realize that I am learning a lot, and being stretched and grown as a person. Part of me wonders at coming back, I find myself flip-flopping back and forth a lot. I would appreciate any prayers and advice/perspective that any of you would have for me.
A unique form of transportation on the frozen lake in Yellowknife,
Snow piles and drifts in town are getting kind of high this time of year,
A carving made out of whale bone in the NWT Legislature
At the cemetery in Gjoa Haven
A Polar Bear skin that a local Inuit man got with a tag a couple of months ago
