The Musk Ox graveyard, nothing goes bad during the cold of winter

Yet another Musk Ox head lying around

Caribou skin pegged out on the ground, I usually walk past a
couple of these each day on my short walk to school

Clearing snow on the all important road to the lake for our water trucks

While we don't actually get that much snow, it always sticks around and makes big drifts

Mmmm, Dinner Time!

The life of a water truck driver in Gjoa Haven while he waits for the water
to pump from the lake through the top loading rack into his truck.

Riding in sleds behind skidoos on the way to the lake

Our camp for the school day on the lake, complete with coleman stoves inside the tent

Okay so the mitts are bigger than some of the students,
believe it or not this girl is actually in grade 7!

Ice scoops and chisels to dig ice holes, that go a long way down!

Adventures in Nunavut XI

Alas, it is the end of April, and I haven’t written to many of you in ages! As for so many of you, it has been a very busy spring. I survived my official teaching evaluation in March, it actually went quite well all things considered. If I thought the kids’ interest was suspect in school to begin with here, it definitely has trailed off even more, I think everyone is counting down the days. At least we only have 4 day school weeks, as we take a bunch of long weekends instead of having the traditional Spring Break. I also find myself trying to get us outside to go cross-country skiing or to go skating at the arena with the kids to break up the days.

The sun is up for about 18 hours a day now, and it never really gets dark since it is so flat around Gjoa Haven. It definitely takes some getting used to, and I’ve definitely covered my bedroom window with cardboard and blankets. It’s hard to imagine its only going to get brighter in the weeks to come. As for the temperature, we get nice days that tease us, it almost got to zero today, but then it starts to blizzard and we’re back down to –20 or so. Lots of hockey tournaments and recreational volleyball and basketball tournaments going on these days, so people think nothing of piling onto skidoos and driving to the next community, which can be anywhere from 3 to 16 hour rides away!

It’s also hard to believe that is only a week until I leave for BC with a group of 8 students May 7-18th to tour around Vancouver and Vancouver Island. It’s amazing how much planning and organizing of details goes into such a trip. Lots of money too, when you have to fly from way in the middle of nowhere up north, but we have done great with our fundraising! I get to take 3 students from my own grade 7 class and the others range up to grade 11. I’m ready for some shorts and a change of scenery (Can I hear an amen for trees, mountains and unfrozen water, I must be a BC boy!), and its going to be great to watch the students’ reaction to the activities and adventures that we have in mind for them, including horseback riding, caving, rock climbing, whale watching in a zodiac on the west coast, and lots more. Only two of the students have been past Yellowknife before, and only one beyond Edmonton, so it will be quite an eye-opening experience for them. After I get back from that trip we only have about 2.5 weeks left, most of which will be spent doing cultural activities out on the land, like playing games and ice fishing!

I have decided to return to Gjoa Haven for another year. There are still quite a few frustrations, but things have gotten better, and I figure I should give it a second shot, since at least I know what I am getting myself into now, and I’m really just starting to get to know some of the kids and some of the people in the community. I will also be teaching a grade 9 age class instead of grade 7, which I am quite thankful for, as the kids coming up from grade 6 have quite a reputation.

I have also been enjoying getting out to play badminton quite a bit, and it is going to be my goal to get a badminton program at our school going instead of coaching senior basketball next year. I felt kind of inadequate with it and the commitment just wasn’t there from the older guys. I might try to do something with basketball with the junior high, but I’ll see when the time comes.

So, as everyone starts to think about summer, the barge order catalogues through our local stores arrive, and I start to think about what dry goods I will order for myself for next year instead of buying from the stores here at a premium. These catalogues are something else, hundreds of pages long, all typed single-spaced with a one-line description of each item. The catch is you have to buy a whole case of whatever you get, so I guess the real question is, does one person really need 14 jumbo sized boxes of Raisin Bran in one year? Our orders are packaged on pallets in Hay River, NWT, and shipped out in mid July, before arriving here in late September. The ice doesn’t actually break up where I live until around the start of July!

I am all done with school on June 7th, and fly out on the 9th. I’m planning on spending the summer in BC between Kelowna, Eagle Bay Camp on the Shuswap, and Vancouver Island, before coming back to Nunavut about a week into August to go back at it again. I hope that I will get to see a number of you this summer. I have definitely missed being around my friends, and all the church, camp and youth people a lot this year!