Northern Adventures

The blizzard was crazy- warnings from Tuesday night until Sunday. We got out today and kids were playing on the pond- real feel -57 degrees Celsius!  It is so cold that the RCMP trucks are left running 24 hours a day in case they need to respond to a call. One of the officers picked up our grocery order from the airport after the plow cleared the drifts. For two full days visibility was limited to our front porch.  Warnings still in place! 

  https://youtube.com/shorts/-pyXd8_Ap8c The storm got worse after this and I actually could not open or close the door without Ian’s help. We are at home for the second day this week and really hoping to be back at school tomorrow. I don’t do sitting at home very well.  Finished the work I brought home. Started a professional book. Did three crossword puzzles. Took a nap. Started a novel... called or texted a bunch of people!!!!  Fingers crossed the blizzard blows itself out over night.

  It was a challenging week in Whale Cove.  I was touched again by the spectre of suicide, although for now we have support in place for the individual.  There was disclosure of domestic violence and other challenges of food insecurity and tales of violence in other schools in nearby communities that were frankly very scary.  Whale Cove has been very kind to us and today when we walked around we took all of the photos above.  We walked across frozen ponds that looked like cement, saw snow waves and climbed through the rocky terrain.  Ian climbed up to the Whale Tale and took a few shots.  Can you find me in the one in the bottom middle? It was a warm -27 today with brilliant sunshine.  The ice rink is open and kids were getting dropped off for hockey like in many a Canadian Town.  What an adventure!

 Hello all-  Was just thinking about the south this morning and so made a little morning video:fixed the link. https://youtu.be/lD_lGkvix2I Have a great day. 

  Waiting for me one morning this week was Wesley. He was in early as he was helping his grandmother with the breakfast program.  I took this picture to send to Aaron as he is a big Yoda fan...Wesley wore the shirt every day for the remainder of the week. Think he liked that I told him my son would LOVE it. Notice that Wesley isn't wearing shoes.  This is quite common.  All people entering the school remove their boots in the front entrance so that dirt, snow and gravel are not tracked through the school. I carry mine to my office where I put on my shoes, but it is not at all unusual to see teachers teaching in their stocking feet and I am told the former principal never wore his shoes!  Some days when I am in the hall it really feels like it could be any school in Southern Ontario.  These were grade 2's who were using their rulers on chart paper learning measurement. But, if you see in the background the signs on the walls and the posters are all in Inuktitut. Most instruction

 I showed you how to dress and Ian will now show you our typical walk.    https://youtu.be/oeZdvSp48LE   

 Recently one of the teachers brought me a copy of an article from the Walrus on Whale Cove  from June 2019.   Here is the link.  Many of these people are still here.  We work with Molly and Susie's sister teaches at the school.   An Oral History of Whale Cove | The Walrus Enjoy.  It is interesting for us as the pictures are from the summer!  We haven't seen that yet!  

  So we have survived our first Blizzard.  It started on Friday Night and in addition to the temp being below -50, the wind was so high I could barely keep my footing on the way home.  I actually had to go back to school for my phone. Was an adventure.  We were in doors from Friday night until Sunday noon.  In the pictures below you can see that our door was completely covered in snow and that our windows were also completely covered.  The house is sturdy and warm so no impact inside but you could certainly hear the wind howling outside.   We made our way out today to school and the landscape looked different as rocks we had not seen  before had all of the snow blown off of them.  Sam our custodian came in to shovel and the 3 foot drifts at the front were he said, "nothing".  This was a small one!  Can't wait for the next exciting event.

 If you’re wondering what getting ready for work in the morning is like in Nunavut, we’ve made a short instructional video for you. Enjoy!