Kimmirut

As I mentioned earlier the rock formation in the harbour is the town's namesake, Kimmirut means looks like a heel and the rock, well, looks like a heel (sort of). While out doing the cardboard kamotik races I got some nice shots of the formation, and as an added bonus you can see the effect of near-Fundy level tides on sea ice. The tidal range is around 35 feet, and the tide was only halfway out, so the ice cliff gets much higher. It really is amazing to look out the window in the morning and see the sea ice level with the rock, and then look out a few hours later and see a 35 foot ice cliff.

Cardboard Toboggan/Kamotik Building

Skills Canada came in to work with all of the grade 7 and up students this Wednesday. The idea was to split into teams and design cardboard sleds, later we would take them down on to the ice and race them with two students pulling and one student sitting in it. Their "ulterior motive" was to drecruit people for the skilled trades, and they brought a trade fair with them. They only had to charter three planes to do it...

In any case, the kids loved it, and while the high school students won one of my grade 7-8 teams came second! Go us! Wait... I shouldn't cheer, since I was one of the two judges, so I must remain impartial.

It was striking how different the kids were when dealing with a practical, hands on project rather than seat work. I can't wait for next week, I have something similar of my own planned that I think they'll love.

For Nick

Nick requested that we bring back some pictures of us with students, or of us out on the land. I figured, hey, why not two birds with one stone?

We went ice fishing for cod last Monday afternoon. It was absolutely a blast, the weather was sketchy at first, but gorgeous later on and the kids where totally different people once we got out there. I think they realized that they were orders of magnitude more competent than me and they made sure I was okay. They also convinced me to try Kilk and Bannock... I don't think that's going on the list of things I'll miss about the North when I leave. Caribou and Char, totally, canned meat and fried dough, not so much.

Anyway, the whole afternoon left me thinking, why don't we do stuff like this with our students back home? Maybe not ice fishing, but say a hike in the nearby woods?

I was bored, so I climbed a mountain

There's a big hill, a mountain really, up by the airport. I decided that since I was having a boring day I should climb it despite the -28 windchill in the town and lower on the mountain due to the higher winds. (I'd like to say thank you again to my family for lending me the money for proper cold weather gear.) Anyway, it took me about 45 minutes to climb, due to the deep snow, but only about 15 to descend.

As I was near the top I saw something extraordinarily cool, I heard a noise, looked and saw a plane rounding the shoulder of the mountain below me. This was weird for no less than three reasons 1: I was above the plane. 2: The plane was below the mountain and 3: No planes have been able to get in or out of town since Tuesday.

Titles of Tales

To those of you wondering what the town looks like, and who don't find the (admittedly poor) pictures I posted earlier this week to show much, I grabbed some shots from the harbour. Enjoy.

As for developments and stories of interest, there have been many, but most do not lend themselve easily to textual form. So I'll list them in a purposefully vague way in order to garner interest for stories when I return:

- A student tries the hard sell
- Why I'm not an elementary school teacher
- Administrative attitudes
- Full house
- Like office politics, but a whole town
- Applied water conservation
- Nevadas
- Statisitcally significant, methinks

Not that I've peaked your curiousity I'll relate a single anecdote. Did you know that "not even!" is the standard Inuit-English for "no", "that's silly", "no way", "I don't want it", "you're foolish", "I don't believe it", "you're joking", "you're cheating" or any other way of stating a negative? I've heard it more than all of those other phrases combined. And then some.

Safe Harbour

As Janne recently pointed out I've been remiss in my blogging duties. This week was the hump, the "new town smell" is gone and nothing super exciting has happened, some interesting going-on's. those are best told in person. So I'm back to the grind of student teaching. All said it's not that bad, but I miss the people I know and love. I guess I'm a bit homesick, but that's just because no new "OMG I'm in the Arctic!" stuff is going to happen until next weekend.

Anyway, to the pictures. These are of a stroll I took on the harbour here in Kimmirut. Ahh, there's the "OMG I'm in the Arctic!" moment... literally walking on water.

PS The rock formation in the last picture is the town's namesake, the rock is callled Kimmirut, literally "looks like a heel."

Around Town (cont'd)

This is a view of most of the town from the other side of that same hill. The harbour is to the right and the airport is to the left. Some of the town is blocked by the hill itself, and the snow bank. The school and the place I'm staying are behind the hill. Near the middle of the town. (More images from around town to follow, it takes forever to upload them on this connection so have patience.)