warm weather for the north

This morning it is minus 15ish C in Salluit. Not a bit of wind. It is the best of weather. I feel fantastic about this kind of weather until I realize that it is plus 15 in Halifax today. I imagine today's Salluit weather is what the world thinks all of Canada is like, all the time. I have outside duty several times today but it is a pleasure today. The sky is blue with some very friendly clouds. The sun has been pouring in my classroom the past few days. I finally had to put some wonderfully colourful tissue paper up as a curtain, as it was getting too warm to work. Many Inuit are out fishing in this warmer weather and are most generous to me. I love Arctic char.

Years ago when Aran came up the first time, Elisapie gave me a char to have for his first dinner in Salluit. The next day when she met him and saw the size of him,she offered me another char. The char has a nice firm pink meat... someone told me it was a cross of a brook trout and a salmon. But were they trying to fool the white teacher? I bake it in the oven with lots of lemon juice and lemon pepper. It is a fatty fish so I dont need any butter when I am cooking it. Having a unlimited supply of char makes up ( well almost) for no haddock and halibut. I do miss my Nova Scotia fish. I do have lots of salt cod for fish cakes. The Inuit who worked in Happy Valley Goose Bay love the salt cod . The Co-op here won't carry it so we use the Phillip Woolaver distribution system. He buys it, he ships it and I give it away. It is a system that works well.

We are all back in school now. The big excitement for my class was a video conference with a Gr. 5 class in a school in the Wicklow Hills, just outside of Dublin. Preparing for the conference... getting the kids ready to ask questions and to be prepared to answer questions took alot of energy and time. But that was nothing compared to setting up the machines to do it. I had computers, cameras, Msn messenger, Skype... I was in the other school, in Michael's office, in my own classroom. It was a crazy two days. Keeping it straight what time it was in Ireland for the test runs...

We had to be ready at 8:30 on Wed am. I had all the students wear the hat that is popular here. Each time we do the conference I am going to try and utilize a different piece of traditional clothing. They were all scrubbed up like new pennies. The questions that the Irish students asked were very thought provoking. My students are 2nd language English and only use it in the classroom. So listening to the Irish students with their accents and slang was a great learning experience for them. Even noticing the different hair colours and complexions was interesting for my students.

Sometimes I think that I am the luckiest teacher in Salluit. My kids work so hard at their learning. One of the Irish students had just moved there from South Africa. As soon as the conference was over my class wanted to go to the globe and maps to see South Africa. I had planned on starting a unit on the continents and oceans next week. What a great intro for me. I love it when one thing leads to another. And my parents have sent several National Geographics that have wonderful articles about S.A.

So school continues to go well. I am tired tho. The year is long and I miss home... family and friends, restuarants, movies, shopping. The TV is both a joy and pain in the butt. That Tim's has caramel treats is driving me nuts. My favourite flavour and I am not there to enjoy it. And if I see one more Dairy Queen commerical.... but it is also things like the snowdrops and the daffodils. As great as an Arctic Char is, I 'd love to be home .

This past Tuesday's Boston Legal had me rolling off the sofa when they used Tammy Wynett's song" Stand By Your Man" to close the show. It was as perfect an ending as a regular watcher could want. In one of my all time favourite movies ,from a few years back," The Crying Game" they also used that great song to close the movie. Tuesday's closing was just as good.

Today is Culture Day in the school. Many of the Inuit teachers are dressed in traditonal clothing. They are preparing seal and fox skins in the old ways. Others are working on the prepared furs to make the clothing. The sewing and piecing of the seal skins is a work of art. They make wonderful designs with the different shades of fur. I have two cameras going to remember it all. And the embroidery on the duffle socks that line the seal skin boots... so beautiful . I have made several pairs of duffle socks for my family to wear in rubber boots or as slippers.
I prepared a booklet for my students to use as they go from station to station. There are questions for them to ask and answer. The ones that fill up their booklet get to come to my house for lunch. Some of them gave up and said they did not want to do it. Others are working very hard at it. Most of the students in the school are using the day as a holiday. Poor mine have to work. I think I will take them out on the hill for Inuit games this afternoon. They have seen most of what is in the gym. There is also a snow house out at the bottom of the hill.

These Culture Days are so important. The old ways are dying out... life is changing here very rapidly in just one generation. Keeping the language alive is so important. I worry about my students and the life they will have because of all the changes. Some change is good but change is a double edged sword. That we have a mdecial centre here is good. That t we can send our
seriously ill out to Montreal is great. But smoking is not good. The effect of smoking on the general health of this community is so negative. I have several students who have been smoking for years. They are as addicted as any 30 year old. Don't get me started on that!

I must close this off for today.
P