Birthday girl

Well another year has passed and been celebrated. Numbers are getting a bit steep, rather like the hills here in Salluit. I had a lovely day but missed Sara terribly. It has been so many years since we were together on our special day. I called her at 7 am ,her time, and we had another long chat later in the evening.

During the school prayer circle the Principal asked who had a birthday today and my class all yelled out "Pearl". I then had my birthday greeting sung in three languages. The real up side of that was all day students called out Happy Birthday to me. Walking the halls was so much fun. I now know what rock stars feel like when people are always smiling at them and calling out their name. As I came down the hill at 10:00 a crowd of people went by me on a ski=doo and they yelled out Happy Birthday Pearl.

The dinner was held up at Mark and Johanna Alaku's. I teach their son Jajie and the youngest in that family, Hannah, was born last year on the 27th. I was not with Sara but I was able to celebrate with one sweet little girl. Marc Gagnon's IPL group ( ususally the bad boys of the school) made us a huge Black Forest Choc Cake. It was huge and it was delicious. Hannah had candles at one end , and I had a "few" at my end. I hope the photos turned out. There were too many gifts but it was very comforting to be celebrated when I am so far from dear ole Nova Scotia.
Oh I forget one wonderful thing. Several of my students were at the party too. Poor Johanna had so many to feed. I asked my students to recite "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now" and they did. I think I have successfully inoculated them with the need to show off in large groups. In years to come you will be able to recognize my former students by their inabililty to sit and be still in any group of people. I am so proud of them.
So another year has passed, another year older and deeper in debt.

Weather continues to dominate

We still have weather problems here in Salluit. On Friday we only had a hlaf day of school. Blizzard conditions again. Road conditions we bad so the trucks could not go round. I was sick and tired of no showers... my hair was a mess so I threw caution to the winds and had a shower. I couldn't imagine another weekend with no water, the sewage tank full and me dirty.

I had an intersting shower. I got myself all wet, turned the water off, soaped myself and hair and went to turn the water on again to rinse. I've been living in this house for over 3 years and could not get the hot water back on. I ended up having a very cold rinse. Kind of cooled the ole temper off. Cold, I guess I was cold.

Sat and Sun were lovely most of the day.. very warm and no wind. I took 2 walks on Sat. I was just starting to think of a walk on Sun when the wind came up. I do need the exercise. This morning we are having a heavy snowfall and we are to have quite a storm later today. One of our teaching family is trying to get back to Salluit from Montreal with a 3 month old baby. The plane got half way up and turned around as the weather is not good along both coasts.. .Ungava and Hudson. That poor mother travelling with a sick babe and having to go back and do it all tomorrow. It is not easy travelling at any time... being so far away from hospitals is something that stays in the back of your mind constantly.

Many teachers are out sick today. Knock on wood I stay well. I have spent so much time on antibiotics this year. I am trying to eat better and get some exercise but there are so many students with runny noses and coughs that it is impossible to ward off everything. Aran keeps me supplied with Cold FX and it seems to work most of the time. I've only had one bad spell since Christmas.

The days are longer and longer this time of year. I have a huge , heavy bath sheet over the blind on my bedroom window to keep the light out. To-night I am going to fix some sort of black out curtain. The days is too long when I get up at 5 am.

The Inuit are glad of the snow fall today. They want to be able to use their ski-doos as long as possible which allows them to get out of town. Everyone is enjoying feeds of Arctic Char. It is great to have something that is fresh as opposed to all the frozen food we have most of the time.

My brother George arrives this Friday, weather permitting. I am hoping that he will get out on the land and see a bit of this part of the north. If we keep the snow then he can do some travelling. It is a good time of year to visit as there is lots to do and see. In Inuktitut George is Jajie. He will come to school the first morning he is here and be introduced to the students. After that everywhere he goes he will hear"Jajienay"... hello George. Pearlnay is hello Pearl. There seems to be no Inuk version of Pearl.

The little ones can be very sweet and as I walk thru the school and the community I hear my name shouted.. the little scamps are up on the sheds, or the rooves of the houses and they shout a lovely greeting. I end up feeling like a celebrity as I walk along. In the school most of the students speak French so I have to scramble to come back with something they will understand. I find them kind that way. I can have a bit of a dust up with a student but the next time we meet they are happy and have something nice to say. Very different than the high school.

On one of my walks on Saturday I saw many sights I would not see down south. One of the deep ditches had a foot ( at least) of water on top of the ice. Several very young children were playing in the ditch, riding pieces of plywood. What a grand time they were having. It shocked my Mum when she was up here to see the kids playing in pools of water that were obvious death traps. She tried to get them out of their favouurite play pool, needless to say she was not successful. Then I saw two very young boys ( they weren't 5) cutting up ice in a puddle with a hatchet. Made my blood run cold let me tell you. The next thing was to spy two little girls filling up a discarded vodka bottle with water. They were very happy. All the kids are happy when they are out playing. Even the littlest ones have very little superivision when they are out of doors.

There are many parties planned for this week so I made up lots of sweets. Filo pastry came into the Co-op so I made bakalava. I also made a couple of apple pies and several cakes. My freezer is full. And I made a huge pot of curry. I found chicken breasts in the bottom of my freezer so I made a huge pot and froze it in two batches. I even made the rice. It is so difficult to come home from school and cook something that is good enough to carry to a party. Now to cook for George's arrival. I am never out of the kitchen for long. Speaking of kitchen it is time for lunch. Have a good day.

Problems with water and weather

The problems these days in Salluit are pretty basic. The weather, the lack of water and surplus of sewage dominates our lives here... or mine. If the weather is bad the trucks that we depend upon for sewage removal ( the most imp) amd to bring us water can't work. If the sewage tank in my house gets full, the water shuts off. I do have lots of interesting smells.

It is difficult to do anything in the house without water. Over the long Easter weekend we had no services for 4 days. Then yesterday when services should have resumed we had an ice storm . I did not have services until late into the evening. All day I was thinking I would go home and be able to wash myself, my dishes and cook a proper meal. It was a bit disappointing to go into the house at 5 pm and see the tank lights were on..

I lost water Sunday at noon. That is not unusual ... it happens most weekends. The problem with that is that I knew I would not get services until Tuesday. That is a long time not to flush a toilet, have a shower , do a good teeth cleaning, wash vegetables, wash dishes and generally clean up the house. It makes cooking, and by extension, entertaining almost impossible. It does make for lots of exercise as each time I had to use a toilet I walked to school. Thank-God it is only 300 steps.

It is difficult not to let these type of living get you down. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a bit of a shower freak. I am not exactly squeaky clean but I do love my showers. I do like a tidy house. I don't like to exercise much but not being able to have a shower meant I wasn't going to exercise at all. I was smelly enough. It is a bit of a trial.

And it is a problem for the entire village. I'd like to say that I was having the worst time but those with families have a more difficult time. Youngsters create lots of laundry and they do need baths. Heaven forbid that someone was sick and need the sheets changed several times. In some of the houses there are 20 plus people. How do they do it? How does it make them feel not to be able to bathe? to cook? to live with piles of dirty dishes? What an easter when you have to think about every drop of water you use!

Last night we had yet another blizzard. I sleep with my window open. I woke up at 4 am to see the room full of swirling snow. I thought my white hair was in my eyes . I am sure that we won't get services again today. The road up the hill is too steep for the sewage trucks if there is ice on the road. I am so glad that I did not go nuts last night washing everything in sight once I had services.

We have had more blizzards in April than we had all winter. The last day we were at school before Easter I got caught out in a blizzaard. I had gone to help out at the lunch for the kids. It was windy when I went to Marc's kitchen but an hour later when it was time to go back to school it was a white out. I tried walking two steps and knew I'd never make it in the storm. Marc drove me back home ( school was cancelled) and that was a scary ride. We could not see a thing. I was terrified a truck would hit us, or we'd hit a ski-doo or a child . It was a terrible ride... just terrible. Talk about being on the edge of my seat.

Right now it looks OK out. We had a huge snowfall last night and with the winds there are lots of drifts to wade thru. And this is bloody April! I had my cute little Gap down coat on the past few days but today I am back to that huge ugly lime green coat. I was even wearing lined soft leather gloves. I am now back to my big seal skin mitts. Cute is gone !
I must go do my outside duty now. What a thrill. I hope some of you are feeling sorry for me as I feel so sorry for myself.

The class could not be busier

Man oh man we are busy in Gr. 5 & 6 English these days. Don't let the word English fool you. I teach, or try to teach, every subject but just to the Gr. 5 and 6 English class. In the North, Inuit parents can choose to have their children go thru the English sector or the French sector. I am one of two English teachers in this school and one of 4 in the village. There are 5 French teachers in this school . There are days I never hear English, except from my students.

This divison of English sector and French sector contibutes to the isolation in Sallulit. In the staff room French and Inuktitut dominate. No one is the least bit intersted in politics so I have no one to argue with about the many issues facing Canadians with a new gov't in Ottawa. I do long for a juicy arguement about something, anything...

I decided to invite the parents of my students to come in to school just before the Easter break to see their little darlings perform in class. Actually I never say parents but say loved ones as there are factured families here, as in the rest of Canada. We are busy learning a new poem. The kids really like memorizing these small little poems and showing off. At the first of the year it was very difficult to get them to stand in front of the class and speak. Now they love it.

We also want the classroom to look pretty and spring like so we are busy with paint bushes. I got the crazy idea to teach them to stencil. We have so little material to work with that everything is harder to do. I don't have real stencil brushes.. and no way of getting them. The school has no money for such supplies and the stores don't have any to buy anyway. ( DO you know how much teachers spend of their own money on school supplies? not just up here but everywhere... Staples gives teachers a fantastic discount to help with the cost)
But we are having fun.

I wore my white shirt to school yesterday since I was planning on taking some school photos. What a day to wear a white shirt. Ten year olds that were excited and running around with pails of dirty water , or brushes full of paint or their painted project... plus a very excited teacher. What a mess I was by the end of the day.

The kids came back to school this am so excited about the poem they had memorized and to paint more today. I had promised that if they worked hard during the day we would paint every day. Why do I make such rash promises?

And we started a unit on the continents and oceans. Now that we are doing video conferences with a school in Ireland it was time to go to the maps and globes. I love this . One of my special passions. It is a hard go at first. The students may travel around the north and perhaps go to Montreal but they don't do much travelling other than that. It is a concept that is difficult to grasp at the beginning for them . This winter when Elias flew from his great-grandparents in Florida to Toronto knew he must be in Canada when the cold air blasted him. He also knows that you have to go thru where Gram and Gramp live to get to Grandmammie in Clare. The children here do not have the opportunity to travel the way people do in southern Canada.

My students are very tired these days. They are staying up until well after mid-night each night. It is the most beautiful time of year in the north. It is warmer with lots of snow still down so people can travel to the fishing areas at night. I have my doors and windows open most of the daylight hours. My house has so many windows that is like living in a hot house at times. Yesterday I went for the first long walk of the spring. On the weekend I walked up the big hill to take photos... carrying three cameras. I have learned how to do video, digital as well as my old great fantastic 35mm.

I am receiving lots of mail these days. Summer plans are in the works already. Too many choices to make.

The internet has been off for several days. That always seems to happen when I need to use the internet or the phone. On the weekend we could not call out of the village , nor could we receive phone calls. My parents were leaving Florida and I always like to have a chat with them before they go. I am a bit anxious with them driving back to Nova Scotia so I like hearing from them when they are on the road. They called last night to say they were in Bangor and shopping till Dad was kicked out of the stores. Only a day or so now till they are home in their Bear River nest. I must close up shop and head to my little nest for a cup of tea.

Have a good day.
P