Well, I thought I'd fill you all in on my summer and now fall antics. I didn't do nearly as much relaxing as I was hoping for this summer, which is fine since I didn't really deserve it! I will say that after nearly 8 months of not working getting back onto a regular schedule was very hard, but I appreciated it.
Iain and I arrived back on the beautiful BC coast in mid-June and after a brief stay in West Vancouver with Iain's parents we headed for Mayne Island with the intention of staying there for the rest of the summer. It didn't turn out quite as expected, but when does life ever? Initially we set up my little cabin with a work station for Iain and I and set Mom and Ted's house up with wireless internet so we could all be connected to the rest of the world. Iain had another contract with the Nunavut Arctic College to create and modify course matierials for various programs, so he needed to be set up with all his research and writing tools. I was planning on helping out with small sections of the course but intended to spend most of the summer visiting family and possibly taking a course of my own.
Iain definitely worked while he was on Mayne, however it was mostly on handy-man projects around my cabin, Mom and Ted's house and Nan and Papa's place while he was there housesitting. I guess as we get older some things don't change...I remember when I was in school and there was an exam coming up my room would get very, very clean. That's the way it was for Iain and his contract! It was wonderful for me, my cabin finally has water running to it and all the doors and windows have their trim finished. The best part of it was he showed me what he was doing as we went along, so now I have a much better idea of how to put together pipe for a sink and make a proper 45 degree cut.
At the end of June I drove with Nanny and Papa to Drayton Valley to visit Dad and Elaine and Tom and Irene and the kids. I got to see Trina while I was there and had a wonderful visit with everyone. The weather was great and I enjoyed some great gluten free hot-dog roasts and a lot of catching up. I had really missed family while travelling and it was wonderful to be surrounded by it again! Iain stayed on Mayne while we were all in Drayton and had a blast farm sitting...I forsee chickens in our future, but he got fairly exasperated by the sheep and their stupidity! Everything was still running smoothly when Uncle Norm arrived on Mayne to take over so he must have done a good job. I headed back to Mayne on the 6th of July and Iain and I relocated to West Vancouver on the 12th.
While we were in New Zealand I had heard about a program offered in North Vancouver called the Compass Program which is a holistic Career Planning program. In the few days Iain and I had been in Vancouver when we first arrived home I dove into researching the program and how to get into it. As it turned out I had to jump through a few hoops and pass three interviews but I was accepted for a program start of July 19th which is why Iain and I left the cozy cabin and headed back to the big city. It worked well for Iain because there were fewer handy-man projects for him in Vancouver and a dedicated office he could work in.
Shortly after my program started Iain's brother Andrew and his family arrived from Denver for their annual visit. I have always thought of Iain's parents house in West Van as a LARGE home...however, with 6 adults a 10 year old and a two year-old it became a very small home. I enjoyed spending most of my days at class and visiting in the evenings and weekends with Andrew, Whitney and the kids.
My program was as wonderful as I had hoped for. The Compass Center accepts 16 applicants every 4 weeks to participate in it's Implicit Career Search program. The program itself was created about 10 years ago with the goal of helping people find out what type of work they will find the most satisfying and then helping them obtain work in that field. The idea being that satisfied people will work harder and stay in their job longer if they are enjoying what they do on a fundamental level. I found that it took all the hokey 'self help' b.s. and made it practical and applicable to real people. In the course of a month I made 15 amazing friends with people from all walks of life and all different backgrounds and had 4 instructors who were approachable and understandable. Best of all it was not a bunch of rainbow dyed, hemp wearing, birkenstocks and socks types. It was teachers and counsellors and engineers and business people. The cherry on top was I have a much better sense of what type of work I want to pursue in the future.
I don't think I can easily explain the course to anyone - it was a 'had to be there' experience. What it felt like was a total deconstruction of all the preconceived ideas I had about myself and how I relate to people, followed by a stronger reconstruction. I feel like my foundation has been strengthened. My ability to make decisions based on what I want and not what I think others want is stronger. Funny how I had to go to a career finding course to start sorting out my personal challenges.
Half way through the course Iain told me that I had a teaching job in Arviat in September if I wanted it. Iain has been working alongside another consultant for the past year and her business has picked up considerably this year. She had originally said she would be able to teach a full 4 month program, but had to back out at the last minute. Her and Iain suggested me as an alternate to the College and they accepted. It was an excellent opportunity for me for two reasons - first because I was going to have a job and second because teaching was one of the career areas I was supposed to be very suited for. Of course, I said yes to the job!
The rest of the summer passed quickly. My 30th birthday was quiet and wonderful. Iain took me rock climbing in Horseshoe Bay and then to a stunning restaurant (The Salmon House) where we had gourmet 5 star food overlooking all of Vancouver. I also enjoyed a birthday afternoon with Nanny J, Mom and Shelley in Tsawassen. Once the Compass program ended for me I did some visiting on Mayne (unfortunately I missed Irene and the kids while they were down), I spent an evening with Laurie, Richard and Kyle in their snazzy RV, Iain and I started planning for living in the North for a year (lots of shopping for bulk food) and I started seriously planning for my hike on the North Coast trail. I had agreed to hike the trail before Iain and I left for New Zealand. Iain wasn't going to be able to come as he had to head North earlier than me, so I was going to hit the trail with two guys from Diavik that I had worked with on the Mine Rescue Team.
I said to goodbye to Iain on August 28th and headed to Nanaimo to meet up with Kelsey and Curtis. We had a late start because Curtis didn't have a tent and we had to do some last minute shopping on our way to Port Hardy. Originally we were going to be hiking with 7 people, but over time the number dropped and the guy Curtis was sharing a tent with punked out last minute due to a lung infection (pansy!). So, we grabbed the tent, loaded our gear into the jeep and headed up island.
We arrived in Port Hardy in the brilliant afternoon sunshine, found our campsite and settled in for the night. We chose the camp because of the 'Wolf Talk' they were hosting that night - complete with a live wolf! It turns out it was a guy with a wolf-dog who likes to introduce people to the realities of owning such an animal. Tundra was a beautiful wolf-dog. She looked exactly like the wild wolves I've seen, the owner figures she's about 90% wolf. After the wolf talk we roasted steaks on sticks for dinner (very 'Lord of the Flies') and lamented the gear the guys left behind. Kelsey forgot our water filter and Curtis forgot his warm fleece jacket. I was quite smug because I didn't forget anything AND I had packed a spare water filter (thank God!). Our water taxi to the trail head left at 8am the next day so at 7:30am Curtis was spending WAY too much money on a jacket at one of the local hotels, just so he would have something warm to hike in!
Otherwise our first day was successful and relatively uneventful. The water taxi trip was beatiful - the rugged BC coastline is entrancing anywhere you go and knowing I was heading into relatively unknown territory added to the joy of the trip. We started the hike with a big climb up and spent most of the rest of the day climbing up and down gullies. Unlike Stewart Island in NZ the NCT has ropes to help with the climbs, but the roots and the mud were very much like Stewart Island. The trail is stunning; huge old growth forests, rocky coastline, sand and pebble beaches littered with driftwood and the stunted firs and cedars that stand sentry between the water and the land. I enjoyed every aching, muddy minute of the hike!
We had a few mishaps which shortened our hike considerably. We had originally planned on a 7 day hike that would take us from Shushartie Bay to the Cape Scott lighthouse and then out to the parking lot. But I lost my big toenail while collecting water in my sandals on the first night (it HURT!), I also started to get a wicked chest cold on the third day due to a wet night and day of hiking. On the night of day 3 Kelsey overheated his boots while drying them near the fire and the rubber shrank, so hiking on day 4 the sole of his boot ripped off. He tried to repair them with some glue he had in a repair kit, but they couldn't survive the mud. So, we skipped the day trip to Cape Scott and spend night number four at a pristine, white sand beach 15kms from the parking lot and finished the trail on the morning of day 5. We were proud of ourselves, 58km in 5 days! When we arrived at the parking lot we hitched a ride to Port Hardy with a lovely, older German couple who didn't mind our mud or smell!
I recuperated from the hike on Mayne and finished my preparations to head to Arviat on September 14th.
I will never tease people from Saskatchewan again for being flat-landers. Saskabush has NOTHING on the lands north of the tree line. It is FLAT here, occasionally there is an esker to create some topography but for the most part it's water, wind and shrubs that maybe reach my knee if I'm being generous. Flying up from Churchill I was amazed by the landscape below the plane. I was not prepared for the volume of water here. Flying from Edmonton to Norman Wells you see a lot of lakes and ponds, but there seems to be containment there. Here, there is simply standing water EVERYWHERE. It's like a million square kilometers of flood plains.
When I got off the plane the wind was whipping across the town straight off the Hudson's Bay and down my throat. I didn't expect the tang of salt on the wind, it was a moment of dislocation: my eyes saw the north and my nose smelled BC. I fell in love with the place with one deep breath. All I need is a few mountains for it to be perfect! Oh, and affordable produce!
Iain and I are living in Katimivik Suites, a hotel near the edge of town. Of course, everything here is near the edge of town! We are about a 3 minute walk to the Community Learning Centere which is where we are teaching. Five minutes brings us to the Northern Store or the Co-op and 6 minutes brings us to the Hudsons Bay. Denise (the woman I will be taking over from next week) and I went for a walk around town the first full day I was here and I had a chance to find a few important places - the Community Center, the Nursing Station, the Police Detachment, the barge dock and all the stores. We had a chance to see the barge being offloaded (we weren't the only looky-lous, apparently it was supposed to arrive in July so everyone was justifiably excited to see it). While walking we met numerous puppies ranging in age from 1 day old to 3 months or so...it will be very hard to resist bringing one home! I also got to see fresh muktuk (whale blubber, this particular muktuk was from a baby beluga we found out later, the skin was grey instead of white indicating a young whale), a whale skeleton and countless cariboo hides being dried around peoples homes.
There is quite a unique blend of traditional and modern here. Most people in Arviat speak Inuktitut with rudimentary english, as compared to places south and west of here where the language has almost died out. Most people still spend considerable time on the land hunting and fishing but live in wooden cabins rather than tents. There are many of the same problems here that I've seen in other communities - alcohol, drugs, physical and sexual abuse and suicides. The town goes crazy when the social assistance checks come in and we have been warned not to expect most of our students on the days following. We have already had one incident where most of our students were all standing outside and a woman walking by with her child began screaming at one student in inuktitut ending the tirade with "Rapist! Rapist!". It was shocking and something I was unprepared for, so I stood there like a manequin while Iain grabbed the student and got him inside until the woman had walked on. Apparently this is something I can expect more of.
My class is a good bunch of guys. There are some serious issues with personal hygiene in the group and they are learning at something closer to a grade 7 level than grade 12 but the ones that are sticking around are dedicated to getting work which makes them fairly dedicated students. I'm still pretty nervous about facing them all by myself but I'm looking forward to it as well.
This weekend is all about prep for Iain and I. There are still a lot of course materials I need to get together - some which are missing entirely and Iain has a few things to write and prep for both his class and mine. We took some time off this afternoon however to join a local woman and her family out at her cabin on a local lake. Linda's cabin is a beautiful, cozy place perched on the edge of an esker with a view out over the land. She invited us out for a picnic lunch and cranberry picking.
We drove out along the rocky, rutted road enjoying the ever expanding horizon. Cabins dotted the landscape in every direction we looked, some simple constructions of plywood walls and a door, others with multiple rooms and drying rack sheds. All of the cabins showed signs of love and frequent use, I would love to have a place like that to head out to.
I was dubious about the potential for cranberries out here. I had completely forgotten about picking berries on the tundra...not all cranberry bushes are bushes! When we arrived at Linda's cabin and the fire was lit Iain, Denise and I wandered down the side of the esker towards the lake and as I strolled I looked down and realized I was crushing huge numbers of berries as I walked. They were EVERYWHERE and the berries were fat and juicy. We filled 3 baggies in a half hour or so and I had to stop because my hands were numb from the howling wind. Inside, the cabin was toasty warm and there was a feast of bbq chicken, fresh bannock, steamed veggies and salad. Denise supplied the jam for the bannock and oranges for desert. It was a wonderful afternoon and I felt blessed to be invited into Linda's home, doubly so for a chance to get out onto the land and see something besides the tiny Hamlet of Arviat.
So, that brings me up to date and to tonight. I'm enjoying a plateful of Iain's wonderful Sheppherds Pie, waiting for some yummy homemade yogurt to set and looking forward to finishing sewing the thick fox-fur on my parka. So, I'm once again settling into life in the North and looking forward to what a new week will bring!
More adventures to follow.
