THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES FALL 2009 ( With Some Late Spring and Summer Pictures)

Having sustained a bad injury in early March, I had to return to Ontario for intensive physiotherapy. Upon my return to Inuvik in Late April, I was so overloaded with a myriad of work related responsibilities, and another "move" that my blog was put on a back burner.

Upon return to Ontario in early July, we packed up our house contents into storage, packed for our"joint" move to Inuvik, and packed our van for our summer journey east, west and north! Paul and I along with our two Golden Retrievers headed east for 3 weeks on our beloved Prince Edward Island, then west to Edmonton via the United states, and finally further west and north through British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories to Inuvik! It was a true adventure to "drve" such a distance and to see so much spectacular scenery. The Alaska Highway and the Dempster Highway, (the latter unpaved) provided such visual miracles.

Our arrival here was followed by 1 turn around day before we reported for work. Paul's teaching at the high school(.5 position) is going extremely well, although in reality there is no such thing as a half time teaching job. With all the prep, meetings,extras, etc. it is AT least a .8 position. His work in the parish and at the diocesan level is also going really well. His big things coming up include travel to Aklavik this coming weekend (across the Mckenzie Delta) with the rector David Parsons. He will meet the people of that parish and do Sunday services. They fly out on a 4 seater plane on Saturday. Nobody is allowed on the aircraft without FULL survival gear! Paul has it all now and will make his next trip there on his own on the ice road when it has fully frozen. The bishop has also asked him to be Chaplain for a 3 day mutual ministry conference here in Inuvik from Nov.13-15th. The delegates will be here from the other parishes in the Mackenzie Delta- Aklavik, Ulahuktok, Fort Mapherson, Sachs Harbour, and Tuktoyukyuk! He will be designing all the worships and doing most of the preaching.

My work is insanely busy- more so than last year. Paul has started a choir in the high school as well, and we are jointly now preparing the Olympic Torch Anthem ( REALLY musically challenging)with English, French, and Huron plus choreography. We have 40 singers and will be one of 186 choirs singing this anthem throughout Canada. The musical crew from Montreal arrives here on Nov.2, with the torch arrival being on the on the 4th with all the town festivities. My choir is also in the process of learning O Canada in English, French, Inuvialukten, and Gwichin-a huge body of work. We have to also prepare our choirs for the Remembrance Day Ceremony here. For community events we are calling our joint choirs the"Inuvik Youth Choir".I have already been involved in bringing 2 "acts" from NACC(Northeren Arts and Culture Centre) in Yellowknife, to my school, which has been exciting for the students. Now it will be surviving Halloween( A Huge Event here ), and then into all the Christmas performance prep. I will get a break at the end of November, as I have been selected to attend a Northwest Territories Conference in Yellowknife on Literacy Through the Arts. I'll be away nearly a week!

The weather has really turned cold today, and we have about 1 cm of snow. We see lots of animal tracks (not dogs) in the mornings, which Laura and Ginger enjoy as "BIG" sniffs. There are rabbits around and several foxes, as well as other creature tracks. We'll have to start researching so we can identify them. Our house (a row house) is small but cosy. We shipped some furniture from St. Catharines and have some of our favorite pictures hanging. The print from St. John's Ancaster hangs proudly in our livingroom as does a beautiful nuthatch print given to Paul at last years bazzar.

I continue to enjoy every minute with my students. Hope you are all well!