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!

I AM STILL HERE!!!!!

I know I haven't written to my blog in a long time, but it has been a VERY hectic time. Since my last posting I have had 5!! floods in my apartment, caused by a faulty zone valve in the hot water heating system. This resulted in a loss of considerable personal property, that was not just destroyed by water but by grease and glycol which is all a part, as I understand, of keeping the water flowing through old pipes in such a cold climate. Things seem to be resolved in the far North in matters relating to living environments, VERY inefficiently, so even after 4 new zone valves, I still had flooding. I moved out of my apartment, while the place dried and a new floor had to be installed in my bedroom. While this was happening I was sick with a horrible virus, that left me dizzy and nauseous for 2 weeks. My doctor felt it necessary to run several tests-most of my results were "off", but after repeats things seem to have seetled down. I lost only 3 days of work, which is nothing considering I had difficulty walking straight. I felt like I was getting some dreaded disease. The virus has been rampant here, and doesn't abate quickly. Anyway I seem to be fine now.

I spent all of last week in Professional Developement activities. I attended a 4 day Fabulous conference with 860 educators from across the NWT held in Yellowknife. Then there were onsite meetings and workshops back here in Inuvik. I even got invited to "jiggs" dinner at one of our Inuvik teacher's brother's home while in Yellowknife, and 3 (including me) of the "die hard" Newfoundlanders cut a "very" funny CD-country and western style. You would all have to hear it and see it to believe it.I did back up vocals and played drums!!

We have an incredibly busy March- the most hectic month of our school schedule, with daily class field trips on the land, the start up of a swimming schedule, a science fair, historical fair, guest concerts, sports tournaments etc. We stop classes on April 8th for our Spring Break, which happens at Easter here. In spite of the horrific cost for 1 week, I am going back to Ontario. I just couldn't not see Paul for 6 months. This is not the kind of separation one gets used to with time.Life is just too short.Whatever the logistical outcome for next year, we certainly won't be apart. We both feel passionate about that.

I leave here a week early in June in order to examine for RCM- this year in Calgary.Following that it will be back to Ontario to faclitate our plans for next year.

My wonderful students continue to teach me SO MUCH. I have also had the priviledge this month of playing for an amazing funeral of a very celebrated and respected Elder, and for a moving wedding, followed by a feast, for a wonderful "daughter " of our parish here. The actual ceremony was held in the famed and historic 'Igloo" Church, due to numbers involved. The bride was from Inuvik- the groom from Pasadena, Newfoundland. It was SUCH a unique and wonderful celebration! I will elaborate more in my next post.

In the middle of all of this I also found refuge for a week catsitting for Moby and Missy, the beloved "kids" of an RCMP family who were in Ontario house hunting for a move there. I enjoyed the reprieve from my disaster apt., and really appreciated the saying of a "silver lining.....

It is now daylight with sun coming up when I head to work and still light at 7:30pm.With the cold and the snow though, I can't believe that my sweet "munchkins" are still sliding down the small hill behind our school DAILY, exactly 5 months to the day tomorrow, since our first snowfall!!!!!

Good Night as the darkness begins to fall in this place I have come to love.

Some Photos from a late January walk are attached.

RETURN OF THE SUN

Its been exactly 2 weeks today that I arrived back here in Inuvik. After a whirlwind Christmas in Ontario, hectic travel delays, and thousands of people crowded at airport gates, I was struck by the "quiet" winter beauty here when I stepped off the plane. All of the trees were covered in a shimmering frost, and everything seemed covered by a stunning white blanket.

The first week back at school was filled with lots of "Happy New Year Greetings", and these amazing young students seemed to be genuinely happy to be back at school. It continued to strike me watching them while I was on duty, how much they love playing in the snow! They race out at recess and start sliding down a small hill behind the school on pieces of cardboard. They never seem to tire of it- especially when one considers that the snow arrived for good on September 28. Meanwhile it is complete darkness at that hour of the morning.

On January 6th, the sun officially came back just on the horizon for 39 minutes. Because it was cloudy here that day, we couldn't see it, but the following day was clear, and the children raced to the window in my classroom to see the small part of the golden orb as it peeked up on the horizon. I'm attaching a photo. Then, last Saturday evening a sunrise festival was held here to celebrate the return of the sun. It was truly a feast for the eyes as hundreds of people made their way ouside of the town to experience the warmth of a HUGE bonfire, enjoy hot chocolate, while viewing spectacular fireworks against the backdrop of a glorious FULL moon. I loved every moment, and realized again how lucky I was to be able to live my life for a while in this amazing part of Canada.

The aboriginal people here are simply wonderful.Family and the "land" mean everything to them. They have a deep connectedness to the world around them, and therefore to their Creator. They so value nature, and treat it with great respect.What a priviledge to live with such spiritual people!

I'm finding it hard to get out of bed these days, more so than in December, but each day now will start to be longer. We have also had an amazing 3 days with temperatures in the+3-7 degrees!! It has felt like summer after some days in the past 2 weeks of -40's with wind chill!!

Thinking of you all, and especially missing Paul and the Golden Girls these days!

CONCERTS ARE FINISHED!!!

All the performances went well, but man, am I TIRED! I have a half day of teaching tomorrow, then a Christmas dinner with the staff(pot-luck) at lunch, followed by a movie for all in the gym-Santa Claus 3. I have to tidy my music room, try to do something with my apartment,(still in boxes) pack, pick up a few things to bring home, and get my Sunday Hymns in- the Bishop will be here! Then I fly out Sunday afternoon to Edmonton and then out of Edmonton on Monday. A ton of my new found Newfoundland friends are leaving on the flight with me ( can you imagine their airfares?!!!!!!) It promises to be a VERY happy flight! Say a prayer for my safe arrival. It's a LONG trip. I'll see many of you, and will be in touch over the holidays. Until then, may you all enjoy a blessed Christmas.

Picures

PICTURES

CHRISTMAS IN INUVIK

This is a brief posting. The BIG recent news is that I have had to move from my former apartment due to untenable living conditions. More later when I talk to or see you. It was SO much fun doing this in 24/7 darkness and under basically "emergency" conditions. Everything I brought from Ontario had to packed up and moved- AGAIN. The move, for me, into this new building(I'm enclosing a photo) is my 14th residence since my marriage 37 years ago!!I thank God again for sending me angels- many in the form of "Newfoundlanders" who engineered this for me, after their long working days.
It's the dead of winter here now with this being the first day the children have NOT gone outside for recess. The temp. today was -41. They can play outside only up to -37!!! Yesterday(-32) was a brisk walk as I took my choir to the long term care section of the hospital- 15 minutes each way. They sang well and behaved impeccably. I was so proud of their efforts AND resilience, singing and acting as a choir for the first time in their lives. The elders were so appreciative, and as I looked at them in their compromised health conditions, and watched the students interact, I once again was reminded about the needs of God's children wherever they are on this earth.
This weekend is the BIG community concert in the Igloo Church. It looks like QUITE the interesting program. I'm attaching some photos of my students, a glorious sunrise last week, a photo of new friends at our Christmas Church dinner, and a couple of shots from the Inuvik Santa Claus Parade- which lasted for 2 minutes!!!