The Simple Things

Speaking of simple is best...life here in simple which is great. I am enjoying "reconnecting" with myself and the Inuit people. It is really interesting how things are playing out here. There are two main divides: between the Inuit and the Cree and the other between the French and the English. I speak French well yet the French seem to "keep things separate" from the English. For example, there was a French party on Saturday that I wasn't invited to simply because I wasn't a francophone. This division makes me sad. Keep in mind, as well, that these people are the ones who don't spend time with anyone who is Inuit. Sad really. Not sure why they are here. My goal is to get to know as many people as I can regardless of what their backgrounds are.

We had some snow last week. I was "housebound" for parts of the weekend. The first snow storm wasn’t really that bad. I think my windows had lots snow on them so it looked worse than it actually was. Last week, there was SO much wind though. I checked out Environment Canada when I got home on Friday and it said the winds were 65 kph with gusts over 70 kph. This would explain why Amanda and I were dodging rocks all the way home. It made for a tough (and rough) walk home. Amanda took many pictures. I sent some out to people. One woman at the Post Office said that she had never seen Hudson Bay that high before (in terms of waves). It was pretty incredible.

There were deaths of two elders in the community last week. They had to postpone Hallowe’en activities until this week and the “double funeral” twice. They finally had them on Monday afternoon. They had the Inuit Hallowe’en contests last night at the Triple Gym. They had a costume contest, a cake decorating contest, and a pumpkin carving contest. We had last Thursday off because one of the men who died was the father of Richard Fleming, our bus driver. We were closed out of respect for him.

I am very excited for my Christmas Break already. The others are counting down till we leave but I am not exactly sure how many “more sleeps”…maybe 38? I am I will be arriving in Halifax around midnight on Dec. 19th and will be there until Jan. 3rd. Lots of shopping and visiting. My first Christmas home in years. The simple things…still make me happy…