Terry Fox Run

Jeanne, Me, Margot, Serge, Alison, Lu7

The following is the article that I submitted to the Nunatsiaq News (the northern paper). I will let you know if it gets picked up.

Together We Are Strong: Asimauttaq Celebrates the Marathon of Hope
Submitted by: Keile D. Legge

Students from Asimauttaq School in Kuujjuaraapik celebrated Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope on Tuesday, September 25th. Seventy students from Kindergarten to Secondary Five, along with school Administration, teachers, and support staff raised over $1300 to support the Canadian Cancer Society.

The afternoon began with a fire truck pull in front of the school. All students pulled the local fire truck twenty feet to illustrate that “Together We Are Strong”. This was a very powerful display of teamwork and cooperation. Students realized that together they could make a difference; much more than if they were to work alone.

The “race” began at 2pm. Secondary students ran and walked a 3 km route around the town. Local organizations generously handed out water bottles along the route. Grades Three to Seven did a shorter route. The Kindergarten to Grade Two students walked to the Triple Gym along with their teachers. Everyone returned to school for water and celebrations.

Thanks to generous community support, this Terry Fox Run has been the most successful yet at Asimauttaq School, according to Jeremie Guertin, the Physical Education teacher and even organizer. Congratulations to everyone involved!

The Puppy, The Party, The Pub, and The Plucking

Me and Francis

Another eventful weekend here in Kuujjuaraapik. Friday night, I cooked caribou for Jeremie, Noel, and Amanda. It was quite good. Just roasted pieces in the oven. Everyone else brought things to share as well. They seemed to enjoy it but Amanda says she likes goose better. Noel liked this version of caribou over the ribs from last week. Jeremie and I just liked it.

On Saturday, Amanda and I went to the Northern and Co-Op to pick up a few things for our "girls night" of making pizza and watching a movie at her place. On our way back home, we found Victor, our prinicpal's dog, was loose. After being chased by very scary dogs, we managed to get Victor into Margot's porch. It is SO scary how many dogs are running loose here. Most are harmless but the ones that chased us were baring their teeth. We were a bit...make that ALOT....afraid at some points. But Victor is saved and we are safe...all that matters. There are good dogs here as well. The picture above is of me and "Francis", the little puppy I would love to have but he has a collar so not likely to be mine.

Girls night went well. Mary, Margot, Alison, Amanda, and I went to Amanda's place and we made pizzas. We also watched the movie "Atonement". I don't think that I liked the movie. It was a bit too long for me and a bit too "romantic". After the movie, I went to the Pub and met up with Jeremie and Merlina, the probation officer in town. I had met her for the first time earlier that day playing doubles badminton at the gym: me and Jeremie versus her and Noel. It was fun but got a bit too competitive for me. I am getting better which is nice. It was nice meeting Merlina because she isn't a teacher...a nice change. We played some pool at the pub and then went back to Jeremie's place for a bit.

Today was a great day. I made baked beans and they taste great. I also helped Amanda. We explored her basement for the first time and it wasn't as scary as we thought it would be. I went for a walk to Mary's place (just for a visit) and we ended up going out on the land with her husband to pluck geese. It was really neat because I got to learn both the Inuit traditional way of doing geese as well as the Cree way (Leonard is Cree). They shared stories of the first times they plucked geese and how it was woman's work but Leonard's mom taught him so he could teach his wife. We were out for five hours. Plucking. Burning off the excess feathers on the fire. Cooking wings and eating them. It got colder as the sun disappeared and we could feel snow in the air (I checked Environment Canada when I got back and it is supposed to snow a bit overnight). We came back and I took a goose home. I went over to Jeremie's to "clean" the rest of the goose...the insides. It wasn't as messy as I thought. Jeremie then shared one of his Grouse that he caught. As always, very nice...

Another week of work ahead...Friday is a PD Day. Thursday afternoon is the Terry Fox Run and we are having a BBQ. Hopefully, I can get back into the "gym thing" this week after taking last week off.