I have lots of stuff to write about for once. Time is the only thing standing in my way. I think this is going to be a long post. One of the great things about writing a blog is that you can “meet” lots of really cool people as they stop for a read. One of the great things about living in a remote arctic community is that you can meet lots of really cool people as they pass through for a visit. Well, Susie fits both those scenarios. Susie contacted me a few months ago looking for information about Igloolik during Return of the Sun; where to stay, when to come, things to do, etc. By and by our emails back and forth resulted in Susie and I planning her trip here and her staying with us. Susie is from Scotland and I’m willing to bet our paths would never have crossed otherwise. She decided she wanted to visit Nunavut and learn a bit about the tourism industry by sort of being a tourist herself and talking to people around town. She got some financial help from the UK government who gives grants to its citizens who wish to expand their horizons, learn new things, become more worldly. Nice, eh? She arrived on the 8th after a frustrating stopover in Newark. Do you know this new fingerprinting policy for people travelling through the USA even applies to people making connecting flights? People who will never even leave the airport must get their fingerprints taken. Originally when we were planning her trip everyone I asked said that ROTS festivities would take place the Friday closest to January 13th. Susie had booked her flights accordingly. Well as she was travelling here, word spread around town that things were going to be different this year. The hamlet wanted to create a buzz about ROTS to attract tourists so they were doing it up big this year. Not just the usual one-night huge celebration, but even bigger and spread out over a week! Unfortunately, this meant that Susie had to change flights and other plans so she could stay longer and wouldn’t miss everything. I had some day trips planned for her already and luckily those were early in her visit and made it easy to pass the time waiting for everything to get going. Her first day here she spent an hour or two learning how to build an igloo from an elder. I think she referred to herself as “rubbish” when comparing her skills to the elders. I’ve never tried to build an igloo, but from watching local guys build them it is easy to see that it takes a great amount of skill and knowledge. I didn’t want to keep Aowyn outside on that very cold day so I watched from the window and took pictures. The next day I left Aowyn with Julie and Susie and I went on a trip to the floe edge. Our guide, Alvin, whom I trust greatly, had taken Ian out last year during PI week. Susie and I hunkered down under a caribou skin in the kamotik, while Alvin directed the ski-doo across the island and then over the ice in search of the floe edge. Susie and I soon realized that the cold wasn’t necessarily our worst comfort concern. Riding in the kamotik is very bumpy. We got some serious air a couple of times and boy did my back pay the price the next day. You pretty much have to sit on your bum and try to keep your body balanced while being heaved into the air and crashing down hard. This can be difficult if your core muscles are not, say, “toned”. I have got to get back in shape. Alvin was great about taking breaks so we could get out and walk around -both to let the blood flow back into our very cold toes (WHY oh WHY didn’t I think to borrow some kamik??) and to prevent our muscles from seizing from the strain. Twice Alvin spotted polar bear tracks; one set two days old, the other mere hours old! The breaks also served to keep us safe – Alvin was constantly looking around for signs invisible to our untrained eyes. He would stop and take out a long pick and walk a little way, poking the ice in front of him to determine if it was safe. He would come back and say something like “Nope, we can’t go that way. That ice is only a day old.” Amazing. The fact that he saw something and knew to check it is one thing and then to actually know what he was looking at – here’s my naive qallunaat shining through. It’s just incredible the amount of knowledge that was and still is, used to survive up here. Alvin is coming back from one of the ice testsAfter about an hour and a half of driving and breaks, we stopped for coffee at what Alvin felt was going to be the closest thing to a floe edge that we would see that day. I had pictured that we’d drive across the ice for a long time and eventually come to an…edge, after which would be open water. Duh! I discovered it’s not that simple. The undercurrents move chunks of ice around blocking off open areas while other areas are opened up or frozen over. So the floe edge changes frequently and one is not guaranteed to see an actual edge. The first thing I noticed (next to the fact that it wasn’t an actual edge) was the mist coming off of the open parts. It is crazy to think that there was enough of a temperature difference between the water and the air for any kind of condensation to form. I mean, really, isn’t it all just COLD? The next thing I noticed was the sound the ice was making. It sounded a lot like the sound the kamotik makes as it moves across the snow; sort of squeaking like the sound styrofoam makes when you pull it out of a box. We stood and looked around for a while, listening to the creaking and cracking, and even the odd light bang of the ice as it moved in its confined spaces before we broke out the coffee, cookies and peanut butter and jam wraps that were just beyond frozen despite having been kept in an inside pocket! Not too long after we stopped, several other ski-doos came into sightAlvin recognized each of them from a distance by the shape of their kamotik. It seemed almost like this was a social custom. “Who is out today? Did you see anyone else out hunting? What do you think of this ice? Where will you look for breathing holes? Did you catch anything yesterday? I saw polar bear tracks on the way out.” That kind of thing. Maybe it’s a chance for the men to discuss hunting away from town and all its distractions. There are still quite a few men in town who frequent the ice and floe edge hoping to catch a seal at this time of year. If they can shoot one from the floe edge, they’ll hop in their boat and go out to get it before it sinks. Instead of watching the open water today, they were going to look for Saks (is that the correct word?)- holes in the ice that seals use for breathing. The hunter will stand above the hole with his gun ready and when a seal visits the hole to take a breath, he gets to bring home a tasty treat! The men chattingThe other men went off looking for seal holes and we set off in the direction of home. We came upon a couple of seal holes but neglected to take a picture. At one point another of the hunters, Jake, joined us at a seal hole. Since Alvin wasn’t going to use it (Susie and I wouldn’t have been able to stand around long enough), Jake would try. If we had all scared a seal away, the noise of our little group leaving would trick the seal into thinking it was safe to come up, making it better for Jake.
On the way back, Alvin said it didn’t look like there was going to be much floe edge to see today but if we wanted to keep looking we could. By this point, I think it had been about 3 hours and we’d used up our little hot-pack things for our toes. I wasn’t too proud to say that I was ready to head home and 30-45 minutes later Alvin dropped us off at Julie’s to regain feeling in our toes. It was an experience I’ll never forget and I’m so glad I got the chance. The next day my body was angry with me, especially my back. But after a day of rest, we were ready to go out again. This time we took a dog-sled ride. Susie’s first; my third! We also brought our friend Natasha. Our guide Simon has a great team and we’ve gone out with him before. He took us out to Igloolik point across the frozen bay. It was a pretty smooth ride, thankfully. We had stopped for a hot drink and were just thinking about heading back when the dogs decided to get a head start! They began to run away but thankfully Simon stopped them. While we were out, we saw the sun for the first time since late November. It was a beautiful sight. I hadn’t noticed the darkness as much this year (honestly, it didn’t seem as dark) but it is still nice to see Mr. Sun again. Ian went out after the sun returned and got some great shots to show what it looks like at this time of year. With the sun’s return came the celebration. This year, they must have gone with the “go big or go home” idea. What is usually only a one-night thing was added to for a week-long celebration. There were throat singing competitions, drum dancing competitions, games out on the ice, qulliq ceremonies, dancing, a talent show, dog-sled rides, and fashion shows. To top it all off, there was a surprisingly long and impressive fireworks demonstration. Isuma was on deck all week to document it. We believe they will use some of the footage they took to put together an ad or something; help the word get out there that Igloolik is open for tourists during the Return of the Sun Celebrations. At the talent show, the audience was able to see Silas, Igloolik’s best high kicker. The high kick is a traditional sport in which a person attempts to kick a target hanging high above them, using different styles of jumps. I don’t know the different names of the jumps. The jumps start from standing, sitting holding one foot or a running start and the target is kicked with either one foot or two. Here Silas demonstrates one of the jumps. This one Ian estimates was about 9 feet tall! For further, even better photographs, check out Steve’s Return of the Sun pictures at ArtClip. While all of this was going on, Eowyn had a very exciting week as well. She got her first two teeth and we started her on solid food! The teeth weren’t much of a surprise as she’s been showing signs for quite a while but one morning, there they were! It is the two bottom ones that have arrived. That, added to the other signs that she was ready for solids, convinced me to start. Well, there you have it. A visitor, the sun and some teeth. It was great to meet Susie and make a new friend. It was great to reacquaint ourselves with the sun. And it’s great to see Aowyn’s first teeth. And, I was right. Long post. Took me two days to get it done! Written by Jennifer
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