The
Christmas festivities continued the following day (December 18) with carolling
at the Community Hall. In previous
years, Inuujaq School teachers & students went door-to-door and even sang
en masse in the school gym. This year
(now last year due to the time of this writing), the Christmas Committee
decided to hold the carolling event indoors and at the same venue where the
concert was held. The Christmas
decorations were still up and none of the students would complain about having
to walk & sing in the cold.
We
all gathered in the Community Hall after morning recess. The town's only school bus ferried students
and teachers between the school and the hall.
I chose to walk but halfway into my stroll, I got a free ride on an ATV
from Philip Kalluk, a student support assistant (SSA) and at the time,
soon-to-be mayor of Arctic Bay. The
chairs had been rearranged into a u-shape, the same configuration used during a
community feast. While students and
teachers took their seats, parents and elders slowly trickled in.
The
sing-along began at 11am following an opening prayer. Three Inuit teachers and one of the school's
custodians led the audience in singing a variety of classic Christmas tunes in
Inuktitut & English. It was quite
interesting to hear the Inuktitut lyrics.
We sang "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer", "Deck the
Halls", "Silent Night", "Santa is Coming To Town", and
"Little Drummer Boy". Some
teachers had suggested that I have my drummers play along to "Little
Drummer Boy" but I chose not to because the drums would have drowned out the
singing. In the end, the event was a
success and everyone was dismissed for an extended lunch.
Afternoon
classes resumed at 1:30pm but they really weren't classes. Instead, Santa came to visit and hand out
presents to the K - 9 students. Santa
was actually a local in disguise (don't tell the kids), and the presents had
been wrapped and provided by the parents/guardians. As for the high school students, they
received Northern Store vouchers worth $25.
Once the students received their presents, they were dismissed for the
next two weeks. Many of my fall semester
students came to my classroom to wish me a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I wished them well and hoped to see them
again in 2014. Before I left the school,
I made sure that all my administrative work was complete (attendance, final
marks, comments) and my classroom was in order.
I walked home to pack my suitcase.
 |
| Elders |
Most
of us qallunaaq teachers (aka southern teachers) were heading home for the
Christmas holidays on Thursday, December 19.
The principal of Inuujaq School would also be flying out with us. The running joke was that the First Air plane
would only be filled with southern teachers.
I packed light since the break would only be for two weeks. I was driven to the airport by Frank May, the
soon-to-be former mayor of Arctic Bay.
Despite the time being 7:30am, the moon was shining brightly in the
night sky. Frank was now in charge of
the town's only taxi service, having a local Inuk man ferry customers to the
airport and around town in a brand new red minivan. I was riding with him in his pickup truck
while the minivan drove all the other teachers to the airport.
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| Arctic Char |
I
was glad that I was one of the first passengers to check in because I didn't
want to cause a line up. I was mostly
concerned about the two-foot frozen Arctic char I was bringing with me to
Ottawa for the first time. I had bought it
from a local Inuk for $20 and wanted to eat it myself but I just never found
the time. (I hear that Arctic char is
quite expensive down south). When I
heard that my family wanted to try char that came 'straight from the source' I
agreed to bring the one I already had. I
wrapped it in many plastic bags and packaged it in a big box. Thankfully, the fish didn't turn bad on its
3,100km trip to southern Canada and it was eagerly devoured by family &
friends one evening. I'm now being
requested to bring back more in June.
The
flight to Iqaluit was mostly uneventful but the main highlight was seeing the
dark horizon slowly give way to sunlight.
It was great to see my first Arctic hometown from the sky as the plane
approached for landing. There was a
delay in boarding the First Air flight to Ottawa because passengers on an
Ottawa-bound Canadian North plane were also boarding. Since the Iqaluit airport only has one
security gate, there was a very long and slow line. I can't wait until the new & bigger
Iqaluit terminal building is built and operational in 2017.
I spent
the Christmas holidays in Ottawa with family & friends, as well as shopping
for school supplies and new clothes. It
was quite funny to hear the locals complain about the cold, even though the temperatures
were in the single negative digits. This is nothing, I thought, Where I just came from, this is summer
weather. Everyone would be outside in
shorts!
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| The frozen Arctic landscape. |
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