Even though the second week of school was the first
full week (5 days) of teaching, its pace was nevertheless faster than the
previous week. At least, that's what it
felt like for me. The landscape was still
without snow but the weather began to feel like autumn. Coupled with the start of the school year
made me think it was already September, not August. As for transportation, All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) are still the
favoured mode for residents.
They're quick and fun to ride. As
for me, I just have my two feet.
Every
morning on my walk to school, I would be 'greeted' by the sight of the Canadian
Coast Guard Ship Des Groseilliers anchored in the bay. With only one anchor deployed, the cold Arctic
waters would slowly spin the vessel from left to right. Looking at the ship made me wonder what it
would be like to live and work on a vessel that size. That question was answered on August 22 when
the staff of Inuujaq School were given a tour of the ship. (More on this in a future post). Before the Des Groseilliers departed on
August 23, several crew members had come ashore to buy things at the Northern
Store and Co-op. It was easy to spot
them because of their heavy French-Quebec accents.
By
the end of the first week, my Grade 10 Social Studies students had finished the
first section of the Identity unit. We
continued with the second section of the unit by looking at regionalism and
alienation in its basic understanding.
To demonstrate what an individual or group can do when they feel
alienated, we looked at the Idle No More Movement and the protests that were
held across Canada and in the United States just last year.
For
Grade 11 Social Studies, my students looked at the feudal system of France in
the 1700s and how this form of governance led to calls for radical
changes to society. This of course
eventually led to the Revolution of 1789.
Nationalism and national identity played important roles during this
tumultuous period, and the ideas of democracy & equality it spawned are
still practiced in many countries around the world.
My
musicians learned drum maintenance, how to set up the equipment, basic drum
rudiments, and beginner warm-up exercises that teach drummers to play in unison
and with the same sticking. They may not
see it but from the audience's perspective, a uniform drum line looks very
impressive.
My
Grade 12 Social Studies students were deep into the first unit of the course:
Choices. The first unit is about what it
means to be a responsible citizen and the important choices that comes with it. The textbook is detailed and contains many
good ideas, but there are quite a lot of big & complex words that need to be simplified
& explained. Thankfully, my students
have me.
August
23 felt like an early Christmas because the local movers arrived to deliver the
10 large boxes I shipped from Ottawa on August 1. The cost of airlifting them was covered by
the Nunavut Government. I was glad to see
that everything had arrived in one piece and I spent the entire evening
unpacking and organizing.
The first snowfall 'after summer' occurred
on Saturday, August 24. Dark grey
overcast clouds had rolled into town and sprinkled snow on the top halves of
the surrounding mountains. King George V
Mountain appeared to be equally divided into two parts: the top in white and
the bottom in brown. The sight made me
think of a cake with icing on top.
MV Umiavut |
It
was Christmas in August for Arctic Bay residents when the first sealift vessel
arrived on the 25th. The MV Umiavut, a
multi-purpose container ship owned by NEAS, dropped anchor in the bay, bringing
with it many shipping containers and vehicles that had been ordered by Arctic
Bay residents. The town was the ship's
third stop in its annual milk run to the northern communities. From early August to mid-September, the
Umiavut will deliver supplies to 13 northern communities. Due to a lack of a deep sea port, the containers
and vehicles had to be lowered onto barges and then pulled to shore by small tugboats. There, large loaders would lift the
containers off the barges and place them on the ground. The process was repeated several times.
This
first sealift is locally known as the Northern Sealift because a large portion
of the delivered supplies were ordered by the Northern Store. The area around the Northern Store was crowded
by coloured shipping containers, oil drums, and loaders. It appeared as if a small commercial port had
magically sprung from the ground. Many
locals (including students) jumped at the chance to help offload and stack the
Northern's goods in its warehouse because they would get paid for their labour. Human chains were a common sight. Later, the empty containers were loaded onto
the barges and dragged back to the Umiavut.
Inuujaq
School's sealift order also arrived on the Northern Sealift. A blue shipping container and three very
large wooden boxes were delivered to the front of the school. On Monday, the high school students emptied
their contents and brought everything inside.
The school's main hallway was stacked with boxes of various sizes. They contained anything and everything that a
school needs to function.
Anna Desgagnes |
The
'Christmas' festivities continued on August 27th with the arrival of the MV Anna Desgagnés, a multi-purpose vessel owned by Transport Desgagnés Inc. This sealift is locally known as the Co-op
Sealift because the majority of the delivered supplies were for the town's
Co-op store. Once again, there was a lot
of activity in front of the Northern Store as shipping containers were
unloaded, emptying, and then loaded back onto the barges. Several of my students chose to miss class
and help out with the sealift because the Co-op also paid for manual
labour. Receiving cash for work is a
strong incentive due to the lack of jobs in town.
Barges,
tugboats, and loaders are used in all northern communities for sealift
deliveries because none have a deep sea commercial port. There have been talks about building deep sea
ports in Iqaluit and other communities but when that will happen is
anyone's guess.
The
sealift orders of private citizens came on both vessels. To offload any freight costs, people
sometimes order as a group. They just
need to be ready to sort through everything when the sealift arrives.
With
the sealift complete, the price of pop (soft drinks) has dropped significantly. To clarify what I wrote in a previous post,
newer, fresher pop was being sold at higher prices while the prices for the
older stocks were much lower. The
Northern & Co-op stores were trying to get rid of their older stocks and
make way for the 'new pop'. The
consumption of pop must have spiked several days before the arrival of the
sealift ships.
And
finally, the days of 24-hour daylight are no more. Night has made a slow but steady return. When the sun disappears behind the mountains,
it sinks further than the day before.
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