Final Deliveries

Arctic Bay was treated to a third sealift delivery on September 17.  A large vessel, operated by NSSI, arrived to offload goods & supplies before the waterways freeze for the winter.  I don’t think it was the same ship as before, but I could be wrong.  NSSI’s fleet of ships look almost identical in design.  A third sealift delivery is rare, but always welcome.  However, I was told once a sealift vessel arrived in early October.  That’s very, very late in the shipping season and risky.  Ice begins to form in late October and if your ship isn’t an icebreaker, it’ll be stuck in the ice until next summer.  At that time, the crew had to unload everything in the dark. 

The school’s sealift order was on this ship and was delivered in large wooden crates.  September 17 happened to be a Sunday, so the school put out a call for helpers to assist staff open the crates & move everything inside.  The whole process took about two hours.  The main hallway was full of boxes of various items, resembling a stocked warehouse.  Seeing all the items in person constantly reminds me how many resources are needed to run a Nunavut school effectively & efficiently.  I photographed everything for reference.  The helpers were financially compensated for their time. 

School Administration will spend the next several days going through everything, checking off items and then distributing them throughout the school.  The school owns several sea containers for excess storage.   

For those of you wondering what the school orders for sealift, the shortest answers are anything & everything.  Specifically, items are placed in the following groups: classroom resources, custodial supplies, stationary, physical fitness, and breakfast program.  Heavy items such as printing paper are given priority because the cost of flying them up is high.

A notice went out at the end of the day for anyone who wanted to claim the large wooden crates.  People recycle them by building shacks and cabins.  The crates were gone in a few days.

A brand-new water truck was parked next to the Northern Store when I was walking home from school in the evening.  An additional water truck is always needed in a community that doesn’t have a water distribution network and overcrowded houses are a problem.  Upon noticing the safety railings on top of the water tank, an exciting and funny idea came to mind: extreme ironing on a moving water truck!  I haven’t done extreme ironing for a few years, so the idea is really appealing.  However, the moment I thought of it, reality set in.  I doubt I would get permission from the Hamlet to do such a stunt, and even if I did, there would be a lot of upset households, because there would be one less water truck on the road delivering water.  Well, at least I can dream.