Darn it all I missed the sports
We ended up cancelling our trip to Kingaaluk at the very last minute because everyone had gone out on the land and there weren't enough skidoos and kamitiks to carry everyone around. The students spend the afternoon doing more crafts. One of the neat things that a few of them have made are little purses made out of fish skin. They are small (about 7 cm by 5 cm) and have a folded flap like a woman's pruse. They are tied by little pieces of rope and they have a tiny "shoulder strap". One of the Sanikiluaq kids' boyfriend Jobie is an apprentice carpenter and he made four little framed just for these purses. I'm amazed at the skill because they are very nice. Skill like that would cost a lot of money in Toronto.
I'm kind of sad because I missed the Inuit sports. I met up with Lisi to help with the tent set-up but of course everything is on northern time so it happened in bits and pieces over the course of the evening. Since I was totally useless I went home for dinner. Brian and I had arranged to take shifts supervising tonight's activities at the school at the games demonstration started at 7pm. There was no way I could make that and still make dinner and since I'm sleeping in the tent tonight with the girls, I decided to get some dinner. I also prepared tomorrow's dinner for Margaret as a kind of thank you (although cooking for her is intimidating because she is so good). So anyway, by the time I got to school it was 9pm and I had missed the demonstrations. I had kind of hoped that they would continue until the school closed at 10:30 but I was disappointed. Brian tells me that they were mostly endurance games and one game was like a tug of war. There was another where they had to kick at and do other acrobatic-type things to a piece of fur hanging from the basketball net. The demonstrator Jasonie was apparently very athletic so I'm pretty sorry I missed it and unfortunatly Brian didn't have the camera for that one.
I'm just killing a little time until all the girls have to be in the tent by midnight. It was a gorgeous day today. Much more like the weather I was expecting. Clear blue sky and it is still as light as day out right now. We should be able to see the northern lights tonight.
I think I'll go check in with the gym now and see what everyone is doing. Nice to hear from you Kurt. You are clearly better at web logs than I am.
Leslie
3 Comments:
Hi Les,
I hope you had a chance to see the northern lights and to take a picture. I imagine it's light until very late. Does everyone stay up late the way they did in Yukon?
Keep the funny commentary coming! Are your students enjoying the trip?
Love Mum
Leslie, your stories are wonderful. It sounds like such a rich culture to be exposed to; or perhaps it's just the fact that we (I) know so little about it, so everything sounds new and vibrant. I've always had a soft spot for Native culture, though.
But it is so great that your school is doing this exchange, because there is such a great divide between us down here and the northern communities -- a divide that is more than just physical -- and perhaps this will be the beginning of a larger movement to integrate these communities into the Canadian identity... (though of course, if this was to happen, it would be far far down the road...). Keep up the excellent reporting!
- kurt
all this sounds really brilliant, i hope you've taken tons of photos! what an opportunity. hope you're (still) having a grand time, and safe travels back to TO. maree
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