So we almost didn't get here...for so many reasons

Writing from the staff room of the Nuiyak school in Sanikiluaq.

The flight from Toronto to Montreal was uneventful despite a couple of students going to Terminal 2 instead of Terminal 1. Terminal 1 smells like new terminal and looks like it was ordered out of the IKEA "design your own terminal" page of the catalogue.

All of the things that went wrong yesterday with the trip from Montreal to Sanikiluaq will take too long to write out so I'll only hit the high, and low, points. Some students took off to downtown Monteal without telling us and thus were were late leaving the next day. We couldn't all take the airport shuttle because it was booked by another group. Our itinerary said we were flying First Air and I discovered after I got to Dorval that First Air had no idea who we were and the employee suggested I try Air Inuit. The other half of the group took cabs and we got ourselves checked in with 30 seconds to spare before she had to close her wicket. Brian had to take his boots off at security four different times. A student lost his boarding pass so I had to drag Brian off the plane to buy him a new ticket on his VISA. The flight itself was the most relaxing 4 hours of the past 48 hours. We stopped in La Grande and then Kanijjuaraapik (on the hudson's bay-lots of ice-it was here that I started to think "I didn't bring enough cloths"). We then landed in Sanikiluaq. There were stunted trees in the other communities but here there is nothing...the landscape looks lunar but with tons of snow. It isn't actually too cold (hovering above zero) but the wind is a killer and there are always flying ice pellets. Before the plane left, Brian and I had to run up to it waving our arms at the pilots until they lowered the stairs. All this because we forgot a large stuffed easter rabbit that a sanikiluaq student had bought in Toronto and then had not brought home. Little did we know at that time that not all of the luggage had been loaded off the plane. Luckily, the same plane returns at 4:30 and it all worked out alright.

Some students were picked up in all-terrain-vehicles and the rest of us were chauferred around on the school bus. There are no paved streets and everything looks very frontier as they call it. Very few buildings are more than a single storey.

Sad to report that found alcohol in the luggage of a couple of students and as a result, Brian and I spent a rather unpleasant evening last night dealing with that. There have also been a couple of other things that we have had to deal with.

There are only a couple of trucks in Sanikiluaq. Everyone drives aroun on atv or skidoo. Honestly, trucks would have a very, very hard time getting around on these roads.

The school is very nice with all kinds of crafts and photos on display. This community is full of artists. As I was settling in yesterday afternoon, three soadstone carvers knocked on Margaret's door to meet me and sell me carvings. I will be coming home with a lot of rocks in my luggage.

The kids all had an absolute blast driving the Honda atvs. Honestly, they could go home happy right now. Last night I had cariboo and am looking forward to a few days of clean (freaking freezing) air and snapping photos. Hopefully, our major mishap quota has already been spent getting here an I anticipate some great times ahead. Can't wait to go out on the land and go seal hunting and seafood collecting. I'll try to get over my fear of all things marine.

I'll try to post as often as possible. See everyone soon. Leslie