Starved for adult conversation

Last night I hardly slept at all because I was supervising the sleepover in the tent at the edge of town. Lisi had set up this tent and equipped it with a home-made wood burning stove complete with chimney. We also had a propane stove for heating water and a gasoline lantern. Lisi had laid out cardboard boxes on the hard, rocky ground because Inuit tents have no floors to them. The kids brought camping mattresses and sleeping bags and we all laid ourselves out very well. I was equipped with a box of cookies which were apparently were very popular because I never saw them again after I opened the package and discreetly set them down on a rock. Most of the girls were there in the end. Only a few opted out. I was the only grown up there and I tell you I was definitely treated like one of the girls last night. Brian was around for a few hours for the experience and to keep up company. What ended up happening with him is that he ended up as chauffeur for the girls who didn't really want to pee on the ground until they absolutely had too. Pretty funny. Some of them had absolutely no idea how to roll up a sleeping bag. No joke.

Anyway, we did some throat singing (some of them are getting really good) and then I taught a few children's campsongs. Someone had brought along this freaking annoying noisy game called Bop It. The machine has two handles and gives you order to twist it, pull it, spin it or bop it...I'm probably missing something. The thing is covered with little thingies to carry out the little orders on. Rachel must have played that game all night...

We could see a bit of the norhtern lights at about 11:30 or so. I'm surprised by the amount of light that Sanikiluaq produces. There are a lot of streetlamps. Also, the moon was almost full so we probably didn't see them as well as we could have. But the sky was clear. When I get back I'll get that astroglobe out of the library again and tell my grade 9 class that I've never seen Orion right over my head before.

We also played children's memory games and other silly games. Some of them were getting so over-tired (haven't used that term in years) that they were rolling all over each other and me also. It was like going backwards in my life to a typical grade 6 slumber party at Micheline Gregoire's house. The only difference is that some of the games have changed a bit since I was little. They finally settled at about 2:30 and I think I fell asleep at 3 or 3:30. I know that some of them sayed up all night. They kept telling me to go to sleep so they could gossip. That was a unique teacher-student experience let me tell you. We woke up around 7am and got chauffered home in shifts on all terrain vehicles to eat breakfast and get ready for school.

This morning Brian and I missed the tour of the city to deal with a discipline issue. I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't get to see the RCMP and a few other interesting things around town. I'm more sorry that neither of us were on the tour to back Lisi up.

This afternoon, we finally got to Kingaaluk. It is just across the harbour. You can get there in 10 minutes by skidoo. Since we were still short on skidoos and most of them needed gas, most of us walked across the ice at least half way. It's pretty spooky walking across that much ice. We know that it's solid (4 feet at least) but it's covered in snow that is rapidly melting to slush and water under the sun. The water on top looks like a tropical blue. Kind of nervewracking.

Kingaaluk is a large hill made out of canadian shield rock. The kids climbed up it and slid down. There is apparently an inukshuk at the top but I didn't see it because I decided to take a break from the group and walk in the opposite direction. I walked over smoothed small rocks and then larger boulders. And then I reached a plateau of solid rock. Had a great view of the bay. Very stark. I hope that my photos come out because for some reason neither Brian nor I can get the camcorder to autofocus.

I'll have to write more later because the school dance is ending and we need to close up.

Did I mention that all the kids here can imitate Canada Geese? And do it well?