This and That - Fall 2010

I was lucky enough to be able to drag my boyfriend up north with me (even if it was only for two months)! We were lucky that he is a nurse and the community was happy to have him on board. While Chris was in town we tried to get out on the land and do as much exploring as possible (without getting gobbled up by a polar bear).
Here are some pictures from his visit:
















Chris' first caribou


Andy's first caribou (4 years old!)

Bowhead Whale Hunt

The team bringing the whale into shore


Yet again, another overdue blog. Better late than never!

This summer, the hamlet of Repulse Bay had one tag for a bowhead whale. The team had been put together months in advance. The hunt began in the middle of August. There were some weather issues including fog and ice floes, but the hunt was successful. The team hunted the whale on a Saturday night and brought the carcass into town early Sunday morning with gospel singers welcoming them ashore.

The whale was about 47 ft long. The people cut away the blubber which was eaten by the townspeople as well as given to other local communities. I did taste the blubber, but am sorry to say that I was not a big fan. Chris cut some up and pickled it. I haven't tried it yet, but he said that it was pretty good. I think I'll take his word for it.

One downside of having a HUGE whale carcass a mile outside of town was that the smell had a luring effect on polar bears. Needless to say, one had to be cautious around town! Several polar bears were shot around this time, as well as new tags issued to the elders to shoot any polar bears that are near the town. A local RCMP man was almost run down by a bear had it not been for his quick shooting partner!!

Below are some pictures of the bowhead whale hunt aftermath:


The baleen shining in the sunlight







Students posing with the jaw bone from 2005

Back to the north

View of Repulse Bay from the air

Well, I am back up north! School started on August 5th, so I have been pretty busy getting everything organized and put together for my class. I am still the grade 4 teacher and it looks like it is going to be another great year. I am also the computer contact person now, so that is keeping me busy!
I have also moved to a new apartment and I have a new roommate - Chris, my better half! We really like the apartment and are settling in nicely. Chris just started work last weekend as the local homecare nurse. He is liking that so far. Right now he is planning to stay up here until the middle of October. I will probably be home for Christmas, then come back up to finish up the school year.
Other than work and school, Chris and I have been able to go out on the land and by boat to see some pretty cool local wildlife. Chris was out in a boat with a local man and they saw two polar bears close up in the water! We saw another polar bear while on a boat trip with the staff from our school, although it was pretty far away.
Our first weekend up here we went out for a long walk just south of town. Someone went flying past us on an ATV and told us that there were some whales swimming off of the shore not far from where we were. So, Chris and I followed them and we got to see some narwhals swimming around. Several boats were out in the water as well . . . we weren't sure if they were just watching or if they were hunters (I knew that the locals had already had a big narwhal hunt a couple weeks ago and they used all of their tags). The boats surrounded the whales and brought them right in to shore not far from where we were. We watched as one of the men harpooned a narwhal! It just happened that he was from Rankin Inlet and he had a tag to kill it. I think narwhal are beautiful animals, but it was still pretty cool to see them hunt it (I am a hunter as well so maybe that's why it didn't bother me). They brought it in to shore and Chris and I asked if we could watch as they cut it up. The guy was really friendly and let us watch and take pictures. We even got to eat some of the skin/blubber. It wasn't that tasty but I had to try it once!
Repulse Bay has been given one tag for a bowhead whale! They get a tag about once every five years, so this is a pretty big deal!! The hunt started on the 16th and they are able to use the tag until December (hopefully it doesn't take that long!). The weather has not been very cooperative as we have had rain, fog, and recently the wind blew the ice right into the shore so no one can go out in a boat at all. It is supposed to be really windy (from the north) the next couple of days, so that may help to get rid of all the ice. A couple of men have offered to take Chris out on their boat when the whale has been killed. In case you are not aware of how big a bowhead whale is, they are the second largest whale in the world! They can get up to 66ft and weigh over 130 tonnes!! They are also the longest living mammal as they can live to be up to 200 years old.
The teacher's boat trip last weekend was a lot of fun. We stopped at the harbour islands (where we saw the polar bear running away over a hill). The whalers used to camp out on these islands as they helped to shelter them from the wind during the cold winter months. They would be stuck there after the ice came in. There were some graves there and even some human bones exposed to the elements. We had to drive around hundreds or thousands of huge chunks of ice floating around the water. We also saw a seal and a caribou and the guides did some Arctic char fishing (with nets). We had a delicious fish dinner that night!
Other than that, Chris and I have just been doing a lot of walking and exploring near town, but not too far out of town as we don't have a gun yet and don't want to get eaten by a polar bear!
I'm sure I have missed something, but I will write more in my next entry.
Here are some pictures from the last 3 weeks:

Arctic ground squirrel (siksik)

Narwhal head and tusk

View of town

A skull from one of the whalers with offerings (bullets, smokes, a pocket knife)

May update

Ok, so I haven't posted anything in a while . . . so here is an update of what I have been up to lately. We now have pretty much 24 hours of sunlight! It never gets dark out. I have been having trouble sleeping although I have tin foil over my window . . . I think my brain knows that it is still light out! It is hard to get used to so much light. It will be nice to get home to a more normal sunrise/sunset pattern! Only 17 days until I'm home!
Also, we only have 7 teaching days left! Tomorrow, Monday, we are having a teacher's workshop. Friday we are done at noon as there is a big fishing derby near town. There are some big prizes! I believe that first place is $5,500!! There are four lakes north of town that will be used for the derby. The closest one is 2 hours by snowmobile. I'm not sure if I'm going to head up or not . . . depends how much work I get done in my classroom and if I can catch a ride or not!! Definitely too far to walk! The last day of class for the students is the 28th of May! Us teachers have to be in school on the Monday, then I will be flying home on Tuesday, June 1st, but have to stay overnight in Winnipeg that night. The only bad thing about being done in May is that classes start back up the first week of August.

Last weekend I was invited to a birthday party in an igloo! It was Arden's first birthday and her parents thought it would be special for her to have it in an igloo! We had cake, hot chocolate, and marshmallows. It was a perfect day for her big event. Here are some pics:

This is how we get around in the north! This is Heidi and Jenn with Arden in the Snow Coach.


Me in front of the birthday igloo.


We had a bonfire on the frozen lake. The ice was over 6 feet thick, so no worries about going through! Wasn't easy to find wood to burn as there are no trees up here! Luckily there were some extra skids from a construction site.

We played bocce ball!

A sic sic (Arctic ground squirrel) must have smelled the hot dogs! He ran down the hill to visit us.

I was also invited to go out and watch a caribou hunt! To get a caribou tag I have to be a resident for at least 3 months. . .which I was about 10 days away from, so I was only an observer. I'm hoping to go out hunting when we come back up in August. I went out with a fellow teacher, Jake, who had a tag and it was his first time caribou hunting. He got one with his first shot! He shot it in the butt, but it went down. The other two we went out with were Michael and his girlfriend Wendy. They are locals and Michael has shot tons of caribou. Wendy also shot her first caribou while we were out (took about 6 shots!) but she finally got it. Michael also shot one (also took about 6 shots!). It was nice to be able to get out on the land and see what it looks like outside of town. It is very hilly around Repulse with tons of little lakes (all frozen right now of course). It seems crazy how the caribou and other animals can survive in such a harsh climate!


This was the caribou that Jake shot.

The Inuit love to eat caribou eyes and tongue. Jake and Michael ate the eyes! I've been told it has a hard jelly-like consistency. Jake spit it out . . . yuck!

This was Wendy's caribou. It was all alone out there. It had already been shot in the leg, so must have been left behind the herd.

Sunset while out hunting.

The grade 9 class spent a night out on the land and did some fishing. They gave us an Arctic Char that they caught. Irene and I tried to clean it but it wasn't a pretty sight!

Earth Day

Well, nothing says Earth Day like going ice fishing! We actually had a meeting scheduled for Earth Day (April 22nd), so we celebrated at the school on Friday, April 23rd instead. In the morning, we started out with a game of Earth ball (grades 4-6). I wish I had taken some pics of this as it was pretty funny!! We have a soccer ball that is about 10 times as big as it should be . . . so we played a game with it. After that, we had some recycled Art activities and a movie for the kids. The afternoon was the highlight of the day as we took the bus to "Old Water Lake," not to be confused with "New Water Lake," which is the current water source for Repulse Bay. Holes were drilled for ice fishing (it was about 6 ft of ice- glad I didn't have to drill the holes!!) and a couple of tents were set up for hot chocolate. A nice tobogganing hill was located just off of the lake, which was tons of fun! I made a few trips down the hill and only wiped out a couple of times. It was the perfect weather for our outing. I think it had to have been the warmest day of the year so far. A bunch of us had our jackets off and enjoying the beautiful sunshine! Only two fish were caught in the afternoon (lake trout), but everyone was having fun.


This is a pic on top of the hill looking back down on the lake and the ice fishing.

This is a picture of one of my students kneeling on the ice . . . there were some pretty cool designs!


Now this is the way to fish! Not sure whose chair it was, but it was comfy! I didn't even get a bite! We were jigging with sticks that had fishing line connected and some lures. I believe there was a bit of bait put on some of the hooks.


First fish of the afternoon.