Spring Times bring ... snow.

Synopsis - TBS Movie Night style:
      Sun is up for a long time, 3am to 9pm
      Weather is warming but is still chilly to -20 to -30 daily
      YMCA Youth exchange is complete and went well
      Seal and Ice Fishing is pretty fun
      Shawna is allergic to nuts and eats them anyways - will power will defeat this allergy: #30Rock #Jack Donaghue

Extended Version - BlueRay style:
       Well the sun is up it keeps on going up. I suppose the first thing I'll update about is the weather. Interestingly enough talking about the weather is sort of a traditional thing. I know that everyone talks about weather and it's always that dry topic that you go to when there's not much else to say. As I've learned in my introduction to Inuktitut classes that was taught by a local elder - commenting on the weather is the known first concern in conversation - traditionally. I say traditionally because there are many people who - operate I'll say - in the standard Canadian way just as everyone all over the country lives, and there are others that embrace traditional Inuit lifestyle. Past this ramble - the first question to an elder or traditional person is not "Hi." or "How are you?", it's "The weather's nice today.", or "That wind is terrible!". Just one of those things.

      Today? The weather is quite nice. It's somewhere around -20 and there's no wind. The sky is clear and the tundra is bright with snow wildlife. Arctic Hares and Foxes and still the only land animals around right now. The crows are still here, and have never left. Notable for everyone: crows in the north do not sound like crows in the south. I am very versed in the sound of the crow from Ontario - another story - and the crow up here is quite different. I would categorize the noise of the Northern crow in the honk sound family, in contrast to the ear piercing yelp of the southern counterpart. There are also Musk-Ox and Polar Bears in and around the area, but you need to drive perhaps 2-3 hours in specific directions to track these fellas down. I haven't heard of anyone in town getting a musk-ox yet, but I do know of 3 people that have got polar bears. One is allowed to hunt these two animals if you obtain a tag from the renewable resources office. Both animals as per the NLCA (Nunabut Land Claim Agreement) have a TAH (total allowable harvest) put on them yearly by local boards in association with the territorial and federal governments. I teach social studies! haha

      The sun is currently beginning to rise at about 3:30am and will go down around 9:00pm. Lots of sun light and lots of time for the kids to be "playing out". Local idiom for playing outside. The attendance in school changes in accordance with sun light hours. The recent week has been notably poor for attendance because we just finished our spring break and the kids are really into the routine of school. For spring break here in Taloyoak it is popular to go visit friends or family in the community over, Gjoa Haven. Gjoa Haven is either a 35minute flight or between a 6 and 12 hour snowmobile ride. Families and friends hop on their machines and sometimes drag a kamatic (traditional sled) behind the machine and make the trek. If you drive "full blast" you can get there in the 6 hours assuming you have goo weather and don't break down part way. If you have poor weather and have to drive slow, you're dealing with the 12 hour option. Back to attendance - some kids go to Gjoa Haven for the week then can't get back, don't come back, or leave for the town on the Sunday at the end of spring break and then they're there for the following week. Quite the operation.

     Of general interest, a local fellow has been trapping foxes since about December. There's been a large influx in the fox population this winter - he suggested it was due to the increase in lemmings around town in the summer. Sounded good to me. Either way, foxes were milling their way into town scoring rabbies, biting dogs, sometimes biting humans - so this fellow decided to set up about 15 traps all around town. One of the kids in my class got bit by a fox back in February. He was wearing his big winter boots so the fox didn't get through. He went to the health center for his rabbies shot and promptly came to school the next morning. He's a good kid. Anyways, the fellow who set the traps was able to trap so far a little over 40 of them. I'm going to load some pictures next week due to my internet being close to it's capacity right now. He puts the foxes out once every week or so to air out. So you can walk by his house and see a large mound of frozen foxes with their mouth open and head cocked over like they're saying "dammit". Pretty cool site to see. He plans to sell the furs in a fur trade in the south.

     In regards to our goings on at school we just completed the first half of our YMCA Youth Exchange with Riverside Public School in Mississauga, ON. 15 kids arrived in Taloyoak on the 21st of March and were here until the 29th. The kids stayed with their buddy's at their homes each night. All of our kids' families were very welcoming and provided a great experience for the Ontario kids. We were able to go out on the land on a Sealing trip and an Ice Fishing trip. Both trips we took the kids out to the respective spots by snowmachine and kamatic. We hired guides - people who know things about the land - to drive the machines. It's quite the operation setting up these trips. We set up 4 canvas tents at each location. A few warming tents, and then a cooking tent. We had caribou stew and char soup for lunch - made out on the land using coleman camping stoves.

      Sealing is quite a venture. We only found 1 seal hole when we went sealing and didn't end up catching one. A seal hole is oh, about the size of a toonie or so. Below that toonie sized hole is a large opening and leads down through the ice. The seal will come up for air and as your standing over the hole you jab the harpoon down and stab him in the face. It's intense. We didn't get to see this happen. Sealing is a patient game. You literally stand over the hole for hours on end waiting for this silly thing to come up for air. The chances of us catching a seal on this day were slim because as soon as the hole was found a dozen kids fluttered around it. The seals are much smarter than to come up to a hole with all of that commotion around it.

      Ice fishing is a much more rewarding activity. First off you must dig down in the snow until you get to ice level. Depending on the lake and the area that you are in the snow will vary in depth. I'll put the dig on average at 3 or feet or so. So you dig a circular hole that would have a diameter of maybe 2 feet. Then you pull out the ice auger. Start drilling and keep going. You will require an extension to get the whole way through. The ice we were chopping through was about 5-6 feet thick. If you don't have an extension long enough there is an instrument that is used that is about 8 feet long with a chizel head that you can use to get down to the water. Every few minutes of digging you jump down in the hole and clear our the ice chips. As you hit water the hole fills up! You drop your jigger (foot and half piece of hockey stick with line attached) and jig. When you feel the fish you pull the line up with your hands in a unique fashion, yank the fish out of the hole and get all wack-a-mole on it with your jigger. And that's nothern ice fishing.

      So that's the major update for right now. Pictures to follow. All is well.

Ps. - Shawna is currently craving chocolate. I bought some Turtles on sale at the co-op yesterday for 75% off, sweet deal. For those of you who know her well, she has a nut allergy. It's minor, her mouth will just go a big numb. She's currently eating the turtle - "I wonder how many nuts are in these, I could eat around them." This is why I cannot take her allergy seriously.