Chuck and Becky's going away party :(

Our good friends Chuck and Becky (also managers of the Northern) have been relocated to another village. These our some photos from their going away party.

Becky and I. We have become good friends and work-out buddies during these past few months. It will be sad to see them go. Marion, Hugo and Shona are in the background.

Dancing the night away with Hugo, Shona, Marion, Chuck, Isabelle, Sophie and James.

I love this picture. Kitchen parties are always where it's at, even in the North.

Some good ol' chit chat. Lizzie, the only Inuit at the table, works with Chuck and Becky. She is a legend around these parts as she has been working at the Northern for 12 years now.

The two bearded men enjoying their drinks.

Becky and I decided to hit the dance floor one last time.

A walk to the airport

A couple of week-ends ago Neil, Isabelle and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and hiked up to the airport.

Kangiqsujuaq Airport. Though small, it's quite the busy place. This is our only connection to the outside world, so when it shuts down the town pretty much does too.

Isabelle, Aliana and myself at the airport. It's quite the view from way up here.

The sign here reads Heaven in Inuktitut.

Looking down at the village I couldn't agree more.

Neil's Hike

Sometime in mid-november I went for a little hike upstream, to see what I could see, but the terrain proved so hard that I only got about three kilometers out of town. No wonder everyone has ATV's and ski-doos! Anyway, here are some of the photos from that day.


This camp belongs to Annie and Mark Tertiluk, who both work at the school. Only after the fact did people tell me that polar bears have been sited in this area before. Mental note, do not go on the land without a gun or a getaway vehicle!!!


Obviously a cemetery would have never existed up here until missionaries made their way up here about 100 years ago. Now the Inuit are quite fervent believers. Our town of 550 has Baptist, Catholic and Anglican churches.


Da beach. Anyone up for a dip. Yesterday (Dec 8th) there was a Right Whale mother and child in this area. The bay is freezing over quickly now.




Arctic dude.

Halloween

The saturday night before Halloween we were invited to Isabelle's for a Halloween party. With not much to work with, save what was in her own closet, Sayard dressed up as a 50's Housewife.

Becky (dressed up as a redneck) and Chuck (here as a Samuri Warrior) are a couple we have become close with since moving up here. They are orignially from Nova Scotia and are up here managing one of the two stores in town called the Northern. We are very sad, as we have just found out they are leaving to go work in another town. We will miss them.

Isabelle, the hostess with the mostest, was dressed up as a video game geek.

Isabelle and Chuck now in his alter ego costume, Boba Fett a character from Star Wars.

This is Marion (the Queen of Hearts), a fellow teacher who Sayard enjoys weekly aerobic workouts with. Here she is with her best friend Sherry (black cat) who was visiting from Salluit.

Neil was playing hockey that night so showed up late sans costume. Becky was nice enough to lend him her hat, so he wouldn't feel left out.

Sayard with flour all over her face. Being a "new housewife" her baking skills aren't perfect yet.

Isabelle and some Inuit girls who came by to celebrate.

While this Halloween wasn't as eventful as previous years, it was still a good time had by all.

Kuujjuaq

I (Sayard) was lucky enough to get a week off of school to go to an English teachers workshop. I was sent down south to Kuujjuaq for 4 days, where I was able to eat out at a restaurant, buy magazines and even go out dancing at a bar. Now this might not seem like a lot, but up here in Kangiqsujuaq that's called living the life.

Kuujjuaq is still south enough to grow trees.....A sight for sore eyes.

An Inukshuk in the middle of town.

Our last night there we all went out as a group. Here we have Nancy, Collen, Amanda and myself enjoying a nice drink at the Lounge.

I originally met these two girls at orientation the first week here. Collen (left) and I stayed at Amanda's(right) house.

Sherry is Marion's (a teacher I work with) best friend. She is also a former teacher at my school, so we had a great time talking about Wakeham Bay and all it's glory.

Michael is the funnest person and the bestest dancer I've ever met. He is Will to my Grace.

The puppies

Putulik and her two little brothers showed up for a visit. Little did we know that hidden in their jackets were day old puppies.




Their dog had a litter of 6, and they brought the twins over to show us.

I had never seen puppies this small before.


They asked us if we want to adopt a puppy from them. We are concedering it, however we would like to wait to see what they look like when they are bigger than mice.

Teachers Night In

As is customary on the week-ends, one of the teachers holds a pot-luck/dinner party. One such week-end we went to James' for supper. The following pictures give a glimpse into what our nightlife is like up here.

We were joined by Isabelle with her dog Aliana,

Sophie, a fellow secondary teacher,

and Igak, James' adorable puppy. In this photo she looks a bit like a Japanese toy.

Marilou, a primary teacher, was a joy to hang out with. However, being only on a part time contract, she has now returned south.

The Kangiqsujuaq hipsters.

James really loves that puppy!

Two hommies hanging out.

We knew the night was over when the girls decided to take a nap with the dogs.

miunguvunga Kangiqsujuaq!

Many children come over to bake with us and hang out. Here we have three very well behaved children with the names Putulik, Aupaluk and Leo.



On the right we have a child from my class (Neil) called Elaisa with her two younger brothers.


The golf course with the snow tipped mountains in the background. This is on September 16th. It is now October 11th and the ground is covered completely.


Glowing end to the day. I am still waiting to get a good picture of the northern lights. We have certainly seen some incredible ones!!


This building holds the community freezer where extra caribou meat etc.. would be held and is available to all. The other picture I took did not really turn out but there was another 40 caribou skins drying out on the roof.

We babysat these kids, Jamie and Madeline, one night. Their mother Marion is a fellow teacher who has called Kangiqsujuaq home for 10 years now. Madeline is in grade 2 and is fluent in spoken English and Inutttitut, and her mother plans on putting her in French in two years time. Already very perceptive and quick, skies the limit for her in a few years time. Jamie is quite the character and definately keeps you on your toes.


Madeline and Jamie showed up the following week-end to present us with, our payment for the babysitting, two snow geese. We shared the geese with several other teachers this Thanksgiving and it was delicious.