Guess whos coming to dinner

I very much like the movie which this blog is named after, and it is completed unrelated to this entry so see it if you wish but please do not ask for hidden connections later.
If you read the posting this afternoon you would garnered that I was deeply worried, perhaps you felt the tension. Anyway the water was on by 5pm with an hour to spare. Everything was simpplified, a lond divison laid itself out in front of me: I would put the sauce in the oven to heat up saving me my last pot for the noodles, there was no dish shortage afterall, cleaning became unnecessary. I had put on Thesalonia Monk too, some Jazz artist whose album I had taken out from the Library. Cool and relaxed was I. Yet I did not let things be. Earlier I thought to myself that when Marc and LIndsay arrived that I would joke to them saying that I had planned an elaborate feast but the plan, due to the lack of water, was spoiled. Ha, ha, ha. Now, with running water, newfound hope, Thesolonia monk's jazz cd haved switched over to a trance, world, groove music CD, provided by the house, I decided that I would in fact prepare an elaborate feast in the following hour. Why not? I figured the house was so well stocked and well equipped, anything was possible. I would still heat up the tomato sauce and prepare the rice noodles, but why not an appetizer, Leek soup, and real first course, something meaty, like trout. 5:10pm. First I cleaned, my rule of thumb is that you can't cook in a filthy kitchen. 5:20pm. Could I do this, I asked, as I pranced -in my mind I was dancing to the groove- upstairs to downstairs, across the house searching for cook books -how to cook and prepare fish; Rush Hour Recipes; A soup makers bonanza- were the ones I chose- and gathering ingredients. 5:30pm. The soup recipe was too sophistated for me, "Leek and Jasmine rice soup", because it required processes with which I was unfamiliar -placing fresh herbs in a cheese cloth and steeping it in the broth, this process had a french name- and because it had ingredients I did not have! I felt clueless at this point because all I wanted to wanted to make was a milk base puree with leeks and potatoes and there were to many cooks books to search through. I decide to follow some of the directions of the earlier recipe to keep busy and when taking the leeks out of their packing I noticed it was labelled with a recipe for a milk based leek soup. Instead of potatoes it called for parsnips -didn't the madame of the house show me parsnips during our tour?- indeed, it also called for an unripe pear, handily I noticed for the second time a ripe pear on the counter mixed in with the apples. Clearly this was providence or the owners had intended to cook the same soup!!!! Conveniently, I had saved the vegetable broth from the last time I cooked poached trout and so I reused it as abroth for the leek soup and for, this time, steaming the trout.5:55pm. I boiled the water for tea. 6:00pm. Nothing was ready. But, I had emailed Lindsay twenty minutes previous asking her to pick up bread. 6:10pm. My attempt to blend the vegetables was half successful, I put them back on the stove to soften them up a little. Otherwise my broth for the trout was ready, the trout was still frozen, I reasoned that I'd defrost them in the microwave later. Things slowed down, the World music/groove CD was done, I put on Bartok instead, eerie string music, whatever. The leek soup was on to high of a temperature because the milk almost foamed over, (later,the soup was served as capocino leek soup). The guests arrived, Bartok, I realized was too eerie for me and back went on Thesalonia and his sweet Jazz.

cold drops o' rain

There are cold drop o' rain outside. Easy to ignore, except inside the water is no running. I don't mind putting off laundry, but my kitchen is on the messy side. The owners of the place where I am housesitting invited to eat much of their food, I am very happy to take up this offer and I have been eating like a King,; poached trout, chili, stir-fry, and tomatoe sauce are my specialties. Now the kitchen is a mess and I invited Marc and Lindsay over for dinner. Because the owners are public servants, I am to call Public works if something goes wrong with the house. The two local lines weren't helpful but the national hotline proved fruitful. The rep. I talked with recommended, upon my telling her of the cold drops o rain, that I put a bucket outside to collect rain. Good advice, we'll see how much water I collect for cooking dinner over the next hour!

Training day

I trained a new employee today. SHe must be fairly good looking because al the teenaged guys were hovering around around. :D

Tid-bits

I saw "The Last Air Bender" at Iqaluit's movie theatre tonight. The theatre was like any other yousee in a small town, nice and small! The opening scene was of the "water tribe". A group of people affiliated with element water. The charaters were dressed in Inuit Garb and their village was similar to an Inuit village. The main actors weren't Inuit butit seemed as if the extras but you only caught glimpses of them. I don't recommend the movie, it is full of paganism run amok and I am sure the easter spirituality within it could have been better presented.
Before the movie I cooked dinner, nothing fancy, stir fry, at my new house sitting gig. I am housesitting for apublic servant and her husband while they are down south. They gave me a detailed tour of their food supplies, large, and said I was welcome to everything. This includes: Bacon, Trout, Ox, Porc, Beef, Arctic Char, Cariboo heart, and so forth. The green beans were moldy but there was also a good quantity of fresh food. My stir fry as composed of mushrooms carrots, and onion; and the sauce was made up of soy sauce, vinager, sugar, and garlic.
Yesterday, I bought my first Inuit sculpture. Several weeks ago, when I was volunteering at the a canteen, a boy asked me to keep my eyes open for his bicycle which e believed was taken. I did spot his blue mountain bike. This boy I learned carved scultures and I would bump into him around town as I wa job hunting, he was often at the same places sellinghis scultures. I told him I would be a sculture when i got a job. I kept my bargain and bought a little Inukshuk with an accompanying stand. For ten dollars its alright considering I know the kid. He is in fact working for North mart temporarily, as he and a bunch others have been trasnferring stuff from newly arrived cargo. Every couple of weeks a ship arrives with cargo for the stores and others who have ordered goods, such as food and cars. One of the characteristics of Iqaluit, thought, is the Hawkers; sculptors will hawk the carvings in stores, at restaurants, and on the streets. Indeed, if you eat at he Frobisher Inn on a Friday night, I am told, along with your meal will come 15 hawkers. If you have the money it can be quite fun to bargain a polar down from $500 to $150. Its hard to identify whats good and what isn't and it is tempting to buy straight from the artist because it is much cheaper than going to the local art dealers. For instance the other day during my lunch break I went to the library to write an entry for this blog. Well lo and behold there was a a guest artist, a print maker at the entrance doing his thing. I bought two prints from him even though I wasn't sure as to the quality. With that said I have seen his prints elsewhere and he was invited to be there by the director of the visitors centre. The prints are of hunter catching a seal and they are in sequence so that the first shows the hunter hoding a harpoong, and the second the shows an impaled seal with harpoons rope twisting aound the seal.

More blogs soon

The library is closing now, but I wanted to say that I will have frequent access once more to morrow, therefore, expect frequent postings!
yours
tw

Why I am in Iqaluit

I thought it would be a good time to explain what brought me here to Iqaluit. Several weeks ago I won a plane ticket. The Ticket was part of a draw held by the Reconstruction committee for St. Jude’s Cathedral, hence the attention I give to it in the blog. Five years ago a fire devastated the “Igloo” Cathedral and made it unstable so it was demolished. Currently there is a campaign to raise funds to rebuild the Cathedral. They have raised around 4 million so far and another 2 million is needed. The second "Igloo" will be larger but is based on the earlier one. This website contains relevant external links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Jude%27s_Cathedral
Here is the churches website itself: http://www.arcticnet.org/~igloocathedral/
When I won the ticket I wasn’t attracted to the idea of coming for a week, rather I thought the best thing to do would be to by fly up as soon as possible (two weeks) and find a place to live and work. So far housing has been awkward, Brian Burrows the interim rector took me in for a week and half after I camped out in the the local parc, I have had one excellent house sitting gig, and I slept on a Friends’ couch for four nights. Today I do not have a place, yet. My next house sitting gig begins this Friday and ends 3 August. My house sitting ads have garnered some response but not enough. They go something like this “Meet Ted Williams the friendly house sitter. His previous experience includes pet care, dusting and yardwork. He is a non-smoker and a non-drinker”. Then I had my number and email address (friendlyhousesitter@gmail.com) along the bottom for people to rip off. These posters were placed in the grocery stores, government buildings, coffee shops, and quite a few people have said to me that they have seen them, yet the friendly house sitter has no house.
This is no surprise, the housing in Iqaluit is critically short of the demand. A single room in a shared apartment can cost upwards $1000. Though government employees are provided with housing as well as employees of some businesses. If you are big and rich enough you can give your employees more then enough housing and food allowances. Northmart, where I work, is one of these companies so I will try make a deal with them, the person responsible for housing returns from vacation tomorrow. There is a rumour I heard that the government is planning to crack down on their employees who host more people. It is said that Construction costs are twice as much in Iqaluit as in the South. So you must have a stable income to build a house, but first you have to buy land. There is also the Iqaluit housing authority which has a 3-4 year waiting list for a house to rent. I am glad I am not looking for a permanent place to stay but I hope I can find a place where I don’t have to move every couple of days!
Speaking of Northmart, I quite enjoy being a cashier. It is always busy and it requires concentration to complete each transaction quickly while being polite and making small talk. So far I enjoy the challenge. It is also good to have full time hours because I do need to earn money for school while here. Lastly, it is a good place to observe what life is like in Iqaluit including its people.

I like my job as cashier, for now its still very novel, and I assure you that stores up here are the same as down south. Aisles of food, with fresh produce, the bakery and meat department located on the periphery. Bags of charcoal, water containers, and a rug cleaner at the entrance. Its nice to see people who I’ve met in Iqaluit thus far and to socialize with the other cashiers. The corporate experience is also the same, carding in, waiting to see how shifts shift; the different departments are all here and so on. I am not sure how things will play out in the end, but I am worried about running out of material for this travelogue. One of my aims is talk about things in the north to people in the south, however my current occupation doesn’t provide much content after a couple of days; this blog isn’t titled “A day in the life of a cashier”. Nonetheless, things happen.
Last night, I hung out with friends Lindsay and newly arrived Marc. We have driven around town a couple of times. Once we went up drove a road that leads out of town, past the airport, the over filled garbage dump which blends in with the surrounding ridges, the sewage treatment plant, an old weather station being converted by a couple into a home, past Sylivia Grinnel parc where I had camped out, past mysterious telecommunication towers and piles of crushed cars. At the end of the road you are on a piece of land that juts out from the end of Frobisher Bay. Facing towards the bay, the Sylvia Grinnel River has its mouth on the right, and Iqaluit is located on inlet to the right. The land here is flatter than elsewhere but the view of ridges is the same, although the snow I could see in the distance on my arrival has greatly dissipated after three more weeks of sunlight. Nearby there were great humps of rock which you could climb. This time of year is special because some residents of Iqaluit set up their canvas tents in this vicinity where they are near the river. When we climbed up one hump of rock you could see dozens of tent dwellers, or other people, fishing along the shoreline. If you keep on along the shoreline towards the river, you will continue to walk by canvas tents and suddenly you will come across an archeological site. The Thule culture lived Iqaluit between the years 1000-1700, and after them people from the Dorset culture live here (I don’t know what the different is between Thule and Dorset, something to find out). The site in question looked to me like an old foundation of a house, which is what it was essentially. A large but shallow hole surrouned by rocks. These people were nomadic and they lived in different houses throughout the year. Igloos in the winter, but these submerged houses and tents at other times. If I can, I will provide more details on this later on.
Afterwards, Marc, Lindsay and I went to the Human society to walk the dogs. And then following this we chased the sunset. When you try to drive of Iqaluit you quickly realize that the roads do not lead anywhere with the exception of plenty of gravel pits and Apex, 5-10 minute drive away. We did come across the first military base in Iqaluit, where which the old foundations for buildings looked ready to be built upon. There were plenty of clouds spread out evenly and a quarter of the sky was the colour of brightly shining copper.
Once things settle down a little, I will be sure to find adventures for you dear readers.

TWO UNPUBLISHED BLOGS (they are old now).

The house in which I am house sitting has large windows which face the foundation for the Cathedral to be built. I may have already described it but I shall refresh your memories. Close your eyes and imagine a raised platform of white cement in the shape of a circle. Not very interesting eh, I ask. The children, and young teenagers, do find it interesting. The foundation is high enough, and hollow enough to run around inside. The younger kids usually run inside, outside, on top, during the afternoon and the later it gets the older the kids. They have also placed big wooden boards over the ditch surrounding the foundation. On the other side from where I am is situated the elementary school. It is two stories, white metal exterior, and windows that loo like ship portals placed here and there. The shape is unlike our school down south, mainly because the walls aren't flat. Rather they are angular panels which are symmetric in close proximity but from a distance you can see that the school isn't a square box, (they don't jut out like the ROM's Michael Ching Diamond), rather, I would argue, its an abstract representation of a Polar Bear.
I should say there is much space between where I am and the school. Other than the foundation there is a ditch, some shipping containers, which are often used in Iqaluit by people for storage space, residential or otherwise, and dust. Iqaluit is very dusty. Many roads are paved, but there was many which are gravel. Today there was a machine which was the size of street cleaner and whose function was to plow the gravel, to make the road even surfaced I think.

I hope that I can keep my posts coming without focusing on my work toom much because the intent is to observe the North. When you walk into North Mart is the same as any local grocery store in Canada. I like where I work because my fellow cashiers are Inuit and its cool to interact with them. My trainer Cathy, is effective because her instruction are clear and she does not condescend. The other cashiers respect her and she is the oil that keeps the team running, although she is not a 'manager'. The lesson I learned to-day was that it is sometimes better not make comments about what the customer buys to the customer. I also plan to learn words like Thank-you in Inuktitut. About half the town must shop at this store because its the largest, there is another smaller store called Arctic Ventures, there slogan is buy local. There is also the Baffin Cannery Co-op which acts as a middle man for groups of people who buy food in bulk from distributers. Many people do this to save on costs. BCC also has cheaper food in genereal though it is much smaller. Where I work, for instance milk is around $15 for three bags, at BCC it is $13. Food is expensive. $600 gets one, maybe two weeks of groceries.

In the footsteps of Radisson and Des Groseilliers

I completed my first day with "The North West Company", Canada's oldest company, a half truth. In reality, this North West Company was formed in 1987 when a group of employees bought the Northern Stores division of the Hudson's Bay Company, which is one of the world oldest chartered corporations in operation, probably true. Today's North West company shares its name with a fur trading company that was forced to merge with "The Bay" around 1820. The rivarly between the Hudson Bay Co. and The North West Co. had descended into violence and murder so they were pressured into becoming one company. Back then these companies engaged in continential exploration searching for new sources of fur and had hundreds of trading posts and forts along rivers, lakes, and seas. Back then its employees were guides, interpreters and les voyageurs, those who canoed everywhere all the time collecting furs. In our present day, the Bay is a department store (a place where I go to sample beaver pelt cologne) and The North West Company operates: "The Quick Stop" (If I own a convenice store I shall name it "Quick Go"), "North Mart" and franchises for "Cost U Less" and "Giant Tiger". I am a cashier, not a voyageur like Radisson or Des Groseilliers, yet I can say that I work for the storied North West Company. I look forward to the future half truths I tell my grandchildren!


Nice coat of arms at the following website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_West_Company_-_Coat_Of_Arms.jpg

Job interview

The job interview was difficult, i couldn't have been more precocious. "How punctual are you" "Well, I was 5 minutes late for this interview". "How come you don't have a job yet" "Mainly because I've been relaxing, I did drop my resume off here 1.5 weeks ago". "What do you think of Iqaluit" "A friend told me not to get my expectations up" and then I gave him a rundown of Saturdays post. I also revealed that I was semi-homeless. I got hired on the spot, they were as desperate as I.

I drove for the first time in many years this afternoon. The procedure for getting a license here is easier, I knew there was a reason for not getting a license earlier. Anyway I got to drive a jeep down a dirt road (through the tundra of course) until it came to an abrupt end in a field of gravel. This road has name you' heard before: the road to nowhere
I also went to church this morning. After years of singing in a choir, I find that I am leading the congregation in singing the hymns. I enjoy this because Brian chooses traditional hymns, which are the best, and gospel hymns. Today this was problematic because unlike the past two weeks when we were singing along to MIDI recordings of the hymns, we had a guitarist who followed me. This meant that all my mistakes counted, like taking too many breaks, singing slowly. Next week I shall be prepared.
I also stayed for the Inuktitut speaking service. This is the most foreign thing I have ever experienced. It is possible to be a stranger in an English speaking service, but at this one I feel like a stranger too. The Inuit are a people other than my own, they speak their own language, yet they practice the same religion and belong to the same denomination! Its funny to be a minority (80 to 1) and still be favoured by the system (university educated white male). There is an invisible wall and I am here only for two months.

Bumble bees in Iqaluit

note: There are many questions in this post but no question marks. Please try not to get statements and questions confused. Otherwise, I've made an effort to edit posts in advance so hopefully things will make sense. Lastly, apologies if I have misrepresented anyone.

It was Brian’s birthday today and he and I were invited to dinner with Mike Gardener, the former rector of St. Jude’s Cathedral, and his wife Margaret. We had barbecued arctic char, McCain’s fries (ie. Fish and Chips), veggies, and a salad including fresh greens from the green house for dinner. For Dessert we ate banana cake accompanied by fruit and cherry ice cream. Mike and Margaret have been in Iqaluit since 1980, and in the North for much longer. Much of their family remains in the North thus they have stayed as well. It was neat listening to Mike and Brian reminisce from their training days in England in the 1950/60’s to become priests and their national service terms (ie. conscription to Her Majesties army). After dinner Mike and Margaret’s daughter and son-in-law came by to say Hello.

A discussion ensued over much tea in which Brian was asked by the daughter whose name I have forgotten about what Iqaluit was like in the 1960’s, he said that it was very much the same. At this point, dear reader, you may say that in a previous post I stated that things were changing quickly! Certainly there are more buildings today. And there is a larger population. But, by saying things are the same I think is to acknowledge that we humans always have struggles. In the 1960’s violent crimes existed however there were no suicides. Currently, suicide is a regular occurrence.
One might propose that suicides take place due to not knowing one’s identity, forgive me for my simplified and inadequate statement. For instance, in Labrador, where the conversation had shifted, there are few Inuit who speak Inukitut. This is not so in Iqaluit where students study Inuktitut until grade four. This is an example of how someone who is Inuit cannot identify with their own culture, but still cannot feel akin to western culture. In Labrador these problems are worse than in Iqaluit -though it is a concern in Iqaluit. We all remember the news stories on CBC over the Gas sniffing in Davis Inlet, and then a year later the news stories returned saying nothing had changed. Years later I wonder if anything is different. We humans still struggle, that has not changed, Old Testament afflictions still happen as David Adams Richards points out in one of his books. And they aren’t restricted to Davis Inlet, I am sure gas sniffing happens in many places in Canada. Back in Iqaluit, alcohol is a big issue. The priests are obligated not to drink, even in private. When the Liquor store first opened the Cathedral campaigned to close it to no avail.

Furthermore the question of identity can be more complicated because, as Brian suggested, there is a desire to narrow the definition of what it is to be Inuk(singular for Inuit). For instance, can you be an Inuk if you don’t eat seal meat in Labrador. Or to be Inuk you need to be part of a family and a region. Is this inclusive or exlcusive. I ask because the daughter mentioned that a Japanese man moved to an Inuit community in Greenland, is married, speaks the language and so forth. He is an Inuk now. If he can become Inuk surely others can, and shall. However if you are an Inuk and you are displaced from your family and region are you still an Inuk. In the room I was in, that is the kitchen with Brian, Michael, Margaret, Archie the son-in-law and the daughter whose name I’ve forgotten, I was the only who could speak no Inuktitut, the others were either bilingual or conversational in Inuktitut, and English. In my opinion, their English speech had adopted the flow Inuktitut, perhaps like the tide it is gentle and steady.

People tell me they are worried about Iqaluit. One person said to me today that kids don’t have anything to do. They are 1,000 plus youth without any activities. Another was saying how mold is an issue. I think youth without activites (or in revolt) or mold is something most Canadians face at one point in their lives. And yet there is a feeling that things are getting WORSE here in Iqaluit, even though it is a boom town.. I met a documentary maker, a guy my age, from Spain who told me that he as a non-believer, in the church, Christianity or god –I am not sure, all three I suppose- thought that the church was a solution to the problems in Iqaluit. ( I don’t know why he restricts the church as a solution to only to Iqaluit…or what it means for the church to be a solution, what’s the formula, I ask). Yet I think its important to keep in mind what Brian said, that some things remain the same. There may be more bees in the north than ever before, but there is nothing new under the sun.

Nunavut day

Today is Nunavut Day, it celebrates the birth of this 11 year old territory. I took part in the festivities at the legislature, where there was a BBQ, games and contests, and music. The music here tends to sound like Scottish or Quebecois folk music, due to the presence of Scottish whalers ancient times. The games played were generally from the artic games. There was one where the contestants lie on their stomachs facing each other and band is place around the two heads. The objective is to flick the band off the opponents head. I played and I found it difficult because the opponents tended to be older heavier men with experience in the arctic games. In another game a string with two bone handles was placed in the hands of two opponents. Like the previous game, you are close to your opponent and you use your bodies to push or pull against each other! I also saw a seal skinning contest. There were eight seals, brought in by the Rangers who had hunted them the last few days, on a tarpaulin, some were bigger then others. The goal was to see who skin the seal first, without ripping, I think. It seemed to me that the smaller seals were easier to handle and therefore were skinned before the larger seals. Also, it seemed that skinning the smaller seals was a less messy affair, if I may use that word, because some contestants skinned the entire seal without spilling its innards. In other cases, it was hard to see how the seal was being skinned because the innards were spilling everywhere. Evidently, it took great skill to do this without ruining the skin. Afterwards, if you had a knife, you could cut some meat off and eat it. I was too shy to ask for a knife but I learned that there was country food, as its called, available indoors. If you have been reading my travelogue you will know that I attended a picnic last week with country food. The meat I ate then was either cooked or raw AND frozen. In this case I was eating raw meat and it was fresh not frozen. When I went back outside I noticed that the fundraising committee for the reconstruction of St. Jude’s cathedral had a booth set up for a draw which included a print and two tickets south. I mentioned earlier how there were often draws in Iqualuit to go south, since I had one a ticket north I decided not to enter the draw for the tickets, though for the print I did. Who knows…maybe I’ll be lucky twice.

Tundra and Iqaluit

Today, after reading David Adams Richards 'Mercy Among the Children", I went for a hike to the tundra on Iqaluit's perimeter 'till I found the road that goes nowhere, that is its name. It was the sort of day when you could hear the mosquitoes humming. I stopped for thirty seconds to take a photo and my hands were covered! Fortunately I was wearing a mosquito vest, a one piece jacket that covered my torso and head. The view from one ridge is of valleys and other ridges, there are no trees, but there are few tiny lakes. When you walk down from the ridge the terrain becomes less rocky, rather, the rocks are still there, only underneath a layer of heather, which is similar to a thick, dry moss. Like humus it is soft to walk upon. In the deep of the valley there are of course wet spots and lakes, melted from the winter's snow. To get across you had to jump from dry spot to dry spot. It reminded of hopping a cross a river because alot rocks were revealed at this point.
Later on the hike, on my way home i climbed another ridge which is on the edge of Iqaluit and it seems as it is the highest point around, in fact a group a Christian's claimed it as something important because they have planted a cross on top, much smaller than the one in Montreal. It is kept standing by a pile of rocks. At the top though it seemed likely that there were other ridges slightly higher nearby. It was a good view though, you could see how the development has spread and how it is becoming more dense, in the way of townhomes -ones very similar to the kind you see in halifax with low rooves and wooden siding. In fact, at the visitor's centre, I spoke with a young woman who remembers when Iqaluit was a lot smaller and there were fewer buildings. This is signigicant because she is younger than me and its only been in the last 6 or 7 years that the city has expanded so dramatically. For example,two new buildings in the centre of town include the RCMP headquarters and the First nations Bank (the Inuit have an %18 in the bank). Also there are quite a few townhomes being built. I read a recent city plan which said the key to development in Iqaluit was densification because space is limited.
In other news I started my first housesitting gig.

The Job hunt

ON the plane some told me that anyone who wasn't working after one day in Iqaluit is considered lazy. Well, more then a week later I am still on the hunt. I rather like hunting because it has allowed me walk around the city numerous times, I feel like my orientation has improved quite a bit since my first day when I took a cab to the nearest pay phone or map (the map in the airport was blocked by 60 people waiting for departure...)though I haven't figured out where the sun rises. It does drop below the horizon at around 11pm and it is light enough to read in my room with the blinds shut at 1am so it must not have far to go before it rises again, I'll get back to you dear readers on this one.
Mainly I have targeted: government jobs (municipal and federal but not territorial); service jobs, hotels and the like; Northmart, one of the grocery stores; a day care; and construction companies. I am also looking for places to house sit. On this front I have had a good response, in fact I am moving out of Brian's Thursday morning! Also, Captain has gone on vacation for the summer and he has given Brian and I a bunch of food so i am not going hungry or anything.
Lastly, I wanted to announce that I do not have TB, but I am still awaiting my criminal record check results and then we'll see if I can work at the city's day camps.

yellow saxifrage

It seems that my Sunday’s are my busiest day of the week. As normal I will attend Church in the morning. This Sunday I did not attend the Inuktitut speaking services, however I kept bumping into people who I had met at those services the week previous. I told them I would be there next time! I did go out for brunch with several people to the Nova Hotel, some sort of fellowship thing. I had eggs, sausage, home fries, toast, and beans. It was called “La Quebecoise”. Later in the afternoon I went to the Baffin Correctional Centre with Captain Rus to evangelize. Really we were providing company and the resources to have a bible study. I think the inmates I appreciate us visiting them even if we do sing “Amazing Grace” out of tune. I have trouble singing in Inuktitut. One inmate joked that it would be like speaking chinese.
On the way in to the Baffin Correctional Centre I had picked some flowers, as I am wont to do –I am collecting local plants so I can learn more about the Tundra’s Flora, and I was quite close to an enclosure (tall fences with barbed wire) containing several inmates, and, a correctional officer standing outside. The guard asked if I had picked the yellow flower. Yes I said. “That is illegal”, he replied, “ You are not allowed to pick the territorial flower. If they see you with the flower inside they will keep you inside”. Was this a warning or a piece of advice!!! The flowers in the heart pocket of my red plaid shirt so i wasn’t worried and surely he was joking because the security seemed relaxed.
As it turns out the yellow flower I picked was not the territorial flower which was really the Purple Saxifrage, see here: http://www.assembly.nu.ca/english/about/saxifrage.html
In the evening, I missed the other inuktitut service because I went to a potloch instead. Yay, my second social event in Iqaluit. Almost all there were volunteers at the Humane society so after dinner we went down to do some volunteering. I went too and held husky puppies, I think. I also walked some dogs.

I have been here one week! Instead of recapping each day, because I will never catchup, I will summarize the last week with things which stood and and describe what I have been up to. This post will mainly be about my involvement with the St. Jude's community thus far.

My day usually starts by breakfasting with Brian over a a bowl of wheatabix, very english. Staying with Brian Burrows is rather fortunate because he is a kind host and his memory of this place begins in the 1960's when he was "missionary" in the north. I put missionary in quotations because those are my words. In way a way, I think he still is a missionary. Culturally, the Diocese of the Arctic remains evangelical and is rooted in the work of its earliest missionaries from the 19th century and onwards. Away for almost 25 years Brian is at the moment the interim rector of St. Jude's and and St. Simon's. I enjoy chatting with him about the olden days, when the Hudson Bay Company still had a post here. Check out a photo here:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/starlagurl/33/1252368142/hudson-s-bay-company-in-apex.jpg/tpod.html

The days here have revolved around job hunting and helping at the Cathedral's soup Kitchen. The soup Kitchen serves between 40 and 90 people fives days a week and attracts a variety people and volunteers. Inmates from the Baffin Correctional Centre serve twice a week and folks new or old to town volunteer here.

In the evening I would volunteer at a canteen set up on the grounds of the Alianait festival (http://www.alianait.ca/. The festival took place in a blue and yellow striped tent and was located between the Northmart which is the department store for Iqaluit containing a grocery store, a clothing department, and other amenities, and the a local school which acted as a white backdrop to the tent being raised on hill and having few windows. The canteen was a portable garage beside the tent and it sold candy bars, chips, pop, to raise money for the reconstruction of St. Jude's Cathedral which was destroyed several years ago. The canteen was staffed by volunteers who like the the soup kitchen volunteers were from all over the place. As it turns out, St. Jude's is a cornerstone of the community and people are willing to help fund raising efforts whether or not they worship or associate themselves with the community. Currently, the congregation worships in their Parish Hall which is much smaller than the former Cathedral church. One hope is that once built people who no longer worship as regularly will do so once more.

The Library is closing so I have skipped over the job hunting part of the day...but I can say that soon enough I'll be a working man.

When I return to the rectory I will watch a soccer game with Brian before retiring. This ritual includes closing the window blinds to the lightness with the night sky. However, when I lie in bed there remains a glint of sunlight on the wall.

Recap - Day 3

Today I went to the the English speaking service, the Inuktitut speaking service at St. Jude's, and an additional Inuktitut service at St. Simon's in Apex. Both Inuktitut services were packed whereas as the English speaking service was well attended with 38 people. I hope to start a Sunday morning choir, we'll see if the job I get allows me to do this. Interestingly, when I told one person in Nova Scotia how I was looking forward to worshiping in Anglican Church In NUnavut he said the services may be closer to Pentecostal churches. This may have been true for the service in Apex, however I learn from Brian, the interim rector, that the order of the service conformed with the evening prayer service from the Book of Common Prayer. I didn't understand them when they said the prayers such as The Lord's Prayer, however, I was familiar with the tune which they sang for the doxology during the offertory. (ie. For food in a world where many...)

During the afternoon, between the two morning services and the evening service in Apex, I went to a Church picnic or Feast at which I ate what is called Inuit country food. Numerous types of meat were available such as bear and walrus, I only tried the narwhal, seal, arctic char (fish, similar to salmon) and chicken. Some of it was cooked but if it was raw it was also frozen. When they cut the raw meat they used a certain which looks like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98857801@N00/2101302028/
From my observation, the knife is used to process the meat so that some of the fat is cut off and so that the meat is cut into smaller pieces making it easier to eat. I met many people and they were very welcoming. I met someone who had just returned from a trip to Ottawa which they had won, I though this was funny considering my circumstances. Later in the week I had another opportunity to eat Inuit country food. When I visited the Arctic College, there were hard boiled goose eggs at the receptions desk. The eggs were at least twice as large as a hen's egg and it was completely yolk, none of that white stuff. I took a bite but it was too strong, I also think it was fertilized.