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.