Hello world!

A week in Baker Lake, Nunavut, and I am proud to say that I haven’t been eaten by a polar bear yet! I digress from my bad humour and assure you that polar bears, though vicious, are usually not seen around communities and are very rare in this part of the land. Even though, my project partner Patrick and I were told by community members that we came one day too late to see the muskoxen. (Plural for muskox, thanks dictionary.com!) There was a band of them spotted on a sheet of ice very close to the town, the closest that they have came to the community in years. One woman told us that at first she didn’t believe her friend that told her the muskoxen were on the ice, and asked him if he was sure that he didn’t just see a bunch of barrels rolling on the ice.

The weather here is unexpectedly warm, especially for the past two days. It was close to 15 degrees Celsius, and the sun blazed down on the land for a solid 23 hours each day, and was dimmed for the one hour of semi-darkness. The mother of Patrick’s host family joked that we brought the good weather with us from the South. But just as we were about to smile, we were labeled as “fresh meat” for the mosquitoes that come in next month, as Baker Lake is the unofficial mosquito capital of Canada.

Patrick and I spent the last week meeting and working closely with the staff at Kavalliq School Operations, the school board in the region, to prepare for the camps that are to start on June 14th and last until July 30th. We will be hosting daily literacy-focused free day camps to children in the area, with two hours devoted to 6-9 year olds, two hours to 10-12 year olds, and youth camp for two evenings each week. The camps focus on instilling literacy appreciation, providing a positive and safe environment, and helping kids to see that learning can be fun! This is especially important since education is often under-valued in the North, and children lack structured activities in the summer.

We met the principal of the elementary school yesterday, since we are using the school facilities for our camps. He is a very helpful and friendly gentleman, and offered Patrick and I the opportunity to shadow teachers and to speak at the school award ceremony next Tuesday to advertise our camps. We met the high school principal today, and were granted permission to speak to the Grade Sixes on Monday and the rest of the school at the award ceremony on Wednesday. Patrick and I were also busy advertising for local leader hiring, since we will be hiring two local youths fluent in Inuktitut and English to help us run the camps to ensure the incorporation of Inuktitut literacy in our programs. We went around town putting up posters, and we will be interviewing them next week.

The people here are incredibly warm. The mother of Patrick’s host family drove us out onto the land surrounding the town and showed us various sites. We also attended a barbeque that her family had out on the rocks. There were about 30 people, including many children, and this was only a small sector of her extended family. The kids here are also super energetic. When we went to the schools and visited the classrooms, the kids would crowd around us and eagerly ask us when camp will start. We would get stopped on the roads and at the grocery store by kids calling our names.

The upcoming week will be filled with local leader hiring, setting up for camp, and lots and lots of sun.