O, Canada

I’ve spent past Canada Days relaxing at home, at the beach, catching up with old friends; I even spent the last Canada Day roaming the streets of downtown Ottawa - with its seas of people and maple leaves spiraling in the air, printed on shirts, painted on faces, and even sprayed on hair. But Thursday was the first Canada Day I spent hammering nails, sawing off chunks of wood, and poking sticks in caribou antlers. That’s because I spent the day at the Community Recreation Center, taking part in traditional Inuit games that formed part of the Baker Lake Canada Day celebration.

At least a quarter of the 2000-people town was gathered for the festivities. The games were separated by the sexes, and usually involved tossing dice around a circle. Whoever tosses a certain number got to go to the middle of the circle and try to complete a certain task such as sawing a chunk off of the log, hammering 5 nails using the hand that’s not often used, or tying a plastic bag into a knot using one hand. Meanwhile the dice keep getting tossed and the next person to roll that number gets to interrupt the person in the middle and continue the task. The first, second, and third person to complete the task gets cash prizes of $10-$25. Excitement and laughter filled the air as the young and old gathered together, and there was a sense of community that can only be found in small towns.

Other recent adventures include: making great friends with two medical students that are here interning with the local health center, taking walks by the gorgeous lakeshore ( the rocks, the mist, and the lime green colour of the tundra vegetation reminded me of the country of Rohan in Lord of the Rings), canoeing on the half-melted lake while dodging icebergs, and trying (and miserably failing at) ice fishing. The sky started getting a lot dimmer around midnight, which makes me a little sad since I really enjoyed the ever-glowing sun.

The day camps are going great! We’ve divided up each camp into two groups based on Grade Levels. Each day, one level worked with Patrick and me on English while the other level worked with the local leaders on Inuktitut. It’s been working out a lot better since there’s such a vast disparity between the reading and writing levels of the kids because of the relatively age range, and this is accentuated by the varying family backgrounds. We’ve reduced the morning games time by about 15 minutes and used that time to read a book to the whole group. We’ve also directed our literacy times towards much more concrete skill-building activities – such as teaching them how to construct a sentence, playing games with “sight words”, and playing games that involve story writing. In the coming week, we will be having an elder coming in to make bannock and tea with the kids, and we will also start making mini-books.

Last Tuesday, we started evening youth camp, which didn’t go as well as we planned. We had a group of around 10 teens. They weren’t the most respective or cooperative bunch – they even made jokes at our expenses. One of them also came to camp drugged and high. However I am still very optimistic. I believe they were just testing our boundaries on the first day, and I’m sure future camp days will go better; especially since we’re going to have one of our local leaders help us during youth camp from now on. Another thing that really changed my perspective was when I got stopped on the street over the weekend by youth campers asking why there wasn’t camp on Thursday (we cancelled it because of Canada Day and forgot to inform them beforehand). They weren’t angry or accusative, but merely disappointed. Apparently almost everyone from Tuesday night went to the school on Thursday night to a locked door. First of all, I hadn’t expected everyone to return to camp after the first day since so many of them refused to participate in activities. Secondly, I hadn’t expected them to be so let down when camp was cancelled since I didn’t think it meant that much to them. This encounter gave me some renewed enthusiasm and appreciation for the youth camp (and hopefully patience as well). I hope it gets better!