Donuts, Don't Do Drugs & Dogs

The conference last week was a nice break, although I had to do my fair share of sitting and listening just like students. The highlight for me was going out on the land on Friday. We went to a park just south of Inuvik on the Dempster highway where we had presentations about the various activities teachers have done in the past with students. There were visits from a local elder who makes jiggling sticks (ice fishing rods with hooks made from muskox horn), Parks Canada staff discussing student trips to the 3 western arctic national parks (Ivvavik, Aulavik, Tuktun Nagait) and game wardens who run a student trapper program. An incredibly nice woman made us a very traditional meal at lunch too, complete with bannock, eskimo donuts (delicious), grilled whitefish and muskrat. I'm glad I got to try muskrat, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Still there's something about gnawing on a little carcass...

I've started my tutoring club after schools with a bit of success so far. Mostly just a half dozen kids, but at least there's some kids. I'm sure once it gets closer to report card time there'll be more. We had a visit from George Chuvalo today, spreading his anti-drug message. It was pretty much the same spiel I heard 10 years ago in high school, but still pretty poignant. I spent most of my time back at the gym, trying to get kids to pay attention. A lot of them didn't hear a word, which is too bad since some of them could probably use a sobering look at 4 dead family members all due to drugs.

I'm house-sitting this week, taking care of a dog and 2 cats. Not too much work, since they mostly live outside. In fact most dogs in town live tied up outside in plywood square boxes. Everywhere you walk you get bellows of warning. It's pretty hard to be outside and not hear a dog barking somewhere, which of course sets of another one. Get the picture? I should probably go home and walk the dog though. That and work on med school applications. Anybody know what my greatest ethical dilemma has been, cause I sure don't.

Konferences, Kataloguing and Kung Fu

So the book fair is all wrapped up and the grand total was almost a thousand in sales. The school will be buying the rest of the merchandise, which will earn us 60% of our total fair in credit at scholastic. That basically calulates to a 2for1 deal. Not too shabby. Right now the school is hosting a conference for all the teachers of the Beaufort-Delta region, which is a huge region including Inuvik, Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk, Ft McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, Sachs Harbour, Paulatok and Ulukhaktok. Most of the workshops are specifically geared towards teachers (eg math skills K-3), but I've signed up for a full day of On-the-Land activities on Friday. We have some speakers including Parks Canada staff and Elders from the community, which should be pretty cool. I just managed to grab a free pizza dinner by tagging along with the new teachers for an orientations session. I don't think I'll be eating as much pizza as down south. It's just not the same when you can't order it at 2am and it costs $30/pizza.

Next week I'll be settling down into my regular schedule, with half my time spent helping in essential level math classes (grade 10 & 11) and the other half working towards a functioning library. The first goal is to get the books on the shelves, so we can at least open the door and get students in here using it as a reference library. The cataloguing process can then begin once we have a those issues sorted out.

I managed to take in some local night life on the weekend, cutting loose at the legion after work last friday complete with cribbage, shuffleboard and 50/50 draws. Who could also forget the beef on a bun for $5. A local delicacy I had to sample twice. I rounded out my weekend with a visit to a teacher run garage sale, where my two new roomates and I managed to score a DVD player, a box of mostly romantic comedy VHS and 10 Kung Fu DVDs still in the wrapping. Needless to say the wrapping has come off and I will become a martial arts expert within a matter of weeks. How can you not with Bruce Lee, Bolo Yeung, Jackie Chan and Sonny Chiba as teachers?

Book Fair Bonanza

I've been running a book fair in the school library since the start of the week. You know, where you've got tables of books, posters, pens, bookmarks and kids get to buy/order what they want. I wasn't too sure how well it would go over, but it has been exceeding my expectations. So far we're well over $500 in sales and it's only half way. Tonight is parent's night, which will hopefully bring in some of the big money. It hasn't been historically well attended here, but I think the positive image of the school has been growing. I'll be manning the book fair throughout, as the parents follow their children's schedule for a brief look at high school life.

The book fair and book orders were always a favourite of mine, so it's been fun getting kids into it. It's mostly been junior high kids (grades 7-9) and mostly girls, but little things keep surprising me. I made an annoucement over the PA telling kids to save their hard-earned pennies and one girl, taking me very literally, came in with $10.00 in rolls of pennies for books. Another kid came in after school by himself wanting the new Chris D'Lacey epic about dragons (The Fire Eternal), but didn't have any cash. I let him read a bit of it until I closed up shop. He said he'd try and get the money from his Dad and the next day he showed up with a ziploc full of nickels and dimes. He must have busted open his piggy bank and raided the couch cushions for the $7.00.

I'm starting to get involved with things in Inuvik. I attended my first rehearsal of the community band last night. They've only had band instruments here for a year and a half, so this is extra-curricular with about a dozen people, only a couple of which are students and all of which are playing instruments new to them last year. To grab the beginner's spirit (and due to the lack of a working bass) I'm taking up the tenor saxophone again, which I haven't touched in almost 15 years. It felt pretty weird to be holding a saxophone and not something with strings, but I fit right into the beginning atmosphere. Good stuff. Je suis aussi membre de la societe Fracophone d'Inuvik. On va avoir un diner ce Vendredi a l'Hotel Mackenzie. Vive le Francais.

A Bientot

Here I Am

So I've been living in Inuvik for a full week today and it's actually starting to feel like home. I've learned where things are, so I don't have to be constantly looking around. I mean what else says home but having your own Inuvik library card (they're the only place to get VHS movies). Travelling to Inuvik was pretty hitch free despite making a lot of touchdowns (Toronto, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Old Crow, Inuvik). It was a haze of gravol and clouds, but the sky and my brain cleared up for the flight from Old Crow to Inuvik which is breathtaking (note the picture at the top of the page). Thousands of lakes and ponds, some times seperated by only a few meters, and of course the many channels of the MacKenzie River delta.

Fall is in full swing here, complete with the leaves blazing, temperatures hovering between 0 and 10 and little dustings of snow every once and while. Check out the pictures in the slideshow to get a better idea. Nothing says fall like taking in the annual Inuvik Demolition Derby. Now I've never been to a demoltion derby before (I led a depraved childhood), but apparently they don't have all those southern rules here. Just go until there's one car left. Then fix your car as best you can (after the front-end loaders have hauled it out of the mud) and then go again. Repeat 5 or 6 times until there ain't no more. There can be only one!

I started school yesterday, which has been pretty hectic for the teachers and students, but fairly low pace for me so far. Quite glad to ease into it though. The school has been without a functioning library for a couple of years, but it has been undergoing a major overhaul. So my office is crammed full of new books just waiting to get on the shelves, only there is no cataloguing system yet. Hard to run a library based on the honour system. Just ask my parents. The good news is we've got a grant to keep us going, so the work just needs to get done. We're going to be hosting our first scholastic book fair next week too. I don't think the kids here have seen much like it before, so hopefully they'll be some interest. Well that's probably enough for now. I'll try and get some pictures up of my adventures and maybe even some video so everyone can witness the mechanical mayhem.