First Two Days in the North!

A chilly hello from Resolute!

Three hours after leaving the Ottawa airport we arrived in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. Bright, sunny skies made the scenery absolutely gorgeous on the flight in and the glaciers clearly visible- absolutely stunning and almost as if we were landing on the moon! No sooner did bright colourful houses come into view than we suddenly landed down in Iqaluit. With two hours to kill we poked around and toured a local elementary school where we were pleasantly surprised with the previous principal at Qarmartalik school in Resolute. He shared his experiences in Resolute with us and even let us touch the polar bear skin, recently made in the school. The students' artwork lit up the walls and portrayed mainly traditional cultural animals- absolutely gorgeous!

We then set off in a tiny plane 600 km north of the Arctic circle to Resolute Bay! Although we missed the "warm cookies" (delicious hot chocolate chip cookies) served to us on the way to Iqaluit, the scenery made up for it all. Absolutely gorgeous and difficult to believe it was part of the same country we came from. It was always a surprise when small buildings suddenly came into view in the midst of this never ending white and grey landscape- once in Hall Beach and again in Nanisivik. Our smiles couldn't have been bigger when we suddenly touched down in Resolute five hours later. We waited for luggage amongst the firearms and were warmly met with big smiles from a member of the community. We threw our stuff in the back of the van and after 5 min arrived at the principal's house where we would be staying for the next 5 weeks.

What an amazing landscape! So many brightly coloured houses directly north of the Northwest Passage. We were met with big smiles by Deb, our mom away from home. We couldn't be happier and are so greatly fortunate for our new home. We all enjoyed a nice beef soup and discussed life in the north over dinner. A walk with Deb around the ring road surrounding the community gave us an amazing view of the landscape and community of approximately 270. Our first night in daylight was very exciting and we almost wished it was more of a challenge to keep the sunlight out! The heavy duty tin foil-like insulator definitely did wonders!

Today we were lucky enough to visit Qarmartalik school where we will be teaching for the next five weeks. Again, students' work plastered the walls and made the environment so welcoming! We set up our things and were fortunate enough to meet with some of the teachers. Too exciting for words! We are eager to get our lessons started on Wednesday!

Running and simply wandering around the community has been an easy way to interact with the kids and some elders. Everyone has been super friendly and we are eager to become closer with many of them!

Until next post...

Love from 75 degrees N,

Sarah and Julian