Posted on November 5, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

Preparing for my next self-isolation

 

Do you ever feel like you are losing track of time? The days blend into each other, as do the weeks and the months. The seasons come and go at breathtaking speed. And let’s not even discuss the years. Can anyone explain this phenomenon?

This was brought home to me in rather embarrassing fashion last week. As I have stated before in this space, grocery shopping in the north is interesting. Everything that most of us consume has to be flown in. The exception is ‘country food’ (caribou etc.), food from the sea (arctic char, beluga) , and berries when they are in season. As I write this piece, school is shut down due to a fierce storm. There won’t be any berry picking today!

People from home are surprised when I tell them that most times, the two local grocery stores are well stocked with all the necessities of life, including fresh fruits and vegetables.  Prices can fluctuate but most of the things I need at the Coop and the Northern stores don’t cost me an arm and a leg. Occasionally, there are shortages of some staples and this is often as a result of planes not being able to land here because of poor weather.

In addition to the local grocery stores, many people get groceries shipped up from Montreal. It is a simple matter of going online and placing an order. It generally takes 4-5 days for your grocery order to arrive by plane.

Generally.

Christmas is coming and there is a great deal of discussion here and everywhere else in the country around Christmas plans, especially travel. While it is not etched in stone, it would appear that me and my colleagues from the south will be permitted to leave for the holidays. The caveat is that we will once again have to quarantine upon our return in early January. This will be my third quarantine and likely not my last. If the Atlantic Bubble remains in place, going to Nova Scotia for the festive season won’t be an option… unless I am going for a world record for quarantining. Can you imagine? Fly home and quarantine for two weeks then get back on a plane and quarantine for two more weeks in the north. Even I am not that far gone to consider that scenario.

In preliminary discussions with school officials, we are being told to stock up on food in anticipation of our 2-week self- isolation in January. I have taken this to heart and my freezer is starting to fill up as well as the cupboard housing my baking supplies.

Once a person has placed a grocery order from down south, they receive a confirmation of the order. A few days later, they receive an e-mail confirming that the order has been filled and that it left the airport in Montreal. A  waybill is attached for tracking purposes. Most times, all of ones groceries arrive on the same plane but it is not uncommon for things to get shuffled around and you might get some of your boxes one day and the others a few days later.

As mentioned earlier, the days and weeks are a blur. You may recall that last Friday was Halloween Eve. If you remember Halloween as a child or if you have taught school, you know that Halloween is a high octane, high sugar event. It is a day all about survival.

Anticipating this, I ordered some Halloween ‘treats’ in my grocery order. I don’t mean candy and potato chips. We are allowed to purchase modest amounts of adult beverages every two weeks through the grocery store down south.

On that particular Friday morning, I was very surprised when our maintenance guys, who had gone to the airport to pick up parcels for the school, arrived with three of my four grocery boxes. Normally, teachers have to go to the airport to pick their own boxes. And typically, groceries don’t arrive as quickly as this order did. (3 days) It must have been some kind of record. As the energy level in the school rose incrementally throughout the day, so did my interest in putting up my feet after school and having a cold one.

You will note that I said three of four boxes. When I got home, I discovered that the box most coveted hadn’t arrived. But fear not. The first three boxes arrived on an early morning flight and surely the fourth box, the wayward child, would arrive on the suppertime flight. I hopped in one of the school trucks and made the short five- minute drive to the airport. The plane arrived and I watched with great anticipation as the airport crew unloaded dozens of boxes from the cargo hold of the plane. Tragically (!) mine wasn’t one of them. I presented my waybill to one of the staff members. He carefully typed in the number three times. “Sorry. We have no record of this waybill and have no way of tracking your missing box.”

I am rarely despondent but, on this occasion, I must admit that I was disappointed. I went back home and fired off an e-mail to the grocery store. It was afterhours and I wasn’t expecting an answer.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I reached into my Halloween stash of candy (to be handed out the following evening) and started to eat mini chocolate bars by the fistful. I was quite startled when I received a message back from the grocery store. They indicated that I had not ordered alcohol in my order. There are very few absolutes in this world (with the exception of Swedish vodka – slightly different spelling!). I am quite certain than anyone of you living in some remote corner of the world would remember clearly if you had placed a booze order.

The following morning as I sipped on my first coffee of the day, I reviewed the events of the past 24 hours. I went and grabbed the grocery list that I had tendered a few days earlier. I realized that there were several other items missing. It was then that I realized that the groceries I had received were from the previous week’s list. I went shuffling through my papers and found the previous week’s order. These boxes had not come early as I had thought but were several days late! Later in the day, they called me from the airport to tell me that there were boxes arriving on the evening flight.

In short order, I had received two weeks of groceries including my precious cargo.

I hope that this is just a case of working too hard and not that slippery slope towards memory loss.

“Time is on my side, yes it is,

Time is on my side, yes it is.”

Time is on My Side. The Rolling Stones

Or is it?!

Have a great weekend.

 

 

Posted on November 2, 2020 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Lights on ice (This photo is on the ceiling of the entrance to the primary side of the school)

 

Music has been an essential part of my life. It is right up there with oxygen and water. My earliest memories are of growing up in a musical household. Before we had television (I’m dating myself!), we sat around the piano with our parents and sang songs from all genres of music. When I was a teenager I played in a band. In my twenties, I learned how to play the guitar one cold winter up in the Peace River country of Alberta. I’ve been playing and singing ever since. My children are musical and I note that the next generation is coming along nicely as my grandchildren are learning to play various instruments.

Of course, I always have a tune rattling around my brain. Lately, my “earworm” is the wonderful song, Taanisi by Twin Flames. The lyrics are in Inuktitut and English. I particularly like this line: “Life is short, life is short, life is way too friggin short”. Ain’t that the truth.

One of my colleagues, a terrific educator, stopped in to see me a few days ago after class. In her hands was a compilation of Inuit songs called “Inuitartists. Inuit Inngirtit”. It was produced by the Department of Education of the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is a treasure trove of history and music and features the works of distinguished Inuit musicians. I hope Taqa will teach me a few of these songs.

I thought my loyal readers might be interested in learning about the history of Inuit music. Following is a paraphrasing of the introduction to the book.

“All reports of the early period seems to indicate that any musical activity formed an integral part of other activities that took part in the daily lives of the Inuit. Life dependencies were few and simple. One either enjoyed good health , or lacking this, one hastened towards the final end so there were incantations to the spirits to have and maintain good health. Good weather would facilitate the hunter in his search for food and it was crucial that the hunt be a success: there were songs to bear out these themes.

Organized war or blood feuds were beyond the conception of the Inuit. However, in settling personal disputes, the discontented parties would engage in a song duel. A song duel was a public affair. Instead of fighting, two men may compete with each other in songs of ridicule. The audience was therefore the sole judge. (I’m trying to visualize and alto and a tenor going toe to toe in the choir loft!)

When singing, quite often they employed the technique of repetition. Certain phrases would be repeated for effect. Incantation, repetition, and repetition done in a slow tempo makes for an indelible impression not only on the singer but on those within audible range.

When the missionaries showed up,  among the activities or ceremonies that were labelled as ‘not good’ and discouraged by them was the music of the early Inuit. The music specifically was not tabooed, but since activities which incorporated music were, the Inuit played it safe and suppressed any musical undertaking.

Along with the missionaries, other groups of people visited the Arctic They brought with them their own music. Country music with its roots in southern white , rural America merged with the regional folk music of west and southwest America in the twenties to become ‘Country and Western’ music. Decades later this type of music became popular in the prairie provinces. Workers from these provinces may have taken the music to the western arctic. Some of this was filtered to the eastern arctic. (This helps to explain why a student recently asked me to sing a Johnny Cash song) Long before this, Scottish music had also found its way into the north aboard the whaling ships. Eventually the Inuit developed a taste for the sounds of the new settlers and visitors. Country and Western and Scottish music became popular. It was almost as though these new sounds legitimized music again.

It should come as no surprise then to find traces of ‘folk’ music, be it Country and Western or Scottish, in the material that is presently being rendered by Inuit artists. In spite of this influence though, there remains a distinct uniqueness about contemporary Inuit music. As a significant factor, the language dictates certain rhythmic patterns peculiar only to the Inuit.”

I hope you found this as interesting an informative as I did.

Maybe I’ll bring my kilt back after Christmas. On second thought, maybe I won’t. Might be a tad chilly singing Scottish songs at -50!

“Inusi aninaluarma

Inusi aninaluarma”

(Life is so precious

Life is so precious)

Have a great week.

Posted on October 29, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

Giving a few pointers

 

Small victories. Simple pleasures. Part 2.

Teaching up north presents unique challenges, not the least of which is the climate. Winters are long and cold. You need to look for small rays of sunlight and appreciate them when they appear.

I was having a lovely chat with a friend on Tuesday evening. She is in Mexico studying Spanish, soaking up culture along with a few rays. She commented on my most recent post. I told her that this was an easy one to write as I was merely summarizing two presentations I had attended about Inuit culture. I like these kinds of posts because they are educational and I don’t have to think too much, which is a blessing! I then wondered aloud what I would write about today. At that moment I didn’t have the slightest clue.

So, dear readers, my fallback position when I am stumped for a topic, is to talk about the trivial and the mundane but let’s face it, most of daily living falls into these categories.

I will start with the most important one first. A few days ago, a colleague was traveling south for a medical appointment. She signed off an early morning note by wishing me a good day. I responded that it had gotten off to a good start. I was able to put my feet on the floor. I NEVER take this simple pleasure for granted.

In no particular order, here are a few of the things that made me smile in recent days.

Thanks to my daughter, Ellie, I believe I have perfected butter cream icing. The trick is to beat the crap out of the icing for at least five minutes. It actually fluffs up a bit and becomes super creamy and easy to spread. I also learned what a crumb coat was. Very often when I ice a cake, my icing is flecked with crumbs. Ellie told me to put a light coat of icing on the cake and refrigerate it for about 20 minutes and then apply the final coating. Works like a charm. Of course, all you experts out there knew this already.

I made my first caribou roast on Monday. The local man who gave me the roast suggested that I cut a few slits in the top of the roast and insert cloves of garlic into the cavities. After doing this, I chopped up an onion finely and sprinkled this on top of the meat and covered it with tin foil, cooking it at a low heat for a few hours. The roast produced exceptionally tasty gravy. At least that’s what my dinner guests said. Surely they wouldn’t lie to a colleague!

The last two Fridays, I have played a card game at Chad and Emma’s after school. It’s called Phase 10. It appears to be the perfect card game after a mentally exhausting week at school. It doesn’t require superpowers of concentration. Having said this, I still am craving a game of bridge.

We had parent night at the school on Tuesday. I have been doing a lot of one on one reading with my students. English is their second language and they need a lot of remedial work. One father told me that for the first time ever, his daughter presented him with a book and asked him to read to her. He told me that this made his heart feel good. Made mine feel pretty good too.

The highlight of my week? That’s easy. My teaching duties include three classes of English instruction a week for grade 3 students. This is one of their first introductions to the English language. I hauled out an old classic song which I thought they might like. Most of you are old enough to remember the children’s entertainers, Sharon, Lois and Bram. Yup. I played Skinamarrink from a Youtube video. While they couldn’t learn all the words first time around, they caught on to the gestures. It just so happened that 20 minutes later, the principal arrived at my class to drop something off. I grabbed my guitar and asked the children to stand. Not only had they perfected the gestures in record time, they were able to sing many of the words. They were incredibly cute. The principal said it was the highlight of her week. Mine too.

It stands to reason that the longer I’m at the school, the more children get to know me. I can’t go far in the hallways, the playground or the grocery store without hearing, “Hi Len.” I feel like I belong.

Small victories and simple pleasures.

And Skinamarrink!

Have a great weekend.