August in Repulse Bay

So...Shane and I have arrived in Repulse Bay Nunavut and this is my first post even though we've been here for near a month...this is what we've experienced thus far...

Travel:

We arrived on August 9th and the airport is one portable and the runway is gravel, and if you've ever landed in Logan airport and it looks like you're going to land in the water...that's nothing! There is water everywhere and it's a small plane, about 30 seater...loud turbo prop.

We had been travelling for two days, took a flight from Halifax to Toronto to Winnipeg (with two cats!). Spent a night in Winnipeg, then in the morning we flew to Rankin Inlet and met a lovely lady working for the Health Department from Newfoundland and offered her apartment to us so we didn't have to spend 6 hours sitting in the terminal in Rankin (which were hard metal seats). Thank goodness for her. She made us feel right at home offering us food, drinks, tv and phone. From Rankin Inlet we flew to Baker Lake (and they had wicked flies!), we fuelled up and then we on our last trek to Repulse Bay.

Apartment:

Our principal Aubrey Bolt and my great friend Jenn Roop greeted us at the airport and took us to our apartment. We then headed to our principals for some tea and conversation. When we got back to our place we found we were out of water! The next morning Aubrey let us clean up at his place and Jenn had us over for pancakes, but we still did not get water for another 2 days! Because we live in the Arctic there is permafrost and there are no wells...so we have water delivered to us a couple times a week by the water truck. We hadn't had water delivered to us because we hadn't paid the deposit yet. So when we did get water delivered we were so happy! But of course the pump didn't work! Thankfully there is a handy shop teacher here who was able to come over and fix it! Thank goodness! Then we had a leak, Shane and were able to fix that with our awesome skills...and then were were set!

We now have cable after a week without it and internet (which is limited, we have 15GB per month).

The Community:

There are two stores (the CO-OP, and The Northern), the community is on the water and it's a beautiful view from our apartment.

The People:

The people here are Inuit and speak Inuktitut. The population of our community is about 1100 and the average age is 18! There are so many children! The school was built for 250 and now has about there are just over 400 students there now.

The School:

I teach grade 5 in a portable with another teacher and an EA. The students here are taught in Inuktitut until grade 4, so English is there second language. Every morning we have a routine with the children to brush their teeth and take their vitamins. A great way to teach healthy habits!

Events:

The second day we arrived we found out that there was a young boy aged 11 who committed suicide that night. It was a very sad event for the community. The people are not buried here because of the permafrost, but they are placed in wooden boxes and covered in stones with a cross.

So this is a quick idea of that community I live in and I'll post more now that I have it set up!