"Look At Me From The Side, Do I Look Different To You?" Part 3

Just when I think I'm done, I think of more.

5.  The Inuk people here also look different since we saw them one month ago.  Their faces are all darker.  They are all tanned!  It may still be chilly here but let me tell you when the sun shines, it is SHINY!  The sun is very warm, very bright and ever present!  I smiled as I noticed today many people, mostly the men, had racoon eyes due to their sunglasses.  Some even had white foreheads, I assume because of their hats.  It is spring fever here.  People are going on the land camping right, left and centre.  Camping is huge here much to my surprise (I guess I simply didn't know this was a favourite pastime of theirs).  People, Inuk and Southerners alike, go hunting and fishing and enjoy the great outdoors.  As an FYI, Coral Harbour has the longest road in Nunavut. The trail is under construction and currently measures 150km starting in Coral Harbour and heads North toward Duke of York Bay*.  I think the goal is to reach this apparently beautiful spot.  So people here can drive for a while and set up camp a couple of hours away.  I look forward to taking the kids and driving this road as far as Brian's radio will allow us...  Unfortunately for us we won't be able to do many of the things that locals do because Brian always has to be "within ear shot" since he is on call 24/7.  So that means we may be able to go for a day trip to someone's nearby cabin but we will probably not be able to go camping.
6.  The noises are different.  I've already mentioned the rain pitter patter but there is also sound of the roaming quads around town.  The machines sounds quite different when compared to their winter cousins, the snow machines.  I'm not going to try to describe the difference, but just know that it's different.  We crazily decided to take the boys for a walk around town.  There is much less snow in town then there is in on the land.  I'd say the snow is almost all gone.  What remains are big puddles, mud and gravel.  The boys were soaked as you can imagine.  It was neat to see all the travellers on their quads around town.  We have access to 2 quads but I haven't tried driving them yet (today was the first nice day since we got back home).   Another new noise is all the bird talk.  I may not always see them but I certainly can hear them squawking off in the distance.


It's amazing how much a place can change in one month.  Well, one could say that about many places going through the metamorphosis into spring.  I guess it's just so striking to me since I've never seen Coral Harbour in the "summer".  It looked the same for our first 5 months here...  These changes are big not only to me but to everyone who lives here.  You can see it in their faces, their attitudes, their being.  Everybody is excited.  It is spring.




*While I've never been there, I've read online that Duke of York Bay, North on Southampton Island, is a really beautiful spot with wonderful scenery, steep cliffs and lots of animals (good for hunting).