Little Women

We have made a few friends here but not quite the kind I was expecting.  Three 11 year old girls have taken a liking to us (and we, a liking to them ;o).  Tamika, Haley and Lilian are their English names (I have yet to keep track of their Inuktitut names).  They are sweet, eager, helpful, respectful young girls.  I met them one night on my way to the grocery store (along with 2 boys).  Within seconds I had one linking with each of my arms and the other linking with her friend.  They followed me all the way to the store, helped me shop, and pulled the sled home with all my groceries.  I invited them in that night into my entryway so that Brian could meet them.  They were so shy yet very excited to be in our house.  They polished an entire tub of gummy Christmas wreaths before I had my boots off.

Tamika was the first to come to our house.  There she was just staring at us through the window.  She caught me off guard but I was happy to see her.  I invited her in.  I was reluctant to do so and asked her many times what her mother would say and the answer was always "she doesn't mind" or "she doesn't care" (which Brian reassures me that it's true - parents don't care, they are happy when the kids are out of their hair).  That afternoon we coloured with the kids and had hot chocolate.  I wondered why she never answered my questions and always made a funny face and then I remembered!!!!!  She was lifting her eyebrows in a surprised kinda look every time she was saying "yes".  Eureka!  She didn't seem so awkward once I figured that out!

The next day there was Tamika and Haley.  And the next, Tamika, Haley, and Lilian.  Today, Tamika, Haley and Lilian.  I look forward to their visit after school.  I've had to set a few rules however.  Departure time is 4:30pm (they would stay all night if they could) and no playing upstairs.  They are very curious and I don't blame them (RCMP housing is the nicest in Coral Harbour and we have "stuff"- toys, iPad, food etc), but now that they've seen the upstairs really there's nothing for them to do there.  I am also hoping to limit the visits to weekdays and not on weekends as to keep our family and down time sacred.

You might be thinking that I've opened up a big can of worms by inviting them in my house and I wonder if I have but I can't help it.  Even if tomorrow 10 kids show up would it really be that bad for an hour?   Brian talks about how his home growing up had a revolving door of people coming and going and I know that we've always wanted our home to be open and welcoming.  I feel that we've been given so much (and have so much compared to those living here) that it would be so selfish not to share our "wealth" even if it means letting them take turns using the iPad, eating half of my cake, letting them paint their nails...  This verse keeps coming to my mind and I simply can't ignore it.

Luke 12:48 says "For everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked"

I am trying hard not to cross boundaries and so today I asked the girls if they could ask their moms if they would like to come over and meet me and possibly avoid misunderstandings (should there be any).  Tamika said that her mom doesn't like whites...  Yikes.  I don't feel bad though because Tamika also spends time with her white teacher Robin.  I'm looking forward to finding out what the answers will be.

The girls love the boys.  All of them, including Brian!  Ha!  They get all shy and giddy when he comes home from work and it's so cute to see them.  Of course Brian teases them in his usual manner and they love the attention.  They especially love Isaac.  They want to hold him, love him and take care of him and of course he isn't always receptive to it, but by the time they are leaving he is usually begging them to read stories or to play tickle peek-a-boo.

Two days ago the French Canadian and Inuit Cultures collided.  Ok, I'm being a little dramatic but the girls did get a taste of one of my family's traditions growing up.  For New Years my dad had sent a tub of "tire', pure maple syrup that has been boiled down to a very sticky and thick consistency.  Every spring, at "Sugar Shacks" (Cabanes a sucre), people line up with popsicle sticks by big tubs of clean snow where the boiling hot "tire" is poured over in patches.  The fun part is picking the biggest patch and rolling the congealed tire around your stick to make a "popsicle".  If one can handle it, you can try to roll TWO patches of tire, but then you run the risk of making a big sticky mess (as a kid, WHO CARED!).  Anyway when I asked the girls to go outside and fill a cookie sheet full of snow, clean snow   because we'd be eating some of it, they looked at me with big eyes and ran out as fast as they could!  We'll to get to the punch line they loved it!  We all sat around the table, including the boys, and dove in with our spoons, twirled, licked and sucked.  It was so good and we were completely sticky.  I took the opportunity to explain the sap and maple syrup process.  They actually seemed interested.  They asked for more.  I guess I'll be asking my dad for a special favour...

The girls are very mature in some ways.  They love to care for young children, they play with them but they also help them get dressed and carry them around - like little mothers-in-training.  They are also very good about cleaning up after themselves.  They offer to do the dishes, pick up toys and even replace  the garbage bag when it needs to be replaced.  Did I mention that they are eager?  ;o)  The sad part about all this is that the mentality here for many is similar to that in third world countries where girls get married and have children very young.  Also, few get an education.  Last year only 2 teenagers graduated high school...  I noticed that the girls have trouble reading out loud and they are in grade 6.  I am hoping to pick a novel (Anne of Green Gables or Alice in Wonderland for example) and go through it with them reading it out loud to one another.  

The girls are trying to find an Inuktitut name for me.  They pondered "flower", and something else I can remember right now but I think they've settled on "Napaqtuq" meaning "tree".  I have to ask them again why "Napaqtuq".  I think I like it - we'll let's put it this way, I've been called worse!

Our backyard

Finally Brian and I are able to upload pictures.  Hooray!  Up until a couple of days ago we were using our neighbours WiFi internet connection and couldn't upload or download anything as to not take up too much of their internet "amount".  You see here we pay for a certain bandwidth (certain "amount" of internet per month) and once you use it up you either have to buy more or go to the incredibly slow dialup.  Skype, unloads, downloads and YouTube for example will eat up the bandwidth...  So I will pick the best pictures to send add to this blog.

This is our back yard.  This is what I see every time I look outside my back windows.  The two sculptures are Inukshuks.  So far no one knows who built them.  In the summer there is water from the Hudson Bay but I'm not sure how much at this point (it's difficult to distinguish the ice from the land).  The boys and I routinely walk down to the sculptures and explore.  I look forward to seeing the vegetation that will grow here in the summer since presently there are plants that peek through the snow.

Our Stuff and Our Second Christmas

Our stuff isn't coming tonight.  I called Atlas Van Lines Moving company and it was always arranged for Friday night (which is what I originally thought).  They will be flying our stuff in from Thompson MB and will be delivering and unloading it in the middle of the night (is it too much to ask that my boys sleep through everything?).  I have requested that NOTHING gets unpacked.  Normally, being an RCMP move, they would unpack as much as we want but since it's in the middle of the night and it's a real pain to have all breakables on the floor where 3 little boys have a raceway, I decided that I wanted to unpack things myself as my own pace.
Hey do you want to know where your tax money is going?  I can tell you!  It going to pay for the charter plane that is carrying all of our stuff and ONLY our stuff.  This is the closest we'll ever be to having our own plane!  Since our stuff was supposed to arrive before Christmas our "manager" at the moving company is fitting for us to get our stuff soon and in one shipment (as opposed to a few boxes here and a few boxes there on the regular Calm Air plane).

Tonight was up there with Christmas morning.  Brian came home tonight with 13 boxes of blessed food.  We were the giddiest family as far as the eye could see.  We opened each box with great joy and anticipation.  "MINI WHEATS!!, CUCUMBERS!!, MILK!!, GARLIC!!,"  It was so much fun and it felt so good.  You guys reading this will never really have any idea.  I feel normal for the first time since we've moved!  There is something so comforting see the food we normally eat every day.  The Ward family would go through an english cucumber per day (it was Nathan and Isaac's favourite) and you should have seen us clapping and jumping when Brian unpacked the water-packed vegetables from the boxes.  Needless to say we cracked one open!  For supper I had a banana, an orange, cucumber, grapes and a yogourt.  I can't wait to have 100% all natural peanut butter tomorrow morning instead of the hydrogenated junk we've had to endure.  Brian enjoyed his tall glass of milk.  I was a proud mother tonight.  To see my kids so excited to have and eat fresh vegetables and fruit was awesome.  It's up there with a mother's top dream for her kids.  I cried one day talking to my friend Jenna because at the time I thought that my boys might lose their taste for the vast variety of healthy foods that they were accustomed to eat.  I feel so much better now.

If after reading this you think that I am a few sandwiches short of a picnic, well maybe the arctic air is getting to me, maybe it's cabin fever, whatever it is, it's amazing what a little "taste of home" (puns intended) can do!

Benjamin's First Day of School

Getting up when the alarm rang at 7am was really hard.  I loved Christmas vacation for the fact that we actually got to relax and sleep.  We were catching up and enjoying sleeping in a bit.  The boys never woke up before 7:30am and on a few occasions it was well past 8:30am (when having small children, this is a miracle!).  The extra darkness certainly helps to sleep, but this morning it made things harder.  We set out to walk Benjamin to school at 8:35am and it was still completely dark.  Yuck.  Nobody should be up and running when it's that dark, it's just not healthy (it motivated me to take my dose of vitamin D when I got home).  Anyway, Benjamin's teacher's name is Emma.  Yup, that's it, Emma.  No Mrs. Emma, just Emma (she is Inuit, very quiet but apparently good with the children).  His class has one other white child and it's Railey from next door.  I think the fact that Railey was there helped Benjamin be less timid.  He went in like a brave little soldier.  He also was comforted by the fact that here in Coral the kindergarteners go to school for only half days, but every day (Benjamin found the days very long at his previous school where he had to go all day every second day).  He said he liked it.  He mentioned that instead of having a snack and going outside for recess, they spent some time on the computers.  Huh, I guess they can do that here!  

When it snows it storms

I'm going to start by saying that I'll believe it when I see it.  Apparently, we are getting not one, but two anticipated shipments tonight.  The first, our foodmail order and second, our stuff.  

Foodmail:  There is a program for those of us living in ridiculously remote areas of Canada where the government subsidizes some of the postal costs to have food sent.  So for Coral Harbour there are a few stores that we can order certain food items from and they will airmail them to us.  The major perk here is fresh food at southern prices.  They will not however send canned goods and the list is quite selective.  Apparently, the produce sometimes arrives frozen and it's a real pain to get reimbursed.  I guess, we'll see! 

So our Safeway order is apparently arriving today.  We have been waiting very patiently for items such as skim milk (we can only get 2% here and let me tell you there's a big difference - Brian has not had a glass of milk since we moved), meat (extra lean ground beef, ground turkey, pork tenderloins - none of which you can get here), cheese, cottage cheese, fruits and vegetables.

Our Stuff:  Some of you may not realize (because I haven't explained it!) that we have been living out of our suitcases since we got here 2.5 weeks ago.  While there were a few items at the house when we got here (and the items that Hali so nicely lent us), essentially we've been living with the few essential things that we brought with us on the plane (clothes, 1 set of bed linens each, a few linens, Christmas presents, few toiletries, few cleaning products, few plastic dishes and sippy cups for the boys, humidifiers, etc).  I am really looking forward to all my bakeware, cookware and all things kitchen.  I love to cook and bake and have been lost without my stuff.   

I guess we'll see what happens tonight!  This is exciting...

  

Windy Day

On Sunday, January 2nd we had a wind storm with the strongest winds I had ever felt.  Visibility was terrible because of all the blowing snow and venturing outside was, well, an adventure.  The winds were so strong that I had trouble opening the truck door.  From the outside I needed to brace myself against the side of the truck with my left hand to then pull the handle with all I had with my right hand (now mind you I am a bit of a weakling but STILL!) and from the inside I had to push the door open with both feet to keep it from whacking me in the face.  Poor Nathan was knocked right over to the ground by the wind - it was actually quite funny to witness (but don't tell him that I laughed out loud at his "misfortune" ;o).  There were only a few in attendance at church (who can blame the snowmobilers and walkers!) and it was nearly cancelled because the lights kept flickering on and off (the same was happening at our house - I thought for sure that our New Year's dinner was going to consist of cold sandwiches but the electricity lines managed to hold up!).  Needless to say I was very thankful to have a warm home, warm clothes and a truck.  Apparently the wind storms can get much worse...  Now that will be something to experience!

Happy New Years!

The week between Christmas and New Years was packed with activities in the evenings.  Every night the young and old met at the Hall to play games and square dance.  They stayed up all night and slept most of the day.  On New Year's Eve there was a church service and like Christmas eve, it was packed!  After the service there were fireworks and a "parade" of all the trucks and snowmobiles (Hali counted 49 machines in a row!) driving around the community.  THEN they all took a little break to go home to have a snack and recharge the batteries so that they could go to the Hall for some square dancing until 5 or 6am ( or later because I heard many snowmobiles going by later than 7am and we just KNOW that they were going home and not getting up for the day).  So was I partying it up?  Nope!  Unfortunately for me, Brian was working and so I had to stay home with the kids.  Most people brought their kids along to all the festivities but I simply couldn't - I still don't know anyone, I would have had to walk to all the places with all 3 boys (and it was quite cold), not to mention that my kids start yawning at 7pm!  No, I spent New Year's Eve on the phone with my sister-in-law Sara and Sandra, a Selkirk RCMP wife friend (whose husband was also working ;o).  Sandra and I did however go outside on my front porch for the fireworks and parts of the "parade".   

 On New Year's day we were hoping to go "in the middle" of Hudson Bay to go crab jigging.  This is  when bait is put inside (?) a sock which is tied to a rope and thrown in the hole in the ice.  The crabs pinch the sock and you reel it in.  Unfortunately, there was no way for us to go.  We hadn't driven the snow machines, we didn't have a sled to pull the kids in and we are not "in the know" yet.  It's really hard to get information about what's going on and, as mentioned before, we still don't really know anyone.  Having 3 small kids also makes living the experiences more difficult.  Hopefully, with time, we will find our way.  I know that I need to give it time - we've only been here 2 weeks.  I simply find it too bad to have missed so many interesting activities.  I guess there is always next Christmas.  

One thing I did get to experience a little bit is last night's game night.  Hali and I went to the school gym and it was packed!  There was a huge circle of women with a few in the centre intently searching for numbers written on tiny little pieces of masking tape stuck on the convex part of a huge bowl.  Essentially 3 sets of dice circulate the women and if you or your partner roll doubles then you run to the centre, grad the bowl and keep searching for the number.  Once you find it you peel it off and stick it on your hand and start looking for the next number and so on and so forth until the next set of doubles when the bowl gets snatched from you.  The winner is the team with the most stickers.  There was also a big draw with pretty good prizes (flights, generator, Nintendo DS, laptop).  The kids just ran around like crazy and had fun.  There were only a few casualties…  We didn't stay late because we were both so tired from the night before, but when we left the men and women were playing a game together in a circle (similar to the first one but using cut up socks in rings. Each time you roll doubles you have to put as many rings on your partners wrists and at the end the team with the most rings wins).  It was great to get out and meet a few people (I'll never remember their names but I have to start somewhere!)

Today we had the Butler family over for our New Year's dinner.  I somehow felt great comfort making and serving dishes from back home in Selkirk.  Colleen's rice/mushroom casserole and Miriam's Hawaiian meatballs (made with ground Caribou from one of Hali and Chad's hunting trips - not THAT'S organic!) were amazing.  Probably one of the best meals we've ever made - thanks girls!  We had a nice visit and the kids had a great time playing.

I hope this post is finding all of you doing really well.  I hope this Christmas season brought for all of you wonderful memories for years to come.  I know for sure that I will never forget this Christmas…

PS this was written on January 2nd 2011 but we had no internet access because of a winter storm so I had to post it at a later date.