The Arrival

Town's signature monument

Well, it has been a full week since I have arrived here in Whale Cove, Nunavut. A small community of about 400 people, mostly Inuits, on the north western edge of Hudson Bay. Although the lattitude here is only 62 degrees north, it is a full blown arctic environment of rocks, lakes, ocean, and the never ending cold wind. The wind comes from all directions, but mostly from the north, and cold. I find myself wearing three layers of wool, and a winter jacket during warmest time of the year!

Cold in early August!

People up here are extremely friendly, just as I had expected, like Shamattawa and Klemtu. Everyone would stop to say hi, and to introduce themselves. They were all too happy to answer my array of questions with curiosity and delight. Kids are very polite and friendly as well. I would soon find myself in the company of kids any time I would go for walks/jogs. They are keen to start the school, and couldnt wait for its gym to open so they could play sports after school. I went for a game of indoor soccer in their ice rink, which was filled with dirt surprisingly, and was amazed with their athletisim and skills. I was told they are the same with most games/sports. This is something that I am definitely going to look forward to.

South-westerly view from our front window

I also noticed many in town wear traditional inuit clothings which are very beautiful and practical. I will try taking some photos to post on future blogs, didnt want to overstep my boundaries in the first week by snapping photos of individuals. The language in this community is called Inuktituk, a very beautiful and sweet dialect. I hope to learn some before long.

Southern view of the village from my bedroom window

I started my first day here with a bit of orientation from one of roommates, who is very helpful and nice, and showed me around. But soon I found myself at the conservation office buying a fishing licence and asking questions about fishing from the local officer. I told him I was excited about checking one of those nearby lakes later in the day, when he warned me about going anywhere outside the village without a gun. He mentioned he had to shoot one aggressive polar bear a week before my arrival and that there were two more around town last night. Although there is not a single tree anywhere in sight, I am amazed how difficult it would be to spot a bear becasue of all the rocks around. You could basically get within a few meters of someone without them ever noticing you in between rocks. So that dampened my enthusiasm a bit. I limmitted my fishing to just on the rocky shores of Hudson Bay for the first few days. And as for the runs, I just jogged around town like a hamster on a wheel! On one of these hamster runs, I saw a few kids swimming in a nearby lakes. I accpeted their invitation and jumped in. It felt great. After the dip I quickly put on the running clothes and finished the run a little colder than  I usually do.

A fire pit, I guess there is hope for having a campfire entirely out of moss!

If the lake was cold, nothing could have prepared me for the dip in ice cold waters of the Arctic ocean. Friday afternoon I along with Andy and Alex, two other teachers, decided to brave it out and "swim" in the ocean. Well, it wasnt much of a swim, as we barely managed to submerge fully for maybe one or two seconds, before dragging ourselves to the shore. I cant believe how cold it was, probably 2 or 3 degrees Celsius. But of course we had to go back in again, as we had forgotten to snap a photo. The second deep felt much more painful, and I dont think my feet could have handled it for even a second longer. I know for sure I wont be wearing a life jacket when I go for a boat ride around here; drowning will be a welcome relief from the frigid water!

Hudson Bay at low tide

Crazy dip in the arctic ocean with Alex and Andy

On the weekend I went fishing with an RCMP officer, his family and two other teachers. The landscape is so barren and devoid of any plant taller than a few inches. In fact the tallest plants up here are a variety of grasses! There are other low lying bushes though, lichens, moss, and more importantly a  variety of berries. I noticed some cloud berries, cranberries, and some black looking berries which I dont know their name yet.

Very low lying berry bush

Close up of the same berry bush

We saw a few families of ducks and Canada geese with their youngs, as well as swans, and a crane. It is incredible how much wildlife there is up here in the arctic. I was told caribous, muskox, wolves, foxes,.... are also very abundant around here. Not to forget the fish and whales. We did manage to catch a few lake trouts. The lakes are packed with trouts and sometime arctic chars. The lake we visited was about 25km away from the village, and was large and deep enough to support a large number of fish. But luckily for them, that day was too windy for us to cast properly. I have a feeling, if it wasnt windy we would have had ten times as many fish as we ended up by the end of our outing.

Fishing spot at a nearby lake

Dinner, lake trouts