More experiences in Iqaluit

Ok, so it is my turn to write. I am a tad frustrated as I had some great photos to share, but they are locked in a brand new phone card that this rather old net book can't read. Oh well.

We have had an interesting week. On Tuesday we visited the legislature building and took the tour. Nunavut became an independent province in 1999. Most of the MLA's are Inuit. One man is in his eighties and only speaks Inuktituk. The others speak both English and Inuktituk or just English, so their interpreting equipment is very important. Apparently Inuit culture is fairly consensual. After the first person speaks others add to the conversation without arguing until consensus is reached. The politics up here is non-partisan as there are no parties.

Thursday was the only day we went to the soup kitchen and it was great to see new volunteers, people who are staying for at least the summer. There is a lot of coming and going in this community.
On Thursday afternoon we headed out for a walk onto the Tundra higher than the town and to the North. We had walked for about twenty minutes when Mike spotted a paw print that most definitely was not a dog's print, almost certainly Polar Bear. I took a photo of it and then we walked briskly back to the car. Thankfully we could see a man and his dog further out along the path we were on, returning too. Dogs out here are working dogs and should make a fuss if they sense polar bear near, so it was reassuring to see them walking calmly towards us. As a man from church who is from Saskatchewan, and has plenty of experience of bears, said, Black bears hide from humans but Polar Bears hunt humans!

We also had a meal at Karen and Darren's house with Mike and Margaret Gardner. Mike and Margaret really are remarkable people. They have worked in churches in several very remote communities before the age of computer communications. Diocesan discipline was strict. They were allowed to order a certain amount of food for the sealift each summer, but not as much as Hudson Bay workers. If they ordered too much there were random items missed off their order!  They are a very gentle English couple, yet Mike used to go out to camps on the land by dog sled in winter and he supplemented their diet by hunting.

On Friday Karen invited us to her works' IQ day. IQ in this case stands for Inuit culture and knowledge from the Elders. The setting was Sylvia Grinnell park. There was a lot of Country food available and I had some Caribou stew. It tasted good. Aalasi, an elder and lay reader from Apex church, also gave a talk on the use of local plants. She says the local women are not as healthy these days as they rely on store bought food. It was a fascinating talk. Aalasi has an incredible wealth of knowledge.

Saturday we had a gorgeous long walk along the Sylvia Grinnell river. We walked along the river and ended up just above the falls. This was a route we could not have taken a few weeks ago due to the ice. The mosquitoes are out in force so I wore Mike's bug shirt. At home biting insects love Mike, here they love me and some bites swell badly so I get to use the shirt. Most of the time I had the hood down, but as we walked along and the mozzies got worse, in my scramble to get the hood up, one was trapped in there with me. I managed to get it before it got me, but there was a very red splash of blood left on the visor. Was it my blood or Mike's blood or someone else's. It certainly didn't belong to the mosquito!

Sunday was my last full Sunday here. Mike preached at the English service and then again at the Inuktituk Praise service in the evening, this time with an interpreter. The evening service is always lovely as you can really see God moving among the people. We had lunch out with Darren and Karen at the Frobisher Inn. My chocolate cake was amazing - lots of cocoa and a sweet almond layer. That's what makes me salivate.

I have waited weeks for these flowers to at last bloom. The leaves are nice in a salad - they taste too bitter for me. Apparently the leaves make a nice side dish mixed with seal blood and blubber!

The inushuk that marks our walk beside the sea. The first time we saw it, it was surrounded by ice and the bay was frozen.

The first ship of the sea lift.

The fluffy parts of this willow tree are used as wicks in the qulliq - the local style of oil lamp. Also if collected and put inside boots, the fluffy bits help keep your feet warm and lift your mood! 

Musings

Sarah is just 9 days away from heading home.  I am staying on for a further 10 days here in Iqaluit until August 12 and then I am heading to Ottawa to stay in an isolated retreat cabin attached to a Christian Conference Centre in the countryside, 25 miles from the city.

We have really come to enjoy it here.  The people are very friendly and it is a very easy going pace of life for everyone.  For example because of the small size of the place most people go home from work for lunch. I have been involved in the services each week which I have appreciated. Darren, the bishop, never fails to take the opportunity to recruit me to take on a parish in the Diocese. He has mentioned a couple in particular.  Then this week I was at at a planning meeting with the leaders here in the Cathedral and among other things they were thinking about the fact that the Dean is retiring in the next 18 months. They said that I should come to replace him!

It is nice that my contribution here is appreciated and although there is tremendous opportunity here it has been good for me to reflect on our situation back home.  Even up here in a remote place the Christian Community has been deeply effected by the changes in culture, the move from a society where church-going was common and central, what is commonly called Christendom, to a situation where church-going has become culturally peripheral.  How do we address that? One response has been to complain about it which doesn't change anything. Another is resignation, well we will keep going with it, which will just lead to decline.

I have been thinking a lot about Jesus image of the vine and the branches.  It seems to me we need to have a restoration in confidence in our proper place in the scheme of things.  He is the vine, we are the branches.  We don't need more abilities to compete with the world.  We need to appreciate that God still loves his world in all its brokenness and he still intends to bring it to its true purpose and completion.  Each person was made by God for a purpose and, yes, many are far from their true design.  However, to quote Gerard Kelly,  God's goal as he looks at his child is "for her to thrive; to find life; to give and receive love; to prosper in her giftings and to make a wondrous contribution to her world."

For some inexplicable reason he has called us into his church to enable all that to happen.  The church, in the proper sense of the people of God, exists to bring people into their true destiny.  No other agency is going to do it.  We are increasingly dehumanised in every aspect of our lives.  Even at the level of medical care gone is the personal care of a physician.  You see any doctor who happens to be available.  In church people can come and journey with us their whole life and the people of God will journey with them through all the ups and downs continually reminding them that they are gifted and loved sons and daughters of God.

We may feel inadequate to this task. We are!  We are just the branches, the life comes from the vine. The one who created the world is still at his work.  We abide in him.

Blessings,

Mike

Parish Picnic

Had a great day yesterday. Mike preached at the English Service at 9 45am in the Cathedral. Then we headed off to Apex and Mike preached again only this time with an interpreter as the service was in Inuktitut. It was a lovely service.

After lunch we headed back over to Apex for a picnic beside the river. Darren, Karen, Mike and I were the only non Inuit there. It was a real privilege to be welcomed in to the gathering. I tried dried char, deep fried cod, fried bannock (like a doughnut without the sugar) and smoky tea. It was all good, but the tea was delicious. The lady who made it said it tasted so good because she used driftwood on her fire - others were using green plants for their fires.

Dried Arctic Char, i.e. uncooked dried fish, which tasted great.

Sitting around some of the food.

Karen is on the left. The lady with the orange scarf wrote a book on medicinal plants grown locally. I have borrowed her book from the library.

More cooking. This time it is hot-dogs.

The gorgeous setting for the picnic.

Most babies locally are carried on their mum's back in this style of garment. Basically the baby is in the hood. Toddlers are carried like this too.

Gorgeous setting for a picnic and a clear blue sky.

Making smoky tea by burning local plants.

Mike, myself and Darren.

Earlier in the day - Mike preaching in the Cathedral.

The church at Apex.

Mike with retired Bishop Paul. Bishop Paul was the first Inuit Bishop and now looks after the church at Apex.

Mike and Bishop Paul.

Mike preaching, while Abigail, Bishop Paul's wife, interprets.

Book review

Have read five novels since being away. Two were dull but enjoyable. 'Between, Georgia' was better. The independently published novel I read was a somewhat disturbing story, but the best book by a long way was 'Harvest of Rubies' by Tessa Afshar. This was a good story, not too mushy, and encouraging to my faith. Well worth a read.

Sylvia Grinnell Park Day

Today there were special activities in Sylvia Grinnell Park. We managed to be there for the free food, as usual! Mind you we stick to the cooked food. There was uncooked Arctic Char on offer. Also I am very, very pleased to at last have got a picture of wildlife.

The remains of an Arctic Char and the knife used to cut it, lying on cardboard on the floor.

Gulliq - the special lamp used in the winter. The wick is along the front right edge and the fuel is animal fat.

Red-throated loons. So pleased with these two photos. Beautiful birds and very rare at home. I have only seen them here.

Red-throated loons taking flight.

Polar Bear Frenzy

Well it has been an exciting few days! Turns out the first Polar Bear was shot on the ice outside the Bishop’s house. He and Karen were totally unaware and rather disappointed they had missed seeing the bear alive so close and about 6am.    

Thursday morning we heard at least one more polar bear had been seen and possibly shot. The story goes that a parishioner here had rung the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to report seeing the bear. When asked where the bear was now she replied 'In your car park!' So after lunch we headed out to the breakwater to see if we could see the second polar bear who had sauntered through town. We scanned the ice along with others, for about thirty minutes, but could see nothing. Wildlife officers turned up with guns, looking grumpy. But they obviously didn't know where exactly the bear was either. Then we headed round to the other side of the bay, passing on the way another couple of wildlife officers with guns. Unfortunately we had just missed seeing a pod of Beluga whales. However the Beluga Whale hunters that I chatted to assured me there would be plenty more over the next few weeks. They suggested we return for another look at 7pm for high tide. I did see some seals though. 

After tea we decided to head back over as the sun was shining. We saw one solitary seal. However we bumped into the Beluga hunters again who said the Belugas were at the headland along with more hunters. As I didn't really want to see whales being shot we headed home. However not before one of the hunters told me that when he visited Marineland, a marine zoo, at Niagara Falls he salivated at the site of the Belugas there!!!! The weather and scenery were beautiful though and we had a great day. Sadly not so the Polar bears. We are currently a bear free zone as the third one was apparently shot last night. And eaten. Raw.

The ice in the bay is slowly breaking up.

Looking from the causeway towards town - St Jude's Cathedral is in the centre. We are staying in the green building to the left of the Cathedral. 

Polar Bear Hunt!?

Well this morning we were told that a Polar Bear was sighted near the town, down near the dump and where the sled dogs are kept. We wondered if it was a wind-up of newbies but the local community Facebook page confirmed this and added that it had been chased away from the town to islands beyond the mouth of the Sylvia Grinnell River. Of course we got in the car to go and have a look. We found a lovely viewpoint near the satellite dishes and I took some photos as we scanned the river for signs of movement. Of course we didn't see anything but we spoke to some official looking people who confirmed its movements. The idea that we could go looking for the possibility of seeing a polar bear is pretty amazing. 

I still have seen precious little wildlife – my bird list is five species long and we have seen no mammals. Probably in part due to poor weather, the ice in the bay and the likelihood of any animal worth eating being hunted by humans. For perspective, when we were in the retreat centre in June in just two days I put five bird species on my list, gave up on trying to identify others and saw at least four types of animal.  We have now been here three weeks and five days. Below are photos I took today.

Three of the many dogs in the sled dog area.

A sled dog.

View of the hills.

At the mouth of Sylvia Grinnell River.

Some of the last ice on the river.

One side of Sylvia Grinnell Falls.

The other part of the Falls.

An Inushuk - pile of stones telling others where good hunting is to be found or food is stored.

Mouth of the river.

Fisherman on the river.

The tiny flowers of Moss-Campion.

Looking north and up river.

The river mouth.

Islands in the river mouth.

The full width of Sylvia Grinnell Falls.

Looking up river.

A few satellite dishes of the many around and in the town.

Meeting gracious servants

We visited an old couple yesterday who we had met at Church, Mike and Margaret Gardiner. The 1st Sunday after we had arrived was Father's Day and Mike had led the service with great vigour and enthusiasm.  He is 84 years young and he and Margaret have been in the Canadian Arctic for 60 years. Margaret's physical health is not great, she uses a wheel-chair, and her memory isn't what it once was.

As a boy at school at the age of 12 he had heard a presentation about missionaries and felt he might do that.  But he said to God that he didn't like heat so could he go somewhere cold!  He went to University and then trained for ministry and was sent directly to the Arctic without firstly being an assistant anywhere.  The bishop said that serving firstly in the UK would distort his thinking and that he needed to get directly into the field.  He had met Margaret during his training but they weren't allowed to marry until they had come here to ensure she wanted to stay so at the age of 24, in 1955, he was ordained and sent to Kimmurit, a trading post 75 miles south of where we are staying, a journey by sea from England to Canada and then 3 planes and a boat.  Margaret travelled to another community Pang some 120 miles north of us where she worked as a cook in the hospital for the one year.

He arrived in Kimmurit and despite having no knowledge of the local language, Inuktitut, apart from a rudimentary idea of the syllabic alphabet, on the 1st Sunday he had to lead a service and preach in Inuktitut. They had no language school, no Wycliffe bible translators support, no phones, no computers. Yet they accomplished it by sheer hard work, the same strength of character they saw in the local Inuit people.

Mike and Margaret were married  a year later on a ship in the harbour we look out on from our window as there was no church here in Iqaluit at that time.

Kimmurit was a trading station so a small number of Inuit lived there to hunt for the whites who lived there but mostly the Inuit came in from their hunting camps only to sell pelts.  Mike travelled out to their camps by Dog Sled to care for their spiritual needs and had Sunday services for those who resided locally.

They subsequently served in other communities in Cape Dorset, Pang and finally here in Iqaluit for 11 years before retirement.  Their 3 daughters all live in the Arctic.  One of their daughters and her family live in the High Arctic in Grise Fiord, one of the coldest inhabited civilian communities in the world, with an average temperature of -16.5C and a recorded lowest temperate of -62.2C.

Mike and Margaret are such gentle, humble people.  It is hard to fathom how and why they did what they did.  He is from Runnymede in Surrey and Margaret is from Birmingham.  Yet they travelled and lived in the wilderness for the sake of communicating God's love and care to the people here.

When I get up to speak and see them sitting in the congregation I think what can I say that they don't know better.  It makes it clearer that we have a model of learning, even in church, which is about imparting information.  Real learning, however, comes from lived experience.  They shared what they had experienced of the love of God.  They recognised that they were recipients of God's grace and they wanted others to know that same grace for themselves.  Even today that is what they communicate in their hospitality and demeanour, even in the very tone with which they speak.

I feel my inadequacy here and yet I am trying to share something of my lived experience of following Jesus and of being known by God.  I am searching for what I have truly learnt, not just in my head but in my heart, and I am trusting that people will sense God's grace to them and love for them.

Blessings,

Mike

Thoughts on Nunavut Day

Hi everyone,

I have been very touched to hear of different people, who I didn't expect to be interested who are reading the blog. Hopefully this piece won’t be too disjointed, but I think it will be a lot of different thoughts and impressions from the last week or so.

Well it is still raining – this is day 8 of serious rain. There was a short break on Wednesday and it was lovely, but it is raining again today. Plus it has been very misty and foggy with very poor visibility. And the roads are washing away. The potholes are increasing in both size and number. It is lovely driving on the few tarmac roads. Our friend, Samesi, is waiting patiently for his wife to fly back in, but she has been delayed since Sunday. She is flying standby, which has made it harder, but the thick fog is making it difficult for planes to land. The supermarket is beginning to show the strain in a reduction of the fresh fruit and veg on sale. There were only three punnets of tomatoes yesterday, no cucumbers and large sections of empty shelves. I didn't buy the tomatoes as they were in plastic punnets. There is no recycling here and Mike is planning to take a load of recycling back in his spare suitcase to recycle at Ottawa airport (I kid you not).  Back to the airport and Karen’s brother and family are due to arrive tomorrow. I am sure she is very concerned about the likelihood of their arrival. If you want me home on time (hint, hint family) please pray there is good weather on 2^nd August up here. When I look at the local weather forecast, as observed at the airport, and look at the seven day forecast, after about the third day, I think the forecast is based on history. Days four through seven are always more optimistic than what actually happens.

The bay is still frozen over and no boats are able to sail. Although there is now a small band of open water across the bay and the ice is getting darker (a sign that it is becoming water-logged), the ice-breaker ships are still unable to get in. Usually the bay melts in mid-June. People here are waiting for the sea-lift to bring in supplies. Many people order enough dry goods to do them a year and then these supplies are shipped in during the summer. Apparently it is a lot cheaper to do this. For two adults and two under fives the supplies needed are about $8000. This obviously makes it difficult for those struggling financially to benefit from the sea lift as one needs spare income in order to save for it. Building supplies also come in by ship in the summer. There is no deep harbour here, so I understand goods come in off the ships by barge. I look forward to observing this – hopefully I get the chance and the bay does melt.

Yesterday was Nunavut day and we went to the celebrations (moved to the high school due to the weather). We had a cooked beef burger, but elsewhere we could see raw meat and fish being served to the Inuit population, a country feast as they call it. I saw one paper plate piled high with raw stuff – I mean it didn’t look like meat as we know it. It looked like thick red jelly or white jelly. Some was probably fat and some maybe offal. I think I may have seen whale meat too.

Later we went to the cinema to see a couple of Inuit documentaries. They had English subtitles. Watching any film based on Inuit history is pretty intense as they have suffered so much injustice. The Canadian government moved people about by force to use the Inuit population as a way of securing Canada’s high northern territories from other countries – presumably the Russians, USA and China – as the high north has many mineral and oil reserves. Also over a twenty year period the RCMP slaughtered thousands of dogs to prevent the Inuit people from moving around. It was a bit like the government taking away our cars and our access to food as the dogs also helped with hunting. Since the establishment of the territory of Nunavut, there does seem to be an element of healing taking place. However the mix between a settled life in the towns and a nomadic lifestyle of hunting and fishing seems to be a difficult balance. The Canadian government still needs the help of the Inuit people to secure the northern lands, but they are not willing to spend the money on health and social care that would enable the Inuit population to thrive. While the Anglican church is mostly serving the Inuit population up here, there is still anger at how the churches helped the government in the past to try and wipe out Inuit culture. However Christianity seems surprisingly welcome and prevalent among the Inuit population. While Inuit and Westerner do mix here and intermarry to an extent, it is hard to describe the clash of cultures here. The Inuit still want to live off the land and maintain their culture. The Canadian government want to educate people in a Western style and develop the natural resources and protect their ‘borders’. 

Iqaluit is a very unique place. We have been given a great welcome here by both Inuit and Westerner. Canada itself is a strange place because Canada has welcomed many nationalities as citizens, however Iqaluit leaves me feeling that where I belong is back home in Northern Ireland with all its faults and failings. Just confirming what I have always felt really. I am glad though that I do belong somewhere as many westerners here do seem to be looking for a sense of belonging. Many come to Iqaluit and enjoy the welcome and the small community, but then leave again due to the harsh weather. Others stay many years. Some who have been here many years then retire ‘south’, possibly due to cost of living or links to family in the ‘south’. I hope that is a fair representation.

I will sign off for now as my stomach is telling me that it is time for lunch – no raw meat! J

Love, Sarah

Sylvia Grinnell National Park

Hi all, The weather has been miserable since Friday - rain and mist. Today is dry so far but it is the coldest day yet. We plan to go for a run later, but it feels too cold to do much else. We helped out at the soup kitchen because they were short staffed today. However last Thursday we took a taxi out to Sylvia Grinnell Park and had a lovely afternoon. So here are the photos I took then. Love to everyone and thanks for your prayers, Sarah.