Repulse Bay NU

Repulse Bay NU, Oct 17^th to 19^th 2011

I swear it’s most likely the fault of the "guy" who books these trips that they start like shit. I’m one of 3 people who fly into town today. I call the hotel for a drive and was told by a woman she would call the co-op. The manager of the hotel calls the airport back to say they can’t give me a lift as they don’t have a vehicle. He says I could call a cab (there’s 1 cab) but the hotel is like a 2 minute walk and can be seen from the airport.

So I grab my 2 huge heavy bags and my 2 carry ons and start trudging through the snow. A few minutes later I’m standing inside the front door. The manager then says “they would have dropped your bags off for you”. Now you tell me. I believe half of the non-Inuit people are working up here because they can’t get jobs in the south, not just because they want extra cash. He also goes on to tell me the "guy" mentioned at the beginning of this blog never gave him a credit card number or even called back to actually book the room. (By the time I flew out, he still didn’t have the credit card number)

So I got to work ASAP as I have to be out of the hotel by Wednesday. At the work site I run into Jim, one of the network guys we are trailing around. Finally, a friendly and familiar face. He was flying out the next day, but we got to spend a bit of time together and have dinner together. This helped make this town experience a lot better for me.

Because of Jim we chatted with a guy who talked about caribou and seal hunting. Kinda cool.

The main site contact also shared a few stories about the herds and how they share and sell the meat their family doesn’t use.

It had snowed a few days before I arrived and it was cold with the wind but man it beats overcast skies any day. I did do a bit of walking and picture talking. I kinda like Repulse Bay. I wasn’t there long but I suspect a longer visit wouldn’t have been that bad.

New health center to be completed in 2013?

Extension to the co-op

Health center again from hotel door step

Rankin Inlet NU

Rankin Inlet Oct 12^th to 17^th 2011

This town started well by being met at the airport by a guy who brought me a vehicle. What a treat. A vehicle waiting for me.

Off to the hotel which boasts 50 rooms. A high speed access point was right outside the room so if the hotel wasn’t full, like it was in the evenings, you could actually surf a tiny bit and my black berry would work for BBM. Good for chatting with my southern friends. That always helps kill time.

I was in town to install 2 sites but much like Arviat the prime site had equipment we didn’t know about so I couldn’t finish it up. Because of this my trip was cut short by 2 days.

The weather was crappy fall weather similar to Arviat. It snowed 1 day but right after started raining making the whole place wet and slushy.

On my last day I did drive around and take a few pics. Again I kinda wish I was here in the summer or at least better weather. This place is like a real town with banks and more stores than just a Co-op and Northern store.

Like most places in Nunavut, the people were, for the most part, nice. So I have nothing either extraordinarily negative or positive to report.

Arviat NU

Arviat NU Oct 7th to 12th 2011
Sadly I am really starting to believe that the weather is ruining the Nunaexperience for me. Pretty much the whole time I was in Avriat it was either overcast, and windy or raining. My desire to go for walks in these communities is already low, but with this weather it hits zero.
I made it into town late Friday but managed to get keys for both job sites so I could work at my leisure. I like that. Free to come and go and left to my own devises. I work best that way. The work went as fine as can be expected but someone will need to return as we need extra gear to complete one site.
Now to the fun parts:
I took a cab from the airport. Unlike Clyde River the cab driver was smiling, spoke English and knew where I was going. Well work $5 for the 5 minute drive.

I got my “suite”, room 15 at the Inns North’s wonderful “Padlei Co-Op”. It the only room with a double bed (woo hoo). After I get acquainted with the work sites and grab my keys I head back to the “suite” to relax before dinner. While I watch TV I can hear a motor rumbling from what sounds to be next door. Yikes that’s loud.
I head out to the hotel restaurant where I meet the lady who manages the place. She explains how this is the only room with a double bed which to her is somehow a wonderful thing but proceeds to tell me that the water pump is in the mechanical room next to me and I will likely hear it. I tell her I already did. She says you will be used to it after a bit. (Oh will I?) I then ask her if I will eventually be sharing the room with a stranger. She said absolutely not. She doesn’t believe in that and put a stop to it a while ago. (Thank goodness for that).
So night 1 in the suite was the worst night’s sleep I’ve had since I got my CPAP machine years ago. You see in MOST of the northern communities water is delivered by truck and put into a holding tank. Some use gravity to get it where it goes some don’t. So every time some used water in my wing of the hotel, on came the pump that was literally fastened to the wall in the room next to me. Usually for only 10 or 15 seconds followed by a “bang” which seemed after a quick inspection was a pipe hitting something? A wooden joist perhaps. So with the exception of perhaps a few hours late late at night, every now and then, “whirrrrr, bang”. Try to sleep through that even with klennex stuffed in your ears.
Night 2 I decided the wonderful double mattress would become a shield against the noise. I was sleeping in the single bed which was furthest from the noise anyway. Before bed I took the mattress off the double bed and wedged it between my bed and the night stand on its side. So, ear plugs and a 10” insulated shield and I still slept like crap. The mattress shield seemed to not help at all. WTF.
Night 3, I walk into the room and it’s a lot warmer. It doesn’t make sense my thermostat is set to off. As I watch TV it gets warmer and it sounds like it’s raining out. I realize it’s not raining it the rad making that noise as it kicks out heat. Again WTF. So I now have the window wide open and have to open the door to the hallway to cool the place down. Great privacy that provides. So I sleep in the warmth listening to “whirrrrr, bang”, every time someone needed a drink or flushed their toilet, all night long.
Night 4. Okay tonight its up to 25 degrees and my thermostat says its off. Some other room MUST be controlling mine. OMG, The window’s WIDE open. The doors wide open. I’m in my shorts and sweating like a pig still. I can’t leave the door open while I sleep but the window stays open. I awake in the wee hours and my pillow is wetter than I’ve ever felt a pillow. Luckily there are 4 of them in the room. I switch pillow but I bet its 30 degrees Celsius in the damn room. It’s so hot I’m actually getting used to “whirrrrr, bang”. It doesn’t seem as frequent.
Last night, thank goodness. Temp still brutal. Windows and door open again most of the evening. It actually close to 0 outside but it stays around 23. So I push the bed in front of the window. Stuff 2 pillows over the rad directly beside the head of the bed, and doze off. It’s reasonably comfortable and again “whirrrrr, bang” doesn’t have the same effect on my life so I almost get some sleep.
Along the path of the room adventures I had the coffee maker on and the kettle along with the TV and lights, and tried to blow dry my hair. You guessed it, one breaker for the whole room. We found the breaker on a panel with no cover, just by luck.

Adventure two doesn’t need as much detail. Remember I’m in town over thanksgiving weekend so no one really wants to work. On day 2 (Saturday) I called the trunk rental place to see if they would answer my call today. (They ignored it while I was at the airport) They did and eventually I got a truck. Woo Hoo. My first workplace was 100 feet from the hotel so I didn’t really need it. The other site was 2 blocks away so I helped when all the equipment was located at the first site. So I delivered and installed the second sites equipment, then drove back to hotel. Once there I noticed the front passenger tire was a tad low. Perhaps a slow leak.
Sunday it looked about the same so I drove to the first site. (Yes 100 feet away, but I was planning on continuing on.) Once I go out and looked again I said to myself “If this was my vehicle, I wouldn’t drive on this tire”. So I called the guy who finally got me the van. He said he will try to find a portable pump and leave it with me in case it gets low again. I say “it’s Sunday if you wish to wait, no problem”. “I will try to find a pump” I was assured and was asked where it is parked.
In true NUNA fashion, no one showed up. I’m so glad the weather sucked so I didn’t want to see the town, or I’d have been pissed. Tuesday morning I called and by 11:30 that morning the tire was fixed and I was told,” It had no hole in it”. I bet some brat kid let the air out. BLAHH.
As a side note this isn’t like the south, where gas stations are everywhere with plenty of air available for 50 cents. And yes I asked people.

One my last full day I trekked over to 3 schools and the main government building to do some site surveys for future visits. I checked the lines etc. and took a ton of pics. My last morning I decided to move these pics onto my PC. It was acting exceptionally slow that morning. Moody piece of crap. I moved perhaps half a dozen pics onto it when Windows explorer crashed. After that EVERY picture that was on the memory card from the camera was gone. Surveys of 4 sites. UGG. After cursing Microsoft and Bill Gates (I picture him with his feet up enjoying his live and laughing while my PC crashes) and punching the couch (So I don’t create real damage), I pack up and head back to at least the government building. It’s the most important one of the bunch. There I take another few dozen pics to be safe. Perhaps I’ll be the one doing these schools and won’t need the pics.
A few good things in this community.
The people at the work sites and for the most part the hotel were friendly and as helpful as could be. One girl (likely less than 20) who waited there was a tad cold but she was either 7 to 8 months pregnant or had a really weird body. Either way I guess I don’t blame her.

I hope if I return to Arviat the weathers better so I can see some of the town. Even the cold weather is preferential to the damn fall rain overcast blustery crap. It just makes me wanna hibernate, just not in room 15. PS she assured me I could avoid that room next visit.


The hotel

community frezzer?



This was the "ART" in my room


Room 115 (or 15 on the door) UGG

Baker Lake NU

Baker Lake NU, Oct 3 to 7^th 2011

I got into town later in the evening and was met at the airport by a gentleman from a company called BLCS.

http://www.blcs.ca/

They offer everything people need. Before he drove to a hotel they run called “the BLCS work house”, he took me over to the site I would be working at to show me how to get there in the morning. He then dropped me off but not before handing me my room and vehicle keys. Imagine? That’s the way it’s supposed to work. We open the door and as I step inside a man named Silvain asks if I want him to make me a sandwich. I decline as I was fed by First Air on the way there but he insists I take a coke and a bottle of water. A great start to this experience. It really is the people that make these trips livable.

This place is no 4 star hotel, but I get a room to myself with half decent satellite package. There is also a general sitting area for the guests with a big screen and 2 comfy couches. Down on the first floor is a restaurant. Breakfast was included. 3 eggs bacon, sausage, home fries, toast with homemade bread and freshly brewed coffee. Normally breakfast is cereal or oatmeal so this is a welcome change. Even at home this kind of breakfast is rare. Sweet. The other times I ate dinner off the menu (reasonable northern prices) I can honestly say you get lots of fries and it’s quick.

Baker Lake is a well laid out little town. Three main East West roads are intersected numerous times with cross roads. The two schools and Northern store are nice and central.

For the most part, I’m working in the North East corner of town. Once my main job is complete, I managed to get some site surveys in as well. In fact at the high school I fixed an issue with the NWT installed Mitel they’ve had since it was installed. Their 2k guy did some real nice installs over the years. I’m not sure their 3300 skills are as good.

My first full day 1 had fog galore. Day 2 wasn’t that much better.

I was to fly out on day 3 but a satellite in space got itself all turned around so all communication from the north died. You couldn’t call out of your community and cell and internet service was down. All of Nunavut was dead in the water. All flights were grounded.

The sad part was the south didn’t seem to notice. I watch CBC and Global national news to see if they would tell me anything. Steve Jobs from Apple had just dies so that naturally dominated the news. Second top story? The government wants to regulate the amount of caffeine in drinks like red bull. The whole North is dead and it didn’t make either national TV stations news cast. Eventually it made the ticker tape portion at the bottom of the CBC but didn’t give us an expected ETA of the repair. It just mentioned it was happening. Shameful. It does go to show the south doesn’t care about Nunavut or NWT. I bet if it happened in Alaska It would have made the USA news.

The day I was to leave it cleared up so I did manage a few pics. I met some good people in Baker Lake. The BLCS staff know how to treat you, so I wouldn’t hesitate to go back if need be.

Posted at a job site:

Airport terminal


High School

Pond Inlet NU

Pond inlet Aug 3^rd to 9^th 2011

Pond was the first community I saw an iceberg in. Evidently they drift into the bay and will eventually drift out. We had a vehicle so could travel a little ways out so I got lots of pix of it. I guess it was cool but it not like I got to climb on the damn thing or anything, so it may has well have been a picture.

Things I remember of this trip where numerous.

First, on the small flights you can book your seat all you want. Window?...sure. Until you climb on board and the stewardess tells you those magic words. “General seating, sit wherever you wish”. The sad part was in the airport there where these two scientists or explorers (or some damn thing). One who seemed like a typical arrogant Dutchman who was talking pictures of everything in sight, and needed to be smacked just for being him. Along with him was a big guy I labeled “fathead” by the end of the trip. Even before the called general seating they made a bee line and for some reason got let on the plane ahead of a lady with 2 kids.

By the time I got on the plane both Dutchman and fathead had grabbed window seats across from each other and were yelling across the aisle. Eventually some people had to move around to accommodate the mom and kids, and I made the mistake of sitting beside “fathead”. “Fathead of course had wide shoulders to match his girth, so for the next 2 hours I was super uncomfortable. Frankly the travel is the part of this job I am starting to hate.

When I got to the airport the gent running the Hotel picked me, “fathead”, “Dutchman” and some other dude up and took them to the shore to get on a ship, then he dropped me to pick up the “awesome mobile” (see older blog). Shame I forget his name but he reminded me of our Kitchener dispatcher. So I drove to the Sauniq hotel (part of the Inns north chain) and checked in. It’s a nice place and though by southern standards the food at their restaurant is a little pricey, it was really good homemade food.

After I got in my suite (which I later shared with a coworker) I headed to a site to look at an actual emergency. This led me to the Local GN office where when I inquired as to where the phone room was I got the best line I might have ever heard. “I’m sure I couldn’t help you with that”. That line was quickly shared and I even sent his pic to some coworkers so we could all “take a laugh” at his expense.

Later in the week I was joined by a coworker and being we had a vehicle and the weather was great the whole time we actually did a bit of touring. Again, the weather was awesome and the scenery there really is lovely. On one venture, we were going to bring some bones DG found back to Iqaluit for BKs seemingly odd collection obsession. But decided against it.

We even saw what appeared to be mounted up ground that may have been the remnants of old dwellings. Large circles of mounted up dirt and rocks that could be the base for tents or igloos. Very close to a river that runs into the ocean so it would have been a good place to live.

Work was work and that went as well as can be expected. Later in the trip we had to move out of our suite and into the “old old” hotel. Which is a trailer with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a common area. Not the cleanest place but at least we had our own bedrooms.

In conclusion, the weather and the people helped make Pond Inlet an okay place to be. I’m sure I’ll be back some day.

Mountains shaped like a boob:

Tommy Chong was at the hotel....far out

Clyde River NU

Clyde River Sept 27^th to Oct 1^st 2011

My experience in Clyde River had a strange start. Turns out a vehicle was left for me at the airport, but no one told me. So I got out my credit card, swiped it through the payphone and called the taxi number posted on the wall. A man answered. I “said taxi to the airport”. The person on the other end seemed to only speak Inuktitut. He rambled on. I said “is this the taxi”, only to listen to him ramble on again as if he was angry. I said “I guess I called the wrong number” and proceeded to hang up as he continued to talk. I took out my credit card again and literally swiped it over 20 times to get it to work and again called the number on the wall. This time a lady answered and said “taxi”. I said “taxi to the airport” to which she replied, “It’s already on its way”. Strange I thought, but sure enough this angry looking man came walking in a few minutes later and said “who needs a taxi”. I replied “I do” along with 2 other ladies. By the time I got my luggage in and sat down the 2 ladies where in the back seat.

I looked at the driver and said “the cultural center” to which he loudly replied “HUH?”. He started driving. Unbeknownst to me, the Cultural center is ¾ the way to town. As he is about to speed past I overhear one of the ladies say to the other, “that’s the cultural center, I stayed there before”. I told this to the driver who was obviously pissed that he had to stop, reverse 30 feet and go up the ramp. I think he grumbled the word “Piqqusilirivvik”, which is the official name of the place, though this building has no official sign on it. I guess I, being the person who has never been to this hamlet in my life, should have known that this was the cultural center. Why on earth would the local cab driver in a town that you could drive through literally in 5 or 6 minutes, know the English name of the building?

As a side note I found the name on the sign that was likely installed by the government, perhaps at its dedication. It says Piqqusilirivvik cultural center. The Nunavut Government committed $8,053,000 and the Canadian Government $24,161,000.

Sad that in my first 10 minutes in Clyde River I had to meet that guy. If only I had been told that there was a truck waiting, the biggest memory of this town for me wouldn’t be that.

The Piqqusilirivvik cultural center is an awesome building. I guess it should be for over 32 million dollars. I had a room to myself, which was great and access to a kitchen where I could cook real food. A lot of thought went into putting this place together. It has a huge open concept hall with huge laminated beams. Nice.

On day two I met another person who also soured my “Clyde” experience. I won’t go into the boring details but I was told “we never get any help when we go south” when I mentioned possibly taking the staff up on a promised drive. Damn that mystery truck. Between that and the crappy weather that started on day two, I decided to keep to myself for the most part.

On Friday it cleared up so go to take a few more pics. The hamlet is a small place, so other than driving through it, to get the work site (which I had trouble finding) or Northern store, I never bothered walking in town. The whole place is surrounded by mountains. Once it cleared up so you can see them, it is very lovely.

On the bright side, the ladies at the work site, one other Government worker and the school principal were nice enough to almost make up for the first 2 “people”.

Anyway, here are some pics. If I have a choice would I go back to Clyde River…umm, you figure it out.

Iglulik (or Igloolik) NU

Iglulik (or Igloolik) NU Sept 2 to 7^th 2011

I was in town to work over Labor Day weekend. Not that that mattered. When I’m up North to work…let’s getter done.

I remember a few things about this hamlet.

First I had to share a room with a co-worker. Better him that someone I didn’t know. They had satellite too, which gets better channels than my Iqaluit place and luckily we seem to have roughly the same taste. Must be an older (yah not old, older) guy thing. Discovery channel etc.

Secondly, a cruise ship of likely rich people came into town 1 evening. You must be rich to come on an Arctic cruise or at least have a bit too much money. Hey I’m no commie so do what you want with your dough, but haven’t you people heard of the Caribbean or Mediterranean?

Anyway the towns people all came out with tents set up and did something. By the time we realized it was happening it was mostly over. Not sure what the demo was. There were tents with handmade articles for sale etc. and I think perhaps some dancing. Man, every time something happens that maybe worth seeing, I miss it. I hope the cruise people left some of their mullah in town.

Thirdly, they have this environment building in town that looks like a space ship on a pedestal. We even got to go inside. It occupants say that its neat but it leaks and is really cold at times. I guess eventually the honeymoon phase of working there wears off and you are stuck in just another work place with a great view of the town.

The forth thing was the building that indicated it is either now or was at some time a radio station. I love the murals that end up on the sides of some of these places. Lots of smaller drawings seem to evolve into these cool murals. There are two awesome ones in Iqaluit but that’s another blog post. This one was pretty cool as well.

They are also building a huge new Catholic Church right across from the Hotel (and beside the “radio station”). Some of the newer structures up here are impressive. Very well done and modem looking and feeling. I’m sure this new building won’t disappoint when it’s done.

As mentioned before the people we meet walking always seem to have a hello for yah. Whether they know it or not, a hello and smile go a long way to make these trips easier. The people we worked with and at the hotel also where nice as well.

Though I’d prefer my own room, I wouldn’t mind going back to Igloolik.