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