Chesterfield Inlet NU, Oct 26th to 28th 2011.
As I arrive in town and await a ride, I watch the plane get unloaded. Hey…Cisco boxes. I may need one of those switches. I these little airports they put your baggage etc. in a truck and drive it around the front of the building (no conveyors here) and put them on the ground if you’re not around to take them off yourselves. So I ask the guy where all the Cisco gear is going? I don’t know was the response. I guess wherever he drives is where it goes.
The Inns north hotel web site said, free shuttle to and from the airport. Does anyone ever update these things? So I grab the taxi that was waiting there and for $5 bucks for a 3 minute ride and I’m at the hotel. Like most Inns North they are run by the Co-op. This one has the co-op store at the front of the hotel. That’s convenient. I ask if I’m going to share a room. Not until Dan arrives (same guy as Coral) on Friday. If all goes to plan I’ll be out on Friday so that’s “awesome”.
I get right to work. The contact is a young (he’s been teaching in Chester for 10 years so he is only young to people my age I guess) guy named Glenn. He’s taught at the local school for 9 years and moved over to the local Arctic college just this year, to help some former students further their education. Both he and his wife teach in town. He’s a friendly nice guy and noble. There have to be a few left on earth.
He found out where the parts ended up, put me on the back of his 4 wheeler and off we went to get the gear I needed. Mission accomplished. I love it when a plan comes together. By the second day I install, I train, I cut . Man he loved the page button. He acted like it was Christmas day and I gave him a shiny bullhorn as a toy. Announcement’s galore. I hope for his student’s sake he tires of it. lol
Day 2 and I’m all done and wanna go back to the school and take pics and check their existing system. Glenn is busy but will drive me anyway. Crap, while he’s at it, he gives me a mini tour of the town. It the oldest community in Nunavut, just turned 100 this year. You can tell if I came in the summer and he wasn’t busy I would get the full tour. There is a “walking tour” web site and he gave me a brochure they town made as well. Anyway as we take the quick version of the “Glenn” tour he tells me his friend just killed 1 of 3 polar bears (of 5 seen) and took me to see it. That was cool. Nothing goes to waste in the North when it comes to animal hunts so I have no objections to such things.
So off to the school…but wait, I have to see this. They are becoming famous for making canoes in their school. They made one, and the students loved it so they made it into a school project. In the summer they take it to the Hudson Bay and up north and with some portaging it turns into a 3 week trip. Evidently because of his acceptance of his new position this year he missed it.
The weather wasn’t that great the second day. Overcast (surprise) but a real cold wind off the bay as well. Brrr. I did take some pics including the old Hospital built by the Catholics in the 1930. Neat to see old artifacts (and buildings) like that.
The hotel room was uncharacteristically cool the first night. Great for sleeping. Everywhere you go in the north they seem to have the heat cranked. The second night, it was actually getting cold. I looked inside the room and in the hall for a thermostat, to no avail. So on went a hoody and I slept with a shirt and socks on. By morning it was worse. I was leaving but I didn’t want poor Dan to freeze. So I looked down at the rad itself and sure enough, a knob. It’s set to what appears to be a sun. I take that to mean summer, as in “off for the summer”. So a quick twist to 2 and tadda…heat. Not too much though. 20 Celsius is the most I need. Enjoy your heat Dan.
You know what, Glenn made Chesterfield Inlet an okay place and if I return I hope we can meet up again. Maybe this time I’ll get the full tour.
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