Now that we are getting settled, it's time to tell you a little about our pretty little hamlet:
The Inuktitut name for Pond Inlet is Mittimatalik - translating to the place where Mitima is buried.
The community is designated as a Hamlet - the largest of 4 in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut on Baffin Island, just above the 72nd parallel, (Santa stops by for tea sometimes)
As of the 2006 census the population was over 1,300, I would guess it is closer to 1,500 now.
There are 2 main stores, Northern and Co-Op, a small convenience store, 2 hotels, an elementary and a junior/senior high school, some government offices.
It's very pretty, and the community is very welcoming. You can admire the mountains and late nite sunsets, and watch the planes land and take off. You can see dog teams playing and waiting for their supper, and huge ice burgs stuck in the frozen ocean. You can even take a Skidoo ride to the flow edge or visit the ice caves.
If your lucky you may see some of the local wildlife: Caribou, Ringed Seal, Narwhals or Polar Bears.
The ravens are enormous and eye the cat through the window as a snack regularly.
The main mode of transportation is skidoo or Honda's (ATV's). The only way in or out is by plane. Most of our general merchandise and food is flown in from Montreal, about 3 times a week.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Day 45 - patiently waiting
For spring weather, none to be found in Pond yet. It's a sunny, calm -28, and surprisingly quite tolerable. One gust of wind and I would be eating those words. I don't expect to see anything above 0 until June. By then I should be able to bust out the fishing rod (and maybe a tan??).
Life has been calm and uneventful these past weeks, and even though we are only 6 weeks in to life in the north, I am hoping to have more to offer for people looking to relocate to the north. It took me so long to even begin to find any info on what it would be like to live in the arctic, and blogs were the only means to find decent information. I spent months reading and following and making lists, with out them I would have been ill prepared.
I guess we really haven't come across much excitement as of yet. I eagerly await mail, most recently a pilates mat and some dvd's, phone calls from home, or taking a walk (usually ended by loss of feeling in one or more appendages). In our short time here I am starting to appreciate the slower pace of life more & more, what it has done for my health and my sanity :) My daily frustrations are at a minimum and 'waiting' for stuff is common place. working a 12 hour day sitting behind a desk was exhausting, and although the days can be tiring, I have never been so free of stress and anxiety in as long as I can remember. It's refreshing. speaking of ... Tuesday provided mild excitement and stress relief, office space styles:
Someone returned a defective tv. There was a dent in the box so we figure the screen was damaged in shipping. We plugged it in and no go, so we had to write the sucker off. The manager said we would need to destroy it and take it to the dump so people wouldn't try to take it home. We gladly obliged and pounded the piss out of it. I wish I could do that more often.
The rest of my evening consists of housewifery, supper, laundry, and a long hot soak. The life.
Til next time,
A
Life has been calm and uneventful these past weeks, and even though we are only 6 weeks in to life in the north, I am hoping to have more to offer for people looking to relocate to the north. It took me so long to even begin to find any info on what it would be like to live in the arctic, and blogs were the only means to find decent information. I spent months reading and following and making lists, with out them I would have been ill prepared.
I guess we really haven't come across much excitement as of yet. I eagerly await mail, most recently a pilates mat and some dvd's, phone calls from home, or taking a walk (usually ended by loss of feeling in one or more appendages). In our short time here I am starting to appreciate the slower pace of life more & more, what it has done for my health and my sanity :) My daily frustrations are at a minimum and 'waiting' for stuff is common place. working a 12 hour day sitting behind a desk was exhausting, and although the days can be tiring, I have never been so free of stress and anxiety in as long as I can remember. It's refreshing. speaking of ... Tuesday provided mild excitement and stress relief, office space styles:
 |
| welcome to the Pond dump |
 |
| Matt did the most damage |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| but we were not leaving until I had a few goes at it. |
Someone returned a defective tv. There was a dent in the box so we figure the screen was damaged in shipping. We plugged it in and no go, so we had to write the sucker off. The manager said we would need to destroy it and take it to the dump so people wouldn't try to take it home. We gladly obliged and pounded the piss out of it. I wish I could do that more often.
The rest of my evening consists of housewifery, supper, laundry, and a long hot soak. The life.
Til next time,
A
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Whats new pussycat?
I told myself that I wouldn't get behind on blogging, but its not my fault I swear :P
After passing our cap last month we were booted to dial up. This is when A goes on internet hiatus.
This may or may not have trickled over to the last 13 days or so, 4-6 of which our little hamlet has had intermittent internet access because they decided to move the dish without warning - I don't even want to get into the bad timing and havoc, maybe in another post
The Nutrition North Canada program launched on April 1st (replacing the food mail program). There has been some mixed feelings to say the least or the actual savings vs the food mail program. I haven't been hear long enough to see the rise and fall of prices since the program was first announced last spring but, I'm not sure that the commentors are taking into consideration the mother of 4 on assistance who doesn't have the luxury of extra food in the cupboard to wait around for food mail or extra cash to stock up on sea lift. You also have to factor not only the cost of flying all of your groceries into your community, but the cost of staff and shrinkage from damaged goods, bad produce and theft. And please don't complain that bacon and ice cream did not get cheaper, these do not fall under the category of nutritious. I digress.
Lots of new faces in the store as a few people left. Head office decided create an 'office supervisor' position, it would be nice to see someone from Pond get the job. I did mention the position to one of our office staff as I thought she would be a good fit. She spoke with our manager and Winnipeg is making the final call, so she will need to dust off her resume. My fingers are crossed for her.
M finally found a hairdresser - thank goodness because his split ends could poke your eye out.
We both found some pretty sweet bikes, I was expecting to open a box of something archaic looking for $300, but I jumped on an took a little ride around the warehouse and fell in love. Sadly, it's been a long while since I have found excitement in a new purchase. And with all the online ordering I've been doing rarely does the opportunity arise. I can't wait to take that baby out for a spin though the hills of pond, camera bag in tow, snapping pictures of the sites. Fishing and camping trips, drunk nights on the patio. le sigh, hurry up summer!
An 11 year old and her friend stopped to talk to me as I was socking some baby stuff. As one of the girls showed me her new glasses with excitement, the next, buts in with just as must excitement, announcing that she was pregnant. She very clear that she was 11 years old, and she was pregnant. Now I've had people tell me that girls usually start having babies here at 14, and my gut tells me that she was just trying to get a reaction, by for a moment I thought, my god, this poor child is excited.
Your heart breaks a little. How do you respond to something like that? I responded by ignoring it and talking to the other young girl about her glasses. In the south, reactions would be quite different. When I see and hear things that shock and amaze, I always stop and remind myself that I am far, far away from home, and much farther from knowing about the culture and ways of the people here.
So that's are my catch up rambles for now. Provided the internet behaves, I'll post new photos and update you soon!
A
After passing our cap last month we were booted to dial up. This is when A goes on internet hiatus.
This may or may not have trickled over to the last 13 days or so, 4-6 of which our little hamlet has had intermittent internet access because they decided to move the dish without warning - I don't even want to get into the bad timing and havoc, maybe in another post
The Nutrition North Canada program launched on April 1st (replacing the food mail program). There has been some mixed feelings to say the least or the actual savings vs the food mail program. I haven't been hear long enough to see the rise and fall of prices since the program was first announced last spring but, I'm not sure that the commentors are taking into consideration the mother of 4 on assistance who doesn't have the luxury of extra food in the cupboard to wait around for food mail or extra cash to stock up on sea lift. You also have to factor not only the cost of flying all of your groceries into your community, but the cost of staff and shrinkage from damaged goods, bad produce and theft. And please don't complain that bacon and ice cream did not get cheaper, these do not fall under the category of nutritious. I digress.
Lots of new faces in the store as a few people left. Head office decided create an 'office supervisor' position, it would be nice to see someone from Pond get the job. I did mention the position to one of our office staff as I thought she would be a good fit. She spoke with our manager and Winnipeg is making the final call, so she will need to dust off her resume. My fingers are crossed for her.
M finally found a hairdresser - thank goodness because his split ends could poke your eye out.
We both found some pretty sweet bikes, I was expecting to open a box of something archaic looking for $300, but I jumped on an took a little ride around the warehouse and fell in love. Sadly, it's been a long while since I have found excitement in a new purchase. And with all the online ordering I've been doing rarely does the opportunity arise. I can't wait to take that baby out for a spin though the hills of pond, camera bag in tow, snapping pictures of the sites. Fishing and camping trips, drunk nights on the patio. le sigh, hurry up summer!
An 11 year old and her friend stopped to talk to me as I was socking some baby stuff. As one of the girls showed me her new glasses with excitement, the next, buts in with just as must excitement, announcing that she was pregnant. She very clear that she was 11 years old, and she was pregnant. Now I've had people tell me that girls usually start having babies here at 14, and my gut tells me that she was just trying to get a reaction, by for a moment I thought, my god, this poor child is excited.
Your heart breaks a little. How do you respond to something like that? I responded by ignoring it and talking to the other young girl about her glasses. In the south, reactions would be quite different. When I see and hear things that shock and amaze, I always stop and remind myself that I am far, far away from home, and much farther from knowing about the culture and ways of the people here.
So that's are my catch up rambles for now. Provided the internet behaves, I'll post new photos and update you soon!
A
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Day 24 - whole lotta nuthin
Nothing terribly exciting to report. Sorry.
We are just getting settled into our new home and new jobs, so we haven't had much time or means for any big adventures yet.
I've been a bit bored at work lately, stuck working in the office filling in for someone on vacation. It's mundane as hell and I hate it, but I keep reminding myself I have it made here and to suck it up. I think it's cause I've been sitting behind a desk for so long that the thought of a new job where I could move about.
Well I got the chance to move about last night. We had a cargo plane come in with ~400 pieces of freight around 9pm. There was no one left at the store, so I volunteered to help my better half and the manager grab the stuff from the plane. Well, hilarity ensued when 'a lady' hit the tarmac, one guy looked right at me and said "oh no" in the most worrisome voice. There was much laughing and warning me that boxes of KD were "heavy". Mild jerkiness from the co-op guy when he would try to make me miss a projectile box. All in all I held my own and about 90 minutes later we filled 2 vans to and headed back to unload. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the plane, and the laughing/concerned faces.
Tomorrow is my day off and I have just been booted down to dial up, so you may not see/hear from me til next week, but I thought a little follow up was due.
TTFN,
A
We are just getting settled into our new home and new jobs, so we haven't had much time or means for any big adventures yet.
I've been a bit bored at work lately, stuck working in the office filling in for someone on vacation. It's mundane as hell and I hate it, but I keep reminding myself I have it made here and to suck it up. I think it's cause I've been sitting behind a desk for so long that the thought of a new job where I could move about.
Well I got the chance to move about last night. We had a cargo plane come in with ~400 pieces of freight around 9pm. There was no one left at the store, so I volunteered to help my better half and the manager grab the stuff from the plane. Well, hilarity ensued when 'a lady' hit the tarmac, one guy looked right at me and said "oh no" in the most worrisome voice. There was much laughing and warning me that boxes of KD were "heavy". Mild jerkiness from the co-op guy when he would try to make me miss a projectile box. All in all I held my own and about 90 minutes later we filled 2 vans to and headed back to unload. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the plane, and the laughing/concerned faces.
Tomorrow is my day off and I have just been booted down to dial up, so you may not see/hear from me til next week, but I thought a little follow up was due.
TTFN,
A
Monday, March 21, 2011
photo time
Long awaited photo time. The camera has a hard time capturing the beauty that is the north, this was the best I could do until I figure out how to use this beast.
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| The flag pole we see when we walk out the door |
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| our house |
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| our house is on top of this hill |
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011
gorging
This post has nothing to do with the north. I would like to talk a bit about gorging in hopes I will review this later, maybe even next time I decide it would be a good idea to indulge in soda, nacho chips and reese pieces eggies. I feel like a beached narwhal, and could puke rainbows.
Lets review the cost of now nauseating binge session:
1 can soda $2.25
large bag of nacho chips $9.99
large bag of reeses pieces unknown - I'm guessing $7-$9
The end
Lets review the cost of now nauseating binge session:
1 can soda $2.25
large bag of nacho chips $9.99
large bag of reeses pieces unknown - I'm guessing $7-$9
The end
Friday, March 11, 2011
Day 11 - A day off in Pond
What to do when you have a day off in an isolated hamlet
Sleep in
stay in PJ's til at least 1 eating junk food, watching star trek reruns.
Call from online petstore to tell me they need an extra $130 to cover shipping on my order I placed 5 days ago. Politely tell said company to stuff it and boasted the wonders of ebay and amazon's free shipping.
Decide its time to go outside and blow off shipping extortion steam
Go to the co-op and browse around
Make mental note of all things you can not find at Northern that Co-op has
Make another mental note that kitty litter comes in a bigger bag and is $10 cheeper
oh look, they have hazelnut non-dairy coffee whitener - another mental note
buy huge can of starbucks vanilla double shot energy+coffee ( Only 5.99!)
go to hamlet office to find out what you need to bring to get a Nunavut license
back to Northern to replenish junk foods and pick up package from amazon*
Home to drop off groceries, grab stuff for license, grab movie rental
Reorder kitty's stuff, cheaper and no shipping extortion.
Head to Ulaajuk elementary school for bake sale (I'm a sucker for cupcakes)
Back to Hamlet office to get M's license moved over to NU.
Make mental note of gun safety registration:)
Mental note to get fishing license
Share the plethora of cupcakes we bought with ladies at hamlet office
Off to health center to get NU health cards
Back to Northern to drop off movie rental
Share cupcakes with co-workers
Home to nice warm house on the hill
Looks over grocery receipt, shakes head at $20.99 kitty litter, $12.49 bag of fries, $8.65 chips.
Time for some lazing, trolling, online shopping
Cleaned out one of the 4 bedrooms, mysterious coloured doughy substance stuck to bookshelf dresser and walls. Grab mister clean and disinfect area.
Find old TV in storage - disappoint that it does not function
Set up Wii on working TV
update the world on my super stimulating day :)
There you have it, a day off in a northern hamlet above the 72nd parallel.
* free shipping on 4 books, arrived in just 5 days. Amazon is my new shopping buddy, expect your Christmas presents from them.
Sleep in
stay in PJ's til at least 1 eating junk food, watching star trek reruns.
Call from online petstore to tell me they need an extra $130 to cover shipping on my order I placed 5 days ago. Politely tell said company to stuff it and boasted the wonders of ebay and amazon's free shipping.
Decide its time to go outside and blow off shipping extortion steam
Go to the co-op and browse around
Make mental note of all things you can not find at Northern that Co-op has
Make another mental note that kitty litter comes in a bigger bag and is $10 cheeper
oh look, they have hazelnut non-dairy coffee whitener - another mental note
buy huge can of starbucks vanilla double shot energy+coffee ( Only 5.99!)
go to hamlet office to find out what you need to bring to get a Nunavut license
back to Northern to replenish junk foods and pick up package from amazon*
Home to drop off groceries, grab stuff for license, grab movie rental
Reorder kitty's stuff, cheaper and no shipping extortion.
Head to Ulaajuk elementary school for bake sale (I'm a sucker for cupcakes)
Back to Hamlet office to get M's license moved over to NU.
Make mental note of gun safety registration:)
Mental note to get fishing license
Share the plethora of cupcakes we bought with ladies at hamlet office
Off to health center to get NU health cards
Back to Northern to drop off movie rental
Share cupcakes with co-workers
Home to nice warm house on the hill
Looks over grocery receipt, shakes head at $20.99 kitty litter, $12.49 bag of fries, $8.65 chips.
Time for some lazing, trolling, online shopping
Cleaned out one of the 4 bedrooms, mysterious coloured doughy substance stuck to bookshelf dresser and walls. Grab mister clean and disinfect area.
Find old TV in storage - disappoint that it does not function
Set up Wii on working TV
update the world on my super stimulating day :)
There you have it, a day off in a northern hamlet above the 72nd parallel.
* free shipping on 4 books, arrived in just 5 days. Amazon is my new shopping buddy, expect your Christmas presents from them.