Jack's stories

I have no photos or crazy adventures to talk about at the moment, but I do have some stories from Jack.

I met him Monday evening. He is an Elder, originally from Holman, living in Cambridge Bay for the past twentysomething years, and was in town to talk to the students about the Lands Claim Agreement.

We didn't get to talking about that, but he was telling enamouring stories with endless humour about what it was like to grow up in the North. This man was so interesting to listen to. I will try to recount them as accurately as possible.

Eric asked him, "Where's home for you?".
His response: "It's in my house. It's got a bunch of walls and a roof."

He told us about how he had TB when he was a young teenager, and had to be sent to Fort Smith for treatment that lasted over 2 years. He could have left sooner, but living in a part of the world that is so cold and so windy, it was likely that his TB would come back and that he would end up back in Fort Smith for more treatment. Plus, he didn't want to leave because he liked the school he was going to there. He liked it so much that even when they told him he was well enough to go home, he wanted to stay. At the time, Fort Smith was 100% Catholic, but Jack is Anglican. He did his best to practice Catholicism, learned their prayers, the routine of church services, etc. He became so good at it that he was asked to become an alter boy. Jack respectfully declined the honour, saying that as an Anglican, it wouldn't be proper for him. He was told that he could finish the school year (this was early spring), but then he would have to leave Fort Smith. So he finished his year and they shipped him off.

He told us his memories of, in the day of the igloos and before snow machines and ATVs, the RCMP would travel from town to town by dog sled delivering medicine to the various camps. He never knew until later in his life that the RCMP were cops, he thought they were just nice people, maybe doctors.

He told us that before drugs and alcohol were introduced to the North, the Inuit people were the happiest people you could find. They lived together on the land and no one had locks on their doors. He could go hunting, come back late and leave his sled with all his camping gear, shot guns, etc. out all night and come out again in the morning and not a thing would be missing. He ranted about the problems caused by the involvement of the Government with the regulation and distribution of alcohol in the North.

He knows a man who was such an excellent athlete that he was working towards qualifying for the winter olympics. He had skidoos and hondas, a house, a wife, children. He had furniture and many of the nicest things you could have. He met Drugs and sold what he could and lost the rest. Drugs took his family and his machines and left him in an empty house. Jack, whose family never knew what he needed, gave him too many coffee makers and too many watches. What Jack really needed was a new truck, so he gave his friend, who now had nothing, a coffee maker and a watch. The following week Jack was visiting again, and neither were to be seen. Drugs took them. Then Drugs started to take Jack's son. Jack took his son to the empty house to give his friend an electric frying pan. His son looked around the empty house, telling Jack that he remembered that this house had had everything at one point. On their way home, his son asked, "that frying pan isn't going to be there tomorrow, is it?", and Jack knew that their visit to the empty house gave his son the message he had been hoping to give him. His friend in the empty house has been in and out of rehab, but he is always sent back, and he is not getting better. Jack can see from his window three dealers, though his hope in getting drugs out of his community has withered. Every time one dealer is taken down or taken away, another one comes. There will always be another one coming to fill the gap and feed the addiction.

I hope I meet Jack again one day, to talk to him more about what life was like, as there are so few Elders still around who lived in igloos who can speak English.  How interesting it was to hear a first person account of the history of the North and the changes that have caused so many struggles for the Inuit.

Assets, revenue, liabilities and expenses

As some of you are aware, I spent last week in Cambridge Bay for accounting training, specifically geared to using Sage 50. After only having been home for a week since my Christmas vacation, I wasn't feeling too keen on leaving for another 8 days, mainly because my nephew is learning so much these days and I don't want to miss a thing, and also partly because CamBay is farther north, colder, and I didn't know anyone there.

After arriving at the Arctic Island Lodge, I was relieved to have my own room (and not sharing with the assistant manager, which she was also pleased with). Time to load up on groceries for the week and settle in for the afternoon and evening before the training starts Monday morning.

My stay at the hotel was decent, though the wi-fi signal was poor, and there weren't enough staff to provide housekeeping every day - this wouldn't have been so bad, but I ran out of coffee!!

The weather was very cold. Most days were 40 below feeling like -50 to -60. Luckily, just like home, it doesn't take more than 15 minutes to get from one end of town to the other, and most places I needed to be were within a 5-10 minute walk from where I was at any given time.

Just about every STOP sign in town had a hand print in the corner. I liked it.

This is Lena. She works for one of the agencies that provides funding to the Daycare. She also makes beaded jewelry. She was at the training all week, and we all got a kick out of her. I'd never seen her joker side before, as it was always straight to business, but it was so good to see this side of her! This is also an excellent example of what most Inuk women wear in the winter: Handmade parkas and kamiks.

And of course it was nice to see some beautiful sunset skies!

As for the training, I learned a lot of basic accounting: credits, debits (which in accounting are actually reverse to what they are in banking), assets, revenue, liabilities, and expenses. I learned some fancy equations, and then how to input all of our financial data into Sage 50 so that we have current financial information at all times. The trick now is to enter into the system every single invoice, bill, payment, withdrawal, bank charge, late fee, donation, fundraiser.. (you get the idea) since April 2013. SO much work, but once we're current, we can apply for so much more funding and finally be able to get the kids some new materials! 

It also helps that now I actually know what I'm doing and what happens with money. All of what I learned can also be applied to my personal finances...bank reconciliation, etc. I'm not quite a chartered accountant, but I'm getting there! 

I also had a chance to check out the Cambridge Bay Childcare centre, which is HUGE compared to ours, and has been open the longest in the Kitikmeot region. I didn't get any pictures, but it looks like just about any typical centre. Lots of colours, lots of materials, etc. I was jealous that they have separate rooms for each age group, as well as a staff bathroom, a big office and a staff room! Is it too much to wish that we'll get a new building one day that I can design?? 

Interior makeover

After a rough week of being consistently under staffed, the board decided today to close the daycare effective immediately until school starts up again in August. 

This gives me the chance to give the centre an interior makeover, get a new program together, hire new staff, plan and host a staff orientation, and have an open house for parents to come in and see the new design and program. The Board is also hoping to send me to Cambridge Bay to get some training on all of the policies and procedures for running a daycare in Nunavut and how to write funding proposals, as well as shadowing the manager at the centre there, as it is full to capacity. 

If you are one of my professors, you should expect at least a handful of emails from me asking for advice and resources! Please feel free to offer any if you think you have something that may be helpful!

I have to say, I'm really excited about the rest of the summer. It will be a really great experience for me and the perfect opportunity for me to apply everything I learned over the past 4 years at school and through working at various centres. 

This first thing I did when they told me I could make whatever changes I wanted: get rid of all worksheets and cookie-cutter craft patterns. I filled an entire industrial size trash bag and I am covered in paper cuts! 

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