Arctic tour

Sorry for the strange layout here, I haven't really got that part figured out yet. Anyway, I thought I would tell about my recent trips for work and I'll start with the one to the Canadian Arctic. We were flying the people that are holding hearings for the Mackenzie Valley Gas Project, so we spend the day in whichever community the hearings are in, go back to Inuvik every night, and then on to the next community in the morning. We were in Paulatuk, Holman (Ulukhaktok) and Sachs Harbour. Here's a map of the NWT so you can see where they are. We're supposed to have day rooms where ever we go, but usually any rooms are taken up by the people that are there for the hearings, so mostly we ended up spending the day in people's houses. Usually have a nap first and then go for a walk around and see what there is to see, then cook up some lunch and watch movies or whatever to pass the rest of the day. There aren't restaurants in these communities, and groceries are very expensive and sometimes not even available, so we stocked up in Yellowknife before we left and ended up having enough food to share with our hosts too. M&M cookies are a staple food now!

It's quite an interesting landscape, stark, harsh, but also beautiful in a way. It was extremely windy for the days we were there, that must be pretty hard in the winter. I also have new respect for the people that live/lived off that land, there aren't any trees for firewood or shelter. I have been reading Pierre Berton's "Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole", it makes it feel much more real to me now that I've been in some of those places and on Banks and Victoria Islands that weren't explored until fairly recently. Also makes you realise what those people lived through and wonder how on earth they did it!

The pictures show how small each community is, just sort of sitting on the shore of the ocean, I have no idea why people settled in any of those particular spots, I guess maybe it had something to do with game or what there was to eat way back when. Also can see a muskox skull, there were tons of these on the beach, but you can't just take them because they belong to people and are left there to be cleaned of flesh/fur and then bleached. There are lots of dogs in those communities, I wanted to bring that little guy home with me, some kids told me his name was Fathead! There was also a funny looking Dash 7 parked in Inuvik, they have all these mods they did for ice patrol, so we had to check that out. And lastly, I took the pic of the Canadian flag, which I always am suprised to see up there becuase it feels and looks like you're in some other place than Canada.

It was a good trip, we brought home some stories that will go down in Tindi history, and I have marked off some more places on my list. One thing I couldn't wrap my head around is why there is so much garbage lying around, we walked along beaches and over hills where there was everything from tools to fishing nets to trailers, and yet the people are so adamant about protecting their land and keeping it for their children. Anyway, litter is one of my pet peeves so it was really making me mad!