The community is coming together in an amazing way. Five families were suddenly put out of their homes in the cold (-40), with nothing but what they were wearing when they escaped (everyone got out OK). Everything was destroyed: charred belongings and what was left of the complex froze into a solid mass from the water used to douse the fire. Donations started pouring in immediately. Remember, many people in this community live in poverty. My mother says "People who have the least give the most." In this case, that has certainly been true.
By Tuesday afternoon, there were so many donations received at the hotel the victims were staying at that they announced they could no longer accept items in the lobby. Then someone went to the church hall and posted they would be there for 3 hours simply to collect donations. The exact clothing sizes needed were posted on Facebook (for 2 boys aged 5-8, one girl aged 10, plus the teenagers and adults). The woman who made us Captain Jack's sealskin mittens (a single mother who works two jobs) donated 5 pairs of brand new pairs of mitts for the victims of the fire. The thrift store opened its doors: anyone who was a victim of the fire was welcomed to walk in and take whatever they needed for free. A local pizza joint is accepting donations on the families' behalf. Captain Jack's school has just announced they will be holding a fundraiser "bake sale and cake walk" next Friday.
We got an email tonight from Jack's hockey association--one of the children he plays hockey with is one of the fire's now homeless victims. The family lost everything--including all of this boy's hockey equipment. There isn't exactly a Sports Authority here in town, and shipping speciality items can be costly and difficult. The association was asking people who could donate financially to chip in so they could buy a gift card to a store in Ottawa that will ship here. When I spoke to the organizer, she told me they think they will raise enough to replace his gear. Any extra funds gathered will go toward replacing his father's hockey gear, or whatever the family feels is a priority.
This is still a tragedy, no amount of donations (financial or other) can make up for losing everything you own. It is, however, heartwarming to be part of this small community and see it come together so quickly to help out.
Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.
Hello blog lurkers! Yes, I know you are out there. You are the silent types who read the blog quietly to yourself. You don't comment, or send messages in any way, you just peruse the blog posts anonymously. Maybe you just scroll through and look at the photos, or you only read the posts that you think will be "interesting" (although, really-- aren't they ALL interesting?). Now is your chance to quietly take action, take a chance, and maybe WIN A PRIZE!!!!! All you need to do is "like" anything on the Seriously North Facebook page, and your name will be entered into the draw. You don't need to get in touch, or leave a comment. You can remain true to your introverted selves. All you need to do is click the Seriously North Facebook link (right here), then click "like" when the page opens. That's IT. Come on......you know it would feel really cool to get mail from Nunavut next time you're at the post office.....
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| Lurking........ source |
As for the rest of you--you've commented on the blog, or you've sent me emails or text messages, or mentioned on the phone that you are reading the posts. Thanks for that! I hear from many of you regularly, but to make it fair to everyone I need to you just do it one more time and you're in!
To make it clear: everyone who comments on the blog, texts, "likes" the Facebook page, or emails me between January 1 and January 15 will be entered into a draw to win a prize. (Since the FB page is brand new, everyone who has already "liked" it has been entered.)
About the prize
There is a man here in town who walks around selling artwork. You can find him just about anywhere--Northmart, the Snack, the other restaurants, the movie theatre, just out on the street.....He's there. He is also at the airport every day when the flights from Ottawa arrive around lunch time. Last month I picked up a couple of pieces of artwork from him while having lunch at the Snack.
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| Your art will be coming from THIS GUY! |
New Year's Eve we ran into him at the Navigator Restaurant, our first time at a "hole in the wall" place that serves Chinese-Canadian food (think sweet and sour chicken balls), as well as caribou and arctic char. He was offering more original artwork (the art is made by his uncle, who is an elder here in town). I hope you guys all like it!
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| The Navigator Inn. An interesting establishment here in Iqaluit. Source |
Quick Kitten Update!
Those of you who don't want to read about kittens scroll down until you get to the preview for upcoming posts. To everyone else who has been asking about the our surprise kitties--yes, they are still here. And yes, they have gotten big. We will be relying on the humane society for find homes for them, because no, we will NOT be a house with 5 cats. No matter how cute they are.
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| Look at that face! |
Interesting fact: the only cats to be found outside in Iqaluit are either black or tuxedo (mostly black with white markings). The shelter people told me they never come across a tortoise-shell cats, or white or grey cats, or any other color. My theory is that other colors blend in with the snow/tundra. Also, lighter color cats resemble local food (like bunnies and arctic ground squirrels) for birds of prey, foxes, wolves, etc. Only black cats stand out. Black lost or stray cats are rescued by people due to the simple fact that they can be noticed against the snow and rocks. This isn't to say that there are no white cats in Iqaluit (we have Mylo, for instance), but if Mylo were to ever escape his chances of being seen and rescued are slim. The birds of prey are always watching, and poor little Mylo looks too much like an arctic hare.
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| Arctic hare |
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| Arctic Mylo |
A frustration that I've experienced since agreeing to foster Freya is the lack of veterinary care in Iqaluit. Anywhere else in North America, a vet usually is able to test for Feline Leukemia or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (F.I.V.) in their office. Test results are often available in about 20 minutes. These two diseases are common, contagious, and can be dormant in cats for several years before the cat becomes acutely ill and dies. When we first brought Freya home from the shelter the plan was to have her tested (to make sure our cat Mylo did not get sick), then give her space so that she could relax a little and come out of her shell. If you remember, at the shelter she hid in her basket all day and would not even come out to eat.
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| Kittens crawling up my leg. |
It has been over 6 weeks now, and we still do not know if Freya, and now her kittens, have any contagious cat diseases. First the vet was out of town. When she got back she told me she does not have the ability to run the test out of the office. The lab she uses says it could take up to 3 weeks to receive results. We had the blood drawn and waited. After 3 weeks I called the vet clinic. They called the lab, who said the sample they had received had been insufficient. That no one followed up with us to do repeat blood work is...........frustrating. We went back and had Freya's blood taken again. It has now been over a week. After several phone calls to the vet clinic here I have determined that this sample, at least, is adequate. The vet staff cannot tell me how long it will be before the results are finally in.
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| It is our responsibility to socialize the kittens so they are used to being handled. |
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| We don't enjoy it at all. |
Some of this situation is as a result of living in the north--of course some services will be lacking. Tests will take longer. Some of my frustration comes from cultural differences. There is no sense of "urgency" here with regards to anything. It would never occur to the vet staff to ask the lab when we might expect results. It would never occur to them to follow-up when no results came in. (In fact, when I called I was simply told "No, I didn't see anything come in yet." I replied "Its been three weeks. Why no results?" Only then was the issue looked into.)The veterinary staff have never called the house, the assumption being that if I'm concerned, it is my job to contact them. Everyone is very relaxed about everything, which can be good at times, but can also be quite frustrating.
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| Too cute for words |
As a result, we still have Freya in the kittens in semi-isolation. The diseases we're concerned with are spread through saliva, and are not airborne. This means its fine for Freya and Mylo to be around each other, but not to physically touch each other or share food dishes. So Freya (and of course her kittens) are living in a crate. Its plenty big, but the kittens drive Freya nuts at times. She used to be able to hide on top of her covered litter box, but the kittens are now big enough to follow her up there. (To give her a break, we have "kitchen time" for the kittens. We put up a large cardboard barricade that the kittens are unable to jump over.) Freya has also come "out of her shell" completely, and is DYING to walk around and explore the rest of the house. And, we are all tired of "hand washing patrol" after touching Freya and the kittens. Fingers crossed that we have an answer soon, and that tests are negative.
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| The cat house. Nice and neat. |
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| One hour later. Our kittens keep having "beach parties". |
New posts coming up this year:
I'll be telling you all about the local visitor's centre and museum, fox traps, kamiit, hockey, Toonik Time, and more! We're also having more visitors, and will be doing more travel. JJ will do another guest post (this time possibly on a tuberculosis epidemic in Qikiqtarjuaq). I'll take you on a tour of the neighborhoods in town, and show you some of the beautiful murals painted on the buildings. We're also hoping to do a major excursion (fingers crossed the weather works out). And that's just the stuff we have PLANNED!
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| Captain Jack and I ready to take Buffy for a walk. |
I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's celebration (ours was spent sitting on the couch, watching TV, and eating chips and dip--JJ was on call).
Tune in again on Monday, when I'll fill you in on what's its like to go to school in the Arctic.
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