Stuff and things that make Iqaluit.........different.

I apologize for this post coming out so late in the day.  I would have posted sooner, but we had no internet for awhile today.  We lost it after another random power outage, which seems to be happening more frequently lately. However, better late than never! Iqaluit is BUSTING with character. This post highlights a few of the things I feel are unique to living here.  

1) Children here are almost universally afraid of Buffy when they meet her.  I was taken aback by this, if you've ever met Buffy you would know that she is calm, at times timid. Her reaction to strangers is to generally walk up and offer her paw to "shake". Most children elsewhere we've been have run up to her without hesitating.  In Iqaluit, this hasn't been the case. I have learned this is because here in Iqaluit there are two types of dogs:  the "family pet" dog that is generally owned by non-Inuit, and the "working dog".  "Working dogs" are not pets.  They are sled dogs, or guard dogs, and are treated at such.  Sled and guard dogs are kept outside, not in homes. Guard dogs are generally left tied or chained to a home, all day, every day.

Cute lil' guard dog.

Sled dog teams live as a pack. They are chained, penned behind a fence, or (in at least one case) live on an island in the bay. If you walk up to a sled dog looking to rub his head or scratch behind his ears (depending on the dog team) you may get bitten.  Elsewhere in the country if a dog bites a child the dog is put down.  Here the child might be told "You shouldn't have gone near the dog."  Many children have told me they have been bitten by dogs on more than one occasion.  Now that Buffy has been here for awhile, they have learned to trust her.

Where the sled dogs live.

Where Buffy lives.

Buffy gets some loving from the bus stop kids. A month ago most of these
kids wouldn't go near her.

2) People drive very slowly here.  The top speed is about 40km/h. I have seen an RCMP officer pull someone over for speeding once. Also, many people keep extension cords wrapped around various parts of their cars.  Why? So if you are going to be parked somewhere for awhile you can plug in your car (the cord leads to a block heater that keeps your engine warm). We don't bother with wrapping our extension cord around the mirrors, we just leave ours dangling outside the house on the front step.

Handy place to store an extension cord.

3) I've said it before, but fur really is everywhere. How many places in the world can you be walking your dog down the street with your son and come across a neighbour drying out a polar bear skin in the sun?

Captain Jack, go stand in that yard for a minute so
Mommy can get a picture for the blog!

4) Cigarette use is very prevalent. Each morning there are at least a dozen people hanging around outside the grocery store, directly in front of the "no loitering" signs, smoking.  The "stop smoking" campaigns haven't quite been successful.  In fact, 9 out of 10 pregnant women in Nunavut smoke. (source) Alcohol abuse is also a huge issue. They are still showing "Please don't drink when you are pregnant" PSA's at the movie theatre. It feels that in this way, Iqaluit is a city in a time warp.  It is firmly entrenched in the 1960's.

5) Another way it feels like the '60's is that children are "free range".  Once, two children I was unfamiliar with came to the door looking for Jack Sparrow to go with them to the park.  They had no mittens on, so I gave them each a pair and asked them to return them when they were done playing for the day.  They told me they were thirsty and hungry, so I gave them a glass of water and cookies before all 3 headed off to the park.  The people here tend to be of the "it takes a village to raise a child" mentality.  I am not comfortable with my kids going to stranger's homes, to me it just feels wrong. Many children here are allowed to stay out all day and come home when it gets late (or I suppose when they get hungry and the neighbors won't feed them).  Parents don't know (and are not concerned about) where they are.  There is something to be said for this free-range parenting style building resilience and independence.  At age 7 some young Inuit have already become full-fledged hunters, and are recognized as "men" in their communities, having killed their first narwhal or seal.  My son can barely remember to put on clean underwear.

This young hunter's proud parents posted about his first narwhal
kill on Facebook.

6) Your kids bring home weird stuff from their treks outside. Like the intact lower jaw (complete with teeth) of some tundra animal. The rule is "Keep it Outside".

Look what we found Mommy! Isn't it awesome?

7) Clean running water isn't always a "given".  Every few days a section of town is without water or has low water pressure long enough for people to start asking questions on the "Iqaluit Public Service Announcements" website (see below).  Also, power can go out at random times (like the day I tried to add this post to my blog).

I was at Arctic Ventures the other day buying a bunch of groceries.  The cashier rang everything through, then as I handed her my credit card the store suddenly went dark (its OK, it was 10am so there was light from the windows. If it was 3pm that would have been a problem). She tried my card in the card reader, which runs off the phone line, and it worked. (YESSSS!!)  You know you're in Iqaluit when people congratulate you for being able to pay on your way out of the store.

After I got home I realized we had no running water in the house (the power had come back on by this point). An announcement was made that the disruption in power had done "something" to the water supply stations, which now had to be manually reset.  Water was restored a couple of hours later.

This happens on a regular basis. (Obviously this was posted
by someone new to town. No one else uses street names.)

8) Not all kids go to school.  In fact, many kids don't.  Its not seen as something important to some Inuit.  Its a little frustrating, as many Inuit also feel angry and frustrated that they are not represented well by their politicians, and feel there should be more Inuit professionals (lawyers, doctors). There is progress being made, slowly. The problem is figuring out a way to reconcile formal education with a hunting/nomadic culture, and teaching parents just how important it is for children to attend school. 

Coraline brought home an award from school one day in October.  I was very proud of her, then I looked a bit closer.  The award was for perfect attendance FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER.  Yep.  Congrats kid, you made it to school every day for a month. I suppose its a good thing awards like this are offered as incentives, its just sad that its necessary to acknowledge something that elsewhere in the country would be a "given".   The older kids get, the less likely it is that they will continue with their education.  At Coraline's school (which is the only middle school in the city) there are 6 grade 6 classes, all with about 20 or so children, for a total of roughly 120 students. However, just 6 years later, only about 40 students will graduate from high school (fewer than 46% of kids who are enrolled in Grade 12).

9) I think some of you heard about the wicked cold weather/blizzard we had from Friday until Sunday earlier this week.  Friday the temperature plunged to -53 degrees, so the kids stayed home from school (the Iqaluit District Education Authority, or IDEA, draws the line at temps colder than -50 for school attendance). Then Friday night we had crazy winds, plus snow and more wind on Saturday.  With the white-out conditions, the entire city, including emergency services, shut down.  This means no plows on the road, no paramedics, no taxi service, etc. The same happened on Sunday.  By the middle of the day Sunday people were starting to get desperate.  There were posts on Facebook from people saying they had no food for their children, asking for donations to be delivered to their homes as they could not get their vehicles out. Water trucks were off the road, so those homes relying on "trucked" water (more on this later) were out of luck. At 3pm the local convenience store, DJ Specialties, announced they would be opening for 2 hours, until 5pm.  Because of the blizzard, shipments of food were delayed, so they announced they didn't have milk. Later someone posted they were out of butter.  Nevertheless, the line to get in went back to the road.

This is the line up outside the convenience store on Sunday afternoon. (Facebook)

Its now Thursday, 6 days after the blizzard started.  There is still a milk shortage in the city.  Refrigerators at both grocery stores in town are empty. One shipment of milk did come in, but after the announcement went public that Northmart had milk, customers scooped it all up within minutes, and they were sold out again. The kids had Eggo waffles today for breakfast (what a treat!) as we were trying to conserve what little we had left. Let's hope there's another milk shipment on the way soon.

Ah well, such is life.  Right now we have power, and water, so life is good.  I am going to go make meatloaf (which calls for milk, but not very much so we're ok there), and boiled baby potatoes.  Coraline will be heading off tonight to a fundraising dance for the five families who lost their homes in last week's fire. After doing his homework, Captain Jack will likely watch some vintage "Hercules" on TV (starring Kevin Sorbo). I hope that like us, you all enjoy a nice warm evening, complete with running water.

Up next: The winner of the giveaway contest will be announced! If you haven't texted/liked/emailed there is still time! Plus, I'll fill you in on what its like to drive around Iqaluit.  "Isn't it just like driving around anywhere else?" Not exactly.