Fire & Ice

The last week of February started with some very grave news. A fire broke out in a row of residential houses on the night of the 26th, forcing dozens of people to flee with just the clothes on their backs. The weather made the situation even more difficult, with temperatures plunging to -50 degrees with wind chill. Firefighters did their best to combat the blaze but the severe cold prevented them from saving the entire block. Water sprayed from the hoses froze before it could subdue the villainous flames and two firefighters had to be treated for frostbite. By morning, the small but long residential block that once sat prominently next to The Brown (nickname given to the only multi-story building in Iqaluit) was reduced to a smoking heap of frozen rubble. This recent fire would also bring back the painful memory of last year's fire that burned down a residential block on top of the plateau.

I wouldn't know of the fire until Monday morning. It started with a call from Terry, the principal. He was calling to inform Pascale and I that school was cancelled for the morning due to the extreme cold. Seeing that I had the morning to spare, I called the Nunavut Housing Corporation (NHC) and asked if I could see the apartment right away. The gentleman to whom I spoke to agreed but postponed it to the late morning, mentioning that most of the main roads in Iqaluit were shut down due to the fire. On the way to the apartment, I could see white smoke steadily rising from the remains of the housing block. It appeared that the fire department had the situation under control and were just dousing the wreckage to make sure that every trace of the fire was extinguished.

The housing block was home to students attending Arctic College. Most of the students had brought their families with them from other Nunavut communities, meaning many of the now homeless, were young children. Sadly, two adult children perished in the blaze. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Local and out-of-town donations in the form of clothing, blankets, and money came flooding in. First Air waivered all shipping costs and put those goods on priority shipping. Inuksuk High School's student council went around collecting money and even held a fundraising BBQ for the victims on Tuesday. Up here, everyone looks after everyone.

As I mentioned before, Iqaluit has become a boom-town and the municipality can't keep up with the housing demand. It's difficult & costly to ship building materials by sea & air, and most infrastructure projects happen during the brief summer months. So when something like this happens, it is a big deal. There are a few unoccupied buildings around town but they're boarded up and not heated. Some are even slated to be demolished because they're old and too costly to fix. I'm not sure if that's the case with the old high school dormitory. The vacant building used to house many Inuit students who came from smaller communities that couldn't afford a school of their own.

The NHC was renovating a one-bedroom apartment near the town's post office, putting in new flooring, and repainting the walls white. The apartment contained a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living room, and a storage room. If I chose to accept, the apartment would be ready by the end of the week, and I would also receive several pieces of furniture. Seeing that everything in town (school, restaurants, stores, banks, etc) would be in close proximity to the apartment, I accepted the offer. If I hadn't, the search would have continued.

By lunchtime, the temperature had risen to a modest -30 meaning there would be afternoon classes. The loss of Monday morning meant I couldn't begin testing my first two Grade 9 guitar classes until Tuesday. I finally got to see & teach my second group of Grade 9 guitar classes on Wednesday & Friday. The last time I taught them was three weeks prior.

For senior English, my students and I continued studying poetic forms and reading several well known poems, such as, The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service, and The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Since high school students like to rebel, I included two poems by 20th century American poet E.E. Cummings. He was famous for writing many poems that broke all the poetry writing rules. The two I chose were Buffalo Bill's and r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r. We also looked at a burlesque poem I found on the Internet called Soldier, Rest! by Robert J. Burdette. A burlesque poem treats a serious subject as humour and in this case, the poem was making fun of war and long Russian & Turk names.

My senior musicians were assigned three new Irish tunes: The Irish Washerwoman, March of the Irish Guard, and Irish Tune From County Derry. The reason for this was because St. Patrick's Day was coming up and I thought it would nice for the students to perform in front of their friends and teachers. Even though March 17th was on a Saturday, I planned to have the performance on the 16th during the 15 minute recess.

There was no school for students on Thursday because the school board was holding a training day for teachers. A new electronic attendance system was being introduced and the plan was to have it up and running in September. The system we currently use is FileMakerPro and it feels dated. Lunchtime consisted of a potluck buffet containing many different meats and salads. Whereas the morning training classes were loud, everyone ate their food in near silence, most likely because it was so delicious.

The apartment was clean and ready to be occupied on Friday. In the early evening, I packed up all my belongings and was driven to my new home by Pascale's husband. I thanked them for letting me stay at their place for the past month and wished them all the best. I quickly unpacked my suitcases and headed to the nearby NorthMart to buy the bare necessities, such as bedding, toilet paper, shower curtain, and coat hangers. It felt nice to finally have a place to myself.

The big news at the end of the week was the departure of 40 students, travelling to Whitehorse, Yukon, to partake in the Arctic Winter Games (March 4-10). Before the students left to catch their flight, the entire school wished them well and hoped they would bring back several medals.

The AWG is an international biennial sporting event, celebrating athletics, social exchange, and northern cultures. Events include: One-foot, Two-foot, and Alaskan High Kick; Kneel Jump; One Hand Reach; Kneel Jump; Head Pull; and Sledge & Triple Jump. The first AWG was held in Yellowknife in 1970. There are nine contingents that participate: Alaska (USA), Greenland, Northern Alberta (Canada), Northwest Territories (Canada), Nunavik (Quebec, Canada), Nunavut (Canada), Sami People, Yamalo-Nenets (Russia), and Yukon (Canada).