Goose Break Wrap Up

So, just a couple more days and Goose Break will be over and it's back to school. I have to admit that for the most part I was incredibly lazy throughout the entire two weeks. We went for a few walks, but for the most part I owe the passing of time to my new friends Netflix and Kindle (thanks for the kindle Mom!). It has been like a ghost town up until about yesterday; people are starting to return from their various hunting destinations. You look up and there's yet another helicopter bringing people back from wherever.

One of the teachers that lives near us is very interested in Native culture and had made her own simple yet very interesting version of a dream catcher that she had hanging up in her house, so I thought I'd give it a try what with all the free time I've got at the moment. All of the sticks, rocks and feathers (the feathers are goose feathers, which I found in a spot where it looks like a few geese were plucked) are gathered from around the lake.

Of course these are not really what dream catchers are supposed to look like, I was just playing around, so they're more just loosely related to and somewhat looking like dream catchers. I would really like to do some with the students; They're pretty simple to make and the materials are cheap! It's just too bad the kids can't go out and gather the materials on their own. Not that they would want to do that anyhow...

It's been relatively warm these last couple of weeks, but there's still ice out there. In fact, just this past Tuesday we were walking around by the lake and people were still snowmobiling out there. Dangerous stuff! We went for a long walk along the coast one day and saw a few little flocks of geese flying overhead, but they were headed straight for a goose blind in the distance, so now a few of them are probably in someone's freezer.

A Tour of Town!

So, over the long weekend we went for a nice walk around the town. First off, the Cop Shop. All of the cruisers are big blinged out SUV's, which I find pretty entertaining. Although from what I hear the police are generally not all that reliable. Although Sunday morning I was at the grocery store and a man collapsed on the road and the police came very quickly (The police station was less than a block from where the man fell, but still!).

This is just an example of some Cree writing. It's so very confusing; everyone speaks it, but very few of the people can actually read and write Cree. There are so many symbols and some of them are just turned on a different angle and mean something else.... confusing!

Axep, the local grocery store. The only grocery store. Most people living here drive the 45 minutes to Chibougamau to do their grocery shopping and also just to get out of town! It has all the necessities though, and when you consider the gas money spent is about the same price as Chibougamau.

The towns "airport" for the moment. This plane can be heard flying in and out of town a few times a day as Goose Break approaches. Many people have left town already to pursue Geese. Not sure when they decide to switch their skis to flotation devices. The ice is still safe to walk on, but there are lots of puddles on top of the snow and ice that look pretty sketchy to me!







Whenever we go out to the lake random dogs will come up to us wanting food and attention. This friendly guy is a little freaky looking though.

Goose decoys! On the section of the lake that turns into a river that never freezes (not sure how it works, but the water is VERY deep) there are a few goose decoys set up next to blinds for when the actual LIVE geese arrive.

It was a beautiful day for a walk, I must say. The water is dark, but looks nice and clean and I'm looking forward to going swimming! It just needs to stop snowing first, which is what's happening outside right now. This coming weekend is when Goose Break officially begins, and I'm sure very few people will be showing up for work. Not sure what we'll be doing; probably just relaxing and exploring. It would be interesting to go on a goose hunt somewhere, but we shall see.

Northern Update!

I've been very lazy in the last little while! Forgive my negligence; I wish I had a decent excuse, but I've got nothing!

Things are starting to warm up (although it's been snowing in the last couple of days), but there's still plenty of snow left. The roads are slowly melting to reveal pavement (lots of potholes!) and gravel and all of the snow is becoming dirty looking, as it does in the spring time. The lake is still walkable though, so on this past Sunday afternoon after going to the teepee we went for a walk on one of the MANY islands around the town, but got a few nice views of the town. This first picture's just some more teepee goodness. Someone brought some bacon to cook over the fire; pure genius!

If you look past the town and into the distance (in the above photo), that is the section of the lake that we would walk on to go to Murray's Lodge, so we're on the opposite side of town.

This one's just from a slightly different angle, but you can see better the section of the lake that apparently never quite freezes over. Must be some sort of spring that keeps the water circulating? Geologist I most certainly am not! We were walking around in the burned out section of the trees again and trying to figure out how long ago the fire was. There are some short trees and brush growing, but it seems to be a really rocky area, so it's hard to say how long it's been.

School's going as well as can be expected. The last few days I've been feeling like the students and I have reached some sort of understanding, but already I know from experience that the moment I start to feel comfortable I'll get a couple new students and have to start all over again!! Today we watched "The Outsiders" (classic Patrick Swayze!) to celebrate getting through the book together in class, which was-- to put it nicely-- a battle. I think I heard every complaint and lie under the sun while slogging through this book. My students are never willing to do homework because they're "too busy" but then five minutes later they'll tell me how terribly boring Reception Centre is, and how they have nothing to do. Hmmmmm...

At this point I also need to figure out what I'll be doing with myself... stay here and teach if they offer it? Try and find a job somewhere back in Ontario? I'll think about it another time... It hurts my head!

The House!

Mother, as requested, a couple pictures of the house. I only took pictures of our main living areas, but it's a nice place. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen/living etc. Incidently a very nice alarm system that we have no idea how to work or what the code to disarm it could possibly be! One morning I was cooking bacon and stupidly trying to do the dishes at the same time so I of course set the fire alarm off! Then next was our house alarm. About ten minutes later a couple of municipal/fire vehicles showed up to make sure everything was okay.

My laptop near the couch for entertainment purposes! We watch all movies on that little thing!

And here's our house from the outside! Pretty simple; in fact, there are many houses in the area that look EXACTLY like this one! It's sort of like little townhouse complexes in the middle of nowhere. King of strange when you think about it, but it works. We also have a back yard that I have yet to check out because there's a lot of snow out there. You see that big pile in our front yard there? That's nothing, in fact, last week people we hauling huge piles of snow out of yards and filling big trucks to take it all away. So that pile is substantially smaller than it was. Not sure how it all works, but the snow-plow-men clean out every driveway in town. How sweet is that??

All of the roads in town are covered with a 6" layer of ice that is starting to melt now as the weather gets a little warmer. It's made walking home from work a bit of a mess, but other than that I'm looking forward to seeing everything in the summer. March is already almost over! Crazy!

Random Walking Around

This morning the alarm clock went off at 8am so that we could have plenty of time to get stuff together before going to Murray's Lodge, but it just wasn't happening. The last few days I've been feeling sick; a few of my students have had colds and kindly passed on the fun. So instead we slept in and went for a shorter walk on one of the trails near our house. Another beautiful sunny day, and nice and warm! Only about -8, so almost summer-like!

This is sort of a freaky picture, but I like it because the shadows look like they're blurred and moving. I also enjoy shooting directly at the sun (which is bad because it can cause damage to the camera's lens apparently...) but I get lots of interesting reflections and colours with them.


This is another favourite; he looks like he's about to fall over! In other news, things are still going interestingly as ever! Endless drama between students and trying to make them learn in between. I have a new student who has been EXTRA difficult and I was feeling very uncharitable towards her until her worker told me what had been going on in her life and I had to realize that the things she says to me are usually due to her frustrations with other things beyond the classroom. So I'm trying to get better at not taking things personally because these kids are acting out for all sorts of reasons beyond my comprehension.

My students are always telling me how boring I am because I don't have a t.v. They're always asking me if I've heard of this singer or that commercial and I always have to say no! It has made me realize how out of touch with popular culture I am (and have been for years now!). Haven't had cable since before University (well, except in Korea, but all for one channel were in Korean...), and I can't say that I miss it. I still see the stuff I want to see, I just find myself hating 95% of what is on t.v. nowadays.

Teepee (Tipi? Tepee?) Goodness

This past weekend was all about the socializing. Friday and Saturday evening we went to a neighbours (also teachers here in town) house for drinks and whatnot. On Friday evening I saw a teacher that I'd glimpsed at a few of the meetings and thought to myself "I KNOW that girl" but couldn't place it until I saw her up close. She also just happened to be in my orientation group when I moved to Korea! What are the odds of something like that? Bizarre!

Anyhow, on Sunday morning we were invited along for a trip to "the teepee". A couple of the teachers have built their own teepee in the middle of nowhere and go there every Sunday for hiking and bannock cooking purposes! Very awesome! The teepee is on Reserve land, so they went to the Band Council and asked for the space and they said yes; this struck me as a very excellent idea, and awesome of the band council to let people use the space. It's literally in the middle of nowhere and right on the bigger portion of the lake which I haven't seen yet. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

The bannock was awesome; a few of the teachers had made different kinds, so we went for the cinnamon raison variety of course! I can't explain it, but everything tastes better outside, cooked on a fire.


We also made a stop at what appeared to be a gravel pit (a short hike from the teepee) and a few people slid down the big hill to the bottom of the pit. Very entertaining stuff, but I declined because I was just wearing my jeans and didn't want to freeze in cold wet pants.

Another beautiful day! It was also relatively warm; maybe around -10 or -15??

Students were driving me crazy today; they're getting comfortable with me and therefore acting like little demons and trying to get away with whatever they can. Sleep will make things better.

Clumsy Cathy As Usual

This post is a little late entirely due to my laziness, but definitely warrants a bloggin' I should think. Sunday afternoon, after Saturday's walk to Murrays Lodge, we decided we hadn't had enough I guess and went for a long walk in the woods that are in view when we walk outside the house. We're also situated on the hill above the lake, so you can see it from our house even though it's about a 10 minute walk to the water. Anyhow, we followed a random snowmobile track which led to a long and winding path through the woods. It was a beautiful, clear sunny day so this made for good photo taking opportunities as well!

We found a random fire pit along the trail that we stopped to check out. It's kind of funny to see a fire built on what is basically water! As the fire burns it's also melting the snow, so it all ended up a couple feet below where it started. I wonder how hard it is to keep a fire like that going?

Funny Story: As we were walking along we heard the sound of an approaching snowmobile. He was further ahead because I'd stopped to take some photos. I stepped off the main snowmobile track to make way for the incoming ski-doer and sunk in to just below my knees. This was no problem. As the snowmobiler passed I stepped back again into the "fresh" snow by accident and was immediately in over my waist and unable to get up! I started laughing and yelling "Heeeeellllppp! I'm stuck! It's cold!!" His camera was up and it took him a while to react or say anything (and come to my aid!!!) so I realized he'd been filming the whole thing! Hahahaha... the footage is priceless. Another classic Cathy moment, but on film this time so I can be reminded of my gracefulness! Lesson learned: do not step off the trails because the snow can be very deep!

The Lodge Again

The second walk to Murray's Lodge and back was much more pleasant this time around. When we walked over the lake there were lots of snowmoblie trails which meant the snow had been packed down nicely. This made things considerably more pleasant; or first walk took about 2.5 hours, while this time it was well under 2! And a lot less pain involved.

Drama!

Monday and Tuesday were meant to be PED days (the Ontario equivalent of a PA Day). Monday we were in school just doing independant work, and Tuesday all of the teachers were meeting at the "complex" (also known as the towns ultra-fancy arena!) at 9am. So we dutifully show up before nine, but there are very few teachers hanging around, which is no big deal, so we sit on a bench to wait. Eventually someone tells us that the meetings are postponed until 10am; so we decide to wait it out rather than walk back home and just come right back again.



Then the principal arrives and tells us that the meetings will be cancelled due to an "incident" in the community. Someone living right across the road from the public school (and the public school is right beside the highschool) was wandering the neighbourhood in the middle of the night very drunk. My knowlege of the situation is very fuzzy, because we weren't really told the full story (since cops can't disclose that sort of thing), but from what I know, a neighbour saw this person and called the cops because the inebriated gentleman apparently owned quite a few guns. Not that gun ownership is such a strange thing here; there are many hunters and as far as I know native people living on the reserve don't have to worry about firearm permits or any such thing. So the police shut down the entire area, residents were evacuated in the middle of the night and the man didn't come out of his house until after 1pm the next day.



So the principal tells us to go home for the day on Tuesday, since all the roads near the school are blocked off by police and the school is of course closed anyhow. Crazy stuff! So we go home, relax and just stay away from the area.



Wednesday the school and several School Board members held a meeting to discuss everything; how everyone was feeling, their concerns and questions etc. There were many upset teachers (many of them probably living in that area that got knocks on their doors at 2am), so the meeting went on for a while. Towards the end it wasn't even really about the incident at all, but just concerns in general about the community and handling students. Being so new, I kind of felt removed from the situation. Yes, it happened in the town in which I now live, but I feel like that sort of thing can happen absolutely anywhere so I'm not going to worry about it too much. Life in general is dangerous and a big chaotic mess, isn't it?

Today (Thursday) I was back in school as per usual. All of the sudden I've gone from 3 students (bliss! heaven!) to 8 (booo! hellish!!) and they're all united in their efforts to make my life difficult, but that's alright.

Murray's Lodge

So Saturday morning we met up with another teacher from the highschool named Galina who would show us how to find our way to Murray's Lodge which is about 10km out of town. We had decided to do the walk over the lake rather than using the road because it is supposed to be a couple kilometres less. But it had snowed the night before and we don't have snowshoes (yet! I really want to get a pair soon...), so we were sinking in with every step! Galina was on cross country skis, so she was soon way ahead of us and we were just following her tracks and snowmobile trails. It was only about -20, so soon I was sweating in my big coat. It's a lot more work walking in snow!! But it was beautiful and we stopped often to take photos along the way.

One really nice thing about Mistissini is that there are these big friendly dogs EVERYWHERE and they'll run up to you to be pet and beg for food. Whenever I walk to work there are just random dogs roaming the streets, following kids around, frolicking. Many of them are outside dogs from the looks of it as well, so these are some tough animals since tonight for example it's supposed to go down to around -40. Anyhow, as we were walking we were joined by a pack of dogs who ran out to us to check out what we were doing.




I have many pictures like this of him waiting for me to catch up! This walk made me realize that I'm very out of shape! But I love the picture because you can get an idea of how big the lake is; and we were only on a tiny little portion of it. We left our house at about 9am and over 7km later arrived at the Lodge in time for lunch. Every Saturday they serve a free meal to whoever cares to show up, consisting of traditional Cree dishes. We ate Ptarmigan (a partridge-like bird), Caribou stew, and bannock. It was all really good! Although I was starving by the time we got there, so I would have been loving whatever they chose to serve! I'm looking forward to trying goose though, my students tell me it's very delicious.



The lodge itself is a pretty simple building. There is a giant stove in the centre of it that was quite a contrast to the temperature outside. There was a bit of a crowd there, along with quite a few teachers from the highschool which was nice. I'm pretty isolated working where I am, so it was nice to get out and talk to people. After lunch we walked back along the road, so in all we walked around 17km, give or take. The walk back was longer but much easier because we were walking along the paved shoulder so the snow was packed down and infinitely easier in the walking department.

Then in the evening we went to a teachers house for a "guitar night" which was fun. I was the only novice there though, so I was just a spectator, but it was still lovely. I need to practice!

School and Such

People keep giving me a sympathetic look whenever I tell them I work at the Centre. I'm working in a facility for young offenders, so yeah, my students aren't the most willing to work or even generally going to listen to a word I say. Regardless, I've really been enjoying it; I know I'm not the greatest teacher since I'm not qualified and so in a way I'm sort of learning along with the students. But every now and then I'll have a lesson where one of the students shows even a tiny bit of interest and it all feels worthwhile. It's all about those tiny moments! My most difficult student right now is The Charmer (no names since these are young offenders...). She draws swastikas on everything, she regularly steps into my path to try to intimidate me, she swears at me, I'll give her a hand-out and she will just slide it right onto the floor and will often act like being alive is just a monumental task. Today one of my other students wanted to learn how to draw faces and I showed them how to split up the face and draw a grid etc. to get proportions and placement correct, and suddenly The Charmer was participating and talking and just being a regular kid! It was awesome.

Other than that, things are just generally good. Still enjoying it here and trying to find things. Some of the buildings in town are very mysterious; they're commercial looking buildings but sometimes there's just no sign out front to tell you what it is! One small problem; there is ONE bank in the entire village and it's Desjardin. I have CIBC and can't make deposits at Desjardins, and the school paid me with a check instead of direct deposit for whatever reason. Tis a small town indeed! The closest CIBC is in Chibougamau which is over an hours drive and I have no mode of transportation. But that's alright; if that's the biggest obstacle here, I can handle it.

The last couple days have been unseasonably warm; today it was above freezing and was even raining as I walked back to work after lunch. But it's supposed to go back down to around -20 again tomorrow in time for our planned walk to Murray's Lodge, which is about 10km outside of town. Apparently many go to the lodge every weekend for traditional Cree craft-making and foods, so we've been wanting to check it out! Hoping to try some goose and beaver meat!