Cruel Joke?

Hey Everyone

As I mentioned in an earlier post,two other teachers here at the school and their spouses plus myself purchased a ticket for Kenn Borek in order to leave earlier and also to guarantee that we would be able to begin our trek east for Christmas. I also mentioned the rationale behind it was the fact the First Air is not very reliable and Kenn Borek is very reliable. The only downside flying with Kenn Borek is the very minimal baggage they allow you to fly with. First Air cancels or delays flights it seems on their whim. The only way Kenn Borek does not get in is if there is a blizzard. Well everyone I just checked the Environment Canada's weather and they are now calling for a blizzard today and into the night. I hope it is either a cruel joke on the part of one of their meteorologists part or someone hacked into the website and defaced it with a "Blizzard Warning", when it fact it is going to be sunny cold and clear.

Stay tuned

Blake

The Countdown is On

Hi Everyone

The countdown is now on. In 170 hrs or so (give or take a few minutes) we should be winging our way south from Iqaluit to Ottawa. Five of us are so determined that we have got 2 tickets to get out of Cape Dorset, one on Kenn Borek for Thursday night and one for First Air Friday morning. I bought my First Air ticket way back in early September with the NTA contract number and since we are teaching until Thursday afternoon it was not leaving us much wiggle room as far as connections go. I had been thinking about the scenario for a few weeks as to what would happen if First Air cancelled coming into Cape Dorset because of weather. Would we get out in time to catch a connection to Ottawa? Would the flights be all full going to Moncton from Ottawa? Since that time other things have popped up. Would First Air have mechanical problems? Would they have pilots for the planes? Would the weather be too nice to fly? I think you get the picture. They seem to arbitrarily cancel flights whenever they feel like it. The flight due in last Friday a.m. did not get in till sometime around 5:00 pm Monday and then the straw that broke the camels back was the plane that was supposed to leave yesterday morning at 10:30 or so did not finally leave until 4:00 p.m. The situation for one of the staffs wives is that instead of getting into Newfoundland sometime today, she is not going to arrive until sometime early Tuesday morning. That, my friends, is one honkin pile of Christmas vacation used up sitting in airports and motels. That is the biggest inconvenience. Paying an extra $285 for a plane ticket and a motel room for the night in Iqaluit is a small price in order to get home on at the time planned. Besides, since I booked with the contract number they give us a refund if we cancel at least 2 hours before the flight. The first thing I will do when I get in to Iqaluit on Thurday night is go to the First Air desk and cancel the Cape Dorset to Iqaluit portion for Friday a.m.I am not going to get home any earlier but unless there is some huge weather related delay (which I certainly understand can happen)I will be getting home before Christmas. If you look on the Air Canada website and check flights you will see that from December 22nd to December 25th is sold out going to Newfoundland. The earliest you would get home is Boxing Day.

Have a great holiday everyone.

Blake

A Whirlwind Couple of Weeks

Wow Everyone

Where has the time gone? Has it ever been a busy bunch of weeks. So much has gone on and I have been to Iqaluit so often that the staff is starting to call me a hobby teacher. On the 23rd and 24th of November I attended a Hockey Canada coaching clinic in Iqaluit.It was very enjoyable and I learned a great deal. It has been a long time since I attended one of these and the gentleman, Rug Pritchard, that out it on really knew his stuff. The ODHA is very lucky to have someone like him. Because of the flight schedule here in Cape Dorset, it was necessary take 2 days off from school (Friday and Monday). The other big news from that weekend was one of our students won his division in Territorial table tennis and is now going to attend the Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife in March. Because the coaching clinic wasn't beginning until around 5:00 pm we roamed around Iqaluit and I had an opportunity to visit the Legislature where we all received some beautiful caps from our MLA's executive assistant Theresa Hughes. She was very accommodating and allowed us to take the nickel tour of the legislature even though it was in the process of getting ready for a some kind of inquiry and it were janitors busy cleaning it. If you are ever in Iqaluit this is a must see place as the artisan work is something to behold.
No sooner had I returned to work on Tuesday the 27th than I was informed the hamlet wanted me to return to Iqaluit for a Hockey Canada officials clinic. This took place on December 1st but again because of flight schedules I had to take Friday the 30th and December 3rd off. The course allowed me to retain my level 1 Hockey officials certification. When I returned to Cape Dorset on Monday evening there was rumour of a storm brewing and we might be in for some sort of school cancellation Tuesday. The prognosticators were not wrong and even there was school in the afternoon we had early dismissal because of a staff meeting so I didn't even get to do my regular Tuesday duty. It was a real bonus because I have never had school ever canceled on a day I had supervision duty. To sum it up, a four day work week, then a three day work week, and then a three and a half day work week. I have no idea how I am going to get this week in having to work 5 days. But I am a big boy and will suck it up. We served the students breakfast this past Friday morning. Thanks to the ladies for doing the cooking and making everything perfect. On Friday evening we showed a movie at the school for our students. We had between 30 and 40 there. It was a big screen experience as we set the VCR up to run through the projector. Chris and Clyde did an awesome job on this. When you came into the school the smell of popcorn was floating in the air. We also had drinks, rice crispie squares. and cake. Thanks also to Ed, Cecil, Jean, Leona, Betty, and Donna. When we get back after Christmas we are going to try and do something like this every couple of weeks. We even had kids from the elementary school beating on the doors to get in but because it was a strictly Peter Pitseolak School event we didn't let them in. Maybe the staff at Sam Pudlat School will follow our lead and do something like this for their students. We had kids there that I knew would be there but there were a lot of kids at it that I never expected would show up. It was really nice to see because there is just not a lot of things for them to do especially now when it is so cold and dark for so many hours of the day. This Friday we have our Student Christmas Dinner, which is always a hit, and on Monday the 17th we have the Santa Claus parade and at 7:00 pm the annual Christmas concert. Clyde and I out our classes together and we are having a hard time coming up with a couple of songs but I am sure it will all come together.
Anyway folks thats all for now.
Along with this post are some pictures I took over the weekend.
In case I don't get a chance to post anything before I go home for the holiday, I want to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR A JOYOUS AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

Cheers

Blake