We're Heeeee-eere!!!

Inuvik, NWT - Tuktoyaktuk, NWT 
200 km by plane in 25 minutes

Well, we did it!  We left Parry Sound, Ontario on August 12th and arrived in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories on August 26th.  We actually arrived in Inuvik on Saturday, but had to wait until Monday for a flight and then got fogged in until later today.  Whew!  We braved the hills, the prairies, the mountains, the changing of the temperatures, the Dempster Highway, and each other, and here we are.  Wow.

There is a sign at the airport that says "Welcome to Tuktoyaktuk", and we will go to it soon and take our picture beside it, but in the meantime, we are happily settling into our house, which is lovely. There are no paved roads here, and no grassed yards.  Just a lot of dirt and rocks, and, because it's been raining a lot lately, giant puddles the size of in-ground swimming pools! Most of the houses have siding on them, although a few are wood, similar to cabins at summer camp, which is the kind of place we stayed in when we lived in Summer Beaver in 2004-2005 when the boys were little.  The good news is ours does have siding.  The houses are built up on pilings so that when the ground heaves in the spring, the houses are not harmed.  They also have rather large decks on them too, as does ours.  Hmmmm....perhaps a bit of a challenge to keep clear in the winter?  We shall see. We have a good and sturdy set of stairs that lead to our deck.  One thing we forgot to bring with us and will need to buy is a couple of snow shovels.

When you enter our house, there is a rather large mud room, with room for hanging coats plus some big hooks.  I plan on putting some of our plastic shelving out there with bins for hats, mittens, and scarves, and for boots and shoes.  After you open the door, you walk into the eat-in kitchen which has laminate tiles in it.  The kitchen is much bigger than the one we had in London, which is nice, because I always felt like we were bursting out of it.  The house came with a large kitchen table and 6 chairs, so that's handy, especially while we're waiting for our stuff to arrive from London. The living room is a large rectangle, and it has a wood stove in the back corner of it.  There are two hallways leading off the living room, one toward the boys' room and the bathroom, and the other to Charlotte's room, our room, and a back, un-insulated storage room with a deep freezer. Charlotte loves her new room, and she is super excited to spread her stuff all over it, and make it her own.  The boys' are pleased with their room, too.  Greg's and my room will be lovely when we can put our own bedroom set in it.  For now, it's just empty and cold.

We turned up the heat, and started a fire tonight, but we are still cold.  It's probably around zero tonight, but tomorrow it is supposed to be as high as 16C. The thing I noticed as soon as we got off the plane, though, was the wind, which is always blowing in off the Arctic Ocean, which is not exactly warm.  For all of our friends and family in Southern Ontario who are currently under a heat advisory, we are all sleeping cuddled together in socks and sweatshirts over our pyjamas trying to get our house warm.  If the house doesn't warm up by the time Greg and I head to bed, we are going to pull everyone's mattresses to the floor and move them out in front of the wood fire and huddle together.  The house appears to be a bit warmer than it was a few hours ago when we arrived.

Greg got a brief tour of the town from Maureen Pokiak, our landlady, mother to the woman whose house we are renting, and who graciously picked us up from the airport.  She is also Chair of the Education Council here in town.  Anyway, she gave Greg a brief tour of the town and dropped him off at the nearest grocery store (there are two) and he walked home with a few groceries for supper tonight.  Typically, we had pizza, but up here it's got to be frozen pizza because there are no restaurants.  The kids were a bit disappointed when nobody banged down our door trying to meet the kids today, but by the time we arrived in town it was close to supper and it was getting cold.  I imagine there will be some kids around tomorrow.

Greg and I are going to be heading over to the school tomorrow.  I have pretty much decided that I am not interested in the Grade 7/8 position.  I think it would put too much strain on Greg's and my relationship as well as James.  I think James would be able to handle his father as his teacher just fine, but when you add me to the equation, it falls apart.  It IS a great opportunity, but I think for the benefit of my family, I will happily serve as supply teacher for the school.  I am, however, going to be filling in for the Grade 7/8 position until it is filled, hopefully soon.

In the meantime, the children will have the opportunity to enjoy the school, play out in the playground, meet friends, and get to know their community while Greg and I are preparing for the beginning of the school year.

So, here we are.  We finally made it.  A new chapter is about to begin......