Happy New Year!!!

Hello and Happy New Year Dear Friends and Family!

I have taken a deliberate hiatus from this blog over the last while, and it's high time I started back reporting about my family's adventures in the North.

A New Year's Resolution of mine is to report to you on a regular basis about the good, the bad and the ugly of life in Tuk.  The thing is, there are a lot of sad realities to life up here both for us and the community as a whole, that can really affect our attitudes and our emotions, and I didn't know how to reflect those attitudes and emotions without offending the people who live and/or teach up here who read my blog.  In many ways, this blog had become a political arena, or at least I was looking at it this way.  What if people disagree with what I wrote, or are offended?  Another reality of small town life is that people talk, and that can cause huge problems!

I promised when I began writing that I would not sugar coat our life up here for you.  I hate sugar coating things...unless it's chocolate on something sweet or salty.  Sugar coating is not for blogs, though, and I was concerned that my blog was turning into a donut - although yummy on the outside, it can wreak havoc within!  With all this said and understood.....I stopped writing.  I made a few half-hearted attempts at entries for you.  I have an entry that is all about our house - but it sounded too fake, and too 'roses and sunshine' compared to what we were facing at the time, so I didn't publish it.  In many ways, I felt like a group of women in Victorian times who were uncomfortable talking about a particular subject so they blathered on at length about the weather.  Well, for me, it was all about how dark or cold it is and/or comments about pictures of our house or about town.  You probably would have enjoyed them, but as an author, I felt fake when the issues were brimming at the surface or overflowing all around us, and I was scared to say anything about it for fear of repercussion.

Well, that stops.  Now.  From now on, I am going to speak about what we are experiencing as a family - the good, of which there is lots, the bad, of which there is an equal amount, and the ugly, which happens from time to time.  It is my hope that the people who know and understand Tuk will be professional and understanding that these are my observations as they affect myself and my family, and they are in no way, shape or form meant to offend anyone.  I would also hope that if anybody has a problem with any comments I make, that they would come to me in a calm and professional manner to discuss them.  As I have in the past,  I do not name names in most circumstances, and I do not post pics or name names of kids in the classroom for privacy and protection of the students.  We may live north of the Arctic Circle, but it's a global world we live in folks, and the internet is everywhere.

That being said, here is a quick update of life up here thus far......

When we left Tuk, the kids had just received their report cards and we had some great parent teacher interviews with our kids' teachers.  Up here, our kids are functioning way above what is considered grade level in almost all their subjects.  In fact, Patrick and Charlotte often complain that they are bored.  This issue has been dealt with and the kids are getting more challenging work in order to feel more motivated to attend school, which was becoming a problem for our children, something that had never happened before.  Since Greg teaches James some of his subjects, he has already been modifying expectations to meet James' ability level and so has the other teacher who is involved with James on a daily basis.  This has made the kids feel much better, as it also has us as parents.

Patrick was being bullied because of his speech issue.  Sadly, bullying is everywhere, but this is the first time Patrick has ever experienced this sort of thing, since the kids who were in his previous classes at St. Thomas More in London knew about his speech issues and were nothing but kind to him, and accepting of the fact that it takes him a little longer to say what he wants to, but that it will be worthwhile to hear once it comes out.  This was definitely not the case here, and Patrick reacted to this constant harassment by retreating into his own little world in the form of what ever book he was currently reading.  He brought his book with him everywhere, and when he was stressed or upset about a situation, he pulled out his book and read, blocking out everything (and everyone) around him.  I have to admit, I admire Patrick for being able to do this, but as parents we had to step up and work with the other adults to ensure that school, and as far as possible, the community, is a safe place for our son.  This is not an easy feat, considering that as soon as his teacher turns her back on the class for a nanosecond, those kids are on Patrick.  We have been able to work with several people and have developed some great strategies which are Patrick approved that are going to help keep him out of his classroom as much as possible and doing work that is appropriate and challenging to him.

Our house was freezing cold due to the floor being torn up after the Great Flood, and at least one window in the living room which desperately needed to be sealed.  I am happy to report that our house has been all fixed up and we are snug and cozy, which is great because it's going to be a long and cold winter!

Greg had spent the autumn months really struggling with settling back into teaching as well as having a spirited bunch of students.  Greg feels as though he has his gotten his groove back and that slowly, the students are coming around.  The intermediate grades are difficult years for both the students and the adults around them, so one just has to go with the flow, celebrating the good days but understanding that one good day, nor two or three or four, does not a trend make!

I felt the same way when I was teaching these students at the beginning of the year.  It's not just the kids up here, thankfully.  This is a universal thing.  Students up here are also affected by drugs, alcohol, abuse, peer pressure, tobacco, bullying, and all the other aspects of adolescent life.  Sometimes it can be worse for them because the community is so small.  People I have talked to in the South laugh and ask how there could possibly be drugs so far in the north, but, just like the internet, drugs are everywhere.  So are abusive parents who are affected by alcohol, drugs and who are abused themselves.

As for me, well, I am dealing with the day-to-day pain of a torn meniscus, which makes walking, standing and mobility difficult.  Hopefully, I will be seeing an orthopedic surgeon in Yellowknife fairly soon and will be able to have surgery.  I am gaining an immeasurable amount of experience substitute teaching, which is helping me to gain both on a professional and personal level.

So....these are some of the things with which we have been grappling this fall, and this is only the mild version.  I don't feel like going too deep because right now because I am concentrating on the positive, knowing that we have tried our best to work out some new strategies and ideas to make life up here for ALL of us a better and happier one.

It wasn't difficult for Greg and I to return to the darkness in Tuktoyaktuk after the break, because we knew what we were going back to.  It is pretty scary when you leave the comfort of what you know and love to venture off into the Great Unknown, especially when the little of what you were led to believe was reality up here was, in fact NOT.  However, we forgive those people and are more prepared now to focus on what our positions are up here as teachers, colleagues, parents, and followers of God.