Sunday, September 4, 2011

Lots to Blog About, So Little Time
























Hello all,

Its been a busy few weeks since Scott and I got to Fort Good Hope safe and sound since the Annual Teacher's Conference in Norman Wells.

In short:

Our move: all our stuff arrived and was waiting for us not far from our place. A beautiful nice woman we just met even offered her truck to us to help us move it all in. Others have not been so lucky... one of the teacher's stuff was lost, but its recently been found - in the warehouse in Hamilton, ON... it hasen't even yet left yet...

The house: Is great! Its so large for just Scott and myself. Its a three bedroom place - we are using one of the spares as a "guest room" (anyone want to visit?) and the other as our pantry. We initially had some problems getting water, but now it is delivered and pumped into the tank in the crawlspace below our house 3 times a week. Thanks to Scott, we also have phone and internet, and are working on getting a large supply of wood for our small wood stove to cut down our gas bill. I don't know what I'd do without that guy...

The School: Chief T'Selehye is absolutely beautiful. It's new as of last November and its still shining. Its fully stocked with every resource I could ever need and more - a big change from last year. I've spend a week shifting through stuff, thrying to remember where it all is. There a large sunny gym with a rock climbing wall, a library with a little "cozy bunk" for students to read (although their library is still on the small side) and a new computer lab. My classroom is one of the last down the hall in the elementary wing. It has a large window that looks onto the playground and towards the Mackenzie River. School starts Tuesday, I think I have everything pretty much laid out how it might work, but I'm sure as the monsters arrive Ill be doing some shuffling. I've got 14, maybe 15 in my class this year - a great number!

The Land: We went on a 4 day camping trip along the Mackenzie River. The staff was invited to attend this annual camp that a large majority of the FGH community sets up. Its was a 45 minutes boat ride north along the beautiful, large Mackenzie to get to the "airport strip", a long, rocky strip of shore. We had to level out and shovel off our tent sites, and we helped chop up wood from the large driftwood logs that are all over the beach. We ate food from the campfire, played alot of card games, watched some drumming and traditional Dene hand games, and also got a go a gutting fish! It was pretty chilly, but pretty fun.


The bear: I saw a black bear yesterday at the dump! He looked pretty small (we estimated about 2 years old) and was about 20 yards away (don't worry mom, we were in a truck at the time). He was looking for food on some rusted old Ford trucks... I wish I'd had my camera!

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