You’re probably wondering where in the world Iqaluit is.  Grab a map of Canada and locate Hudson’s Bay.  Go to the very very top of the bay and then look just east and still up and you’ll find Baffin Island.  Iqaluit is at latitude 63° 45′ North and just to let you know how far north that is the Arctic Circle is at  66° 33′ .  We are well above the tree line here; the tallest growing plant is about a foot high.  It is absolutely gorgeous in an Arctic sort of way.  When we sit down to dinner I’m looking out a window, gazing at Frobisher Bay (Iqaluit is at the head of the bay) and the beautiful, rolling tundra.  It’s 10 p.m. right now and if it wasn’t raining out and only 6 degrees I could read outside.  There’s an official sunset time of 10:32 but it doesn’t mean much because the light hardly changes.  Sunrise, incidentally, is at 2:45 a.m., not that sunrise makes much difference either.  The hardest thing about this is that we use the changing light as a trigger for so many things, like getting little children to go to bed.  Even with makeshift blackout blinds (garbage bags over the windows) it’s really hard to make this house … which is lovely and mostly windows … dark.  Most confusing is when I wake up in the middle of the night and not only am I discombobulated by being in a strange room but I’m totally confused by the light which makes it impossible to know the time. Just because I’m still – and always will be – a teacher, here’s some more interesting information about Iqaluit. 

 An Englishman, Martin Frobisher, sailed into what was to become Frobisher Bay in 1576, thinking that he’d found a route to China.  In 1861 an American by the name of Charles Francis Hall, camped at the Sylvia Grinnel River and began exploring the waterways.  During World War II, the US established a weather/radio station at the site, code-named “Crystal Two”, and then built an airstrip in 1942-43 as part of the Crimson Route between California and the United Kingdom. Through this airport passed hundreds of aircraft destined for the Allies via Greenland and Iceland. Frobisher Bay Air Force Base declined with the end of World War II. Soon, however, the Cold War (for those of you old enough to remember the great red menace) stimulated construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, to defend North America from Soviet nuclear bomber attack. DEW Line radar sites stretched from the Alaska-Yukon border across Northern Canada and into Greenland. Frobisher Bay again became an important staging point, as the eastern DEW Line air base for building supplies flown north by the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) of the US Air Force (USAF), supported by a huge civilian fleet. At one time Frobisher Bay saw 300 aircraft movements a day. Once the DEW Line opened in 1957 the airlift subsided and a second hiatus visited Frobisher Bay.   Frobisher Bay became something of a backwater, though it still supported  Strategic Air Command air refuelling operations.  When the USAF closed its base in 1963, Iqaluit Airport continued as a commercial airport.

In1963 Frobisher Bay (population 900) was recognized as a settlement.  On April 1, 1999 the Territory of Nunavut officially came into being, and Iqaluit (now officially given an Inuit name which means “place of many fish” was designated as the capital.  The territory has a total population of 31,113 and covers an area of 1.994 million square kilometres – 20% of the area of Canada as a whole.   The average temperature here in February is -26.8 degrees; in July that rises to an average of +7.7 degrees.   That said, I’m very happy to report that I’m here during a veritable heat wave; it will hit 13 degrees Celcius tomorrow and be 16C by the weekend; that’s 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  Of course this afternoon when Noam, Freida and I met Nili outside the hospital at 5 p.m. when she finished work we could see our breath in the crispy, cold air, and since the weather forecast can change so quickly here I’m not counting on taking on summer clothes quite yet.

Today was my third day here.  I arrived on Sunday at about 1 p.m. and Nili, Noam and Freida had hiked in from Apex (a town about 5 km out of Iqaluit where we’re staying) to meet me.  After dropping my bags at the house and having a little lunch we took a taxi to Sylvia Grinnel Territorial Park where we hiked on the tundra for an hour or two.  Yesterday was my first day taking care of the kids while Nili went to the hospital to work and it was pouring rain and very cold most of the day; indeed the rain looked a lot more like snow to me than rain.  Feeling a little cabin-bound yesterday we were glad to wake to find no rainfall this morning and so, with Freida on my back, Noam and I explored along the cost of the bay – that’s him in the photo.  Most amazing was the building we saw that had a sign saying Hudson’s Bay Company Incorporated 1670 over the door, indicating when the Hudson Bay Company had first set up camp in this area although the current building was constructed around 1949 to take advantage of the large number of military folks here manning the DEW line and working with NORAD.  Exhausted from that little hike (an hour with a 20-pound baby on my back is hard for me although Nili seems to manage it quite easily … ah youth!) we retreated to play in the house for a while.  After lunch we took a taxi into town which is a whole other kind of adventure.  Taxi rides here are $6 per adult no matter where you’re going.  Taxis pick up multiple riders along the way, each paying the same fare.  Not surprising then that the young woman driving our cab (who comes from Mont Tremblant in Quebec) spends her summers here driving a cab and winters in Playa Del Carmen since a 10 minute ride will generally yield the cab driver close to $25.  We visited the Nunavut Legislature (there’s my work background coming around again; first place I visited was the government offices.  Argh!!) and then went to the NorthMart to do some grocery shopping.

I remember when I was in the Yukon Territory about 16 years ago that a tomato cost $3 as did a single apple.  Nevertheless, I was dumbfounded when the price of a box of Kleenex was $4.99 and a can of tomato sauce was nearly $8.  Almost anything you could want to buy was in the NorthMart; everything from groceries to propane tanks for BBQs (refilling the tank will cost $70).  With our few purchases (costing almost $50) in tow we left the NorthMart to walk to the Visitor Information Centre which had some great displays as well as a lot of films they’d put on for you about the history of this area and the people who live here.  We sat and watched a film about seal hunting (and even though I am an animal rights girl I think it’s just fine for the Inuit to live their traditional lifestyle of hunting – including seal hunting - and fishing) which focused on a traditional Inuit family travelling in the winter by dog sled (yup, that is really how they get around here in the winter … that or on a snowmobile which isn’t nearly as safe since dogs can sense – and stay away from – thin ice where a snowmobile just goes where it’s pointed).  It was raining when we left the Centre to visit the local museum (right next door) and that 30 yard walk was really really cold.  We stayed in the museum long enough to dry out and then hiked across town to the hospital to meet Nili.  After being cooped up in the hospital all day (did I mention that she’s here doing a 4-week Family Medicine residency rotation?) she really wanted to get some exercise so we all walked back to Apex. 

 Just as we were nearing home the mosquitoes started swarming.  Now you might think that the place you’d find the highest concentration of mosquitoes would be in a hot, tropical jungle or festering swamp.  Wrong!   There are a  number of reasons why this area is paradise for mosquitoes.  Much of the Arctic is quite flat. When the snow and ice melts in the summer months, the water has nowhere to flow to. Not only that, but the permafrost under the soil keeps the water from sinking into the earth. The result? Lots of wetlands – pools of shallow still water – prime breeding areas for mosquitoes.  Add to that the almost constant sunlight that in mid-summer can raise the temperature dramatically – turning still pools of water into instant “incubators”.  The pools of still, warm water are also rich with organic material – a plentiful food supply for hungry larvae.  It isn’t just that there are so many mosquitoes; they are also gigantic up here with so much to eat … mostly me it seemed today!  My friend Jan had warned me many years ago when we headed to the Yukon that the mosquitoes up north were so big they sometimes mated with the ducks … and it’s no different here.  Carefully shaking off the mosquitoes we managed to get into the house which is cleverly constructed so that you enter an outer door which leads to a small vestibule.  You close the outer door and kill any mosquitoes that might have followed you in before you unlock door #2 which leads to a larger vestibule where you can hang your coat and leave your boots.  Only then – having checked once again for stray mosquitoes – do you open the 3rd door which actually leads into the house.   

I won’t bore you with more details of how I’m spending my days.  Suffice it to say that this is the “blessing” of being retired.  If I was still working I couldn’t have eagerly said “yes” when Nili asked if I’d come up here to help with the kids for a week.  Having the kids to myself all day is amazing … and exhausting.  On Friday Andy – my son-in-law – will be arriving with Art (whose 10th birthday we’ll be celebrating here on Saturday, July 17th).  It’s always been hard on me having my grandchildren so far away – three in Ottawa (a 5-hour drive from Toronto) and a fourth on Vancouver Island (a 5-hour flight from Toronto).  My heart has ached that my grandchildren won’t know me the way I wish they could.  Retirement has changed that.  Retirement has let me know my grandchildren and, more important, let them really know me.  I’m not a stranger to them; Freida grins and runs to me when she sees me, happily calling out “Babu” (her version for now of Baubie) as she snuggles into my arms.  I am so grateful for being able to spend more time with them … they fill my heart and spirit with such joyfulness.

I’m also feeling like I should be celebrating a job well done.  What am I referring to?  By the early 90’s I had accomplished one of my goals in life which was to visit all of the provinces and territories in Canada.  The eastern three fifths of the NWT (Northwest Territories …. the other territory is the Yukon Territory) became Nunavut in 1999 and I found myself foiled again; now my success in meeting my goal was questionable.  Since I’ve come here now I can once again sleep easy.  That said, seeing the Northern Lights is still on my “do it before you die” list and since the best time for that is late in the autumn I just might have to return here in November for a couple of days.

Well, it’s 11 o’clock now and I am utterly exhausted. No wonder people have babies when they’re younger than me.  Trying to keep up with these two wonderful children, as much fun as it is, is leaving me feeling a little physically battered.   Better pretend that it’s dark out and get some sleep because I still have three more days of taking care of them before Andy arrives.  If only retirement came when we were younger!  Unnukkut (oon-oo-koot) goodnight.