Gone Fishing

For those of you following along at home, September 17 was our first snowfall. At mid-morning with another day of heavy rain, it quickly turned into snow. Since the ground had yet to freeze, no snow accumulated, but it was still exciting all the same. Everyone was pretty nonchalant about it, since this is normal to them. Claire and I were amazed and quickly told them that at home we wouldn't have snow for quite some time still.

Every Friday afternoon, one grade spends time in a cultural program. Last week, Claire and the grade 9s made bead bracelets. This week it was my turn with the grade 8s. We went to the rapids/dam and spent an hour and a half fishing. I kept thinking to myself that this has to be one of the greatest experiences in my lifetime. Taking an afternoon to fish, while still considered part of the curriculum. While at fishing, the snow continued as we survived a small, quick blizzard. The weather then turned again, as hail replaced the snow. All the while the students continued to have fun.

Unfortunately I didn't catch a fish, as I had to supervise the students. I had spent the longest time at one spot casting in all directions. After half an hour I moved along the shore. Vicky's (the Native Language teacher) husband came along to help. After I moved, he took my spot and caught a walleye on his next cast. Altogether there were around 5 fish caught, a mixture of walleye and pickerel.

This is a picture of the grade 8 class. As you might notice, most of them are soaked from head to toe.

A picture of the spot where I spent the most time fishing.

Another interesting observation was the thickness of the bush. Trees are no large than 5 inches in diameter and have very small branches. This allows for many trees to grow in the same area, which creates a thick bush. You cannot walk through the woods by making your own trail. As well, the ground is covered in moss.

This is the rapids where we fished. It creates quite the current.

This is a view standing beside the rapids.

Standing beside the rapids.

After fishing we went back to the school and played games with the students. I played one student battleship, but lost miserably. Then we had Indian tacos. The students had been assigned different food items to bring. A picture of the taco will be uploaded soon, but I will describe its uniqueness now. Instead of shells or tortillas, they use deep fried bannock. On top, they put their meat, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. They then use a knife and fork to eat the taco. I sliced my bannock into two pieces and ate the taco like a hamburger. I will admit that this had to be the best taco that I have ever eaten. It was more filling and the bannock was excellent (it was homemade by supposedly the best bannock maker in all of Deer Lake).

On Thursday night we had our first fundraising event, a flea market. It was quite unique as it only lasted for only 20-30 minutes. People seemed to come altogether and then came at us like a school of piranhas. In less than half an hour we had sold just shy of $250. Pretty good considering almost every item was $1.

At the same time of the flea market, Mission Air was selling their goods. It is company that is owned by a man who used to run a flight service for the north. He now flies into reserves on pay days on sells meat and other grocery items. One interesting item was Big Macs from McDonalds. They were selling for $10/burger and were going fast. Since we were running the flea market we stayed at the school until the end. We found out that as the time goes on, the prices drop for certain items. The man is quite nice and friendly and understands the troubles that come with living in the north (freshness of food and things like that). We eventually bought 4 packages of bacon for $15 (they were selling for $10/package). They are less than a pound each, but were fresh from the butchers that morning. Afterwards, we bought a package of chicken burgers and a ham roast for $15, but I gave him a $20 because I felt bad for abusing his generosity. I told him that he had been nice to us (selling the bacon, burgers and ham for much cheaper) and I wanted to thank him. In turn, he told us to fax him an order for next pay day. He will bring vegetables/fruit/fresh milk and eggs for us. It will be around the same price as the Northern Store, but will be fresh. For example, the milk at the store expires in less than a week, so you can't expect it to last for a while.