Deer Lake Musings

So we don't have any new pictures to post, more on that later, but decided to write about our experiences over the past weekend. We woke up Satruday morning and pretty soon were left without power as the entire community's power went out. It lasted for 2 and a half hours. Since it was morning, we didn't need to find candles, but not having water and heat was hard to get over. At night, we made our way over to the school to setup for the School Christmas party. In the middle of setting up with Tracy (Gr. 8 TA, and a new found friend) the power went out again at 4:30. People started to come to the school because the dinner was supposed to start at 7:00. Some brought food that they were still able to make (potato and macaroni salad). Eventually the principal and director decided to eat whatever food was brought at 9:00 and call it a night. Ironically the power came back on at 8:52.



The power outage did provide a new experience as we learned how resourceful you need to be to survive up here. Within hours of the power being out, the school was already cold (Claire had to get her winter coat) and our teacherage was 15. That night, when playing a game involving presents, many people had purchased comforters or throw blankets. They were the hot ticket items. We learned that day why.



Brings us to a new topic as our thinking about certain life needs and life itself has changed in the last several months. As mentioned, everything up here is in terms of survival. Everything you do is to survive. Not to worry parents, as we have plenty of food and water and will not waste away, but small things like gathering enough containers to hold water, both for drinking and plumbing for when the power goes out. I have taken this last one a little excessive as I am reusing any container deemed large enough (general rule is anything 1L or bigger). Last week I was laughed at because I washed a large ketchup container and filled it with water. When asked why, I reasoned that it would be at least two flushes. After Saturday, people weren't laughing anymore.



Another area of different thinking is in common sayings. We have mentioned this to some people but the term north has a new meaning. Back at home, north generally refers to anything higher than Toronto. Our definition of north now refers to Santa's workshop. As well, the term, "there is nothing to do." You do not understand this until you have experienced a Friday night in Deer Lake or an afternoon without power here. Stuck in the dark with no light/heat/running water creates a boring evening. But even when the power is working there are times when watching paint dry would be a hit. The one store closes at around 6, so there is literally no where to go after that. And with the weather approaching -40, we have stopped our late night walks, or any optional outside time.



A final way in which our attitude has changed is our resourcefulness. With things being so expensive or non-existent we have had to make due for several things. One example involves a rolling pin. We now have one thanks to our Thunder Bay outing, but we didn't at first. Claire was making butter tarts and started kneading the dough. After realizing we didn't have a rolling pin, we looked high and low for anything that would work. I, being a good Dutchman at heart, remembered we had been keeping some recycling and retrieved the inner cardboard roll from the aluminum foil. Worked like a charm. You would be amazed at how many items can be used more than once or could serve two purposes (candy tubs as tupperware and cheese bags as sandwich bags).

Back to the staff dinner, it was quite something. We didn't end up eating until 9:45 at the earliest. The one turkey that arrived cooked (there were four that were supposed to come) had been sitting out for over three hours. The food wasn't anything to write home about (can I still say that, after I had just written about it). What was good to see was the resilience the people have. People kept coming with the food they had been assigned to cook late into the night. A cooked turkey arrived at midnight. Down south many, if not all, people would have not come after the power came back on. After eating everyone played a couple christmas games. We didn't get back home until 2:00 am.