Winter Road

Last night Claire and I were helping at Bingo. Only 1 student and 6 players showed up, so we had to cancel. With the winter road now open, Deer Lake's population goes down by at least half. Every weekend people take the 6-7-8 hour drive to Red Lake or Sioux Lookout.

It didn't help out last night that there was a bingo at Sandy Lake, the next community over. The jackpot was $10,000. Apparently, people from all over Northern Ontario went to play. At least four staff members went right after school (3 pm) to make it in time for the game to start. The drive is roughly 3 hours. They played the two and a half hour game and then drove back here last night. I could never imagine driving all that way just for something that short. For example driving all the way to cottage country just to watch a movie and then driving home. Ridiculous.

We are sorry we never updated about Moinus, our maintenance man. He returned to the community about a week later, without having surgery. He isn't back to work, as he is taking his time at home resting.

Another staff member was faced with some bad news yesterday as his wife (now separated) is in Red Lake on life support. News travelled through the school fast and several other members were hit with the information. In such a small community, this woman had ties to almost everyone. She was someone's neice, several others' cousin, etc.

We are preparing for Valentine's Day. After surviving, no joking either, through the other holidays, we are sure it will be an eventful/long day. The school is having a dance for the students in the afternoon. Also, we were supposed to have court on Tuesday, meaning a day off, but it has been moved so it is business as usual.

Our classes were suffering late last week as students were still sick. On Thursday there were 8 grade 9s (50%) and 10 grade 8s (52%). The school is like the living dead.