Well, what a fantastic day. Perfect weather for a day trip to Avvajjaq --- cloudless sky and the temperature went up steadily from -12C (7:45am) to -2C (now, 6pm). It's generally colder once you get out of town, but I'd find that hard to believe today. Hmmm.... had you asked me a month ago whether I'd enjoy spending the ENTIRE (9-5) day outside in below 0 temperatures, I don't think I would have responded affirmatively. Again, I say, it's amazing how nice -6 can be!

There were 42 (2 teachers, some drivers, one whitey/qallunaq --- that would be me --- and the kids) of us in all, plus 3 dogs, who just sort of ran alongside the snowmobiles. I found out that I'm not the only one with a fear of the dogs. They're mostly used (for sledding, of course, and do they ever love to run), kicked (when they approach people for affection or negative purposes, whatever), and feared (especially when they start fighting amongst themselves. I don't think I've seen a group of 15 people move so quickly!).

So, out to the mission house (which I described to you on the weekend) first. We all got off our caribouskin laden qamutiks (makes for a softer and warmer ride) and got out of our japas (they're too hot for anything but travel right now) and started climbing all in and over said mission house. It's a good place to make tea, hot chocolate, and hot dogs, but not much use other than that anymore. A couple of kids and I went to an old graveyard on a nearby hill to check it out. There are these little wooden crosses, in varying positions of disarray, but somehow still standing, and you can tell that they used to have the names of the deceased carved into them, you can even make out a letter or two. We managed to make out a few letters what looked very much like an "18--" below the letters. But I just can't believe that those little wooden crosses would withstand the weather that they'd have to for that long. The fact that they are at least 3 or 4 generations old is impressive in itself.

I had a great time with the kids. I never walked very far without two girls grabbing me, either linking arms or holding hands, one on each. Nor did I go too far without one of them telling or showing me something new. It was excellent.

After the mission house and hot drinks we moved onto the area where Paul and I went skiing on Saturday, where all of the islands and lakes are, and the hills for "sliding" (tobogganing, to us southerners. Although sometimes just one's butt is used, sometimes a skin, and sometimes a qamutiq! 16 feet long and filled with screaming kids! What a blast!). Someone said that they saw rabbit tracks, so the men were off with their guns and snowmobiles, and some of us headed up on foot. Well, we never saw any rabbits, but we did get a great view from atop one of the granite hills, and had a good time sliding down it! When we got back to the spot where everyone had parked, though, the kids had a fright, because they were all gone. Walk for another 5 minutes and around the next hill, there they were, but the kids were worried that we had been abandoned. Not the sort of thing that happens frequently on school trips... so I knew not to worry.

After a while, Simiumi (he's a kind of aide for really hard to work with kids, and he does a great job, without any training) asked if I wanted a tour of the area. So I hopped on his snowmobile and we were off. We went over a few hills and then we were at the sea ice, and he gave me a bit of an inkling of where Baffin was from there and the floe edge, told me about good fishing and hunting spots etc. Then we hopped back on and went looking for rabbits, to no avail. Absolutely gorgeous landscape.

I found out today that snow makes okay tea water, but if you can get your very large knife chipping at some lake ice, it'll be much better. Ice tea over snow tea, when given the choice. Remember that.

On the way home the skidoo ahead of ours stopped, unhooked it's qamutik, and headed up a nearby hill. Apparently the elder of the men on the trip, Avinga, had spotted a ptarmigan (a kind of arctic chicken). So, "POW!" and voila, dinner, but then we saw that he wasn't coming back, but moving on, and "POW!" --- another! A couple of the kids fetched the kills and brought them back to show everyone. Yuck. But great! Now, really, even after someone had pointed it out to me and I saw where his gun was pointing and everything, I still wasn't sure that I had the ptarmigan in my sights. Amazing what they can spot! It was just a white point on a white horizon!

Well, that's all for today, I feel kind of like I'm getting a bad case of verbal diarrhea here, so I'll leave it at that. Lynn