I rang in the year of 2014 with some new friends Arctic
style. We began with a heaping pile of
nachos at my place and hot mulled wine.
We brought the wine in a thermos down to the frozen lake and watched the
northern lights dance across the sky.
Our music did not last as long as intended. Note: Apple products last about 12 minutes
when it’s -30C (-22F), $30 Costco speakers on the other hand last 45mins (?!). We lit sparklers at midnight and wished each
other a happy new year making it was a pretty special night. I made the mistake of putting the sparkler in
my mouth for a second to have my hands free to find the lighter. It was right up there with a tongue on the
flag pole and it took a layer off. Ouch.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a good SLR camera to capture the lights. I got up in the middle of the night once to
go out with a friend with a good camera but it was too cloudy and they couldn’t
be seen. On a clear night though they are almost a
given. The auroras will just have to be
captured in my mind, a memory not ever forgotten. They are magic.
After 30 polar nights of darkness the sun was supposed to return
January 6th. Well, they were
wrong. It returned on the 4th. You would think they could be
a bit more accurate. I heard on CBC it
depends on atmospheric changes that are hard to predict.
Here is a clip https://soundcloud.com/allisondev-1/early-to-rise
from Allison Devereaux's CBC interview with Canadian Astronomy Data Centre
On January 6th it was cloudy and it really didn’t
get clear again until mid-January extending the polar nights even longer. It was almost 6 weeks before I felt the sun
on my face. Too long! That time was really hard for me. After a stretch of 4 night shifts, you don’t
have the light to reset you back to a normal schedule. It’s almost impossible to get back on
track. I get to sleep but don’t stay
asleep, and seem to be up at the wee hours of the morning. I never have issues sleeping so this was a
real challenge. I’m pretty confident I
have that Seasonal Affective Disorder and living in Vancouver through the
winter as a shift worker is hard enough.
It’s amplified up here due to the isolation and not having your own
friends around. The worst is over
though. I made it. People say the constant daylight, starting in
4 month in the summer, is worse. I can
believe it. Your poor circadian rhythm
has no idea what is going on.
The Sunrise Festival January 10th-12th
was something to look forward to at the end of this darkness and it really
brought the community together. As
mentioned there was zero sun but it was bright and at least there were events to get
out of the house for. The weekend
started with the Taste of Inuvik on the Friday night at the Midnight Sun
Recreation Complex. I was hoping to try
all the local foods, but the majority was potato salad, sloppy joes and
couscous. There was some arctic char chowder, muskox meatballs, bannock and
reindeer tortilla bites that were super good though. For $5 it was by far the cheapest meal I have
had in the Arctic.
After that were the Drum Dancers in their traditional dress
of leathers, furs and beads. This was amazing
and the drums made of stretched caribou hide made your bones shake. It was cool to see some authentic culture up
here. The dances portray legends and
stories. There is a revival of this art
in the North as the elders try to keep the tradition alive by teaching and
including the younger generations. I'm trying to upload a video, it's not working. Sigh.
The Saturday consisted of a pancake breakfast at the Legion
then a snowmobile parade. I was ready
with my camera and waiting for a snowmobile decorated worthy enough for a photo
when I realized it was over. The parade
had about 7 sleds. Wait. What?!
Ok...
Next up was the snow carving completion. Some new friends took on the challenge with
no tools other than a few kitchen knives from the nursing residence. I think it was harder than they thought. The snow was pretty dense and took them
almost three hours to complete their mushroom.
Unfortunately they were up against some very famous local carvers. It was pretty stiff competition. First place won $500, second $300 and third
$200.
This was my piece. I call it...."feta"...
Clockwise starting with the big thing: Eskimo donut, dried fish (herring), beluga jerky, muktuk (boiled beluga skin/fat/blubber, bannock)
this is the face of 'not convinced'
 |
| Moose hide gloves, sheared beaver fur cuff and hand beading |
 |
| Wolf gloves. His hands...warmer than mine! |
After the lake we walked across the street to the golf
course where they had a huge and I mean HUGE bonfire. I think they said it was 600 pallets they lit
up. It was nice to have some warmth
after a day in minus 25C. It almost got
too hot, you had to stand 30 feet back.
It was managed by the firemen/women as was the firework display. It was pretty impressive for small town
budget. There was a mass exodus once the
fireworks were over so instead of driving the road back to town we hopped on the
frozen Mackenzie river/ice road to drive back. In winter the frozen rivers act at highways through the Arctic. It’s pretty cool.
The night ended with a Barney Bentall concert put on by the
CBC at the Igloo Church in the middle of town.
It wasn’t that well attended but it was a great show. The acoustics were perfect and I loved the
lighting that allowed shadows of the performers to dance on the walls of the
church. The CBC was recording it. I’m sure they recorded me hacking away in the
back of the church. I had terrible cough
that weekend that was exacerbated by the cold that was pretty hard to avoid. 
The ceiling of the church
We had a few weeks of the flu running rampant though
town. Confirmed cases of H1N1, lots of
them. There is a swab that can be taken
to confirm the flu virus and Edmonton, where we send the samples for testing,
told us to stop. Just assume and treat
the people as confirmed cases. They had
too many swabs to process. I did get my
flu shot in Vancouver before I came up for round two up here. I almost didn’t but couldn’t imagine another
week of solitary confinement like when I had my eye infection. At Lions Gate where I work we are mandated to
get our flu shot. That always made me
angry but as I work with newborns I always begrudgingly did get it. I think as I normally work on a perinatal
floor I don’t see the effects of the flu.
Here I did and I’m a firm believer in the flu shot now. We only admitted the elderly, children or
pregnant women, mainly treating with Tamiflu and fluids but there were dozens
more that came through emergency. There
is obviously pretty poor compliance with flu shots up here.
This isn’t my youtube video, but it ‘s a good 2.5 minute
summary of the weekend.
