Monday Morning Musings

Posted on January 6, 2020 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Communal kitchen – Kuujjuaq Co-op Hotel

The transition from Christmas to January is amongst the toughest times of the years. Euphoria has been replaced by harsh reality. Your clothes don’t seem to fit, and your bank account has suffered a major hemorrhage. Carefree days of visiting friends or sitting at home in your pajamas reading a good book have been replaced with the humdrum of your normal routine. For most people under the age of 65, it means a return to work.

For some people over the age of 65, it means a return to work.

I often get puzzled looks from people who hear that I have returned to the work force after 4 years of retirement.” Why would anyone in their right mind return to work after settling into a life of leisure?” is a question I get a lot. Let that question settle for a few seconds!

After a fantastic holiday, it is time to head back north to fulfill my commitment teaching at the Arsaniq School in Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec. After a six-week trial run before Christmas, it is time to put the work boots back on. I mean mukluks.

I started my journey north on Saturday. Knowing what I know about northern weather, I decided not to check the forecast. There’s really no point. The weather is very changeable and travel interruptions are normal. Why fret about something over which you have no control. It was mild in Halifax and my 6:30 a.m. flight to Montreal proceeded without any issues. By the way, there’s one good thing about an early flight. There are no lineups going through security.

Now that I am a veteran of flying to the Nunavik region of Quebec (2 flights!), I know exactly where to go at Dorval airport to catch the Canadian Northern flight to Kuujjuaq, the capital city of the Nunavik region. Once again, the flight was on time and the two- hour flight passed quickly. The service on this airline is excellent, by the way.

The weather was clear in Kuujjuaq, a good omen for the next leg of the trip. Wrong. It doesn’t take long for bad news to travel fast. You could hear the groans from fellow passengers as we discovered that our next flight with Air Inuit had been cancelled due to blizzard conditions further up the line, including Kangiqsujuaq. This meant an overnighter in Kuujjuaq.

There are two hotels in Kuujjuaq. One is privately owned and near the airport. It has all the modern amenities including a restaurant, a bonus for stranded travelers. After waiting in line to use the phone, I was unable to get anyone at that hotel to answer the phone. My second and only other option was the Kuujjuaq Co-op Hotel. Nunavik co-op hotels are located in 13 communities in northern Quebec. Each hotel is owned by the local cooperative.

I called the hotel and spoke with a pleasant woman about getting a reservation. She gave me an 800 number to call which I found slightly odd in a community as small as Kuujjuaq. I dialed the number. The line was staticky. “Can you hold the line a minute? I’m just going through a green light.” The reservation agent was driving in rush hour traffic in Montreal. He carries a computer with him. He eventually pulled off to the side of the road and completed my booking. Once confirmed, the young woman at the hotel front desk was able to leave her post and come fetch me at the airport.

I grew up in one of the cradles of the cooperative movement, so it gave me pleasure to do business with this establishment. I checked in and was assigned a room with a code. The clerk had to make another airport run so she left me in the lobby with my bags and the code. I wandered down the hall, found my room, and entered the code. I entered it a half -dozen times. Twenty minutes later, I could hear the clerk returning with another load of stranded travelers. My room was visible from the front desk and I was desperate for her not to see this doddering old man camped out in the hallway. I reviewed the code one last time, saw my mistake, and just managed to slink into my room before being discovered.

If I was to describe my lodgings, I would say that it had components of a hotel and one of the many hostels I inhabited while walking the Camino. The rooms are private – no hundred- bed rooms filled with bunk beds and snoring pilgrims! It is the common areas that really define these types of facilities. Typically, there is a communal kitchen and dining area. If you like meeting new people, a hostel or a co-op hotel will provide ample opportunity to mingle with interesting folks.

It so happened that the Canadian Junior hockey team was playing its semi-final game when I arrived at the hotel. I flicked on the television and drew a blank. I nearly drove myself mad trying to get the g.d. thing to work. I went across the hall and asked my neighbor, a young, intelligent Inuk man for help. His television was working fine. He tried unsuccessfully to get mine going and then he remembered that his room came with two remotes. Can someone explain why, in 2020, do we need two remote controls to get a television set to work? My room came with one remote. Once I got my hands on the second remote, all was well with the world.

Although I had packed a box of Kraft Dinner (KD) in my carryon luggage on the advice of Maggie MacDonell for instances just like this (I also had three boxes of chocolate and four chocolate bars from Peace by Chocolate as gifts), I decided to go to the Northern grocery store for something more substantial.

I’ll spare you the details of my meal preparation in the beautiful and well-equipped kitchen (pictured above). My only regret is that there were only a small handful of hotel guests. I can only imagine what the kitchen looks like when all 32 hotel rooms are occupied, and everyone is making their own supper.

The only other thing of note about my room was the soundtrack. The plumbing must be old (like me) and I could hear water running through the pipes at 2- minute intervals during my entire stay. The Camino taught me many lessons about sleeping. You can get used to almost anything. Snoring, farting, and burping became so commonplace in the hostels that when I occasionally booked a hotel room, I found the silence deafening!

Oh yes. The staff on duty on the weekend, two young women, were simply wonderful. They were smart, pleasant and very helpful.

The final leg of the trip from Kuujjuaq to Kangiqsujuaq had a few glitches. At one point, an electrical problem with the plane had us concerned that we might get grounded.

We arrived early in the evening.

Stepping back into my warm apartment felt like coming home.

Have a great week.