Thursday Tidbits

Posted on December 19, 2019 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

Hoping for a “touchdown” in Halifax on Friday

 

It’s a wrap.

Act 1 of my real life drama in the North draws to a close today… until January! By the time many of you read this post, I hope to be flying to Kuujjuaq and then to Montreal. If the weather gods and the airlines cooperate, I hope to make it to Halifax on Friday. One thing I’ve learned from this experience is to expect the unexpected. There have been quite a few flight interruptions here over the past two weeks. I tried to avoid looking at the weather forecast for today earlier in the week.

Many Christmas activities at school had to be amended or scrapped due to bad weather this week. The school Christmas concert was originally scheduled for Monday evening past but something came up necessitating a change to 2:00 p.m. This would have been challenging enough but when school was cancelled Monday morning because of inclement weather, I didn’t think it was physically possible to pull this off. But this is the north and making changes on the fly is the norm.

There was a mad scramble for the two hours leading up to the concert. The sound system was the big issue but through some creativity, sound equipment magically appeared and I found myself on stage an hour before the concert doing a sound check for my guitar.

I had my class primed to perform two numbers. Less than 30 minutes before show time, one of the grade 3 teachers asked me to accompany her children. She trotted them down to my classroom and, for the first time, I heard Silent Night sung in Inuktitut.

Despite having set up hundreds of chairs, at 1:55, a mere five minutes before the starting time, only a handful of chairs were occupied. It was still snowing and blowing outside and with the change of time from 7:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. I figured the gymnasium would remain empty. Wrong. The concert didn’t start quite on time but when it did, there was a standing room only crowd.

All of the children performed admirably. As with most elementary school Christmas concerts, there was a lot of pent up energy in the room and trying to keep the young ones seated for any length of times was like herding cats.

Last Sunday, I was walking back from the airport. No. I wasn’t checking my flight for today. It was my regular weekend walk. I hailed an RCMP vehicle that was heading towards town. Two young officers had received a month long placement in Kangiqsujuaq and I had been meaning to have them over for supper. I met them back on the day that the belugas were in the bay. Unfortunately, they were expecting to leave that very day.

I’m not certain how the topic came up but Patsy (not her real name) mentioned something about a senior’s home in the town. Maybe she thought I had wandered off! As it turns out, this facility is next door to the Coop and no more than 200 yards from my apartment. I popped in on my way home and spoke with the weekend manager. I asked if I could come over in the afternoon to sing a few Christmas songs. She told me I was welcome any time.

This assisted living facility is quite small. I think there are only 4 residents. It was quite stormy as I walked across the barren expanse to the home. I couldn’t find the staff person so I just opened up my guitar case and started playing for my audience of one. This lovely man welcomed me in and turned down the volume on the television. I asked him if he spoke English. He nodded in the negative. He watched intently, if expressionless, as I sang a few spiritual songs. His attention was shared between me and the soap opera on the t.v.

There were several other younger people who wandered in and out of the room. They were visiting their grandmother who was in her room.

I began to play Jingle Bells and my adoring fan (?) looked up. “O’er the fields we go, laughing all the way.” A 1000 megawatt smile came over his face as he chimed in “Ha, ha, ha, ha.” For the remainder of the song, he couldn’t stop smiling. Neither could I. Trust me when I tell you that I don’t need any Christmas presents. In this small care facility, far from my friends and loved ones, on a stormy winter afternoon, this man gave me the greatest gift possible… a smile.

I don’t expect this to be my last visit to the home. My students are going to teach me some songs in Inuktitut in the New Year. I need some new material in my repertoire!

Hope to see some of you when I get home.

Have a great weekend.