Good Day my friends I finally made it to the north and you are in my thoughts daily. It is truly beautiful here as you can see from the links to the pictures.
The Community of Pangnirtung is noted for its artists and from the scenery here you can really see why. The north as you know is a desert so we see very little precipitation here (there is fog mind you) but no trees and very little rain throughout the year.
So far the community has been friendly and very welcoming ….people will welcome you in the street and ask if you are visiting and say welcome to Pang ….even those who speak very little English. What is most noticeable at first is that there are so many children playing outside ALL THE TIME!
For those of you who are following Jim’s blog - hanginpang.blogspot.com - or his Picasa Web Album ( here )have already seen how snap happy we are with the camera. If you interested in seeing some of the scenery here check the Picasa site here.
I not only got to ride on a Skidoo.; but for the first time …I got to drive Tara’s Arctic Cat…wow what a rush that was. Sheldon you would love the touring here. And as you can see there is still lots of snow.
There is a yoga class here and I hope to attend tomorrow evening at 5:30. It will be nice to be “Yogaed” for a while. We have been pretty busy everyday exploring the hamlet ….the population here is about, 1450 and there is a constant influx of visitors from the south who come to explore the park and life in the north.
There are 2 grocery stores- the Northern (formerly the Hudson’s Bay Co.) which is a chain throughout the north and the Pangnirtung Coop (looks like Moses Cody made it all the way to the north.) By far one of the most well known industries here would be the print and weave shop which is famous in the arts circles in the south. The carving, weaving and of course the famous Pang hats are a standard here. The work that you see on the children’s parkas is jaw dropping and there are several women here whose sewing skills are respected and well known.
Loonie/toonie auctions occur on a regular basis as a community support for whatever is needed in the hamlet. AND the whole community generally turns out.
Jim and I visited the high school yesterday. This is an interesting time of year for the school. All of the high school students and teachers are out at spring camp on the land, here they spend a few days learning the traditional skills from the elders and this is an opportunity for the students to be the TEACHERS for their educators, sharing the knowledge of the land ….their teachers get to see them from a different perspective.
If all goes well tomorrow we may have an opportunity to go out on the land with a guide to experience the camp too.
Well till the weekend …stay well ….Breathe and enjoy whatever spring has to offer
Love and light
Chris
