rolling along

One thing after another has delayed me trying to do interviews. On Tuesday morning I found out that the research assistant that I had hired decided to move out of town (she left abruptly on the weekend). I think that she made a hard a decision and did what is best for her and her kids so I wish her well. As for me, my research will get done one way or another. I have hired Rebecca to work with me for this week. She has been setting up interviews and bringing little Edward along for the interviews. Things are going well and I have had a few really good interviews. Rebecca may keep working with me next week but I will need to hire someone else because she and Ning are going on vacation to Edmonton soon. I have made arrangements with someone but she is out of town until the end of the week so I will have to wait to talk to her again.

The flies are out now. Warm weather on Tuesday and Wednesday brought them out. So far it hasn’t been as bad as bugs that I have experienced in Ontario and Nova Scotia. I imagine that if I went for a walk on the tundra I might have a different story to tell…

Whaling season is starting. There are whales (belugas) in the bay and yesterday was the first day that I heard of someone going out to hunt them this year. Now that the weather is nice again, I am sure that more people will start heading out to get a whale or two. I am hoping that I will get to participate in some way. Non-Inuvialuit are not allowed in the boats while they are killing the whales, but they drag the whales to shore where they process them. I am allowed to be on shore and see how they cut and prepare the whales. So I am hoping to get to see what happens. I am really curious about where the oil comes from and how they collect it. I would also like to learn how to cut and prepare dryfish. Maureen has already started making dryfish from some of the whitefish caught in their net. The fish that are still alive when we check the nets are used for dryfish and the ones that are already dead are kept for dog food.

There are some people who are making a children’s book about whaling and they are featuring James and his family for the story. They are here all week taking pictures and hearing stories. There is a small chance that I may be in the book because they took pictures of me interviewing James.