highs and lows

I seem to be falling into patterns that last for 2 weeks at a time. For two weeks straight Tessa and I tirelessly worked on interviews and got a lot of great information for my research. By last weekend (the weekend of July 21st) we were both tired and decided to take the weekend off. Without any foresight into the events that unfolded next, this break was necessary and was intended to only last for 2 days. I am sad to say that the last week and a half has been a tough time for people here in Tuk. Two people passed away last weekend – one elder and one from cancer. Tessa was spending time with family last week so I told her to take her time. Those are some of the lows that I have been experiencing lately.

Around this time bad weather also moved in and there were no flights in or out of Tuk for more than 3 days (the pilots need to be able to see the runway to be able to land here and the fog prevented them from doing so). In my last post I mentioned that the west wind was blowing and that it brings high water – I have some demonstrative pictures to share when I get home. One of the highs for the Pokiaks is that James and Maureen’s second grandson was born a couple of weeks ago (Rebecca’s nephew). The baby is in Inuvik so the family had gone there to visit. James asked me to feed his dogs while he was gone so I had to bring up some frozen fish from the ice house. They ended up stranded in Inuvik longer than expected because of the weather. Because of the high water, I ended up also having to keep an eye on whether or not the dogs were being flooded by water. The water crept up right beside them but fortunately I didn’t have to move any of them.

Since Tessa was not available for work last week and because I don’t know who is and is not related to those women who passed away, I was not able to set up any interviews (I didn’t want to be pestering people while they were mourning). In the mean time I started catching up on some of logistical things that I wanted to sort out. I also started gathering and reading some reports from past research that has been left with community organizations here.

They say bad things happen in threes. Last Thursday there was a suicide in town. I had never met the young man but he was a relative of the Pokiaks. People seem to be taking it well from what I have seen. The funeral is tomorrow.

Needless to say, my research has taken a back seat for the time being. Since I didn’t know any of the people who passed away, I have stayed somewhat in the background (and feeling very lost at times). Situations like this remind me that I am very fortunate for many reasons. One of the ways that I am fortunate is that I have been able to stay in Tuk for an extended time and so my research, in the end, will not be largely impacted by missing out on time. Imagine if I was only able to come up for 2 or 3 weeks and it fell at a time like this…

Another low that has been troubling me is alcohol abuse. In my time here I have seen nearly every person who I know well get drunk. Drinking here means binge drinking and the drinks of choice here in Tuk are Special Old (rye whisky) and beer. The bootleggers only sell Special Old. Apparently each community has its drink of choice (for example, Paulatuk drinks vodka from what I am told). I still can’t get my head around how much people pay for a bottle ($150 for a 40 oz.) or how they waste 2 days or more of their lives every time they drink. Sadly, I have seen too many people do this. I have also come to realize that there are whole segments of the community (mainly youth) who have never seen or met because they party all the time.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, this series of events has unfolded with me having absolutely no insight into what was coming. Tessa has not come back to work and it is now official that she is never going to. While she was working she did a great job but her motivation shifted and I didn’t see her for a week and a half. I was finally able to track her down yesterday and talk to her. I knew all along that she would be leaving in a couple of days from now (for a wedding in Fort McPherson) but I didn’t anticipate that she would take such a long hiatus. Since Rebecca and Ning are back from their vacation, Rebecca has said that she will work with me again. I only want to do a handful more interviews so hopefully we can get a few done. I am also working on setting up a couple of group interviews for next week. One of the elders has agreed to help me organizing those so we’ll what happens.

I hope that my writing has been somewhat clear. I was trying to fit over a week’s worth of turmoiled emotions and events into one message. This post is also getting very long-winded but I have more to write. One of the things that saved me from the lows this past week was a visit with a couple named Roy and Julia. After games one night (the ones at the rec centre where they play checkers, card games, and a have a jam session) Roy invited me over for coffee. He started telling me stories and then Julia joined in and I spent a few hours listening and talking with them. I could tell that they really care about the community and want to work on more programs for alcohol abuse but there is no funding available.

I will end on some more high notes. At the end of last week James invited me to go out caribou hunting with him and Ning. We went out by boat along the shore west of Tuk. Unfortunately, we didn’t see a single caribou but we did see lots of belugas in the bay. James really wants to go out again so hopefully I will have another opportunity. In the meantime I have learned how to make dryfish. James put out his herring nets last weekend since they have started running. On Saturday, they pulled in 70 herring. Maureen, Rebecca and Ning showed me how to scale the fish and cut them for hanging.

I finally booked my return flights and I will be coming home on August 15th. I booked a flight to leave Tuk on the 13th and I will stay in Inuvik for 2 days before flying south.