My Arctic escapade

My Arctic escapade is over . 6 months of ice ,desolation and isolation. 6 months of spectacular scenery,amazing natural phenomenons,animals , some tough and some miserable people.

The only exposure to the Arctic I had previously was through National Geographic magazines

and TV. Thus before my departure to Iqaluit I had conjured up ideas about the Arctic were based on those documentaries and pictures. I was expecting Polar bears and seals everywhere. I knew almost all the communities were on the edge of the sea, so Whales and Seals would just popup at random places and I would see polar bears pouncing on them. I would see igloos for houses and perhaps have a chance to live in one of them. I knew modern houses would be there but I never thought I would not see a single igloo that would be livable. The only igloo I saw was made by the students of the Nunavut Arctic College as a project, lest they forgot how it was to be Inuit !!! and I did not see a single live Polar Bear. I saw countless skins though !!

Iqaluit is the capital of Nunavut with a population of about 6000. How could a town of 6000 be a capital ? That was answered when I first landed there on a surprisingly long airstrip . Iqaluit was formally known as Frobisher Bay and was a US military airbase till they invented ICBMs and no longer needed to maintain it against the Soviets. The local Inuits who had settled in and around the airbase remained there and now its known as Iqaluit.

The temperature was -60 Degree Celsius when I landed , this was the coldest I had ever experienced. I did not know how my body would react to such cold and it didn't react any different other than my nose went dry and constantly twitching.

I felt the roads were surprisingly smooth until one day I saw about 4 inches of solid transparent ice just beneath the dry snow.

I quickly made friends in every circle. Being the capital and so small I knew people form all walks of life. Sadly I could not make many friends amongst the local people ,the reason I will give later.

No sooner I had some friends I was at the bars. In total there are three bars and you can see anybody and everybody in town there ,almost everyday.

My first impression of the local Inuit population was no better than my own people, poor and desperate. Wasn't this a first world country ? I was hounded by salesmen/women trying to sell local soapstone carvings , whale bone trinkets and myriad number of other things. Being a little typsy I was a bit sentimental to see an old,shriveled woman approach me with a polar bear carving. Why does she need to be a in Bar full of drunk people to earn a living ? Didn't she have anyone to take care of her? Wasn't the government giving her old age pension ?

I voiced my concerned to a friend who snickered and said " Wait and watch".

Lo and behold in a while she was sitting right next to us chugging on a beer can ,having earned a few dollars selling some of her art. The pension was not meant for drinking.

I did not have wait much before I saw a whole lot of local people staggering and swearing at each other. That was the point where they were singled out and removed from the bar. It wasn't a good impression and my friend explained to me that alcoholism was rampant and though the govt tried to limit the abuse it was still affecting the entire community. They simply were not made to consume alcohol. Two beers down they would suddenly lose their senses . How could they ? for centuries they had been hunting to survive.

They had never heard of brewing . It was too cold for any kind of yeast to have survived thus no alcohol.

It was only during the past 40 years that they have been exposed to the so called Modern way of living !!! a culture does not change over night.

To be continued in a few days ........