Life Happens Up North

Todd: So Abidemi, you were a teacher in Canada. correct?

Abidemi: That's true Todd.

Todd: Now, where did you teach?

Abidemi: I taught in Northern Canada in a province called Nunavut.

Todd: Nunavut.

Abidemi: Nunavut.

Todd: Nunavut. Wow is it like a native Americans type ..?

Abidemi: Yeah, and except we call them Inuits.

Todd: Inuits?

Abidemi: Aboriginals and First Nations.

Todd: So what was it like?

Abidemi: I really liked it. It was great. Very different from other parts of Canada. Very cold obviously because it's in the far north, and the communities are very isolated. Very few people live there. In the particular community were I lived, there were about a thousand people, maybe less living there. So everything has to be shipped in, or flown in by ship that comes in the summer when the oceans melt, and then in the winter, they usually fly them in, so food was quite expensive, housing expensive. Yeah, it was a different experience for me.

Todd: Wow, what's life like that far north?

Abidemi: Life happens, and it's interesting how similar it is to what we have down south in Southern Canada, the other parts of Canada. Like they have TVs and similar housing, but you do have to be careful when using water because the infrastructure is a little different. The ground is frozen, so they don't have indoor plumbing. They have plumbing but they don't have running water. The water has to be brought to each house almost every day and sewage also has to be taken away, so you have to be careful how you use water. That's one part. Also, you don't get access to all the things that you want to buy. Sometimes you go to the supermarket, and maybe all the bread is gone, or the milk has not been flown in yet, so you have to be patient with that as well, and you don't get the same variety of products as you would get in larger places, so yeah, and as winter ... As you get more and more into the winter months, it gets darker earlier, so maybe around four o'clock in the afternoon it's already dark outside, and by the time you go to work in the mornings too, when you're going around seven, eight o'clock, it's dark outside, so you're like ... it's dark a lot.

Todd: Wow, what was it like being in an environment where you had so little sunlight?

Abidemi: It was hard, but I kind of feel like, I'm used to it. I took vitamin D tablets to help with that. So, yeah, but because I was working for the most part, I didn't feel like it was too hard, and then during the holidays, I would come back down south to my family, so I wasn't there too much during downtimes. I did spend part of Christmas vacation there, and that was nice. They had a lot of activities outside for community members: ice sculpturing, winter games on the ice, Inuit games, different things like that. So it was fun. It was really an experience that was culturally enlightening. If I could say that for me. I really enjoyed it. I really, really enjoyed it, though there were challenges as well. The isolation and the fact that if you wanted to go to other places that weren't in the community, you had to fly out, so it's very expensive to go there.

Todd: Oh, what an experience. Sounds cool.

Abidemi: Yes, I loved it and I would like to do it again someday.