The Feast

Last night we went to a feast at the Rec Centre. This is an annual event that they call the Baby Feast. It's an event to welcome all the babies born in the past year into the community and into their "houses". I'm not entirely sure how to define a house, but basically it's the line of the Tsimshian nation that they fall under and the crest that they are. There are four crests of the Tsimshian in Lax Kw'alaams, the killer whale, the wolf, the raven and the eagle. Those of us that live here but do not belong to any group get the crest of the butterfly.
The evening was amazing. There were so many amazing parts that I hope I can give a decent image of what it was.
When we arrived, all the families that had babies to be recognized were sitting at the head table with all the dancers and drummers standing behind them.


The head table and the dancers in behind them. 

Many of our students and friends are part of the dancers and we are lucky enough that the school has a tradition of having the school day start every morning with drumming in the gym. I was singing along, as I tend to do, when they were singing last night in of their regalia. I wasn't looking quite as nice in my T-shirt and puffy vest. Everyone was looking pretty casual.


The teacher table at the feast. 

The food wasn't exactly traditional, but very normal for this community. They ordered in a huge Chinese food dinner from Prince Rupert that was pretty good for being sent in by float plane early in the afternoon. I came home with a pocket full of fortune cookies.
I can't really describe how the evening was to do it justice. I had an amazing time and I loved to be able to see some of the traditions of the people that I am living with here.

The Snow (Part 2)

This place does not get much snow. According to locals, it's been many years since there has been any substantial snowfall in Lax Kw'alaams. That all changed in the past two days. Currently, there's over a foot of snow on the ground and I am in heaven! Sledding, snowball fights, face washes: I've done them all! And spring officially starts on Monday.
I'm going to take you all back a few days, to the first days of Spring Break 2006. Don't worry, there's snow all the way through this story.
I left town on Saturday and headed into Prince Rupert on the float plane for a nice quiet night. We had a few friends over on Friday night and that wasn't so quiet, so I was recovering a bit, regaining my strength.


A view of the nearby lake from the float plane.

I was headed east, to Shames Mountain, with Anna and Crystal for a day of snowboarding. It was so gorgeous! The drive, the snow, the mountains. It was all fabulous. Many parts of the drive reminded me of areas in the Kootenays. It was an amazing drive up to the hill with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky.


The Skeena River Valley is amazingly beautiful.

We spent the day on the hill enjoying the sun and the snow. We were all over the place, avoiding trees and trying to stay on our boards. None of us had been up in a long time and our legs were screaming by the end of the day, but it was all worth it.


Fabulous snow at Shames!


Crystal and Anna

I'm going to leave this for now and keep you all on the edges of your seats, waiting to find out what we did next! Really, I'm just hungry and need to fill my belly.

The Delay

Yes, I do realize how long it has been since I have posted on here. I've been busy! Really! Let's see, what have I done?
First things first, I have a roommate. We had some staffing changes at the school and a new teacher came in. Unfortunately, there was no where for her to live when she got into town. I, being a generous, selfless and somewhat lonely person, invited her to stay with me in my rather small, dungeon like apartment. This worked for awhile, but we soon came to realize that our lives demanded more space and more light. We made the big move about 20 steps away, to a much bigger brighter, newer, less bug-ier place. This means higher hydro bills but it's a small price to pay for what we're getting. We attempted to fool StarChoice into a deal with the neighbours but it didn't pan out, so I'm still paying too much for TV that I really shouldn't be watching.
Nav is a fabulous roommate. She's loud, laughs like crazy and procrastinates just like me. We're a horrible combination but we're enjoying ourselves, so it's balancing out. An added bonus for me: she really likes to cook, and is really good at it. I'm learning and I have mastered a simple Thai stirfry that I'll be making often until I learn something new.
School is going well. The students are really looking forward to Spring Break. I am too, but I don't have much planned. I'm going to lay low and try to spend as little money as possible. It's quite fun to look at my bank account and see that I really only spend money three days a month, but I really go wild on those three days. I'm getting good at shopping for two weeks at a time.
This weekend, attempts were made to go fishing, but there were technical difficulties with the boat, so it was a short lived experience. I went out with Mike (another teacher) and his father-in-law (Ray, from Creston) on a coworker's (Beryl) husband's (John) boat. The weather was good, not too choppy, and I appear to be past the seasickness I suffered from as a child.
Because of our fruitless effort at fishing, we decided to go crabbing off the ferry dock instead. We borrowed a trap and took out a couple of rods and spent about 3 hours out there. Stacy was happy because she could come this time (she wasn't up for taking 4 month old Sarra out on a boat for the fishing trip) and we traded off entertaining Sarra and trying to catch crabs with the fishing rod. I am proud to say that I am the only one to catch a crab! Mike got a flounder and Ray caught some weird eel-salamander thing. We got a few more in the trap for a grand total of 7 crabs.
I got some pictures that I'll eventually get up here, but this is a big enough step for now.