Nain is Badass

Thursday morning we hopped on the milk-run up to Nain, Nunatsiavut.  Our two and three-quarter hours flight was absolutely beautiful.  Without the wind that we had on our way into Rigolet (slash the Jungle Jim's "food" that was sitting in my belly that morning from our disgusting dinner the night before), the flight was a lot easier to relax into.  We stopped in all of the towns on the way up, getting a view of what was to come in all of our other stops along the trip - Postville, Hopedale, Makkovik.  The landscape is stark and intimidating, even from the air.  There were less and less trees as we pushed north, and more and more sea-ice - thank god.  Apparently the northern towns, Nain included, only saw sea-ice form three weeks ago after two weeks of bitter cold (-48 degrees before the windchill every day).  The lack of "solid ground" on the ocean made hunting and transportation dangerous or impossible, and life in general, for both the Inuit and Settlers who inhabit the land, worrisome I imagine.  This is where we see the effects that climate change is having on our planet more clearly.  If you have a skeptic aunt, friend, teacher who has been fooled by the information white-washing that the oil corporations are flooding the media with, send them north.  Tell them to talk to these people.  They will be skeptics no more.

Looking out, under the wing, at the sea ice, mountains, and open ocean bellow.

We touched down in Nain, onto the shortest runway in the Arctic - I thought we were heading right into the bay - and were picked up by a man on a ski-doo with a hilarious make-shift sled behind it.  Picture a caroling sled circa 1851, with no railings or ledges to hold onto.  I hopped on the backseat of the snow mobile, leaving Cody and Mara to fend for themselves and our pile of workshop luggage, which includes a wheelchair and three Rubbermaid bins of chemistry glassware, DNA visual aids, stains, occupational therapy tools, playing cards, goggles, playdough, countless rolls of tape, and hundreds of other materials  - whatever, those are the rules of "shot-not" - the strongest claim of non-responsibility I know of.

First impressions of Nain: dogs barking everywhere, puppies yelping and excitedly jumping at passers-by, the distant and nearby rumbles of snow-mobiles on every road, path, and square inch of snow-covered ground.  The mountains, jutting suddenly out of the sea all around you.  The sea, a frozen highway utilized by pedestrians, skaters, ski-dooers, and everyone in between.  The smell of pine rising from the houses of those lucky enough to have gotten out "wooding" recently, mixed with diesel.  Nain is beautiful.

Our hotel was modest, but had a restaurant right in it, with the best cooking we've experienced yet, all home-made by Nancy, who was kind enough to ask us what we wanted for dinner, "Pork chops or Arctic Char?" - no brainer.  Stuffed and baked or pan-fried?  Stuffed, duh.  God, it's good to be out of Goose Bay, and god I love char!

Ali, the old director of SuperNOVA, happened to catch my Nain related facebook status, and happens to have a friend doing research in Nain (sometimes I think I must have a horseshoe stuck up my ass/realize how small the world really is).  Rodd went to Dal for his Undergrad in biology, did his Masters at the University of Manitoba, and wound up doing research for Trent University up here.  He has pretty much the coolest job ever.  He interviews hunters and is looking at recent changes in the environment, animal populations, etc (did I get that right, Rodd?!).  It's always nice to have someone who knows the place to show you around (he took us on a walk through town to the dump, which was awesome - for real), have you over for dinner, introduce you to cool people (he and his roommate, Megan, cooked us a delicious meal), and let you know that you missed the best display of the aurora borealis so far this year.  Yah, you read that correctly.  Blurg.  He did try to get a hold of us, but alas, our lights were out/iPad was off.  I had read on the Auroral activity tracking website I've been obsessing over (Space Weather) that Friday night was due for some 'moderate' activity, which is pretty decent on the scale, so Cody and I headed out around 11:30pm to check things out.  We saw a faint Aurora glow, hung out for a while and headed inside for warmth.  Dammit.  Apparently a couple hours earlier and a couple hours later, the effects of a solar storm were seen lighting up the northern sky with beautiful dancing and pulsing green Aurora.  Rodd got some amazing shots, which you can check out on his website (Rodd Laing Photography - Arctic).  I was full of remorse and self-loathing for not staying out later, but such is life, right?  I do have another week.  Come on solar storm #2!!!!

Looking at Mount Sophie.

Ice Land.

The Original Church.

View from the Dump.

Rodd, Cody, and Mara on the ice.

Dynamic Ice Flow.

I also met a beautiful woman, Jolene, at the craft shop who I ended up buying some amazing slippers from.  Originally from Nain, she moved to northern Quebec (like north of Nain, Quebec), and recently to Montreal with her husband and two kids, Dawson and Massey.  She was back visiting for her cousin's wedding/scoping out the available real estate  - unsurprisingly, she's not a huge fan of city life and wants to come back home to raise her babes.  She was kind enough to cart Mara and I back to her place to check out her handiwork.  She makes beautiful slippers and boots from leather, sealskin, and fur.  I opted for a pair of white leather babies with turquoise, green, and red bead work, sheep's wool liners and rabbit fur cuffs - oh ya.  We hung out for a while and played with the kiddies, while checking out her Mum's unbelievable art collection that included caribou and soapstone carvings, a whale vertebrae with a woman's face carved into it, walrus and muskoxen skulls, beautifully woven baskets, and countless other jems.  Their house was warm and the kids were full of energy.  Life is so similar, even in wildly different settings.

Seal for Lunch.

Everyone got a piece...

Nain is great; I was definitely sad to leave.  It's so expensive to get there, I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to get back on my own dollar, but alas, more outreach calls and on to Hopedale we meander.

So far I think we're proving the Labrador bias to be wrong.  I love the Big Land.     

The Nain Fridge.  Put your perishables on the window sill and close the curtains to keep cold.