Living Arrangements

I have been in Nahanni for a few days now, and I have settled into my new home. It's not especially large, but it's perfect for my needs. In its former life the cabin housed the local RCMP detachment, but they packed up long ago. Signs of their presence remain, however: one of my closets used to be the jail cell, and it still has the reinforced walls and a door with the slots for food.

The interior is still rather austere, but that is a small complaint - I am more than compensated by the magnificent view of the Butte each morning, shining in the sun. The river is literally a stone's throw from my cabin, and in the evening I listen to the ravens calling to each other in the trees. Yesterday it touched above 30C but the cabin remained pleasantly cool inside, and apparently it is also nice and warm in the winter. There is no plumbing, yet, so I have to draw my own water from the school and use the outhouse for now. This should be rectified in the next few weeks, but then again...this is the North, and things work on Dene time here!

I have already spent a few hours clearing some of the "yard" of a summer's worth of growth. It's funny; as a child I always hated helping my father with the gardening and yardwork, but now I understand the satisfaction you get from it. I am going to post lots of pictures of my family and friends up on the walls, and this winter I am going to attempt to make some new furniture in the woodshop. Soon it will truly be a home to call my own.

I think I am going to be very happy here.

Bad News

I found out today that the community lacks the funds to support another volunteer this year, so Aaron won't be joining me after all. Luckily there is a project over in Fort Providence that will be able to take him on, but it really is unfortunate. I will carry on as best I can, though, and with luck I will still be able to pull off some of the more ambitious things we had planned.

Arrival

At long last I have made it to Nahanni Butte. It has only been three days, but after ~2100km by bus, boat and plane, Vancouver feels like a lifetime ago.

This morning I rose early to pack up my things and make my way down to the Hay River depot. I assumed I would be riding in another coach, but instead I wound up in a battered old GMC van. Apparently its brand new replacement had hit a wood buffalo last week, so we were forced to squeeze a little more life out of its rusted frame. The driver, a delightful old Dene named Wrench, responded by cranking up the most awful country music imaginable and gunning the engine until it screamed. In any case, it seemed to work as we ultimately made it to Fort Simpson without incident.

During the drive the sheer immensity of the northern boreal forests began to sink in. For hours we hurtled down the gravel of the Mackenzie Highway, hemmed in by the drab greys and greens of spruce and birch. Occasionally the road would climb enough that I could look north and snatch a glimpse of a great dark plain, stretching towards the literal ends of the earth. It was a strange feeling, looking out over such a landscape and knowing there is nothing – nothing – but trees and rocks and water for thousands of miles. Go far enough and the trees fade away, with only the sky and the immortal land remaining. Go farther still and even the land vanishes, leaving only the polar seas and the howling cold.

As we drove I began to doze off, until I awoke to a distinct tapping against the windshield. It was the clumsy charge of a swarm of blackflies, battering themselves against the window again and again. We had stopped for a break, and a massive cloud of insects were trying madly to get inside. The air was so thick with them I couldn't even wear my sunglasses because so many of them would crawl up behind the lenses.

We continued on our way for a few more hours, never encountering even one other vehicle. We eventually reached the fording point where we boarded the "Lafferty" for the sailing across the Liard River.

On the far shore the road became paved again as only 20km away was Fort Simpson. Originally known as "Fort of the Forks" because of its location at the meeting of the Liard and Mackenzie rivers, Fort Simpson is the administrational hub of the Dehcho region. I will be spending a lot of time there in the months to come, but today was only a brief introduction.

I was met at the bus depot by Kristin, a representative from the Decho Education Council. She told me I was actually hitching a ride on a resupply flight into Nahanni Butte so I had only a few minutes to grab some food before heading over to the airport.

The flight itself was phenomenal. We cruised at 3000ft over one of the most stunning landscapes I have ever seen. The immense boreal plain spread as far as the eye could see in all directions, until out of the west appeared the first ribbon of mountains in the Mackenzie Range. The Mackenzies roughly follow the border of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, and Nahanni Butte is nestled right where the great sea of trees laps against their eastern flanks. After a quick loop to make sure no wood buffalo were hanging around the landing strip, we came in for a surprisingly delicate touchdown.

Wayne Ingarfield, the principle of the local school and my boss for the duration of the project, met me at the airstrip and took me to my new home. It's an old RCMP log cabin, but more on that later. First order of business is unpacking and adjusting to the fact that I am actually here.

En Route

NWT/Alberta Border

I am finally on my way. I left Vancouver early on August 26th, and have spent the past day and a half on a series of busses making their way north through BC and Alberta. The first leg of the journey is now finished, and I am spending the night at the Ptarmigan Inn in Hay River. Tomorrow morning I will be on the road again, this time heading west to Fort Simpson and Nahanni Butte.

Hay River

Flanked by the amber flow of it's namesake, Hay River is my first northern city. It is largely as I expected: bleak, spartan, and tiny. This is offset by the warmth of it's people, though; everywhere I go, strangers greet me with a smile and a hello. I spent the evening exploring the town and wandering the banks of the river, but the mosquitos were relentless and the thought of a proper bed proved too tempting to ignore. Tomorrow I will be settling into my new home, but I will write more when I get the chance.

Hay River Sunset

Preparation

As the long days of August slide by, my departure looms ever closer. The bulk of my shopping is complete: I have all my field kit, as well as my books, DVDs, laptop and winter clothing. Of course, now the challenge is finding a way to pack it all into my bags!

It is strange to think that in a few short weeks I will be nearly 2000km north of my home in Vancouver, tucked away in one of the most remote and isolated communities in Canada. Whatever apprehension I have, however, is tempered by my eagerness to explore the beauty of the Northwest Territories.

I will be spending a year in the tiny native settlement of Nahanni Butte while volunteering for the Frontiers Foundation, a non-profit group based in Toronto. My primary responsibility will be to work in the local school as a tutor, but I hope to become involved in every aspect of life in the community. I will be working with Aaron Ramathan, a Frontiers volunteer from Brazil. He will be managing the recreation project in Nahanni Butte, and together we hope to run a variety of sport activities for the children, as well as a drama club and anything else we can think of. The specifics remain somewhat vague at this point - we are finding that planning in advance is something of a foreign concept in the north, and most of the details will only be worked out once we are on site.

The assignment is certainly challenging; like many northern communities, Nahanni Butte suffers from a variety of severe social problems. There are very high levels of unemployment, and drug and alcohol abuse are major concerns. As Nahanni has only ~100 residents, their effects are felt even more acutely. Nevertheless, Aaron and I will do our best to make a positive impact.

Thank you for visiting. Once I have made it to Nahanni I will try to update this regularly, but that will largely depend on the quality of my northern internet connection.