You would think that living in Manitoba, I would own all of the essentials for spending a day outside.. Wrong! As I packed up my things the night before I realized that I was not at all prepared for the cold that I was about to face the next day. I had forgotten my winter jacket at my boyfriend's place in Saskatchewan, I had left my winter boots at my parent's home in Brandon and my mitts were nowhere to be found. After borrowing all these essentials from my roommates I was set for a day out at Lyncrest Airport.
I made sure to leave quite early (around 7:15 am), as I had no idea where the airport was and somehow I managed to the first student there! Once more students arrived, we got right into cutting blocks in the snow drifts. This was not as easy as I expected.. Courtny and I worked together cutting blocks, but man.. were those things ever heavy! It took the two of us to carefully move each block away after cutting them. Once enough blocks were stockpiled, all the groups started building their igloo. I mainly helped with packing snow between the cracks, as we mostly let the boys do the heavy lifting.
(Photo Courtesy of Courtny Becker)
(Photo Courtesy of Courtny Becker)
Around lunch time, we took a break from Igloo Building to eat and enjoy a presentation. A Search & Rescue Pilot taught us the do's and don'ts of signalling to an aircraft if you were to get lost in the wilderness. We then went back outside and put these tools use, and tried signalling to an airplane above us. After a few attempts, we were successful! Our signal consisted of the class sitting around in a circle, waving our arms, with a tarp being waved around in the middle of the circle also. We also had mirrors and cell phone lights that we used to aim at the cockpit of the plane. Apparently, that type of light can fill up the whole cockpit in a search and rescue plane. After telling my parent's about this experience, I learned that the man giving the presentation works for the same company as my Dad and I.
Next, we had a skijoring presentation. Skijoring is a winter sport in which a human is pulled by an animal, typically either a horse and or a dog. In the case of the presentation, the skijorers were being pulled my their own dogs and I was amazed by the amount of discipline displayed by these dogs.
This is a video of CBC Manitoba Meteorologist John Sauder, skijoring at the Forks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CSKmSrumw0
Once back inside, we were settling in to eating snacks and I couldn't help but notice that there was a beaver in a bag underneath a table in the middle of the room. We then had a presentation on trapping and skinning by a man named Richard. I have nothing against trapping, because they obviously take great care in what the are doing and aren't looking to harm any animals but I found it very hard to sit through this presentation as I have a very weak stomach. I did however find it interesting that Richard hunts mainly pest beavers, as I thought hunters mainly hunted hunted for personal reasons. I also liked that Richard mentioned that there is a healthy amount of beavers and by trapping them, hunters aren't in any way dwindling the beaver populations.
I took this photo of the beaver almost ready to be skinned.
After dinner, is when I had the most fun of the day! Our professor Jill and her husband Rick brought in various clothing from the North that they had collected during their time up there. Jill explained to us in detail what each piece was meant for and what animal it was made from. I even got to model one of the pieces myself! My jacket had a big hood on it, which was meant for carrying small children in and shelter them from the cold.
The last major event of the day that I partaked in was the Inuit Games. I have never laughed so hard and had so much fun before! The first game we played was a trust game, where we got down on our knees in a circle and had the person in the middle "trust" us and keep them in an upright position while pushing them around the circle. For the next game, the whole class formed two lines and linked arms with the people beside us. A classmate would bounced along by the motion of arms until the very end. I couldn't stop laughing during this game and we almost ended up dropping our professor and husband on the floor during this game! Thank goodness we didn't! We also played a few more games, one which included the Head Pull Game, where a piece of fabric was put two peoples heads and they had to try to pull it off the other person's head by using the strength of their head. I ended up beating Courtny in this game so it was pretty fun!
Alas, the end of the day came and it was time for the people were staying the night to set up their igloos. I opted not to sleep in the Igloo as I had been battling a cold for most of the week so it was time to head home for me!
This experience has been nothing short of a blessing. I learned so many new things and I feel like this day has really strengthened me in my university degree. It will be something that I will remember for a very long time! I am looking forward to see what the rest of the semester has in store for this class.
Until next time,
Janelle
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