One Last Feast!

Today was our last full day in our Northern home. We started things out with a big breakfast at the only restaurant in Cambridge Bay. Then we returned to the school where a local craftsman taught everyone how to carve their own miniature "inukshuks" (Inuit stone people statues) out of caribou antlers.

Our lessons in Nunavut culture continued as we went over to the school's awesome Heritage Centre, where one of the Elders demonstrated a traditional igloo stove that used seal blubber as fuel for heat, cooking and light.

The Elder also let a couple of members of our crew model some authentic caribou fur clothing and accessories!

After spending the morning learning about the heritage of this amazing place, it was time to prepare the community feast!

The Elders brought over all of the caribou meat we harvested yesterday, and we also pulled out all of the Arctic char 'piffy' that we'd put out to dry two days ago.

The Screaming Avocado gang did what they do best and cooked up an unbelievable feast with the Cambridge Bay students and the Elders.

Everyone in the community was invited, and the turn-out was incredible! 

Elders, lots of cute kids, and everyone else in town came to the gym and shared all the food that we'd prepared for them.

In the evening, we were treated with a demonstration of the amazing Inuit music called "Throat Singing". Three talented young women put on a great show just for us:

Jenna and Siobhan tried some throat singing of their own after a little coaching from the experts!

Everyone will be sad to leave this magical place tomorrow and say good bye to our all our new friends....

Catching Caribou

 In Nunavut, when you go "out on the land" and successfully harvest a caribou, it is known as "catching" a caribou. Today, we once again joined our friends the Elders of Cambridge Bay  and the students of Kiilinik High School and caught three caribou with them!

The waters of the Northwest Passage are finally starting to freeze up (it was a bitterly cold day today with a wicked wind), so the caribou herds are gathering and anxiously awaiting their opportunity to leave the island. We came across a herd of twenty and the hunt was on! While the Elders were taking aim with their rifles, Gerry was taking aim with his camera (he shot the pics above and below).

The Elders selected several females to harvest, and we all watched in awe as they shot them, tracked them, then cleaned and dressed them on the snow. Then we loaded everything into the qamutiks and brought the meat and skins back to town, where it will be used in the traditional feast that we will be helping the Elders prepare tomorrow!

But tonight it was the Screaming Avocado gang's turn to make a special dinner for the community in cooperation with their new-found friends on the exchange. The people of Cambridge Bay were invited to attend a dinner we all made together using some local Arctic Char and some beautiful Ontario pork!

The fundraiser for the Stratford end of the exchange was a massive success! After dinner, there was a huge Halloween party at the school that was attended by all sorts of costumed local kids, as well as the Screaming Gang and their exchange buddies. What a great night for everyone!

We finally made it!

So after six flights and what seemed like infinite delays waiting for the weather to clear enough for us to land in Cambridge Bay, we finally made it!

Cambridge Bay Airport with our new friends

We were greeted by a welcoming party of students & teachers from Kiilinik High School, and we all posed for a picture together in front of the airport's stuffed muskox.

We were told that kissing the muskox brings good luck, so Fink puckered up!

We'll all be staying at the high school until Sunday: when we got there we were made to feel right at home!

The Stratford and Cambridge Bay students got to know each other.

After some yummy chili the whole gang hung out and shot some hoops and played some floor hockey.

We're all looking forward to tomorrow when we get to see Nunavut in daylight and head out 'on the land' in snowmobile trailers called 'qamutiks'.