Let The Games Begin!

Yesterday the winter games began in Sanikiluaq! Similar to the ancient Roman times, these games....yada yada. Just kidding. These are completely different than anything I have ever seen (not that I saw real roman games, but you get the point) - I mean how many Canadians can make an igloo? At least one that stands up? In the picture to the left, Terry and some mini-friends are kneeling inside one of the igloos that was built in the igloo contest yesterday. Throughout Christmas-night games took place at the community hall, continued all day yesterday and they are back at it today and tonight - apparently no one parties quite like the North!


After we checked out the igloos we went to watch the gas can race. This is done by young women only, and the concept is to make it to 100 feet or so with an empty gas can sitting on a small garbage bag while the women pull it with a string. Pretty funny stuff to watch! I believe the prize at the end of that contest was a gift certificate for the top 3 winners to one of the stores. Well worth it when a 12 pack of pop costs about $19.


Unfortunately yesterday I came down with a cold and was unable to really go around town to check out all the activities - so I sent out my trusty side-kick T-Ly. Terry and Mike headed up to the community hall yesterday eve to participate and watch some of the games going on within. Last night's entertainment was the "jig" dance, where people were invited up, one by one, to dance a jig (each to the same song) to win a prize. I believe there were a lot of other games going on throughout the night as this morning was pretty quiet around town.

Today was the FEAST. At 2:30 everyone in the community heads over to the community hall to enjoy some local country food (country food means local delicacies, which include, but are not limited to, raw seal meat, whale meat and reindeer meat).

As a side note, we woke up this morning to a sunny sky once again and then within the hour a really thick fog moved in and covered everything with pretty sparkly crystals - including the dog who had whiter face than usual.

Wasn't feeling up to par to do much today and while we went to check the FEAST out, it was a long wait having 947 people ahead of you and one I wasn't really up for, considering I am not feeling 100% ...too bad, I know, I mean who doesn't want to eat raw seal meat right?! Terry has his own stash of raw caribou, so he wasn't too upset about missing the FEAST.

More pictures to come tomorrow. It has started snowing tonight, winds are supposed to pick up again overnight and the temperature is supposed to drop...here comes the cold winter days. Countdown is definitely on to our southern trip!

DJ
xo