Tobogganing, running, yoga, hockey, ping pong… and more!

1/3 of the way done!We can’t believe that another week has flown by here in Salluit. And boy, has it been a busy one! We have had a full week of teaching at the high school, and all of our lessons have gone very well so far. The main topics that we taught this week included smoking (the health consequences of smoking and how to quit), safe alcohol consumption, leadership, bullying issues and how to solve them, and healthy hygiene habits.We also spent a great deal of time at the fitness centre this week, dropping by almost every evening. We quickly discovered how awesome the Salluit Fitness Centre is! They even have punching bags and boxing gloves there… which we have had a lot of fun learning how to use! On the days were we weren’t at the fitness centre, and even on some days when we had already been to the fitness centre, we would go to the hockey rink in town and have a ton of fun playing shinny with some members of the community. They were very good, but we like to think that we kept up pretty well! We will be heading back to the rink and the fitness centre as often as possible. Active PEs are happy PEs, here in Salluit.(*Note: PEs = peer educators, a.k.a. Michelle and Steph!).On Wednesday morning, we had guests arrive from another community in Nunavik, called Kuujjuaq. Three students and two teachers came to stay with us for 3 days, while on an exchange program in Salluit. On Wednesday, we also had the opportunity to attend a staff meeting after school. We both expressed our thanks for how warmly we have been welcomed into the community by the staff members at the high school. After school, Michelle went sledding with our guests from Kuujjuaq, along with our favourite dog Anuri (who belongs to our neighbour). After an awesome time sledding, we all bundled up inside and played some cards. We had so much fun!Thursday was our busiest day so far. It comprised a full day of teaching, printing schedules, getting organized for next week, and meeting with the school guidance counsellor, Mary. She has been extremely helpful, not only for translating some of our lessons in Inuttitut, but also for providing us with excellent resources to enhance our lessons – like a pair of fake rubber lungs to represent the difference between a healthy lung and an unhealthy, tar-filled smoker’s lung!After school, we organized a running club for interested students. We ran a 3km loop around the town. We had a ton of fun, and we look forward to our next Running club meet on Monday!After a great run, we came back home and played some poker with the girls from Kuujjuaq. We used Scrabble letters as chips, but the game still got pretty intense. We’re all pretty competitive!Our day on Friday began with another lesson at the boy’s rehab centre. We love teaching there! Following a busy afternoon of teaching at the high school, we ran our second ping-pong tournament after school! We had a huge turnout - 22 students!! And although it was a handful to keep an eye on all of them, we had so much fun! It’s safe to say that the ping-pong tournament was a huge success!After school, we spent another great evening at the fitness centre. We even ran into two students there and invited them to do a short yoga flow with us. We all really enjoyed ourselves. And somehow or another, our yoga turned into a fun aerobic dance party… which was even more fun!We had absolutely amazing weather this weekend! It was filled with clear skies and sunshine. I think we may have even gotten a bit sunburnt. We filled our weekends with beautiful hikes along the water, lesson planning, and, our favourite, eating.Thanks for keeping up with us!Michelle and Steph xo