Welcome to Salluit: the Land of Mountains, Dogs and Beautiful Culture!
With a quick overnight stay in Puvirnituq (which is so beautiful by the way!!), we made it to Salluit on Monday morning. We were instantly amazed by the beautiful geography in Salluit - the mountains, blue skies, beautiful sunsets (Kathryn's fav... if you know, you know) and fresh air. We are already taking full advantage of the beautiful running routes in Salluit... with some pretty heavy duty hill training that is kicking our butts!
The community in Salluit has been so welcoming to us. The walks to school are early and cold, but luckily there are so many friendly faces here to join us. We especially love when the dogs keep us company on our walks in the community.
We are so lucky to be living with such an awesome grade 5 teacher! Shout out to Paul! We appreciate his snoring, sleep talking and awesome laugh (he seriously LOLs).
We’ve also been thoroughly enjoying getting to know students, staff and community members. On Tuesday, we made delicious homemade pizzas at the Iqitsivik Family House. Then on Wednesday and Thursday, we made friendship bracelets with an awesome girl gang. The girls at Ikusik high school learn so quick and made some beautiful bracelets.
On Thursday, we played hockey with the boys from the rehab center, and we were SO impressed by all the boys. They seriously know how to play some good hockey over here. It's amazing how the sport of hockey connects people. We then led a lesson on friendships/healthy relationships. This was a fun lesson with lots of icebreaker activities and we got to know the boys really well. On Friday, we taught nutrition at Ikusik. This lesson focused mainly on sugar consumption and the benefits of water. Who knew there was so much sugar in pop! We also got to attend a cooking class on Friday that was run by Youth Fusion. This was an awesome opportunity to get to know more students. We were amazed by their cooking skills. These students pulled off a ramen soup and homemade bagels!! On Saturday, we attended the primary school girl's spa day. This included: hair, nails, colouring and massages! Were we ever pampered today!
We are really looking forward to getting into a teaching routine next week. Our main focus for next week is self-esteem and stress management. We will be in both Pigiurvik (elementary) and Ikusik (high school) as well as the Boys Rehab Center. We can't wait to continue taking in the beautiful views in Salluit and getting to know the beautiful people.
-Your Sal Pals (Kate & Kathryn)