Week 2: Smiles, Health Discussions and Hockey
Crazy to believe another week has gone by! We are so excited to share a glimpse of our second week in Salluit.
Our first full week in the classroom brought lots of valuable health discussions. At Pigurivik elementary school we focused our lessons on nutrition. The younger students were eager learners and loved our interactive activities. At Ikusik secondary school we taught various lessons including: sexual health, self- esteem and bullying. These health topics encouraged students to think deeper about important aspects of their health. At the Boys Rehab we facilitated discussions on both bullying and sexual health. We always look forward to working with this awesome group of boys - it's mutual... these boys even show up to our classes early!
This week we continued to develop strong bonds with students through various extra curricular activities. On Sunday, we joined the run club on their final run before their big competition. Wishing the run club all the best as they compete this weekend in "Le Grand Défi", a relay race from Montreal to Quebec City. On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to skate at the arena with some of Salluit's new and coming hockey players. School ended early on Wednesday but luckily we still got to make smoothies and friendship bracelets with a group of grade 5 girls. Thursday morning started off right with another epic hockey game with the Boys Rehab. After school we caught some rays as we hiked to the Salluit sign with an energetic bunch. On Friday, we joined Thomas from Youth Fusion at yet another elaborate and delicious cooking class. This week the students made: quiche, apple pie and cookies for their mothers for Mother's Day (those are some lucky moms!). We spent the morning today working on a Bulletin Board full of health tips and resources available to the students in Salluit.
Week two also brought some wonderful opportunities to get to know more community members. On Sunday, one of the teachers introduced us to a very special elder in the community. It was another welcoming visit and we got to share our freshly baked oatmeal cookies with her over tea. On Wednesday, we went to the 7pm church service. We were overjoyed by the warm welcome and inclusiveness from the regulars. We were so grateful to have the service personally translated for us from Inuktitut to English. The grocery store is also a great way to get to know more of the community. Each shop we are joined by new and familiar faces to help carry and pick our items. We love seeing our students around the town.
In our free time, we continue to enjoy running around the Salluit community (and up the hills), and taking long evening walks. The snow is starting to melt, the temperature is warming up and the days are getting longer here in Salluit.
Anyways, we've got to go prepare for our board game event tonight. We love spending time with our students on the weekends. Stay tuned to find out who is the ultimate UNO champion.
-Your Sal Pals, Kate & Kathryn