September 17th, 2013
Published by: SandyLeveque
What’s It REALLY Like To Visit Greenland? My Story of Swinging a Hammer in the North Pole This eBook was created using the Zinepal Online eBook Creator. Use Zinepal to create your own eBooks in PDF, ePub and Kindle/Mobipocket formats. Upgrade to a Zinepal Pro Account to unlock more features and hide this message.
What’s It REALLY Like To Visit Greenland? My Story of Swinging a Hammer in the North Pole
tourist office said I could stay with her aunt Louise and I’ll never forget what she said when she opened the door What on earth are you doing here in May dear? There’s nothing for tourists to see right now! She had a point. Most people go to Kuujjuaq in the winter to go ice fishing, or in the summer months, to go hunting. Arriving in May meant the snow hadn’t melted enough to go trekking but I couldn’t do any winter stuff either But I didn’t care. I was just so happy to be there. There wasn’t admittedly a great deal to see – just lots of flat snow and the small village! But I went exploring and hiking with Louise and still thoroughly enjoyed being there for a few days.
Visit Greenland
Visit Greenland is something I’ve urged many of my friends to do since spending a month in this magical, magical place. Have you been there? Or thought of going there? It’s truly one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on this planet! Have a look at these pictures and listen to this song by Taima, an Inuk project. This blog tells the story of how I ended up in the North Pole and lists Practical Resources (see the end of the article). So how did a British-French girl end up in the North Pole, swinging a hammer? The story begins at university when I decided to spend a year in Canada, teaching English. I lived in Quebec City, Quebec. And as the winter set in (with temperatures as cold as minus 40 degrees) I became fascinated with the lands even further North. I loved the Inuit culture and being somewhat of a ‘hippy’ I loved reading about their connection to the earth (or ice rather!) and their way of seeing the world. They make a conscious effort to connect to the earth in so many things and don’t see it as a silent ”object” on which they live – they talk to the earth and see it as a ‘partner’ in their lifestyle. My parents worked for an airline at that point so I asked them if they could help me fly to Kuujjuaq – one of the biggest villages in Nunavik, the French-Canadian arctic.
“What are you doing here?” To my amazement my dad managed to get me a flight! So I found myself flying up to Kuujjuaq in mid-May. A lady at the
Louise told me I should visit Greenland if I really wanted to see arctic beauty. Her words stuck with me and back in the UK I did numerous google searches, trying to figure out how I could visit Greenland on a shoe-string budget. I considered; • Working in a fish factory • Working in a prawn factory! • Writing to Greenlandic companies offering my services in exchange for board • Saving up for a kayaking trip Until one day, whilst killing time in my mind-numbingly boring part-time student job, I found the solution! A workcamp! I found one with the International Voluntary Service and wrote to ask if I could take part. It was a month long programme.
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September 17th, 2013
Published by: SandyLeveque
You worked in exchange for food, lodgings and ‘cultural visits’. Perfect! The only problem was the deadline had passed and the programme was still way over my budget. To my relief they accepted my application, and I managed to get standby tickets with Air Greenland, which brought down the cost And so it was that by the following summer I was flying to Copenhagen, Denmark on my way to Illulissat.
A Close Call But there was a small hitch. I didn’t know there was a deadline for the standby tickets and I found out on the very last day of that deadline! And – pure Hollywood style- I ended up rushing from my youth hostel in Copenhagen to the airport – and JUST making the flight. I arrived in the North Pole wearing shorts, flipflops and a tshirt. Which was fine for a sunny day in Copenhagen but not really for the North Pole!
What happened next was one of the best months of my life. My workcamp was stationed in Qeqertarsuaq - on the Western coast of Greenland. It’s a town of around 1000 people, and 1000 husky dogs (no lie). I lived in a school alongside 8 other ‘workcampers’ and our mission was to renovate a deserted building so that the town’s museum could open a new space and display a huge whale skeleton. We spent everyday (except weekends) in overalls, swinging hammers, knocking down walls, taking out filling, putting in floorboards and painting. The work was hard, grimy and physically tough. But I LOVED it! We had so much fun and it was great to do something that didn’t involve my brain all day! In our spare time we explored the village and the workcamp organisers had set up several visits. We went on boat trips, visited the town’s Mayor, a fire station (and swooned over the Inuit firemen), went dog-sledding, visited the electricity plant and even found out how they organised food supplies.
They told us that food is brought in by planes, but during the winter months it’s too icy for them to land so there is no fresh food for several months. In April time when planes can land again there are queues in the village to buy fresh fruit and groceries. We also found out that many of the town’s huskies can’t go dog-sledding anymore because the ice is too mushy on the coast line and it’s dangerous.
A Different Perspective and A Weird Night This made me sad and I’d come to Greenland ready to write tons of articles about ‘Stop Global Warming, Save Greenland’ but everyone I spoke to was so relaxed about it that my perspective changed! Here I was assuming they’d be all het up about global warming and the melting of the ice caps but the general consensus was, the earth climate goes through huge cycles and this is just part of the cycle. It’s heating up but it’s nothing to be worried about. They saw time in a way more long-term way than I did…I’ve never forgotten that. Another thing I’ve never forgotten is a strange thing that happened one night as I walked around the cliffs of the village. I saw someone in the distance, zig zagging on the path and at first I thought it was a drunken guy! So I held back for a while but as I continued I realised it was an elderly woman, who was so drunk she’d fallen into a ditch. I helped her out of the ditch and she was crying and crying. She’d cry louder if I started to leave and so I followed her into her house. She lived alone and was clearly an alcoholic because when she showed me her fridge it was full of beer. Ordinarily I probably wouldn’t have stuck around but she was so intent on talking to me – in Inuktitut – that I felt I should listen and she seemed very lonely. She showed me dozens of pictures of her family and I ended up sitting with her for around 5 hours until 2am.
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September 17th, 2013
It was one of the weirdest yet amazing moments of my entire life. She was talking to me passionately in Inuktitut, and I was replying in English – and technically we couldn’t understand each other. Yet we did.
Published by: SandyLeveque
Realising that I have that same sense of peace made my heart sing…. …because it’s a beautiful thing
((and it rhymes ha!!))
A Conscious Choice
She gave me food and a beaded candle holder and talking to her brought home the strangeness of life for many Inuit communities like hers.
And….I’m happy because it didn’t just happen.
How do you live day to day when your heart beats to the traditions of your community and land, but your mind also enjoys the creature comforts of ‘Western’ life?
I did this part-time, whilst I also taught Zumba® classes.
Western life brought roads, houses and schools to Greenland, but it also brought about cancer, diabetes, a much more stationary lifestyle and the dwindling of many traditions that made the communities tick
I made a deliberate choice to build a business that would allow me to work wherever, and whenever I like. And now the work I put into learning the skillset of having an online business, is paying off. I’m traveling with my laptop, Zumbawear, dog and 1.5 suitcases! I know that if it’s something you wish to create too, you CAN.
The sheer beauty of the icebergs is one thing that has always been there though and hopefully, will remain for as long as possible.
Wherever you wish to travel too, or just want to have a flexible part-time business that allows you to do more of the things you’d like to do.
They blew my mind.
It just takes a choice and consistent action to learn this – amazingly liberating - skillset.
When you visit Greenland you know there will be icebergs but when you stare out to sea, and see these majestic mountains of ice in the water, it is simply stunning. I spent many moments just sitting on my own, watching them.
If this is something you wish to do too, watch this video. Read this FAQ. And Join my amazing, inspiring team – Team Have it ALL! – here. This is what new members receive to help them get started. I know you can do it – if you truly wish to
And if you get the chance to visit Greenland, GO FOR IT! Practical Resources:
PS. If you enjoyed this read this too:
Peace of Mind And ever since my visit to Greenland, these moments and that month in the North Pole have stuck in my mind as the time I’ve been happiest in my life What inspired this blog was sitting out here in the French countryside, and realising that for the first time since then, I feel the same sense of peace and connection with nature I’m staying in a remote French rural village and get to sit out in nature everyday- even on Monday Mornings he he …. There are few people and whilst there are no icebergs, there are valleys, hills and rivers that are beautiful too.
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