I'm writing to you today from Ikuskik School in Salluit, in Nunavik. It's lunch time and I should really be eating lunch... but I couldn't resist slipping into the computer room so that I could send you my report!
Salluit is a beautiful snowy town on the Hudson Bay. I am working with Katherine's classes. I've already worked with a couple of her groups. I asked Katherine's Grades 7 students whether any of them liked to read or write. No one said anything at first, but then I caught a student named Maina looking at one of my books. Ah ha, I thought to myself, here's a reader!!
A few of Maina's classmates talked about how they go hunting for seal and caribou. I told them I'm a hunter, too, only I hunt for stories. I'm also a spy... wherever I go, I try to observe people and listen to their stories. Sometimes, I tell my students that the air around me feels "thick with stories." That's how it feels here in Salluit.
Tragically, the day before I arrived, a little boy was killed here in a car accident. In a town this size, everyone is touched by this death. I offered my condolences today to the students I met, and I told them how for me, when life gets really tough, when I feel close to giving up hope... I turn to writing and reading. Perhaps my visit here will inspire some of them to do the same.