More From Me in Akulivik

It's Day Three of our visit to Akulivik. Winds today are gusting at 45 kilometers an hour. so my morning run only lasted 10 minutes -- after which I went into the house where I'm staying andran around there!!

Something I forgot to tell you about one of the students I met on Monday afternoon in Povungnituk -- his name is Harry and you'll never guess what he's going to be doing this weekend?

CARRYING THE OLYMPIC TORCH!!

Pretty amazing, don't you think? Harry is a talented hockey player and that is why he'll be traveling from Povungnituk to Kuujjuaq and then to Ottawa with the torch.

Now I'm sure you want to know what's up in Akulivik besides the high winds! The kids here are getting into the writing and the photography. Later, I'll be working privately with two students -- Annie and Jason -- to help them generate more material for their class's chapter in this year's edition of Quebec Roots: The Place Where I Live.

This morning, my partner here, photographer Thomas Kneubuhler , did a great session on how to take good photos. What I loved most were all the connections between photography and WRITING!! Thomas showed us a photo of a dark sky just before a storm and he said, "Trouble makes a good photo." That's true in writing, too -- trouble makes a story more interesting. He also showed us a blurry photo and explained that a better photo is more focused. This is also true about stories. If they're too vague, we lose interest. Thomas also stressed that often, a photographer needs to shoot a photo many times before he or she gets what Thomas calls "the perfect shot." Well, let me tell you, that's certainly the case when I'm writing. I go over and over what I write until I think it's worth sharing with my readers. Only, I don't think I've ever reached perfection -- in fact, that may be what brings me back to the computer screen (or my notepad) every day: the desire to get things right, to say what I want so much to say.

I head home tomorrow, so chances are my next blog entry will come from Montreal. Thanks so so so much to all the people who've helped to organize this trip: Daniel Lafleur at the Kativik School Board, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, the Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation -- and the many new friends I've met on this trip.