So, on my journey to Uummannaq, I stayed overnight in Reykjavik, Iceland, due to engine problems, which made me miss my flight from Ilulissat, GL, a “big” town of 4 or 5 thousand, to Uummannaq, GL. Through the Uummannaq Children’s Home, I had been trying to arrange a place to stay in Ilulissat for my planned overnight. It hadn’t panned out, and I arrived in Ilulissat for a 5 day unintended layover with nowhere to stay! After hitchhiking to a fancy hotel, I ended up at another children’s home, where I played a bunch of soccer, began my Kalallisut (Greenlandic) lessons with the kids, and was invited to a family’s home, where I had my first taste of seal (super strong!). Over the next few days, I did a bunch of hiking, including going with the family through a tunnel to an old gravesite. Ilulissat has the most active glacier in the world, meaning it spews out the most ice of anywhere! And it, like almost all other glaciers in GL/the world, has retreated- a whopping 40 or 50 km in the past 100 years (approximate numbers).
On July 5, after another airplane and helicopter flight, I reached the town under Uummannaq, the “heart shaped mountain.” I moved in with Lis, a sweet Danish lady, to a house on a cliff, which overlooks the midnight sun to the north. Every evening as I walked home, I would be greeted by a gorgeous sunlit-view. The Queen of Denmark would be visiting the Children’s Home in a week, so all were abuzz cleaning and making everything look pretty. I shoveled poop from 25 dogs, which, I can tell you, was a multi-day job. Almost every day, something exciting would happen, such as a 25 year wedding anniversary, a birthday party (on mine I was given a drum song by Robert (“Hivshu”) Peary, the great grandson of the American explorer of the same name, who arguably reached the North Pole first-video maybe to come later), hiking to “Santa’s house” on the backside of the island, chasing whales in speedboats, driving boats underneath arches in icebergs, studying Kalallisut with a visiting Frenchwoman, watching icebergs collapse in the town bay, playing a trailer of Ole Jorgen’s film, “Inuk,” for the Queen, relearning a bit of trumpet, just “sailing” in the motorboats for the heck of it, visiting the café (which sells coffee, French fries, and hot dogs), etc. It wasn’t all fun and games though; I spent many uncertain hours at the Children’s Home thinking I should be doing something to help, but not knowing where I could help without being in the way or which behaviors were no-no’s, and not having the language ability to communicate any of this. It also takes a while for people to get used to your presence, and I could begin to feel people warming to me slowly, ever so slowly.
After the Queen visited, a few kids and hunters from the home, and I, were supposed to leave for a boat trip north towards Qaanaaq, but, of course, this was postponed. So, on July 18 I rode a large halibut long-line fishing boat to Qaarsut, a nearby settlement of 2 or 3 hundred, where I was invited to a birthday party “kaffemik” (any excuse to get together and have locally harvested traditional foods in one room and devilish cakes/tea/coffee in another). The difference in food, as well as pace, between the settlement and the town of Uummannaq was astonishing! No cars, no café, mainly houses, drying racks, and sled dogs, tied up for the summer. The older brother of the birthday girl happened to like hiking, so he joined me for my overnight jaunt up the hill, which turned into a 2 day backpacking tour, as our “1 day” trip to Qaarsut became 3. He spoke great English, so as we climbed 1.5 km up past teensy flowers, massive rock walls and glaciers, and arctic hares, I learned more Greenlandic. It’s a ridiculously difficult language. Completely different from anything I have studied before. For example, I believe the word “appaliarsuniaqatingisinavakkit?” means “Can I come catching appaliarsuit with you?” Entire sentences are built onto root forms. It’s fun to (try to) learn a totally different way of speaking/thinking, but quite frustrating! I have joked with people that perhaps the reason that Greenlanders often don’t speak too much is that the words are so long: “immanguaq” means “a bit,” “massakkut” means “now,” “umiatsiaq” means “boat,” etc. Anyway, after the hike, I was planning to sleep, but played tag on an old fish drying rack and stayed up all night with a young couple fishing for halibut from a small boat. It was really great to see. On their single long-line, which had 1500 hooks over 1.5 km, they pulled in probably 800 halibut, and only 40 or 50 other fish, plus one unidentified plastic object, thrown into the ocean, as people tend to do here. The work was rhythmical, but incredibly repetitive. Fishing, the food industry, and probably all physical jobs are TOUGH. But, they have their benefits also, such a location where, instead of gaping at the rising sun, you shoot at nearby whales (to scare them away from the line).
Even though I felt as though I was just beginning to become comfortable in Uummannaq, the reason I had gone there as a first destination was upon us, a multiple-week trip north along the west coast in small speedboats! The purpose of the trip is purportedly as a reconnaissance for future trips with more children from the home. My easy conclusion: it’s worth it! My only regrets from the trip are: we used a lot of gasoline, we didn’t make it all the way to Qaanaaq or Siorapaluk (the northernmost settlement), and I didn’t shoot at a seal when all were shouting at me to do so (killing your first seal is a right of passage here, where seals are not clubbed, as commercial sealers did in the past, but are harvested in what seems like a sustainable manner (I’ll have to check though!), with almost the ENTIRE animal used). “You are more lucky than lucky,” said Ole Jorgen, and I agree. I wrote a short trip report for Uummannaq Polar Institute, the organization run by Ann and Ole Jorgen that facilitates visits from people like me (and those more prestigious, like NY Times journalists, authors, the Prince of Monaco, etc.), which I have reproduced in part below.
A few thoughts specifically regarding my declared project theme:
• Many people semi-regularly consume (a few times a week) traditional/local foods that they have harvested or purchased at the local market or supermarket/general store, especially in the smaller settlements, and on special occasions. However, as I knew would be the case, it seems to me that some of the most commonly consumed foods are soda, candy, and other junk foods, along with staples such as potatoes and bread (rye and white). Very few fresh vegetables, as can be expected given their short shelf-life and the long journey they must make to arrive. Only some frozen vegetables.
• My guess would be that in the next few years, “Western diet” related health problems (diabetes, overweight and obesity) will rise in prominence, such as in northern Canada or the suburban US today. I’m not sure what the rates of lung and other cancers are, but I would like to find out, because a ridiculous number (somewhere near 70%) of adults smoke cigarettes.
• People here do not seem aware or concerned that the blubber of the seals and whales they eat contains harmful levels of pollutants that have drifted north from industrial and agricultural countries (such as Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs). Benefits, both nutritional and cultural, from the consumption of these animals may still outweigh any negative impacts from the pollutants.
• I have not yet gotten a good gauge of perceptions related to climate change. A few people are actively engaged in the global discussion, and some do not believe that the current change in the local climate is related to man’s activities. “The climate has always changed,” they say. However, all would agree that the climate is changing, with warmer summer and winter temperatures, less predictable weather, less culturally and economically important sea ice (6 weeks instead of 6 months/year in Uummannaq), retreating glaciers, changing shapes of icebergs, etc. People are adapting as they can, but in many of the changes are unavoidable, such as the reduction in dog sledding due to lack of sea ice. Only a few people seem to have taken action to change their own behavior to reduce their own emissions (mitigation), and I know of nothing that has been done at a larger scale. Some of this may stem from the greater importance of summer fishing over hunting, which relies more on the ice. And some of it may stem from a cultural movement about which I previously knew very little, in which many Greenlanders want to move away from dog sledding, hunting, and boating, to a fancier, more modern or mainstream European-type lifestyle. Who knows how much this is possible- for Sila (the weather, the “vital force” of the earth, or some other better definition) is strong in the Arctic. Greenland is part of Denmark, but I had not realized quite how great of a cultural and economic influence Denmark exerts. Like the southern belt of Canada over the north, or the lower 48 over Alaska, I suppose. In this regard, the people of Greenland are VERY lucky compared to other indigenous Arctic peoples, for the Danes were kind, protecting the Greenlanders from much of the harm other colonizing powers inflicted on their native populations, and actually allowing for the continuation of some of the local culture and ways.
I almost feel as though I would be content to finish my Watson now, I have learned so much and had such a wonderful time. I don’t know how I could improve or add to my experiences in Greenland, but the time to move on is approaching (for both visa and curiosity reasons). Currently, I’m hoping to stop over in Iceland for a few weeks to get a feeling for a more Nordic Arctic country (especially one that has agriculture!). Then I will head to Krasnoyarsk, Russia, where, if all works out, I will join a group of researchers from Siberian Federal University on expeditions in October to indigenous reindeer herding communities in Evenkiya (Surinda) and the Tuva Republic. You probably know as much about these places as me! You can find Krasnoyarsk midway along this map of the Trans Siberian Railway.
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