John...Teaching?

Sakastew School

I guess it was inevitable that, at some point in my life I would end up Teaching.  There being teachers in both my immediate family as well as cousins, uncles, aunts it was only a matter of time and necessity.  So come tuesday morning 9:00, as a Supply Teacher, I will begin teaching my first Elementary Computer class.  Sure the curriculum and class work is laid out for me, and I only have each grade for 30 minutes, but it is officially teaching nonetheless!  If it goes well, I may be a busy man.  I also thank the school for being polite by actually making it a computer class... something I am more comfortable with.  Wish me Luck!!!!

Pukatawagan Firestation

Mural of a photograph from the 40's or 50's

I  recieved a service call at the other end of town yesterday, and decided it was an opportunity to take my camera along to take a few pictures of the interesting things along the half hour walk across town.  During my trip I was picked up not by one but two police officers! The RCMP Officer that gave me a ride to my destination was a very polite lady, was curious where I was from, and was happy just to give me a ride.  On my way home, as I was snapping the following pictures, apparently the Chief saw me and asked one of his Constables from the Pukatawagan Police, to pick me up and see what I was up to.  The Constable was very polite, and curious.  His comment that most people prefer to take pictures of Puk from the air to avoid landing here was a perfect example of the sense of humour that is found in the community!  He brought me right to my door, and after talking in general, he offered to sit down sometime and tell me more about the history of Pukatawagan, as apparently it was quite the "Dodge City" back in the day.

Here are the pics of a few of the things Colette and I see walking to the Northern Store and back...

...Due to weather constraints we have not been on the water.  But when we do have an opportunity, there will be tons of pictures!

This look like alot of fun...

...and lets us know how much snow to expect!!!!

Roadsign on the way home from school.

One Week In

Well, we have made it through our first week in Puk!  In fact everything has gone pretty well...

We arrived at the airport in The Pas last saturday at approximately noon. There were a few cool looking Helicopters and some yellow cargo looking planes.  Colette went in to use the washroom and noticed there was no "Missinippi Air" wicket.   When she came back to the truck and mentioned this I really didnt think much of it, but after using the little boys room and snapping a few pictures I mentioned to the lady working at the "Calm Air" desk that we had flights booked to Pukatawagan at 3pm and where could we start checking our luggage in?  Its funny sometimes how you can tell something just by a persons expression, as if they do not want to be the one to tell you but instead are trying to project an answer to you purely by the look on their face... so, i thought to myself... there are 2 airports in The Pas. After getting some quick directions, and realizing the Missinipi airport was a 5 minute drive from our hotel,  we backtracked the 25 minute drive back into town. 

Plane we flew on to Pukatawagan

Arriving at the "actual" airport, we got all our luggage checked in, packed the cartop carrier in the Pathy, and got the dogs in their crates.  I helped the 2 pilots load the dogs on the plane, and we found that 2 of our tubs were not going to be able to make the actual flight with us, but would come later.  The 45 minute flight went well, one of the passengers was the bus driver for the school, and another an EA.  Shortly after take off we landed on the gravel airstrip in Pukatawagan safely. 

Immediately after landing and getting all the cargo off the plane we had our first "welcome to Puk!"  there were quite a few locals waiting at the airport and we found out our ride was there waiting for us.  John, the maintenance supervisor at the school, informed us alot of the mailed tubs had arrived before us, so we stopped by the school to pick them up, and he dropped us and our packages at our "Teacherage".

Our House is very comfortable!  It is a bungalow with a very open entrance/living room that is also open right into the kitchen!  Makes it seem like a much larger living space than we expected!  We were not expected to share living quarters which we were very thankful for! 

Our Humble Abode

Although it has only been a short amount of time, the "welcome to Puk" we received at the airport has rang true throughout the week. Everyone has been friendly, from the teachers and staff, to the people in town, waves are common as we are walking the road to the Northern Store. While at the store a lady even said "welcome home" which would have been an odd thing to say except that also oddly, we are very comfortable here!  The house is clean, the dogs are happy, and we have settled in nicely.

Colette is getting things under control at the school Library as the Teacher/Librarian, and I have also been busy after making a contact in The Pas.  I have already helped install and alarm system at The Northern store and Burns, the gentleman I was helping sold another system after being approached by a shopper.  I will be installing that one on my own!  The school also is a place where I will be able to keep busy.

More pics below on request, More to come...

The view on the walk back and forth to school!

VERY expensive, but good for small necessities.

A Ceremonial Island

Living Room

Kitchen

So Innocent!

The Trip

Hello Everyone!

Not only is this my first blog ever... this is the first time I've ever felt I had something to blog about!

After spending some time with friends and family we finished the packing and left on Monday Aug. 16 at about 4 pm.

Our first stop was Sudbury on monday night.  Found a hotel room and crashed! The next morning i went to the Nissan dealership because the truck was using an abnormal amount of gas.  They unplugged the O2 sensor and sent me on my way.  Fortunately we had much better gas mileage the rest of the trip.

Northern Ontario

Second day was a long day, as we made the drive from Sudbury all the way into Thunder Bay.  We took turns driving, which made it possible for us to get some km's behind us. 

Third day we made it from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg without an issue.

Fourth day we drove from Winnipeg to The Pas, at which point both Colette and Myself had had enough of the highway, and we were happy to finally be at our first destination.

It was a long drive to say the least. Coming through the concetrated population of Southern Ontario, into the vastness of Northern Ontario, into the big skies of Manitoba, and finally into Northern Manitoba.

We will be flying to Pukatawagan tomorrow at approx 3 pm.

Enjoy some pics of our trip so far!

John

Colette and I lerned how to make bread from my sister Barb.

We had the truck packed pretty full;)