‘Uptown’ in Pangnirtung

Monday, January 31, 2011

Pangnirtung, Nunavut

This afternoon I headed off to do my first interview in town. The woman told me the colour of her house and gave her address as ‘uptown.’ I walked out of our hotel and asked people I passed on the street, where exactly ‘uptown’ was. I got the same response from pretty much everyone I asked:

‘Up,’ followed by an intense stare, ‘town.’

Gee, thanks.

One guy made a vague gesture towards one of the roads heading up a hill so I followed it until I couldn’t go any further. The houses all seemed pretty much the same colour to me. After knocking at several of them, I was finally pointed to the correct one.

By the time the interview was finished, it was dark and snowing. I headed out on the road figuring it would be pretty straight forward getting back to the hotel. But the more I walked the more violent the snow and wind became. Soon, I could only see a few metres ahead. But I could still see the road beneath my feet so wasn’t too worried. But after a bit more time the walk downhill to the hotel was seeming longer than the walk up. Soon, I saw a truck come out of the whiteness in front of me and flagged it down. I asked the guy how much further to the hotel.

“Ooooh, I think you better get in,” he said.

He did a quick U-turn. That’s when I realized that rather than walking downhill to the hotel, I had walked almost completely to the edge of the community without even knowing it. Just a few short metres from the boonies.

He drove me to the front door of the hotel and said to be careful if I went out again.

Kind of embarrassing. But on the plus side, at least my keys worked this time.