Montreal to Iqaluit via Kuujjuaq

And we’re off!

(That would be producer Levon Sevunts, cameraman Luc Robida, soundman Jean Cayouette and, of course, myself.)

We’re flying First Air and the size and quality of the meal was astounding. Like, really, really good. Our hot breakfast was a western omelette, French toast with stewed apples and maple syrup, bread, crackers, cheese, juice, coffee. And in gargantuan portions. I was given more to eat on that one four-hour flight than I’ve been given on entire 19-hour flights to Australia.

The plane was also filled with interesting people.

I spent most of my time talking to a woman named Jeannie who was from Kangirsuk.

Kangirsuk is a small community of about 400 people in Nunavik.

Nunavik (“The place to live”) is a predominantly Inuit territory in Northern Quebec. The region covers about a third of the Canadian province of Quebec. About 12,000 people live there.

Anyway, Jeannie had accompanied her pregnant daughter down to Montreal. There, her daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Now, they were all heading back to Kangirsuk.

Jeannie cradled her newborn grandson in her arms for most of the flight.

She told me she was astounded by the size that every one of her grandchildren were when they were born.

‘Babies didn’t used to be so big back then,” she said looking at her grandson and shaking her head.

“Back then?” I asked.

“Back when we lived in igloos,” she said. “I remember they (babies) were so much smaller back then.

“I don’t know what happened.”