Naturen

Kan du se bygden på billedet?!

Can you see the settlement on this pictire?!

I går tog nogle kursister os på en dejlig gåtur i fjeldet omkring bygden (fire timer). Det samme gjorde vi sidste weekend, hvor ’gåtur’ åbenbart var ensbetydende med ’jagt’ uden at jeg viste det. To fyr havde deres rifler med og begyndte pludselig at skyde og løbe efter noget. Efter ca. et kvarter kom de tilbage med en rype. Det var den første gang, at jeg så en riffel i virkeligheden... Jeg fik også lov til at skyde den - sjovt, men også lidt mærkeligt. Jeg syntes dog, det var skræmmende at se nogle af mine ældste elever (13) gå rundt med en riffel – jeg må hellere passe på, at jeg ikke bliver uvenner med dem...

Vi så ørne, men desværre ikke rensdyr, ”tuttu”, selvom de færdes omkring bygden. Jeg nød det skønne, bakkede tundralandskab meget. Man kan gå (eller klatre) alle steder og det gør folk også – især børnene nyder friheden, som findes her i ’menneskenes land’. Nogle gange synker man i sneen op til hofterne, andre steder er frie for sne og man kan se blåbærrene, som vokser her i efteråret. Man er ikke begrænset af noget, kun sin egen forsigtighed. Men den er nem at glemme, når man kommer til en af de mange sneede bakker, fordi det bare er sjovt at rutsje eller rulle ned. Derudover tog vi genvejen over det tilfrosne hav for at komme til en ferskvandskilde. Vi skulle grave gennem ca. 1m is for at gøre den fri – her henter folk vand om weekenden, fordi det er så rent.

Nature

Yesterday some of our students took us on a four-hour-hike through the hills around Atammik. We did the same last weekend, when ‘going for a hike’ seemed to mean the same as ‘hunting’ without me being aware of that. Two guys had their rifles with them and suddenly started shooting and running after something. After around 15 minutes they came back with a lagopus (yes, I had to look this up on Wikipedia). It was the first time that I tried to shoot a gun – fun, but also a bit strange for me. I especially got mixed feelings when I saw some of my older students (13) walking around with guns. I have to make sure to stay on their good side I think…

We saw eagles, but unfortunately no reindeer, “tuttu”, even though they live around here. I enjoyed the beautiful, hilly tundra landscape a lot. You can walk (or climb) everywhere and people make use of that – especially the children enjoy the freedom they have here in ‘the country of the people’. Some places we sunk in the snow up to our hips, other places were free of snow and we could see the blueberries that grow here during fall. There is a feeling of not being limited by anything – only your own fear. But that is easy to forget, because there are endless possibilities to do fun stuff like sledding down the snowy hills and gliding over the ice. We also walked across the frozen sea to get to a spring, where people go and get water during the weekends, because it is so pure and tastier than the one we get in town. But we had to dig through 1m of ice to get to it.