Working

So another thing I'm doing in Yellowknife (see previous post, "Charlotte Kwon") that I didn't do, or even try to do in Calgary, is to work at different jobs.

For example, I'm substitute teaching at the two highschools - St Pat's Catholic High is a stone's throw in the one direction from my building, Sir John Franklin a stone's throw in the other. Both are architecturally beautiful buildings and a pleasure as a working environment. Here's a view of St Pat's from my balcony:

Actually, the grade school Weledeh is attached to St Pat's (it's the left portion), and the flat space in the foreground is the playground which at regular intervals fills with snow-suited children running about as though the sub-zero temperatures really didn't matter. Foxes play there, too, although not at the same time as the children, and ravens do regular clean-ups of whatever needs it.

 Sir John's is a two-minute walk in the other direction:

Imbedded inside Sir John's is NACC, the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, allowing me to access all kinds of events just a short walk away. The other evening a recent light snowfall added a gem-like sparkle to the landscape. And when I made a brief detour up on the hill on the left, to see what the view might be, a fox trotted by.

WHAT do I teach, you ask? Well, Friday was an interesting example: at Sir John's I taught CALM (Career and Life Management), art, badminton (!), and yoga (!!). I also attended the Remembrance Day assembly. It's of course a legitimate question as to how much substitute teaching is actual "teaching" - I'd say it's 1/3 teaching, 2/3 supervising. For example, because of a glitsch due to the Assembly the class next door, connected to my classroom with an interior door, had one period in which students did not actually have a teacher. I knew most of these kids from previous subbing days, so I stuck my head in periodically to make sure that the few who wanted to do something constructive were able to do so, and that the rest weren't doing anything destructive. That's not actually a bad goal for life in general, it seems to me.

I must give kudos for anything I am able to accomplish to the teachers who prepare detailed and thoughtful lesson plans, to the kids who tolerate my direction, and to the school structure itself which sets standards for behaviour.

Surprisingly, perhaps - I quite enjoy it! At one of my St Pat's days the teacher had departed without leaving lesson plans, much to the principal's chagrin (actually - the teacher was on a bus to Hay River with the soccer team and had intended to email the lesson plans, but it's a reality of NT living that one is quickly out of cell-phone range, and the teacher had miscalculated...). So for the first period I just winged it: explained the situation to the students, asked them what they were working on and what they wanted to do, and said that if there was time left over I would teach them some German. "YEAH!!" was their reaction - and the class was one of the three most dynamite ones that I've taught so far.

In addition to teaching I've done other work: during the municipal election on October 15 I was one of the Deputy Electoral Officers, swearing people in if they weren't on the voter's list, handing out ballots, receiving them back, counting counting counting. It was a thirteen-hour day, but quite enjoyable - I was surprised by how many people I already knew.

I've also made and sold various kinds of bags/purses. In Calgary I had made similar items and donated them to charity, but given the robust craft market here I thought that just for a year I'd see what the selling experience might be like. So far I've sold about 15 - and here is a picture of some at a craft fair:

Interesting, though - my heart is not in sales. If I get $40 or $50 for a purse, it's a good meal in Yellowknife; if I donate the purse to a Grandmothers-to-Grandmothers fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, that $40 could feed an AIDS-ravaged grandmother and a good number of her grandchildren for a month.

Finally, just to further illustrate the point that there's varied work to be had: I shortened the overalls for two of my brother-in-law's workmates. That involved driving out to the industrial section, measuring, altering, and returning - I explored the area and met a few new people in the process. Here's the overall in my workspace:

Upshot: Looking for work, and working at various jobs, has been interesting from a personal development point of view. As a teenager I worked for close to seven years, from 13-20, in a textile store in Hamilton. I vowed, after that, never to do the same work for more than one year. Of course the profession intervened and I spent 27 years teaching German. But now I'm redoing some of those teenage/early 20s years, and I find myself asking: what do I really want to do, in what form, for whom, and why? It's a development that has given me greater empathy for all those who are at the beginning of the process of becoming who they are, especially high-school kids. Life as a circle, unexpectedly and after all.

Charlotte Kwon

"So what can you do in Yellowknife that you couldn't do here?" is the somewhat peevish, possibly rhetorical, question sometimes posed by (some) Southern relatives.

A legitimate question, I suppose - although in answering it, my main conundrum is: where to begin?!?

Well - here's an example. My house guest this week is Charlotte Kwon of Maiwa Handprints in Vancouver: check out her company at Maiwa Handprints. Charlotte's passion is the natural dyes of this world, with a special focus on artisans in remote areas whose exquisite work does not easily reach world markets. Some years ago I had visited her store / teaching space in Granville Island (what's not to like about fibre arts in Granville Island?) and bought something there, without really knowing much about the story behind the company or the person. Then a year or so later I attended a lecture by her at ACAD (the Alberta College of Art and Design), and I began to catch a glimmer of the excitement of the field, and of Charlotte's status as one of the premier natural dyers and teachers of the natural dyeing process in Canada.

And here in Yellowknife - she's my house guest! Here she is enjoying breakfast (we share taste in strong coffee, good/unusual cheese, and prosciutto):

She's not here to visit me, of course - that was the luck of the draw of being one of the few people in my fibre group who has an extra bedroom and no pets. Rather, she's teaching a week-long workshop on natural dyeing at the Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts. For her introductory Tuesday night lecture she laid out some of the luscious wares she sells at the Granville store (from India, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Peru, Mexico):

 

For the course itself, she also lugged natural dyes and other supplies from Vancouver:

Unfortunately, I can take only part of the course but not all of it - Aurora Chorealis has its Remembrance Day concerts this weekend, which involves two practices during the week and three appearances in different venues. That could also be an example of "what you can do in Yellowknife that you can't (or aren't likely to) do elsewhere", but that will have to keep for another posting. In the meantime, I'll enjoy Charlotte's company and learn what I can in the time that I have. I'm a lucky woman!