People make Sandy Lake a great place to be.

The first day of our Orientation was interesting and we were warmly welcomed by the Chief and Council something that has never happened at any previous jobs, so it was nice to have the people say they are so glad you came. We sat at the front table with about 40 other people locals and outsiders alike, and everyone seemed to be like old friends, even for those of us who just met. The Vice principal for the elementary school was a man named Ralph, who for obvious reasons to myself I thought was a white guy from Sault Ste. Marie. Well yes Ralph is from Sault Ste. Marie, but he is Ojibwa.  I know as you look at his photo I bet you thought the same thing.

Ralph is also married to a local woman and has been happily married and living in Sandy Lake for over 30 years. He is one of the deacons at our Catholic Church here in Sandy and is the kindest and most generous man you will ever meet. He and his incredible wife Areeta have children that are grown, but they opened their home to two girls who needed a Foster home. The girls are treated like they are their own. Ralph was telling me they took the girls all over the US last summer.

As a Vice Principal he never gets angry, he always tries to get to the bottom of the issues. Being a member of the community he knows about the home situation of just about every child here so he can be very understanding. Now you may think that it isn’t hard to know all the kids in the community, in my last posting there was probably a total of 45 kids in the school, in Webequie may 120. Well let’s put that into perspective. We have 3 classes for each grade. Yup 3 Grade 1 classes, 3 grade 2 classes, 3 Grade 3 classes...and so on. With approximately 20 in each class that close to 500 students (JK-6) we still have Grade 7-11 at the High School.  If they are not his kids, or grand kids then they are likely his Godchildren.

From the moment of arriving he has been very open sharing the information about student so I also can be aware of what is going on with them, another refreshing change where you don’t find out anything until there is a major problem.

Ralph has also been good about getting us included in many of the community activities. During Hunting Week I chose to go home for the 9 days, and Ralph offered to include me in his charter. It cost me a total of $350 from Sandy to Red Lake, and return (Ralph has a vehicle in red lake that we then drive to Thunder Bay.) It was an awesome deal as a ticket with Wasaya is $768 return, and with the Charter we could bring back more than a mere 100 pounds of cargo. I was able to bring back a few totes and 2 sets of skis.

Ralph is also the head of the Running Club which I joined and have now taken part in 4 road races here in sandy Lake, and this is extreme cross country running if you remember the conditions of the roads here. The hardest race was the 10 mile , yes mile not kilometer, I truly thought I was going to die, but when I crossed the finish line ralph was there to give me a hug and congratulate me. I did not place except in my age category 45-60 so that felt good, I was just happy to finish.

So I have to say just with Ralph’s influence I have done more at this reserve in 4 months than I have done in 4 years in the Web. The people do make all the difference.

Welcome to Sandy Lake First Nation

So now I will need to back track a bit so I can tell you about my arrival in Sandy Lake. Now I have flown Wasaya Airlines before so there was nothing new in that experience, except instead of the small flying cigar tubes I was on the Dash 8, which has two rows of seats each side, so that was different, but the numerous take offs and landing in and out of remote communities was the same. This flight however, was not even sure that we would be landing in Sandy Lake. Apparently there had been constant rain in the community over the past week and the ceiling was very low.

Yet off we went from Sioux Lookout Ontario heading as far North West as you can in the Province of Ontario. We had to by-pass Deer Lake as the pilots could not land. Fortunately there was a break in the clouds and Sandy Lake was a go.

We landed and as I stepped from the plane a man called my name “Are you Carroll M?” he asked as he was helping the pilots unload the cargo hold of the plane. “yes” I said and he told me he was Marty Jourdain and he’d be taking me to my residence.

So after the security check ( such as they are in the north) we loaded up my stuff and heading to the house. Now I have been in some pretty bad places, ramshackled shacks at best, but I was surprised as Marty pulled up in front of #23 and it was a 4 bedroom bi level house. My roommate Katie opene the door and greeted me, and I told her I’d be back as Marty was going to give me a quick tour of the community….okay I thought it would be quick.

As some may recall Webequie is an island community and you can walk from the west side to the east side in 10 minutes, and then from the North to the South in about an hour, so I assumed that Sandy lake was also an island…..

It’s a big island, and thankfully Marty only showed me the areas Known as Center/Airport (where I reside) and Riverdale where the school is located. It took a lot longer than it should have as they had been attempting to work on the roads, they had dug the mud from the ditches and put it on the road and then of course it rain for a week straight…so it was muddy and rutted and a terrible mess.

Now when you are in a place like Thunder Bay where you are used to the sidewalks and paved roads, you forget how muddy these communities can get. The mud is the same at every reserve it’s a sticky gooey clay substance. As many of the locals will tell you they have 4 seasons, Summer, Mud, Winter and yes  Mud. Sandy Lake is indeed muddy, but it isn’t muddy they the wind blows about this dry dust walking along the road is hazardous to your breathing when everything dries out.

So here it was the last week of August and I discovered that in Sandy it rains every day. Not for long most days it’s bright and sunny, the clouds will come in it will rain for 10 minute and then the sun returns. Now don’t think I am complaining about this, I prefer a bit of rain to keep the dust down, so that was all good.  

The following morning Katie and I headed to the High School for the orientation planned by the Board and I soon found the people to be very nice, and interested. As I was sitting in the main hall I noticed a local woman who seemed very familiar to me. She was looking at me with this sense of recognition as well. It was after a few minutes that I had realized she had been one of the students I worked with at Lakehead University back in 2004…wow after 10 years she hardly changed. I was very glad I had chosen to come here and as the day progressed and more and more of the community members talked with me I noticed how genuinely glad they were to have me there.

Yes I thought that before and was sad when I learned how the presence of outsiders was merely tolerated in the other places, and in my last posting not tolerated very well. But as I am writing this at the half way point in the school year, I can say that we have been so lucky to come here to Sandy Lake. The generous nature of these people is wonderful and makes this a great place to be.

One lady had come her to open a store and was only planning on being here a few months at the most, that was about 10 ago (somewhere in that ball park). She owned a place called the Adowgamick which my students tell me means “Store”. They have a restaurant, and a small convenience store , with movie rentals and gift ware. As I said it’s a big place.

Ice Fishing....and the tranqility of the land

The serenity of the land here is breathtaking. as some may know I am now on a Reserve in North Western Ontario, Sandy Lake First Nation. I am able, with hindsight from the last 2 reserves to see what true hospitality is like. Of all the Reserves, I have lived on or even visited, the people of the Sandy Lake First Nation are the finest people to date. Of course I will give more info on that topic later, but today my post is about the incedible ice fishing expereience I had yesterday. Those of you who followed my old blog Adventures in the North, know I am not a novice when it comes to the art of ice fishing. However, yesterday I had the best expereince because of the people here.

We set out in the afternoon, my friend Judi who is a local her 2 aunties, Sarah and Ellen  a fellow teacher friend of mine Roberta and myself for a day of ice fishing. It was beautiful warm at -17 C and  -22C with the windchill, the overcast sky and a light wind made it warm...okay let me clarify; for th past 2 weeks I have been making the 20 minute walk to the school in temps that have been -38 C (-48C with the windchill) so beleive me when I say yesterday was warm....LOL!

Our journey came as we left the sand pit and began the 40+ km drive on the winter road to a lovely place called Lemonade Lake. The picture above is is my view as we arrived in the middle of the bay. Judi , myself and the ladies began to unload her truck for the trek out on to the lake, when another community member pulled up on his skidoo and his sleigh instructing us to load up the sleigh and climb in that he would take us out to the bay where others were fishing. I must say in this community, people take care of one another, and there is never any expectation of compensation for them doing an act of kindness, it is just their way. Of course the people here are always reciprocating anyway, doing something kind and generous as a thank you.

So we were now out on the lake and then 2 other community members got Judi's new gas auger and began to make our ice fishing holes as shown in the photo below, each of us had 3 holes made, for a total of 15 holes and 15 willow branches with our lines attached for the fish.

as we took the ice scoops, ( slotted spoon that looked like it was for deep frying) we removed the slushy ice from each hole

and then Judi began to attach the hooks and minnows to the lines to attach then to the willow branches.

The point of the willow branch is that they bend easily, so we can see when the fish is at the line and we can go from one line to the next and simply pull up the line with a beautiful (hopefully) a pickerel on the line.

Here we do not like the "Jack Fish" also now as Pike to most Ontario fishermen. Its a extremely boney fish and very fishy tasting, often times they are reused a bate or to feed the dogs, as Roberta took 3 of the pike caught for Ginger.

More people arrived and as it grew colder and darker one group set a fire to give heat and light.

After 21 fish and  3 1/2 hours on the lake it was dark and we began to pack up. Once gain those with skidoos ensured that we got all our gear in the sleigh and drove the ladies back to shore. Roberta and I made the short trek to the shore as I had come with my head lamp and the movement kept my feet from feeling frozen.

Once on shore Judi began feeding everyone, cutting portions of a huge sandwich for other fishermen and passing around fig newtons and chocolate. It was wonderful, and what I enjoyed the most was that we were also so happy to just be sitting on the lake, there was very little conversation, at times as I closed my eye,s I could hear the soft howl of the wind and nothing else, you'd be surprised that there were about 30 people out there as they could not be heard.

Fishing by its nature is a patience game and one of relaxing and contemplating not the sport for high energy seekers, and that is fine by me, give me a willow stick, a length of line, a hook and a hole in the ice and I am in Nirvana.  All made more enjoyable by the giving nature of the people of Sandy Lake.