Kalaallit Nunaat

Greetings from the great white top of the world! The trip here was a little lengthy and tiring. We needed to leave the Hamar base at 3:00 AM to drive to Oslo and catch our plane to Copenhagen. We were delayed leaving Oslo because they had to de-ice the planes. Then we were delayed landing because of air traffic. This meant that we were too late to catch our flight to Greenland and spent the next 24 hours in the Copenhagen airport. The night before I didn’t sleep at all because it didn’t seem worth it to go to sleep and then get back up at three. I was fairly destroyed by the time we finally got on the plane. Four and a half hours and four time zones later we touched down in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Getting off the plane I walk down the stairs to the tarmac; it is –18°F. I can feel the hairs in my nose freezing together as I breath in. The woman in front of me is carrying a small child wearing a seal fur snowsuit. After I am in the terminal I can feel the cold in my clothes still; it is a cold that truly penetrates. We wait in the small airport for 45 minutes for our next flight. We walk outside and wait in the arctic cold while people inside are finding a seat inside the small Dash-7 airplane. The front four rows of seats are missing and there is a pile of cargo strapped to the floor. The pilot announces that there is a hydraulic leak and that we will be slightly delayed while it is repaired. One of the flight crew brings a small basket of candy to offer the passengers. The cabin slowly gets colder as we wait. After 15 minutes the pilot announces that we are ready. One at a time, the four propellers burst to life and we are on our way. The air nozzles above our heads spew forth wonderful warm air. It is noon north of the Arctic Circle and there is a beautiful glow in the southern sky. The first sunrise at our destination will be in one week but as our little plane climbs higher into the sky we get our own sunrise. The sun streaming in the windows seems blinding and amazing. Looking out of the window reveals an ice and snow landscape. Pink sunlight skips across countless ice mountains below. As we travel farther and farther north the number of peaks illuminated dwindles until they are all the same. The flight attendant offers a round of drinks and cookies then more candy. She even makes her way forward of the cargo to serve the pilots.

I have been in Aasiaat almost a week. It is a small town, on a small island, off the west coast of Greenland. The people are friendly. English is their third language so communication can be challenging. Every day we get kids visiting us; many of them don’t really have another safe place to go. The sea is fairly frozen and there are no more ships until spring; any goods that are not already here need to be flown in. There are ice crystals on everything outside. Any place inside that has an air leak will have ice all around it. All the water and sewer pipes run above ground. They are insulated and electrically heated. It is amazing to think of people living here before electricity.