Day 56 Moose Factory Saturday 13th June 2015
By Chris
Wake up glad we have stayed in Moose Factory.
We are much more content this morning and face the “Continental breakfast” breakfast with good humour. The breakfast supplies are running out and there appears to be no staff on site.
Mel (Male) comments that when there are few guests they don’t need staff. We restrain ourselves from pointing out that we are guests and have expectations that he and his team aren’t fulfilling. We console ourselves with the fact that we have two invitations today and that’s something to look forward to.
After our mad social whirl of yesterday and the irritation of getting our expectations under control we decide to just hang out until the afternoon.
Mel joins us and we walk down to the church for hot dogs. This had been mentioned by Zac and Bianca whom we had met last night.
Met many people including the pastor Josh, his wife Kristen, and tiny son Caleb. They have been there about 3 years. When I asked Kirsten how long they would be there she said “probably all our lives” – a real commitment.
In fact one of the outstanding impressions I had of Moose Factory was the commitment particularly of the young people to what they were doing and how engaged with the local community they were professionally and privately.
The hot dog roast is put on regularly by the Cree Gospel Church for anybody who wants to join in and as you can imagine there was a gang of kids who turned up and kept turning up ;-).
We also met Andrea a young woman who does incredible beading work and told Mel about a Facebook market site for Native Arts and Crafts, an outlet for many First nation crafts people.
A teacher Vicki arrived from whom I stole cookies.The cookies come from an interesting source. Because of the lack of food options on the island and indeed in Moosonee, an underground take away service has sprung up. Using Facebook people are cooking at home and posting the availability of foods that can be delivered or picked up.
Kristen had posted the cookies for sale and provided them to Vicki. Much to my wife’s embarrassment I got mine for free. I got embarrassed later. Zac and Bianca also had a thriving pizza business along the same lines and were starting to buy things in bulk. Entrepreneurship comes in many forms.
After much conversation with a whole range of people and scoffing down about 3 hot dogs we left. Returned to the lodge to get ready for the dance.
I was walking by the unmanned reception desk when I noticed a poster saying dinner would not be served on Saturday or Sunday nights. Apologies for the inconvenience! It gave a list of the three places that might be open although we knew one would not be as he was catering for the dance.
Just as we were thinking of leaving there was a knock on the door and there was Sonny ready to deliver our bear. A dancing bear and we were delighted it with it.
He has such a great smile and easy going way. He was fascinated with my surname and kept calling me ‘Mr Felstead’.
As well as our soapstone dancing bear he also had a wolf and a beluga whale. The wolf was already sold and we were both tempted by the whale but resisted.
He told us of his grandfather who took him north and taught him how to hunt, fish, and trap, in the traditional way. As we talked about it and the fact we had been invited to eat goose the next night he said that he had just brought some moose ribs and some goose roast and he was really hankering for wild food.
Off to the dance. Reached the hall and were surprised even though it was eight o’clock that there didn’t appear to be anyone there. We spoke to a woman on the door who said it wouldn’t really get underway until about 9.30pm.
When we asked about food she pointed to a small table and said it would be pretty light.
At that point we decided we needed to find dinner so we took off to the Northern Complex closed as was GGs the general store, Pizza Hut,and Kentucky Fried chicken.
With no dinner on the horizon we decided to sightsee and return to the lodge for toast. We found the original Hudson Bay staff quarters and the first church on the Island. All in disrepair. We also saw where the residential school had been albeit replaced by a new school the old one having been burnt down by the local residents.
As we were walking a car pulled up and it was Barb who we had met the night before with her mother and sister. She reiterated her invitation to join her the next night. We accepted again eagerly like two people without dinner options!
She said that there was a barbecue going on somewhere with the medical staff and that we should ‘crash” it -we laughed.
We continued on and passed a house with a group of people sitting out chatting. One waved and yelled out “Chris! Mel!”. It was Saint Julia who came to the gate and asked if we wanted to have a drink.
We don’t quite know how it happened but we ended up not only having a drink but having the barbecue resurrected by our hosts Annette and Gordon. Result – we were fed beyond our wildest expectations.
The group all worked at the Hospital and all had chosen to come to Moose Factory from around the country. We were teased unmercifully about being the only tourists on the Island since September last year. Reported as being famous as “the Australians”. People were apparently talking about us ;-)).
They talked openly about the challenges faced when dealing with a bureaucracy that seemed to slow the ability to provide the health care needed. We were left in no doubt as to their commitment to providing excellent health services to the community.
A dark walk home, the first part with one of the doctors and once more thanked our lucky stars for having met Julia.
