A Few Pictures

We have finished the second of the two focus groups, and both have provided alot of really useful information. Fran invited a group of younger people on the first day, and elders on the second. Both groups made a number of suggestions to the survey questions, which were important and informative. So I will be revising the questions a bit.

The reaction, though, was very positive, with most of the focus group attendees wanting to sign up for interviews right away. As a result, we are pretty booked up early next week. It will be good to get started with the interviews, but I have scheduled them a bit spread out...just in case there are any kinks in the system that have to be worked out. Josh arrives on Sunday, and my hope is that by the time he gets here we have a regular flow of interviews.

We will likely schedule the elders for interviews at their houses, if they prefer. Fran and I will go "on call" as they say, and allot more time to those sessions, while Josh minds the shop. It will make it easier to explain things in more detail, and give them the flexibility they need and deserve. (The elders, rightly, expect to be given the time to say what they have to say, and the house visits sound very interesting to me). One of the attendees yesterday said it was important for us to get out on the land with folks, and I may try to set something like that up if it is possible for later in the spring (April?). I'd like to get out, like I did in Alaska, so if the chance comes up I will take it.

I've posted a few pictures here to lighten up the somber tone of the last post, just for fun. If you click on the pictures, they blow up to full screen, with much better detail and color. They were all taken at about 9:30 this morning, but it is still pretty dark.

The first picture is looking down the street where I am staying toward the harbor. If you look closely, you will see the tops of the trash cans coming up out of the snow beside the street! They are 55 gallon drums, but all that is visible is the top 8 inches or so. The snow on the street is compacted by the snowmobile traffic, but is still more than two feet deep. As a result, any work on the street has to go down through two feet of ice and frozen ground. So here is a second photo of a work crew using a jack hammer to get down to the street level to work on the water (I hope I'm not going to get back to the house to find that we have no water...).
And finally, the last shot is of Nain Bay as the sun is coming up over Mount Sophie to my right. The mountains in the distance are sunny, but we are still in shade here.

More tonight, about the Voiseys Bay / Vale Inco transportation meeting last night.