wherein this text in fact begins to come from the north

Hello from the boreal forest!

Your softy gal is on her fifth day as a Chateh resident. So far, I am pleased and grateful.

My favourite thing about the landscape in Chateh is the drive in. There's this long curve of gravel road that descends and descends. When cars go down the road here, they billow massive clouds of dust. I am too excited by this road to take a good photo.

take me sledding

I live in a robin's egg blue house behind the RCMP station. The yard is a favourite haunt of horses, whom I often see in the morning behind the house.

The community is also full of dogs, of different shapes and sizes but a consistent friendliness. I hope to report more on my new frens as I go for more walks in the community.

In addition to wild residents, I am meeting many great people. This week I started work at the health centre, which does a lot in the community and which I'd like to tell more about soon. On Friday, two representatives of the Alberta Restorative Justice Association came to present to the community at the health centre. This meeting allowed me to make my first shy connection with a KID. The kids here love watermelon and also apparently interns. I am told that by the end of the summer they will overrun my house.

I've never really moved to a new place this way before. If you'd let me, I'd just be a dork forever about the tender, beautiful way people will be kind to you when you are new.

A great experience I had today was a trip up to Twin Falls, across the border in the Northwest Territories.  The falls, Alexandra, known as Hatto deh Naili in Dene, and Louise, are the twins. They are the falls leading up to Great Slave Lake, or Tu Nedhe/Tucho.

Liza and Louise

Along the trail to the falls, I got to read a bit about the importance of the trail to Dene people of this land, as well as about the common traditional medicines of this area. Both indigenous people and fur traders had to portage 6 km to get over these falls!

In talking about place names, I'm trying to learn about the names they are called by Dene. This article gives a good voice to the issue of place and decolonization in the NWT.

a lepidopteron lapping at birch water

I'm keeping my eyes open! X.