The Arrival.

I’m afraid of flying, but the flight into Haida Gwaii was alright – everyone on the flight knew each other, and there was much laughter and cheer. We descended into the clouds, and arrived in Sandspit.

From the airport to the ferry, and from ferry into town, I began to sense the small-town vibe. Everyone here knows each other.

There are always looks of confusion as I tell people that I’m a secondary teacher working at a daycare.

The daycare, though, is a refreshing and psychologically resting change compared to working with the high school students. Children follow instructions and take artistic risks more often. They generally don’t fight directions. When they do, they simply take a time out. I am able to suggest art projects in a free-flowing manner. They move from playing with clay, to drawing with markers, to painting with tempera. My aha moment this week has definitely been the realization that small children are great artists, and extremely fun to work with as an art educator.

All the children at the daycare learn Haida language as part of their teachings. They learn english songs, and then the Haida equivalent – tunes such as Itsy Bitsy Spider and You are my Sunshine.

There is a large emphasis on going outside. It’s often misting or raining, but the children don’t mind because they are used to the weather. Every comes to daycare with a change of clothes and rubber boots. When the rain is falling, they want to stay outside and play forever. This is because they have been taught to enjoy the outdoors.

As a field-trip, we visited Ben Davidson’s gallery, the father of one of the children at the daycare. This was my first visit to a Haida artist workshop. He was carving a totem pole out of a huge red cedar tree, and showed us the diagram sketch for the pole and the maquette.

There is a nearby community centre with free weights. The woman there said, “There’s nothing really here for women”, but they have barbells, so it’s perfect.

When the sky was clear, the whole town rejoiced and everyone sat out on their lawn to eat dinner. A huge raven flew up to me while I ate, and didn’t even give a damn as I pulled out my phone to take a picture. The birds often get fed, and look at you expectantly for food. They land in the daycare yard, and I wonder what they think of the little children. Would they carry one off if I wasn’t watching? They knock on the roofs of the abodes with shells and plastic pieces. They audibly swoop in overhead. I love ravens.

My phone doesn’t get reception at all, and I’m not sure why. There is reception here for other iphones on the Telus network.

On Friday evening, I was invited out to a baseball game. I’ve never played baseball before – I used to play soccer-baseball (or California Kickball), but never really baseball. It misted as we got there, at the field in the centre of town by the water, and our team, which seemed to be comprised mainly of odds and ends such as myself didn’t lose by too many points.

Saturday comprised of walking to the Skidegate Youth Centre to look for kayaks, but then cancelling plans to go out because of the heavy-ish winds. I walked to the Kay Centre Museum instead, where I was happy to meet some fellow teacher candidates – the first time seeing another person in this program since I arrived on Sunday!