good enough for the bush

Good day again today, especially when your in a place like this good days are a frequent visit.

Slept in today, had to wake up in a rush to head out for the days work ahead. It just so relaxing when you've been out for so long and crash (in contrast to drunken crashing)into bed.

Barrow is a quiet town with little rustling every here and there. A small drive along the coast line gives you an amazing view of a frozen ocean full of pressure ridges formed for the ice. Craig was telling us that there can be massive pressure ridges that can topple on to the road 30 meters away. Here you'll here many stories, mostly from the locals who are always happy to speak of their adventurous encounters for hours on end. Barrow isn't the place for a tourist field trip of a week, for me to get the best benefit no tour guide can give you is you have to talk to the people here and interact with them.
Recently we attended a celebration for the grand opening of a new facility here at the heritage memorial center. Entering the building you saw large pictures of the local people, each posing next to something that expressed who they were and their pride. Further in there was the auditorium filled with people and on the stage there were chairs lined up with dancers. They were dressed with moccasins and traditional clothes holding these large pancake like drums about two feet in diameter and a long stick. I nestled into a crevice of people along the wall for their performance was about to begin. Tap..Tap..Tap went the drums very lightly as the dancers began, then a while into it BAM..BAM...BAM as they pounded the drums creating a powerful presence in the room. The soon invited everyone in the room to come up and dance. Only a hand full of people went and I was still a bit to timid to run up there and join them. They announced the last song and opportunity to dance, so I gave it a shot and went. and that was the end of another good day.