August 14 – More of Tasiilaq

The sun woke us at 3:40 this morning, so we took a picture, pulled the drapes some and went back to sleep.

After breakfast, we took a walk into the hills near our hotel to an area euphemistically known as the Valley of Flowers. We had also heard it called the Valley of Bugs (potentially a lot of mosquitos and black flies here – bug nets for your face are quite popular). It was a very pleasant valley, which had quite an alpine look despite being close to sea level, and there were more flowers than in other areas. Mostly we saw more of the lovely periwinkle flowers called Hare Bells and some pink ones called River Daisies. There was also sort of a ball of teeny pink flowers called Thrift. I didn’t get a name for the 3^rd type of pink flower, though it could have been just a variation on Thrift or River Daisies.

River Daisies

Hare Bells

We walked back into the hills to a series of lakes connected by small waterfalls. Snorri suggested we might want to walk all around the last lake and we hiked out to some boulders to investigate the options, but it seemed like the trail petered out about halfway around, so we stopped there and headed back to rejoin the group. On the way back, a puppy started following a local woman on the path sniffing at the bags she carried – presumably food. He didn’t pay much attention to us though – not carrying food, I guess.

The last of several small waterfalls

Jim at the third lake in the Valley of Flowers

After lunch we got a ride to a church near the center of town so that we could walk to the top of a hill with a stone cairn on top to get a view of the city.

Our group at the center/top of town, harbor behind. This village is Tasiilaq which means "the fjord that looks like a lake". It is by far the largest "city" in East Greenland.

Per (pronounced ‘pear’), a local man whose father is a Dane and mother is an Inuit, told us about the town and led us around a bit. According to Per, 80% of Greenland voters approved what he called the new contract with Denmark that grants Greenland more freedom, although there is still a huge dependence on the financial support of the Danes. This contract limits the amount that Denmark pays each year to support Greenlanders and grants mineral rights to Greenland. 

There is a theory that there is more oil here than in Saudi Arabia, and there are companies actively searching for it. When and if it is found, what to do about it will probably generate a lot of contention. Because most of Greenland is in the Arctic Circle, the first challenge is dealing with the weather. Secondly, there are serious environmental concerns, especially in the wake of the BP disaster in the gulf. If there were a spill, it would take much longer for nature to recover from it because of the cold. Thirdly, some people are concerned that if Greenlanders had a guaranteed annual payment from the oil, it would significantly dis-incent them to work and learn. There is also a problem in defining who is a Greenlander. Most of Europe does not use a birthright citizenship concept like the US, so people who were born here and whose parents are Danes would not necessarily be considered Greenlanders. Right now, Greenlanders who travel have Danish passports and the advantages of being in the European Union, even though Greenland is not in the Union.

Currently Denmark supports home building and rentals, education, health care, and apparently a number of municipal services for the Greenlanders. A person can rent an apartment or they can rent to own. Once they have paid in rent whatever the agreed to value of the house is, they own it. Typically this is paid over 30 years of renting. If they move out after 20 years, the next person only has to pay for 10 years to own the house. Or they can borrow or use savings to pay off the remainder before 30 years is up There is a waiting list for this plan that is currently 5 years long. When it was 15 years long, the Danish government offered a plan where people could pay 10% of a house value for a home foundation, and got instructions on how to build the rest of the house themselves. Once the waiting list was down to 5 years, this deal was withdrawn. Most houses today have running water, and some are on sewer systems. In the old section of town, however, most homes do not have running water and use rudimentary bathroom facilities (we saw one – a bucket with a wooden cover on it just outside the front door) which is emptied 3 times a week by a company here.

Children start school at age 6 and education is mandatory for 10 years – called elementary school. The schools in the East Greenland towns cover only the elementary education. After that is 3 years of Gymnasium. Kids here who choose to continue, are flown to boarding schools in Nuuk, the Greenland capitol on the other side of the island. Their housing, schooling, one trip home each year, and some spending money are provided by the Danish government. Language is a serious challenge. While all the Inuit languages are similar (Per says he could probably pick up Alaskan Inuit after living with them for a month – but he also appears to have good natural facility with language), the language in schools is West Greenlandic, not the dialect spoken here. School used to be taught in Danish, but that changed in 2009 with the new Danish contract. However, Gymnasium and college (only three majors are taught in Greenland, the rest in Denmark) are taught in Danish, which is taught here as a foreign language.

We walked to the local tourist facility, which is primarily a souvenir shop. There were a few interesting items, but many things were made with seal skin or bone and not something I was inclined to buy. The few things that were interesting were very expensive.

Home with fish drying along the roof line and a dog sled.

Next we walked to a local woman’s (Thomasina) home to learn about her life and have her demonstrate drum dancing, an old art that has nearly died out. She was born the same year I was, but obviously had a much harder life. Her first 11 years were spent in a traditional turf house in a neighboring village. This house was shared with other families. Her father died when she was 4, eliminating the primary food supply for her mother and 6 siblings. In this hunter society, the woman provided cooking and sewing while the man hunted and provided food and the seal skins that were used in sewing. When hunting was good, the other families shared their food and her mother supplemented the services provided by the wives in the home. When times were leaner, her family was the first to lose out.

When she was 11, her mother developed TB and moved to Tasiilaq for treatment, bringing her family with her. Thomasina attended school for 3 years during this time. She married a local teacher at 18 and had 7 children, 3 of whom are still alive. Her husband died in 2002 and she is currently living in her home with 3 of her grandchildren. She is reknown for her sewing, needlework and beading skills. Her home is elaborately decorated with many of her projects along with lots of family photos, as is typical. We were shown some of her work in creating the traditional Greenlandic costumes, which are worn on special occasions like confirmation, graduation, and Christmas church services. She  prepares the seal skins herself and is able  to create very white skins for the boots. She also does elaborate trimming of the boots for her granddaughters. It can take more than a year to create the beadwork and other decorations, so it is a guess as to how big to make things for growing children.

Thomasina (who speaks no English), tells Per her story for us.

Per shows us the seal skin boots Thomasina made -- these are for her granddaughter and are thigh high.

This is the elaborately beaded traditional top that goes with the boots and seal skin shorts, all of which Thomasina made.

After her husband died, she decided to learn drum dancing in his honor. He had enjoyed it, but previously, she had not been very involved. This was a traditional way of settling disputes which involved each party telling their side of the story alternately using a special drum dancing vocabulary and singing and drumming the tale. The winner of the dispute was evaluated by the community after listening to both sides. Interestingly, the Greenlanders do not drum on the stretched drum head (traditionally, polar bear stomach, but now, latex). Since she started studying and practicing drum dancing, she has become rather famous. She is one of the top ten drum dancers in Greenland and recently was invited to Denmark to demonstrate her skills.

After our visit, we hiked back up to the hotel for dinner and to prep for our trip home.