My son started learning Greenlandic four years ago and although he can understand a lot, he still doesn’t speak it much. Now, after one week of Greenlandic lessons, I can understand why. Though the basic Greenlandic vocabulary is quite small, it requires that the many words that don’t exist have to be replaced by descriptions. …
Month: November 2018
*This photo is NOT the cover image I refer to, but another image from the same trip, taken by my husband. To view the cover image, click on the link in the post below. Sometimes a single image has an immense impact. In 2006, my husband was managing a diamond exploration project in Kangerlussuaq, …
The winter mornings are lethargic and slow to shake off the night. I wake in darkness to the deep throbbing hum of the ship’s engines. Blackness seeps through the porthole, the glass rimmed by fragile ferny feathers of ice. It will be hours yet before the sun wakes. Outside, cold cliffs hang like dark curtains …
Last week was Halloween, an American tradition that seems to have gained momentum in Greenland. The universal lure of sweets. Out went my son into the snow, his Batman suit wedged over several layers of thermal clothing, insisting he would be fine, only to come back ten minutes later for a winter jacket. Batman would …