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. …
*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 …
Shuffling in my warm sleeping bag, I wondered who had slept on this small wooden bed before me. Who had seen out dark, cold winters in this one small room, cramped in here with a fellow hunter? What were their stories when this was their home? Now it was my home for the night – …
At an industry trade show, a Canadian salesman tried to convince me of the benefits of small portable nuclear reactors for power generation in Greenland. I narrowly avoided breaking into laughter, but failed to avoid a broad smile. Yes, Greenland’s population is scattered over many small, remote communities, which are potentially suited to such technology. …
Camping with polar bears makes me nervous. So I was nervous a lot in my three weeks camping and working in the northeast Greenland National Park this summer. And although I didn’t see a bear, I saw plenty of enormous footprints in the snow, and others in our group did see bears – a bear …
As a non-Dane, I need a work permit for me and my family to live in Greenland. When I applied, I was told the process would take about two months. Two and a half months later we had packed down our house, reorganised our lives, and were on a plane to Denmark, but our permits …
Apparently our house has good feng shui. The front windows look to sea and the back windows onto this mountain. I don’t know anything about feng sui, but I like the views, particularly of our mountain. In the early summer it’s a wall of rock, in mid summer people wander over its green slope collecting …