Never again will I take for granted the infrastructure that delivers clean water and removes sewage. In the brief time I’ve worked here the Learning Centre has had to be shut down due to a lack of running water/plumbing. The cause, as I later learned, was that the water reservoir for the school ran low and this in turn burned out the water pump. It’s now a week after the problem was fixed and our sewage hasn’t been pumped out since. Too much sewage is not only malodorous but it affects the water from being a) pumped into the school from the delivery truck and b) running when turning on the faucets/ flushing the toilet. If it’s not rectified soon the Learning Centre will have to close down again. A call to the Hamlet office was received by a rather cranky woman telling me the problem was due to a recent blizzard. She didn’t seem receptive to the idea that the lack of delivery predated the blizzard; she did however take the time to reiterate that the blizzard was the cause of the problem.
Showering at the mission house (where I live) is never a sure thing either. I’ve come back from running only to find out that water wasn’t delivered and that conservation measures are now in effect. It’s not a nice feeling to go to bed knowing that you’re mostly covered in dried sweat.
Interestingly the delivery/ removal systems are two of the few job options available to residents of the hamlet. My housemate told me that the unemployment rate in Tuk is at 80% (I will endeavour to back this up). The students at the Learning Centre certainly seem to reflect this as they do not (at this point) seem to have any clear idea of what they’d like to do with their academic upgrading. If anything the school provides a break from online gambling, movies, and video games for some of the students. I’ve had people show up after missing a day saying they were absent because they were gambling at a friend’s house (definitely an inexcusable absence). One student had a particularly bleak attitude about his future prospects. “You live to die,” he said during class. He went on to say that there is no hope of anything better up here when it comes to employment or having more to do. I countered that there is hope – that his being at the Learning Centre meant something and would lead to something if worked for it.
2 comments:
Any idea the attrition rate for the town - do most of the kids that reach adulthood head elsewhere for work, or do they largely stay around?
Hey Jay - excellent question. Based on some very anecdotal evidence I would say that people from Tuk tend to stick around despite the lack of jobs. Many people (but certainly not all) survive on government assistance. Most of my students are funded and are required to maintain an 80% attendance rate in order to qualify for assistance (at least in theory - very few people show up on a consistent basis).
By the way - what happened to Bumper Wars?
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