A pearl in the cold North

It’s buzzing with life, and the locals are smiling and greeting when we pass them on the roads of Kullorsuaq.

The concrete work is in full swing in the center of the village, because a new main road is going to be constructed, as the old one was taken by the river of melt water earlier this year.

While the rest of our travel companions goes towards the community center ‘Prins Henrik’, NAPAs envoy take their course towards the village school, Kullorsuup Atuarfissua.

That is because we have an appointment with the principal and the older classes.

But we do have an hour to spare, so there is time to enjoy a cup of coffee, and the nice view over the open sea, with icebergs as large as islands.

We’ve reached Kullorsuaq, and we haven’t just reached the most northern point of the journey, but we’ve also put half of the journey behind us.

Waves and baked goods

We’ve been travelling since the 24th of August, where ‘Tulu’ set sail from the Tide Water Steps in Nuuk at 10 O’clock.

First stop was Ilulissat, and from there the journey continued on to Uummannaq and Upernavik, and most of the settlements in the surrounding areas. The journey to Ilulissat took no less than 40 hours, and the twelve passengers had to accept high waves during most of the trip, waves that laid on the side of the ship, and rested in our bodies. When we were finally able to get off in Ilulissat, the feeling of rocking didn’t go away, a feeling that, by the end of the journey, still could be felt.

However, we’ve been able to enjoy the homemade breakfast buns, made by the ship’s cook Ellen, that ran out every day, such that Ellen had to take out the dough for the next day. An Ellen-bun with Nutella, it has been (and still is) the talk of the journey.

Only dreams set limits

There are no students present, when we arrive to the school at 3pm. They were dismissed half an hour earlier, so that they could go home and get something to eat. So it is with uncertainty of whether anyone is going to show up, that we choose to wait a few minutes, before packing up.

Luckily so, because not even five minutes later, they come crashing in.

Nine curious girls from tenth grade sits on their seats in the classroom, and after a short presentation of who we are, the girls start drawing.

(They were all quite surprised when Maasi introduced himself in Greenlandic, and it brought about quite the laughs. Cause Maasi is pretty light skinned).

It is girls with ambitions, that are now sitting and drawing. There are dreams of becoming an architect, a doctor, teacher, baker, artist, and even dreams of becoming singers and professional video gamers.

The Dream Workshop lasts for about an hour, but the girls are (practically) focused on the assignment all the way through, and they draw and paint enough for a gold medal.

Opportunities received gratefully

After sitting the girls down to draw, Bula starts a presentation for the principal about the different nordic opportunities that the school has, to get digital educational materials, that can be found on nordeniskolen.org, and opportunities to find friendship-classes within the Nordic countries.

The principals and teachers that NAPA has met during the journey, all showed great interest for the many opportunities that were presented, and this is also true for Kullorsuaq.

Despite the issues with the internet connection and missing IT equipment, the schools have been excited to hear about the massive amounts of available digital educational materials that are on nordeniskolen.org, the materials can be used from 1st to 10th grade, and even for high schools.

While the conversation with the principal is slowly going off the rails, and become less about the professional stuff, the girls are also becoming more impatient, as they want to go outside while the sun is still shining.

We pack up and say our goodbye’s right after 4pm.

“Would you guys want some seal meat for the journey?”

We still have about half an hour in the village, before we have to go back to ‘TULU’, so NAPAs envoys go further out the pier where the view was said to be quite the sight.

And true to the word.

As the sun is raised high in the sky, and the wind absent, it is beautiful and idyllic, almost nostalgic, we can’t do anything but sit still about five meters above the surface of the water and enjoy the calm.

We close our eyes and turn our faces towards the sun, and just sit like that for a while.

At the end, we started to feel the hunger come crawling, and the thought of seal meat is letting the imagination run free, (as we’ve been seeing sliced up seals, and hunters in the process of slicing all over Kullorsuaq).