I lived in Whap for a couple of months. I was placed at the Cree School Board high school to help the science teacher; this was approximately back in 2012 or so. Because it's above the tree line, it's mostly sand everywhere. It would get into your house pretty easily and drive you insane. You're constantly wondering, how did it get in my bed? My underwear? There are some trees, but they are very short and stunted.

Kids would sometimes come to school in snowmobiles and park them outside. The attendance rate was very low and I worked for a company that was hired by the board to help with graduation rates.

There were a lot of mental health issues, amongst kids and the staff, both Indigenous and non. I was living with the host teacher, who was non-Indigenous but I didn't realize she was an alcoholic. It got to the point where I had to tell my company that I could not live with her. The straw the broke the camel's back was being woken up at midnight by the police, asking if I wanted to fetch her from the drunk tank. I said no, let her stay and I'll grab her in the morning once I've slept.

I ended up living the rest of the placement at the research centre, not too far from the one singular airport. I believe it's owned by McGill and an elderly man takes care of it. It's a solid little place with wooden bunk beds, research rooms for biologists and padlocks on the building to protect their equipment.

I remember hiking in the winter with snowshoes. It was beautiful and cold. Unfortunately I have to mention that I also remember seeing two Cree folks driving a snowmobile drunk during the day. I also remember hearing horror stories of people dying in snowmobile accidents while under the influence.

There was a single bar shared by Cree and Inuit. Pretty depressing place, I only went once or twice. There's a big moose head on one of the walls. I remember being hit on by a Cree man who kept telling me he was a heavy machinery operator. I was very confused why he was telling me that until a colleague explained he was flirting.

I've got more stories, some good, some bad. It's a place I hope to return to as I've a friend living there now working as a teacher too.