As we walked from the airport to the village of Kulusuk, we could hear the yapping of the dogs. After a few minutes, we were able to walk up a hill near the cemetery to see the village in the distance... small, brightly painted houses.
The cemetery had lots of plain white crosses. There were no names on the grave markers because, although most of the Inuits had converted to Christianity in the last century, there was still some remnants of their "pagan" religion. One being that, a person is made of three parts: the spirit, the body, and the name. When someone dies, his spirit goes on, his body decays, but his name is still alive.
The village was pretty small; perhaps 30 houses. Most of the residents stayed inside, except for some children playing ball. The general store was similar to one in the Poconos, complete with a gun rack (except this one had lots of dried fish jerky). The gift shop was different though... you could take home a polar bear skull, seal skin, or do as we did and get a tinyhandcarved polar bear made from reindeer horn (and a bracelet made from sealskin and gut).
Day 3: Part 2Labels: greenland, iceland, nablopomo
