Tag Archives: covid-19

COVID-19 – Thoughts and Opinions

This COVID-19 virus has been growing in leaps and bounds in Northern Saskatchewan. It has come close to home and there was even a suspected case yesterday at a local COOP Gas Bar in La Ronge. It turned out to be negative but it put quite the scare on many people in my home community of Hall Lake, which is about 100 KM from La Ronge.

I had actually stopped at the gas bar on May 1st to grab some snacks and refreshments before I took my family home. This suspected case of COVID-19, closed the gas bar on May 6th. It is hard to say when the employee had the symptoms or if the employee was even at the gas bar when I was there.

I kept my fears and anxiety from my family because I had a speech made up where I would tell them that we had to hope for the best and hopefully my wife and I did not get the virus. While we did not wear masks, we are diligent with hand sanitizer and washing our hands. Keeping the distance of 2 metres is followed.

It turns out it a false alarm, I breathed a sigh of relief. I do not know how I would handle it if my daughters or my wife were infected. Of course I would try to stay strong and hope for the best. As a diabetic, the virus would be more harmful to my health and possibly be fatal.

I live a sheltered live, I don’t really go anywhere and stay at home to work on projects on my computer. I have been working on a website for my education department, where all the teachers would have a portal to reach out to their students and their guardians. Before this, I stumbling through lessons and having disciplinary problems I had trouble handling. I am not a disciplinarian. Online teaching might be my forte. While I am not thriving as a classroom teacher, I am getting better at finding ways to teach with all the online resources I didn’t know existed. Mircosoft Teams, G Suite and many others, are there and are being utilized by the LLRIB education department. I am right there with them and I am honoured to be part of a great team.

I have been updating my bands website with news on the COVID-19 and Band elections which are happening this month. It has distracted me from my real work but I hope a compromise can be worked out where I can do both effectively. I am waiting for decisions to be made on that, so I will just leave it.

I will post more later, I will keep you posted. Have a great day.

La Ronge NOW – https://larongenow.com/2020/05/07/air-ronge-co-op-c-store-closed-after-employee-shows-signs-of-covid-19/ 

Isolation in the Trapline

I remember as a boy, we would be isolated for weeks. Living off the land: fish, ducks and various animals would provide what we needed. We needed supplies from town of course like flour, sugar, toiletries and lard. nimosom would get ready to go to La Ronge Robertson’s Trading post to go see Alec to trade his furs.

He used to ask me what I wanted and I would tell him: “bananas and coke.” He would bring me a one litre of Coca-Cola and a bunch of bananas, but I was the oldest of my siblings, I had to share what I had.

For me, going to the trapline in this dire time is no longer an option. I have not been to any trapline since I was a teenager and I am sure I would have trouble getting by without supplies and I have not shot a gun in years. I still remember how to snare rabbits and and how to fish. Hunting would be a difficult because I probably get lost or scare away the game.

Being isolated would be desirable in these times of the virus scare and I would feel assured of a better chance of survival until it blows over. However, if it were to continue on and on, supplies would become scarce and there would be less options for meals.

I have worked as a web developer for many years and I am in a place where I can work from home to make a living. Living in trapline would mean getting cut off from technology unless I invested on solar power and satellite equipment. Fuel and batteries would need to be purchased at a high cost and I would have to sacrifice much of my comforts to do so. I have a family of four to provide for but my wife is awesome with preparing meat. Our teamwork would be essential. My girls would be completely inept but they would have to learn fast.

Anyway, I am rambling to get some thoughts from my head. Please take care and try to stay safe.

 

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