"Still thinking about Greenland" (Groenlan...

For years I dreamt of going to Greenland. One day, surfing on the Greenland.com website, I found Mellenfolkeligt Samvirke website in Denmark and I found that MS offered three volunteer projects. Even though I had never been involved in such type of projects, they sounded very interesting, and I decided to apply through SIW for the one which offered a longer duration, 2 months. It was in an abandoned island called Manermiute and it would start at the beginning of July. Imagine, I was going to spend two months on an abandoned island, in the land of my dreams. so by the end of June, my anxiety was getting bigger being closer the time to go to Greenland. I just kept thinking "it is going to be great".

The purpose of the project was to restore houses in the abandoned settlement of Manermiute. Manermiute is on an island called Saqquarliup Nunaa in the Disco bay region. The closest town is Aasiaat, it means we were 30 kilometres sailing away from our contact people. Aasiaat is the fifth biggest town in Greenland. Back in the 60's the Danish government decided to close down all the small settlements because it was economically impossible to maintain them. Thus, the Greenlanders had to move to bigger towns. However, some of these small settlements, like Manermiute, still have houses and their restoration had been one of the aim of MS during the past three years. The settlements are used by the local community for school camps, weekend trips and, during wintertime, one of the houses is used by the local hunters both as a shelter and as a butcher place. They are also used by tourist that go to the Island joinig the 150 km2 kayak trips that the tourist office orginezes in Aasiaat.

To start the project MS gather the volunteers in Copenhagen for a well-organized introduction seminar. Afterwards we flew together to our base camp in Manermiute. We were ten volunteers from Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Great Britain, America, France and the Netherlands, the age fluctuated between 21 and 32 with the exception of a 62 years old women, and we all came from very different backgrounds. From students to teachers and from artists to engineers, the diversity of the group turned out to be very interesting, but, once in a while, also a bit difficult.

Following, I have transcribed some fragments of my personal diary and of letters I sent back home. I hope you enjoy it!

Manermiute, 11-07
The fisherman came with about 10 kilograms of shrimps and we have Greenlanders coming over for dinner, they are our contact people. They come to supply food and materials. They are so nice coming over for coffee and telling us about life around here. I love to go out to fetch ice, to fish and to watch whales in with the small boat.

Manermiute, 15-07
I do feel guilty when I like being here so much. I could be addicted to this life for a while. I am already dropping some hints to do a project in wintertime. They are not buying it, though. It would be too cold and there would not be enough work to do inside the houses.

Manermiute, 25-07
Sunday was the most beautiful day up to now. Some of us went hiking to an old settlement in ruins. We drank tea and ate dried fish, whale blubber and reindeer as snacks. We saw whales and found an old cemetery.

Manermiute, 26-07
The past four days I have seen a lot of ducks. As autumn is slowly about to start, I guess they are getting ready to leave to warmer regions. I have heard a strange sound coming from the other side of the rocks it has to be a whale. However, it takes me at least half an hour to get there and, by then, the whale would be probably gone. The silence is something that can not be explained. It makes more annoying the fact that I wont be able to see the whale.

Illulissat, 03-08
This is fabulous; the water is sparkling like mineral water because of the air that is trapped in ice one million of years old. The seagulls are screaming and five minutes ago, I saw a fox just 50 meters away. Apart from that, everything is silence. The height of the icebergs above the water is about 200 meters, which means that there is just a small peace of about 700 meters below the water. The ice field is kilometres wide and in this sunlight, it looks like a gigantic vanilla ice-cream. I do not want to leave, I do not want to go to bed, I do not want to say goodbye, I do not want to go home, I just want to enjoy this feeling forever. Far away, the sledge dogs are hauling. The whole town is joining the concert. It gives an even more mysterious feeling to the event.

Manermiute, 28-08
We have had very nice weather these last days and spent time relaxing and walking. Yesterday we had a bonfire where we burnt our clothes. It was both enjoyable and emotional. Everybody is coping differently with theirs feelings about leaving what has become "our place".

It is four months since I left Greenland and I still spend much time thinking about it. We worked a lot, with a good combination of spare time. We were fixing windows, doors, roofs, window shutters and many other things. We put up a water tank and installed a 1.2 kilometres pipeline. It was nice how we got attached to each other. We are still writing to each other and by the time you read this, we will be meeting in Poland for a reunion. Maybe I will meet some of you this summer as I, myself, am planning to go back again.