Saturday 25 July 2009

Sisimiut

Today felt more like the Arctic than it has for the past two weeks. There was a real change in the weather with cloudy skies and a bit of a nip to the air. But isn't that part of what we are here for? To experience a bit of Arctic summer. To get an inkling of what it might be like to live here. To see Greenland in the present and try to gain some insight to its past.
Sisimiut is very much a modern day town. A lot of people from smaller villages moved to Sisimiut years ago because of the many benefits of living in a larger community - sometimes abandoning their old homes.
An excursion to the abandoned village of Asaqutaq (a short boat ride form Sisimiut) on a cloudy, chilly Arctic July day is an excursion into the past. It is a ghost town. In 1969 through 71 the 80 or so inhabitants of Asaqutaq moved to Sisimiut. Some of the houses are still in very good condition, obviously still under someone's care. Some of the houses are collapsing. Fishing nets adorn the old fish processing plant.
Today was certainly a day of contrasts. Modern Sisimiut and the ghosts of Asaqutaq.