Residents

After an extremely long wait, we finally got our home phone set up!!! It was originally supposed to be wired up and installed before we moved in at the end of July, but there was a lot of technical issues and no technicians to fly out to Baker Lake, so we were told it was going to be a while. Fast forward to Friday afternoon and here we are with a home phone!

Since moving here, we also learned that in super small communities, all the phone numbers have the same first three digits, and it's only the last four digits that are different. So when you're giving/getting a telephone number, you only say the last four numbers. At first I thought everyone was giving out work extensions, but no, that's the whole hamlet. You just go by last four digits and everyone knows what the rest is.

We were also lucky that in the first week we were here, they were doing a P.O. box clean up and there happened to be an empty one that they gave us right away. I know some co-workers who have been here for months and are still on a "waiting list" for a box. It's a good one too - right at eye level, not the ones at the very bottom like some people. Maybe it helps that we've been super friendly with the lady at the post office and she knows who I am when she sees me now!

Anyhoo, our new "official" Baker Lake address is:

P.O. Box 523
Baker Lake, NU
X0C 0A0

It feels incredibly real now that we are considered "permanent residents" so we have a box, and a home phone - and now we're in the process of getting our licenses and health cards.

I guess this really is turning into home.

-L