Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 15, 2007

IQALUIT - From the tundra of Nunavut to the beaches and jungles of Vietnam, a Kugaaruk girl is having the adventure of a lifetime overseas.

Eighteen-year-old Margaret Nirlungayuk moved to the southeast Asian country with her adoptive family on Aug. 13.

Margaret Nirlungayuk of Kugaaruk visits Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, the country she now calls home. - photo courtesy of Sidney Rodnunsky

Now settled in the port city of Haiphong, she is adding a bit of Japanese and Vietnamese to her vocabulary as she explores her new home.

"Sometimes I say something in Inuktitut. I shared my cultural games with some people, and they really liked it. They want to know more. People are very open and accepting here," she wrote in an e-mail last week.

"The most common question they ask about Nunavut is 'Oh, do you live in an iglu?' or 'Is it always winter there?' I reply, 'No, we have houses and electricity,' and, 'It is not always winter; there is summer there.'"

Nirlungayuk joined the family of Sidney Rodnunsky, the former principal at Kugaaruk school, and teacher Tess Rodnunsky last fall.

Her sister Donna Rodnunsky graduated from Kugaaruk school last year and is now enrolled in online courses through a Canadian university while living in Vietnam.

Nirlungayuk and her brother Sidney Rodnunsky Jr. are both attending an international school in Haiphong, where the elder Sidney now teaches. "The school in Vietnam is nice, not big, not poor and just very nice," she wrote.

The trip to their new home took more than 24 hours, with flights from Vancouver, B.C. to Hong Kong, China, to Hanoi, Vietnam on the way.

Vietnam's humid, subtropical climate was a big change from what she was accustomed to here in Nunavut, but "fortunately I adjusted very quickly," she wrote. "When I go back to Canada, I will probably be cold there because it is humid here, and it is 30 degrees Celsius and this is supposed to be fall. It is cold for me now when it is 21 degrees Celsius."

There is no real winter there, and the sun shines almost every day, she wrote. "The scenery is forest and slightly jungle ... There are rice fields and lots of different fruit trees and plants."

One thing she noted was how healthy many of the people around her appear, and how much care they take of their skin and weight. "Everyone looks so young - in their 20s and 30s, they still look like teenagers," she wrote.

Although she's enjoying her time abroad, which includes swimming lessons and drawing, Nirlungayuk said she does miss many things from home.

"The food is different. I miss pivi (dried fish), migu (dried meat), and seal intestine," she wrote.

Her large family back in Kugaaruk - "Mostly my grandparents!" - is never far from her mind either.

Nirlungayuk is currently completing her remaining Grade 12 credits. She plans to apply to go to Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa in September 2008.

"There are so many possibilities for study. I hope to determine my career plans while I am there," she wrote.