Wachiya from Wemindji!!

Wachiya is Cree for "Greetings!" -- so I'm greeting you from Wemindji, a Cree community in James Bay, where I am visiting until tomorrow. I'm about to head back into the classroom. Photographer Monique Dykstra is giving a little lesson on using a digital camera and I'm going to do a talk about writing -- how I get ideas for my stories and stuff like that. It's pretty amazingup here. We're in a town of 1,300 people -- loads of kids. Monique and I are working on a story for The Montreal Gazette about grandmothers, who are another important part of the community in Wemindji. Many of the grammas were born in teepees, in the days before Wemindji was settled. When I look outside, I see a huge forest of fir trees -- and snow, loads of it. Okay, I'd better zip off, but I did want to at least write a quick hello from the north. Home tomorrow -- back at my blog on Thursday!