Day 2: Goodbuy Qaanaaq – Thule

Goodbuy Qaanaaq
Early on my last morning in Qaanaaq the Danish plumber arrived to sort out the pipe. I packed and cleaned and thanked God once more for the awesome time I had there, and by the time I was finished the plumber was done. I also wanted to take out my last toilet bag and leave the house with a clean one in place, and as I was sitting on the toilet the last time I heard steps coming up the stairs outside the house and a man walked straight into the bathroom just as I pulled up my pants. He took the bag with a friendly smile and disappeared. I don’t know if he was Iidu’s friend, but for all I know he was an angel. I was very thankful for not having to deal with this matter.

My flight was at 1pm but Iidu arranged that I would be picked up at 10am. I’m not sure why she felt this was better, but I was thankful and ready for her when she came at 10:45. I gave her a card I have written for her, and she gave me a little pressent she had wrapped. We exchanged our wordless appreciation and then we went to the airport. It was almost as gloomy a day as the day that I arrived, and we both cried when we said goodbuy at the airport. I watched as the car disappeared over the furthest hill in a little whisp of dust. Love grows fast in the dessolate places of the Earth.

I was the first passenger and waited a while for check in to open ar around 11:30. The other passengers and the people waiting for people on the incomming flight started filling the little room, and almost all the young people I had met during the week – Iidu’s sister’s daugters – were there. I was glad to be able to greet them. The incomming flight finally arrived at 12:30 and I could quickly meet Tukkumeq and her family. I gave her ‘Heaven is so real’ and a card with a report on all the praying I did for the different people and things I felt she might want to follow up on. I was especially concerned that there may have been misunderstandings, and I just wanted her to check what they came away from the meetings with. We greeted briefly and they left with the lift that came for them.

Thule
Thule is one of Greenland’s biggest sources of income, since they rent its top-security airbase to the US government at an astronomical yearly amount. I did not know that we were going via Thule, and I was very glad to hear the announcement. Thule featured in the book that I read in 1996 ‘Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow’ - my first introduction to modern Greenland. It had an aura of suspence in my immagination and the whole time I was in Qaanaaq I was kind of sorry that I would not be able to go to Thule only 60km away. I was already preparing my little blurp to beg the airhostess to let me off to get a stone, when we were all told to get off for refeuling. The big runway dwarfed the little group of passengers, as they rushed us into the airport building through the biting wind. The scene was appropriately bleak and sterile. As we waited with 4 guards around us to return to the aircraft, the Lord showed me that there is an active little group of believers there whom He loves very much. On the way back to the plane I got a stone and thanked the Lord!