Iqaluit (Aug 25/03) - She thinks of it as her "little lookout hill" -- the only place she played in Iqaluit as a child, now covered with those houses that look like a little staircase.

Jeanie Eeseemailee in Iqaluit last week: "I'm still learning new words," the translator says. "Or new old words, let's put it that way." - Kathleen Lippa/NNSL photo

Jeanie Eeseemailee can't hide her disappointment.

"They never should have built on it," says the Iqaluit-born mother of three.

"It would have been better if they made it into a park."

But change has been the only constant in the North for Eeseemailee, and she has learned to roll with it.

When she moved back to Iqaluit from Panniqtuuq a few years ago, she was shocked at the growth of the city.

She came back because she missed her parents who she visits regularly now in town.

The changes in Iqaluit still amaze her today.

"From where I'm living in Iqaluit, we can't see the inlet because of the houses," she says.

She remembers having fun gathering up old cans and "nice looking rocks" to use for playhouses, "or rock houses."

Towards the graveyard there are many rocks shaped like blocks, she says.

"We used to play house down there."

In 1977 Eeseemailee moved to Panniqtuuq to take a cooking course.

But she really got cooking, meeting her husband, Gyta, and settling in the community for the next 19 years.

The couple had a daughter and two sons. They were happy. But moving back home opened up a new world.

"I wanted to do something with my life," she says explaining why she got into translating. "Up until I took the translating course, I never worked really."

She actually did work as a cashier for many years. But she wanted to challenge herself more.

Interpreting and translating was the answer.

She now works as a translator for the City of Iqaluit.

"I'm still learning new words," she says. "Or new old words, lets put it that way. Because there are words in Inuktitut that I don't use that are the actual meaning of the English words."

Not too long ago, Eeseemailee worried about the survival of Inuktitut. She doesn't anymore.

"It's very much still around. It's just kind of in this new world we're living in."

"I thought we were losing it. Two years ago I would have said we lost it completely. But since I became part of the Iqaluit District Education Board, I've been around school children I've found Inuktitut is still in our young kids no matter what anyone says."

But she is as guilty as anyone of mixing of English and Inuktitut together in a conversation.

"I'm trying to stop my kids from using it, so I have to watch myself before I speak."