Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Jun 24/98) - They aren't tourists of the usual variety for the Keewatin.

This best describes a group of embassy personnel who visited Rankin Inlet Tuesday as part of an Arctic tour, organized by the Department of National Defence.

Known as the foreign service attache, the group of 26 men included representatives from Germany, Argentina, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Israel, Slovakia, Switzerland and Uruguay.

This year, the annual week-long Arctic tour will take the party from Ottawa to Rankin Inlet, Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Resolute Bay, Arctic Bay, Iqaluit and northern Quebec. The group will return to Ottawa June 24.

The organizer for the Rankin Inlet leg, Pelagie Sharp, said that the tour went well and maintains it was an honor for the community to host the embassy people.

"There was one person from each embassy in Ottawa," she said.

Sharp, who organized last year's tour, said that the men were all interesting, with their stories about the home countries. She was particularly impressed with Lt.-Col. Duke Masilo of Botswana who invited her to visit his country.

"I've always wanted to go to Africa," she said. "It was really nice."

While they were late arriving into Rankin Inlet and were unable to see several of the events that had been planned for them, they did manage to take in a demonstration of traditional games.

Wesley Innukshuk and Arsene Kaput showed the Inuit games to the guests.

They enjoyed it, said Sharp.