Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Apr 28/00) - John Jerome loves the spring. Then again, he loves the summer, autumn and winter, too.

When asked to choose his favourite season, he couldn't name just one, and you can't blame him. Jerome lives out at Rachel Reindeer Camp, where he and Alice Francis play host to scores of visitors and school children annually, and where it's beautiful the entire year.

Perched on the bank of the East Channel up river from Inuvik, the camp consists of several cabins, a classroom, storage shacks and a fish house. It also faces southwest, and on a recent weekday evening, the sun hung low in the sky and cast a soft orange glow over the camp before disappearing behind the surrounding hills.

"I've lived all my life in the bush, and moved up here from Big Rock about eight or nine years ago," said Jerome. "I like it in the fall time with the ducks all over and going south ... I like it in the winter, I like everything."

The lifestyle Jerome and Francis live appears idyllic, but living at Rachel Reindeer Camp is a full-time job. Jerome said he does his best to take care of the outdoor chores and hunting while Francis keeps house and sets her snares for the pelts they sell through the Gwich'in board. They also play host to visiting groups arranged by the Nihtat council, something they clearly enjoy and something that fits in well with the idea of exposing youth to the land.

"I show the kids how to set and place snares, teach them how to be out in the bush and all the medicines they can get there," said Jerome. "Most of them never saw anything like that before, though for some of them it's their third year out here and some know how to skin rabbits."

While Liz Hansen from the council provides much of the more formal classroom instruction for the kids, Jerome shows them around the camp. He smiles, laughs and makes jokes as he leads them out to the snares, builds a fire or takes them along as he checks his nets, clearly enjoying this kind of work.

Francis, with the help of Ruby McLeod, says she enjoys giving the visitors a good feed of traditional dishes.

"I make the soup," she said. "I get everything ready before and cut the meat, make the fish or fried meat or rabbit."

"They just enjoy it, and some of them really eat," said Jerome, laughing. "We have caribou and rabbit, but we don't have any chicken or wieners for them"

While the camp does boast a few modern conveniences -- including a poorly working radio -- it remains simple, and Francis likes it that way. Granddaughter to Fort McPherson's Chief Julius and born at the T'loondih healing camp, she said she's tried town living -- including a summer working in Calgary -- but prefers camp life.

"In town somebody's always knocking at the door and the phone, too, it's constantly ringing," she said.

Their answer is to have no phone at all, and to enjoy the other sounds their world has to offer.

"We like to have visitors and to sit around telling stories," said Jerome, "but when they're not here and it gets quiet, you just hear the birds singing -- that's relaxing."