Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (July 11/01) - They're the jacks-of-all trades, the one-size-fits-all hamlet maintenance workers, fixing everything from pipes to baseball dug-outs and there's almost no job they can't do.

In the cool of a Rankin Inlet summer afternoon breeze and beneath naked blue skies, the trio raked dirt and painted the adult softball diamond's new dug-outs last Wednesday.

"I like painting and doing carpentry in the summer," said Joseph Inukshuk, who's worked for around five years with the hamlet.

"I've fixed stop signs, painted them, painted kilometre signs, fixed the baseball diamond fence," said Inukshuk, listing the vast array of jobs he's accomplished.

While he doesn't mind most of the jobs he has to do, there are some he'd rather do without.

"In the winter during hockey season, people put hockey tape in the toilet and canisters of (tobacco chew)," he said, sitting in the half-painted dug-out.

"I have to unplug the toilet with my hand," he said, shaking his head.

Arsene Kaput, who has his level 1 in carpentry, said he likes the variety of things he's had to do.

"We've fixed boilers, done some plumbing, anything that needs to be fixed we do what we can," he said, holding a rake upright in his hand. "We keep things running from the smallest things to the biggest."

"Sometimes it's busy, almost too busy, but at the end of the day you take a deep breath and relax," said Kaput, who along with William Tudlik recently joined the hamlet team.

Kaput began in April, Tudlik in May.

Tudlik enjoys what he does and the others kid him saying he's the best painter in Nunavut as he rolls on another coat of paint onto the dug-out's ceiling.

"It's good, better than staying at home, sitting down," said Tudlik. "It keeps me busy and time goes by real fast."

Tudlik likes the variety of jobs he gets to do. "I'm learning a lot of new stuff like carpentry and plumbing," he said. "I'm happy working here," said Kaput. No one disagrees.