The Gift

An odd thing happened to me in Greenland a very long time ago.
 
A group of us had flown out from Iceland for the day, one of the first tourists to visit Kulusuk a tiny island off the west coast of Greenland.
We had were shown into the school, a single room corrugated hut and given a brief history of the island. As we sat there listening to the local schoolteacher I looked around and suddenly I had this strange feeling that I had been there before.
I experienced the phenomenon known as deja-vu.
 
Afterwards as we walked around the village a girl of about ten years touched my arm and beckoned me to follow her. We climbed some rocks and suddenly she stopped, smiled, and opened her hand revealing a handcrafted  beaded necklace.
“For you,” she said.
It was a gift. She smiled and ran off.
 

That necklace  (pictured) remains on my dressing table today, and I thought of that yesterday listening to the Greenlandic choir, Aavaat, singing in Dunblane cathedral.