Hans Jensen

Innkeeper

Qaanaaq, Greenland

Unlike the other men in these ethnographies, Hans Jensen is not a hunter. He's an inn keeper. He runs the only lodging in the Thule region, the five-room Hotel Qaanaaq. As small as it is, the Hotel Qaanaaq has seen more than its share of famous people. Denmark's Prince Fredrik stayed there in 2000 before his trip through northeast Greenland with the Sirius Patrol. Actor Kevin Spacey slept there. So did writer Gretel Erlich, polar photographers Bryan and Cherry Alexander and climber Reinhold Messner. Just to name a few. The point is that when you visit this corner of the planet, Hans' hotel is the only place to stay.

The inn Hans has built is supremely comfortable. The beds are covered with European duvets and there's a sink with running water in every room. Hans lays out a Danish breakfast of boiled eggs, fresh bread, butter, jam, cheese and cold cuts. In the evening, his wife Birthe prepares European-style meals — baked fish, baked pork roast, fried cutlets. For a working woman like me, who spends an entire day at the office only to rush home and cook for others, sitting down to one of Birthe's hot, home-cooked meals every night is nirvana.

During my most recent stay at the Hotel Qaanaaq, Birthe was preparing for the confirmation of her grandson. Among Greenlandic Lutherans, confirmation is an important event. The children wear their national costume and the family hosts a big party. Birthe was preparing clothing for the celebration — a pair of polar bear skin pants for her grandson and a pair of snow white, thigh-high kamiks for a female relative. She worked on the floor, seated with her legs straight out in front of her, gripping the kamiks between her thighs to hold the seal skin taut as she sewed perfect stitches with floss, a large needle and a thimble.