Dear reader, since last I wrote, little has changed in our situation. It has to be said though, that I am beginning to find the experience of documenting my frustrations via this blog somewhat cathartic. Sadly for you, this means another page of grumbling written by someone who really should count their blessings and realise there are worse places to be right now. I apologise now.
Despite my somewhat negative prologue, things have actually improved somewhat. I am still vastly underworked at school, still in the same cramped hotel room and still without internet access, save for clandestine facebook and email checking whilst at school. I might worry about this if I didn’t see the rest of the staff checking their emails, the daily news and doing crosswords too.
The reason for my cautious optimism is mainly to do with the people we have met. Since moving to Dhidhdhoo, we have been somewhat of a curiosity to the locals, but now that we haven’t left, they are beginning to get used to us and in some cases even converse with us. Our current favourites are Matheed, an IT worker for the island council, and Suhail, who works in a local café, but seemingly has fingers in every pie. We have met the men that pull the strings.
Our first encounter with these lovely gentlemen was in the Hide Out café, where Suhail works. He came up and introduced himself and told us that if there was anything we required, just to ask him. Having worked on the local resort for several years, he is well connected for both transport and resort stays, something we hope to be taking advantage of shortly. Suhail introduced us to Matheed in the café and he sat with us, smoked and had a coffee. Matheed’s English is excellent which helps when trying to hold a conversation. While we have found many people willing to say hello, often that is as far as the chat goes. With Matheed, the conversation can flow, from his family, to his work to his time living in Bengal. Matheed also kindly took us to another island on Friday, where he was supervising a program to make identity cards for those on even more secluded outposts. These cards are very important as it entitles the holder to free healthcare, a new initiative from President Nasheed’s government.
Whilst hanging out with our new friends we were also introduced to Nayim. He seems like a bit of a character. He is a sailor on large cargo ships and speaks Divehi, English and Spanish. The last is thanks to a seven year stay in a Chilean jail… because of an ‘accident’… Worryingly, Nayim, the ex-con, described Dhidhdhoo as ‘Alcatraz’. I just hope we don’t have to go all Shawshank Redemption to get out of here.
This week I also met our temporary neighbours, a group of seven imams from Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia. They are on a pilgrimage/fact finding mission to the Maldives to discover how a 100% Muslim country like the Maldives avoids the problems of extremism that in some cases blights their homelands. They were a very interesting, welcoming bunch of men, whose smiles were as broad as their waistlines. We spoke about the perception of Islam in the western world (I was rather guarded as instructed by the IVP) and, this being my first visit to a Muslim country, I told them how welcome I had been made to feel. In all honesty, I felt a little embarrassed at my ignorance at their culture and traditions. Ignorance combined with fear is what creates an intolerant society, and I hope to enlighten myself and be less ignorant of the community I live in.
Whilst writing that last paragraph (this is the reason it is so disjointed, and no, I will not go back and edit it) Mohamed El Nasir, the son of the family who own our guesthouse (I think) came in and sat down with me and had a long chat about cricket. In typical fashion in these parts he came in and immediately changed the channel of what I was watching on the TV over to the end of the Real Madrid match while he was cleaning. He is a Barcelona fan so he was vexed that Real had a 2-1 victory over Real Mallorca. Once he finished his cleaning he sat down and told me the records of every decent cricketer in the known universe. He is a proper cricket nerd, telling me the averages and best scores of his favourite players, who to watch out for in the upcoming world cup, and laughing at all the crap teams England have lost to over the years. It seems you can walk the whole Earth, and wherever you end up, there is always someone who will laugh at English sporting performances. I blame colonialism.
Tonight could be a good one. We are off to look at potential flats in an hour and get to pick from two. On top of that, we should hopefully hear about our impending weekend trip to Male. It is my birthday, and if we go down, there are people we know, beers, and female ankles to welcome us. Happy days if we manage to escape from Alcatraz.
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