Sitting, waiting, wishing…

January 8^th 2012

Dear reader (Mum).  After nearly a fortnight, and despite plenty of spare time, this is my first blog entry.  I could make many excuses; meetings, trips, lack of internet access, but the truth is that in the Maldives, life moves at a different pace to back home.  In embracing this, I have become an expert procrastinator, someone who is fashionably late for things, and generally more relaxed about everything.  Still… apologies for my tardiness.

My journey here began in Manchester, meeting a few of the lovely folks I will be teaching with at the airport.  A ten hour flight was tedious as times, but luckily they showed Friends with Benefits on the flight so everyone appreciated that their life could be a lot worse, had they somehow been involved in the making of that particular film.

 

Arriving in Male, the Maldivian capital, I was greeted by one of the loveliest customs officials.  Being a little nervous about such activities in general, and having guessed at a lot of the boxes filled in on the immigration form, I was a little apprehensive, however he beamed at me and told me I was teaching on his home island and that I would have a lovely time there.  What a welcome!

On leaving immigration we were met by the other teaching volunteers as well as some of the Maldives Volunteer Corps.  The ring-leader was a young man call Mohamed Razzan. ‘Razz’ has become our fixer and go-to guy, as well as a close friend in the Maldives.  He seems to know everyone, has wisdom beyond his mere 20 years and has shown us where to get the best food in Male.  Despite having to babysit twenty-odd British folks expecting life to run with the military precision we are all used to, Razz has managed to organise and entertain us in equal measure.  The Maldivians on our islands have a hard act to follow.

I checked in at the Villingili View Inn with my companion for the year Chris and a few other of our cohort.  Chris is a recent graduate, is a big Bath rugby fan and shares my sense of humour.  I couldn’t wish for a better match to spend the year with.  This was a great relief.  Chris is also one of the few people here who may be more vulnerable to the sun than I am, so he will keep me sensible and remind me to put sun block on.

The first week was spent on various trips to a couple of islands, arranging work permits, bank accounts and the like.  We had a couple of days staying with a family on an island called Dhiffushi which was very interesting.  The family provided every meal for us as well as standing over us whilst we ate it asking “Good?  Good?” every so often.  I became adept at smiling whilst my mouth burned with the chilli.  Our time on Dhiffushi was spent snorkelling, sunbathing, meeting local movers and shakers and a Dhivehi lesson.  Dhivehi is the language of the Maldives, a mix of various dialects and other tongues, and rather tricky to master.  After one lesson I remember the word ‘mudharison’ as I managed to picture Han Solo after falling in a puddle, however I can’t remember either the pronunciation or what it means… Think Razz would give me an ‘F’ for that class!

On returning to Male, we have managed to get on the national news twice.  TV cameras seem to follow the every move of government officials and so, as we met some of them, we gradually have become minor celebrities.  Another teacher, Ros, said yesterday she had been recognised by someone in a shop.  Oh, the trapping s of fame!  We also met the most famous man in the Maldives, President Mohamed Nasheed.  He was a lovely, friendly man with a big smile.  Barack Obama has a lot to live up to should I ever meet him.

For the last few days we have all been waiting for our transport to be arranged for us to get to our islands.  This has to be done by our schools, and whilst some of the volunteers have left and will, as I write, be teaching their first classes right now, there are still quite a few of us sitting in Male, waiting for a phone call, wishing we were on our islands and the year was beginning.

See you next time dear reader.  End of line….