Exploring Thinadhoo

9/1/12

Today started with breakfast at the Blue House (as it always does) with toast, cereal, tea, coffee and juice concentrate (the passionfruit is particularly good). Before breakfast Jo, Caitlin, Nicole and I had a stroll down to the harbor. Needless to say quite a few people stared at us.


At 11am Asad took us on a walking tour of the island. First impressions?

• The heat! I felt as if my face was melting off. 
• Beautiful water.
• Litter.

There is a lot of litter here and it really does spoil the island. When we asked Asad why there was so much he said that while there is a dump on the island people often throw their rubbish wherever they want. It is very much an attitude-based problem, combined with the fact that the disposal facilities we so take for granted in Australia are absent in the atolls.

After our stroll around the island Asad dropped us off at the school. Here we met Ajeeb (the Deputy Principal), had a little chat about the school and clothing requirements (shirts that cover the shoulders and don't show the armpits and pants to the knee or below - we all pretty much wore pants that were either mid-calf or full length). I elected to teach Year 5, all subjects except PE and social studies.


Following our meeting we had lunch. Unlike previous groups of volunteers who ate at the Ocean Terrace, we eat at a cafe a short walk from the school. Lunch varies between differing curries, rice, flat bread, fish and coleslaw. We also get fed some type of fruit... usually cut oranges, apples or tiny, lady finger-like bananas.

After lunch it was decided that we would go for a snorkel on the reef just out past Thinadhoo.

Thinadhoo from the reef

The marine life was incredible! While the coral had next to no colour there was an abundance of fish, quite a lot of sea slugs and one annoyed sea urchin whose meal of coral was disturbed when one of the locals moved it away.

Gradually the tide began to move out, making the current stronger to swim against and the distance between coral and skin became too close for comfort. Myself and some others made our way back to the boat before the locals took us closer to an island the others were swimming to. There, Asad showed us the tuna drying racks (the main purpose of the island) before walking the circumference of the island. After spotting a couple of small eels and some crabs we ran into a family who were having a barbeque. They very kindly shared their fish, coconuts and green mangoes with us.

Once back on Thinadhoo we were promptly invited by one of the men staying in the Yellow House to come night fishing. The only problem with his generous, but unanticipated invite was that we were all in wet togs and were very hungry; if we were to go there would be no opportunity to get changed or eat. Needless to say we declined his offer.

Dinner consisted of tuna spaghetti and apple. Dinners here usually rotate through spaghetti, penne, noodles and rice. They are usually a tad spicy (watch out for the jalapenos) and can get very repetitive, very quickly.