Plans had been made to go snorkeling at Kaadhedhoo today. Not wanting the stress of having to catch ferries or having to rush, Nicole and I decided to stay on Thinadhoo for the day. Best decision ever. We were told though that the snorkeling on Kaadhedhoo was amazing: plenty of turtles and sharks were seen.
After having the continental breakfast at the Ocean Terrace (which consists of 4 pieces of toast, sausage made of mystery meat and an egg for 30 Rufiyaa - $2) the other volunteers boarded the ferry while Nicole and I started our walk of the island. We hadn't been completely around the island since the first day, so it was good to get out again and have a proper look at everything. After having a pitstop at the wharf, we went to lunch, only to find the cafe was closed. I had a sneaking suspicion it was closed for prayer, which was confirmed later by Asad.
Once prayer had finished we went back to GoCya. Ah, cultural misunderstandings. We each ordered a club sandwich with chips, and wrote exactly what was on the menu on the piece of paper. The staff, however, thought we wanted an extra serving of chips each, so brought out two extra plates. One plate of chips, one club sandwich and another helping of chips later I had a good food baby going on.
That night we had the farewell dinner as Darcy was heading back to Australia early after our stay at the resort. The Blue House had well and truly been transformed: Asad and his mates had created a mini dancefloor in the lounge room, a disco light had been hung up with skipping ropes and the BBQ had been set up out the back.
28/01/2012
We arrived at school bright and early this morning to start painting a mural on one of the school walls. Well, that was the plan. After lugging the paint downstairs (I managed to spill red paint everywhere - if there are red splashes of paint near the stairwell next door to the Year 6 classroom, that would be from me), Ajeeb's requests were made clear... He wanted the mural to cover the entirety of the, at least, 8 metre high wall on rickety scaffolding set up over plants covered in thorns. It was really quite comical. We told Ajeeb we were extremely uncomfortable painting the wall at such a height on the scaffolding and asked if we were able to paint something at our height. Unfortunately, it was the whole wall or nothing. We asked if there was anything else we could do and he said no. It was so frustrating and disappointing as we were all looking forward to doing something else in the school.
Later in the afternoon we visted the art exhibition that was held at the high school. The teachers seemed really pleased that we had come to see the students' work. Wow, those kids are talented; their watercolours were especially amazing.
While we were at the school a group of tourists from a nearby resort wandered in. As soon as we saw them we tried to figure out who they were and where they had come from. It was just so odd to see white people other than ourselves. Some women in the group were wearing very short skirts. Seeing that made me so uncomfortable, when only three weeks earlier I had been wandering around at home in shorts. It's funny how quickly you become accustomed to a certain way of life, and our curiosity about this group of strangers was obviously how the locals viewed us at the beginning of our placement.
After checking out the school we decided to finally play a game of house volleyball. The only problem was that local men had already taken the volleyball court, so we decided on Blue House vs. Yellow House no-rules netball. It was pretty much basketball, but with no stepping and no dribbling. We drew a crowd of locals as spectators. In the end I think we (the Yellow House) lost by a small margin.
That night we went back to the school for our farewell dinner. The food was fantastic. As we dined we were serenaded by a soundtrack consisting of jazz and the titanic theme song. Very romantic.
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