Ins and outs of Naifaru ... Part 1

 When I first arrived on Naifaru, I was overwhelmed by everything I saw and it was difficult to make any sense of my surroundings. Buildings all looked the same (albeit painted in different colours). Motorbikes were driven on any side of the road. There are only 3 cars and 4-5 trucks on the island. Everyone started at me. There were very few animals to be seen. Shops opened and closed at seemingly random times throughout the day. And rush hour was two boats leaving the harbour at the same time.

Four weeks down the track, I'm starting to feel like I fit in more (even though I still don't look like the locals :)) and I've explored many corners of the tiny island. Although just when I think I've seen everything, I come across a new place hidden away behind a stone wall or around another corner. 

The roads are formed from consolidated coral with a few massive potholes.

View up Main Street

Along the edge of the harbour

The road from our home towards the harbour

Boat shed

Puddles growing during a thunderstorm

The potholes get really deep after a thunderstorm - almost deep enough to lose a small child in! A ring road runs around the island. There's Main Street, two other major streets and then a maze of narrow pathways - some just wide enough to ride a motorbike along - across the island. 

There is no right side of the road to drive on either. The rule seems to be, whoever was in a spot first has right-of-way. So if I'm walking along and get to an intersection first, I keep walking and any bikes, cars or people that come along afterwards go around me. A bit weird to get used to, but it works. 

Some homes open straight onto the roads, while others (like the volunteer house) have a small gated front yard you enter before going inside. Many people leave their doors wide open and I'm continually peering inside people's homes. I haven't figured out if it's rude or not as most people I see inside smile and say hello! Many women sweep the leaves and rubbish off the streets in front of their homes each morning so the roads always look tidy.

My home

Outside my home

Road names are mostly non-existent and houses don't have numbers. Instead, each home has a name. I live at Mariyaadhu. Mail isn't delivered, we front up to the post office when we're expecting a parcel or letter and collect it ourselves.

Juvenile office

There's no Spanish White or Half Tea in sight. Rather homes and buildings are painted bright blue, mint green, pale pink, combi-van yellow, hubba-bubba purple and strawberry red. And inside the colours are even bolder! What is most surprising to me is that somehow it all works. The colours are perfect and don't even remotely come across as garish or overbearing.

I quickly picked up that other volunteers say hello to many people as we walked along. I got into the same habit, even though it felt a little strange at first. How often have you walked along the road and said hello to every person you came across? I never have before yet I have found it really brings a spark to my day getting so many warm hellos and smiles in return! And there's a few people I now regularly stop and chat with, even if it's only a few words of broken Dhevehi.

One of the many side alleys

The mysterious cafe

One of the things I've enjoyed doing the most is wandering down the tiny, narrow side alleys. I've discovered a cafe that was previously a mystery.  I've found more shops selling food and basic goods cheaper than on Main Street. There's brightly painted graffiti, beautiful doorways and building entrances, overgrown gardens full of timeless, forgotten character, mosques and people.

Brightly painted doors

 

Graffiti

More sights down side alleys

I've met so many people (many elderly) just sitting in their deck chairs watching the world go by. One lady saw I was taking photos and offered to be in a pic with her three friends - such character in their aged faces and such sweet ladies.

 I've come across three zoos on the island. Not the traditional zoo you'd expect to see back home. These zoos contain goats!

So cute! The owners seem so proud of their animals and have happily showed me inside the enclosures. One owner even let me hold a 1 day old kid (so wanted to take it home!) The goats are kept for milk and meat and look very well cared for. 

With a 1 day old kid :)

Only from New Zealand!!!

The shops open and close throughout the day to fit in with the five prayer times. I still haven't got the schedule in my head. Instead I go with the principle that if I need something and see a shop is open, I'll buy it rather than wait until later. They're also open from 830pm until about 1130pm which is fantastic as it's much nicer to take a late night stroll around the shops when it's cooler. And there's even signs promoting NZ Anchor milk!

I could write screeds about all the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of living on Naifaru. I've decided instead to save up the stories for another blog post.

It's amused me how much more aware of my surroundings I am and how much more I am taking in. I know its mainly because I'm living on an island and in a community that is so different from my home town. However, I have loved discovering fresh, new sights and places every day and want to be able to look at my 'normal' surroundings through different eyes when I return home and see what I've been missing for so long.

Mural at a private home

More house names

Local high school

Sharjah School - Dubai kids come to town!

The 11 girls and 3 boys from Dubai arrived yesterday to what I imagine would have been a really warm welcome from the Atoll Volunteers/ Naifaru Juvenile team. I missed the welcome because we were over on Veyyva snorkelling and getting a full body tan again!

I caught up with them in the afternoon though and tagged along on their island excursion (got to see the rubbish dump and desalination plant again!) We were nearly finished when the heavens opened and one of the most torrential downpours I've experienced hit. You can just imagine the chaos. Students, teachers, local kids and Juvenile staff fleeing in all directions looking for cover.

Cruising round town

Carlos caught in the rain

Mary and Marie (the school teacher and nurse), 4 local girls, a couple of Dubai students and I were sheltering under a small overhang when an elderly man invited us into his home to get out of the rain. We raced inside and it wasn't until we were just about to leave that I noticed the local girls had not come inside. I soon found out why when the old guy tried to get a bit frisky with me! We took off again and the girls quickly spread the story of my proposition and lucky escape!

First lecture in the series

Tess and I are giving a series of marine lectures to the students all week. We're aiming to give them a solid grounding in what they will see in the sea around the Maldives, the importance of the marine environment and things they can do to conserve and protect it. We're showing pictures and telling stories of our experiences here so that when they go out in the field during the day and stay on uninhabited Turtle Island overnight, they actually see and look for what we've talked about (we get to stay on Turtle Island too! So looking forward to that one!)

I started off with a general intro to the Maldives, the marine ecosystems here (coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangroves), threats to the ecosystems and what they can do to protect them. 

I am so thankful for my Toastmasters and National Speakers days! All the practice I've had there and the tips I've learnt from everyone meant I was relaxed and had a lot of fun giving the presentation. (And it's great to be able to use what I've learned in a 'real, live' situation!)

One more talk for me to give, this one on fish! I'm thinking about showing them a whole lot of common fish and then taking them snorkelling...watch this space for what happens!

Birthday party on Kuredu resort

My alarm blared out at 430am, minutes before the first prayer call for the day.

Pre-dawn dhoni ride

I wasn't getting up specifically to pray this morning. We had arranged a relaxing day on nearby Kuredu resort and the staff dhoni left Naifaru at 515am. It was a big shock to the system being up before the sun and we were all super quiet during the hour long boat trip.

Welcome to Kuredu

Main street

 The sun was just rising as we set foot on Kuredu. We were welcomed like queens and told we had free run to enjoy all the activities, restaurants, pools and beaches the island had to offer.

Beachside huts

A stroll around the island was first up. Most of the guests were still sleeping and the sea grass littering the beaches was being swept up and buried. It felt like we were the only people on the island and so we had uninterrupted views of the sandpit that seemingly stretched out forever into the deep blue sea.
The sand was so soft and combined with the morning sun and solitude made for picture postcard moments.

GIANT stride to get in...

A scuba dive was next up. Kuredu has a reputation for being the safest diving resort in the Maldives, and after a thorough briefing, Tess and I were striding into the balmy, tropical water. The water was 31 degrees which meant I didn't need a wetsuit and only 1 kg of lead (best conditions for diving). It was so nice to be able to stay underwater and really look at everything too, as a pose to snorkelling where I still have to pop up for a breathe after 10 seconds!

No wetsuits! Love it!

It may have only been the house reef right next to the main resort beach we we diving on, but it was teaming with life. All the normal creatures were there...butterfly fish, wrasse, batfish, damsel fish, anemone fish, snapper and unicorn fish. Corals covered every rock face and I had to laugh as I started to identify and name many of them!

Mermaid on the wreck :)

Happy days after a cool dive

A wreck lies on the edge of the reef and is covered in corals, algae and anemones.  As we peered into the hull, schools of hundreds of tiny whitebait-type fish swarmed up near our masks and the dull, inner depths of the inside of the ship were revealed.

A green turtle appeared above us, circled around and then took off again. It was so graceful how it effortlessly propelled itself through the water and turned on dime when it realised we were nearby! Unfortunately it wasn't close enough for any clear pics but I'm sure I'll see another sometime soon.

A 20 minute stroll got us to the end of the island we hadn't yet seen and to a restaurant built over the edge of the ocean. It was buffet style that we all enthusiastically embraced. I think I ended up having 3 servings of salads and greens as these are so hard to come by on Naifaru. 

So excited about lettuce!

Happy Birthday Tess!!!

One of the waiters recognised Collette from Naifaru and before long, several waiters and staff (who were also from Naifaru) had stopped to chat with us. We told them we were there to celebrate Tess's birthday. Just as we were finishing our meals, they brought out a cake and vegetable carved flowers as a happy birthday gift! It was such a lovely gesture and reinforced to me how friendly Maldivian people are.

The afternoon hours were spent lounging around the pools, having a couple of drinks and working on our tans! Thanks Tess's for timing your birthday so well. I loved the relaxing day and the chance to see yet another side of the marvellous Maldives!