PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Sports Coaching
WRITTEN BY: Minna Featherstone
Tonight, after returning from our overnight trip to the Robinson's resort for Australia Day, Asad surprised us all by organising a big dinner as a sort of last-week-farewell/birthday celebration for Aditi, whose shares her birthday with Australia Day. We had been told dinner was going to be a little late tonight, and as we walked over to the cafe we heard the 7:30pm prayer call that we usually associate with sitting down and anticipating food.
When we arrived, there were candles in bottles held up by sand, plenty of naan bread and our favourite fish curry to go round, a beautiful cake made by one of the preschool teachers, a loud round of happy birthday (possibly the fourth all weekend) and after all that, Asad announced that we would soon be joined by a band who would perform a few songs for us. Moments later a group appeared to set up a couple of music stands... for their ipads! They used these to read their lyrics and music, which hit us shortly as very rhythmic, loud and intense.
There were four large double ended drums, a tambourine, maracas and lots ofclapping and singing in Divehi, songs about love and one about the Maldives, or so we were told. The music was entrancing and got everyone clapping, and the singers of the group who paraded around our seats and danced even more so. They enticed us to join them, to embarrass ourselves dancing alongside the talented and endlessly energetic musicians. It was basically lots of fun.
The week hadn't started as excitingly however. On Monday I stayed home from school with a cold, with a few others of the group returning from school earlier than usual due to various maladies. Swimming that day was also cancelled due to high winds and the fact that half of us were not quite up to it. The next day saw better weather and spirits, although I turned out to be that one annoying person in class who had sniffles, and later in the afternoon we saw our swimming students continue to improve greatly, we could really see that those who were keen and listened well did better. The group of boys mygroup teaches have mastered the basic freestyle skills, and just need to work on them and put them all together. They're also always up for a seaweed or pool noodle fight. The girls we take? Not so much, but their confidence in the water increases every lesson.
Thursday was the Prophet's Birthday which is observed as a public holiday by government institutions including the primary school. The day also marked the last day for one our group, who had to head home early to start back at uni next week. That afternoon half the group headed back to the island for more snorkelling and freshly caught and cooked crabs, staying overnight, with the rest of the group joining them on the island the next morning. We spent Friday relaxing in the water and snorkelling around the island's beautiful reef before heading home to pack for our Australia Day trip. Nextweek is our last week of school and swimming lessons, making us all sad that our trip is winding up so quickly, but with another birthday and more farewell celebrations at school and afterward, we’ve an exciting week ahead!
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