Jetty No. 1, looking towards the main docks and markets
Leaving Jetty No1, Police HQ and the Presidents Jetty in the background.
The sea was pretty calm all the way, even when we left the protection of N Male' Atoll. I feel slightly uncomfortable in the main channels between the atolls. The ocean drops away to around 2000' in depth and it feels like a very small boat to be in such a large expanse of water.
Our high speed launch
Went past Bandos. Saw a dolphin. Thought about a few problems relating to the database. As we approached Eydhafushi we saw ominous dark clouds ahead. As we entered the shallower waters off the island, there was quite a bit of chop and it felt like the boat was being driven over large cobbles.
Dhonis, traditional Maldivian boats
Mannan was waiting for us when we arrived and after dropping bags of at guesthouse, we walk round to police station for a second breakfast: roshi, curry, tuna/whitefish and of course betelnut to finish.
Discussed training and roll out to police and social workers and agreed we needed to rework the whole project plan. We need to train the two groups together to give them the opportunity to develop new processes. We can't train until we have migrated at least the current case data from social workers system and so it looks more like the training will now be put back until early 2010.
Met with two of the social workers from the island and showed them the system so far, to what one can interpret as great enthusiasm (emotion can be hard to detect in Maldivians)
Checked out training facility at Teachers Resource Centre and learnt how to write Baa Atoll in Dhivehi.
Baa Atoll written in Dhivehi. The text runs right to left with vowels (filis) above and below the consonants. Baa is also one of the letters of the Thaana character set.
We had been invited round to the police station in the evening for a barbeque. Going past the harbour area on the way there, we watched crabs scurrying about and lightening across the water.
Eydhafushi harbour at night
It was halloween back home and on Eydhafushi we watched the silhouettes of fruit bats fly across the face of an almost full moon.
Ryan and Nancy sitting in traditional Maldivian outdoor seats
During the night there was a typical tropical rainstorm where the gods just emtptied bath loads of water onto the ground. Sunday morning was clearer skies, fierce heat and a lot of humidity.
More dhonies in unfeasibly blue water
A brief visit to see the social workers at 8am, then breakfast at the police station and the boat back to Male' at 9 o'clock.
Eydhafushi main street
We passed a pod of dolphins shortly after leaving Eydhafushi and as we got closer to Male' we made a small detour to avoid a storm, when things started to get quite exciting.
Grand Friday Mosque, Male'
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