It's hot, and it's getting hotter. I normally handle the heat quite well, and have dutifully downed several litres of bottled water each day, but the midday sun was pushing 37 degrees on Friday. And that's really at the limit of bearable temperature for any human. As we head towards February and March, the hottest time of year in this patch of the Arabic Sea / Indian Ocean, I think 35-37 degrees will become the norm. Fortunately the intensity of that heat is confined to 10am to 3pm, and I tend to stay indoors in those hours, enjoying the cooling whirr of surprisingly effective ceiling fans. Even in Professional Teacher Garb - smart trousers, polished shoes, long shirt, fashionable tie - room temperature is quite comfortable.
Swimming is a far better way to escape the heat. The sea around Ihavandhoo is a beautiful cyan colour, and closer in temperature to a swimming pool than the bitterly cold Atlantic. (Also it's transparent and has pretty fish - so all in all an improvement on the Atlantic). My weekend was basically spent making the most of that fact. On Saturday I took an early morning boatride to a coral reef about 2km from Ihavandhoo, with Tamehiro - a Japanese volunteer teaching P.E. - and one of his visiting friends. Those two went hunting fish and octupus/octupi, whilst I swam, dived, chased fish, and watched a school of dolphins splashing around a few hundred metres away. The ten-year-old girl in me hoped that they were come and play with us, but I it didn't happen. Damn dolphins! (They did do some tricks around the boat as we chugged back home, so I can't stay too mad). But this swimming was a real highlight of my time so far. In particular, it was great to see a octopus, and a huge crab, and the beautiful live coral under just a metre of water in places. It's a very strange feeling to simply stand up in the middle of the ocean. I was also a bit surprised (read: absolutely bloody terrified) when a gigantic manta ray casually glided by. Tamehiro was hunting for several hours and brought home a big haul, as did the two boys who had taken us out to the reef. Although it wasn't too easy to see them unceremoniously butcher their fish without actually killing them first. Old romantic that I am.
Not spent much time on the beach yet, because: a) I have no books to read after breaking my Kindle; b) busy busy busy; c) many islanders use the beach as a convenient rubbish dump. Areas close to pathways are littered with rusty cans, plastic packaging, fish bones, and discarded rice. My best option for relaxing is to settle one of the unspoilt and secluded corners. (And I've already discussed with Merlin and Andrew the viability of having barbecues on the beach.) Then again, Ihavandhoo isn't really big enough to have many secluded corners. Walking the entire 3km island circumference is an extremely quick process. The curve is quite perceptible. It does make me wonder why there are quite so many mopeds and motor vehicles, given no place is never EVER more than 800m away. Although the two extremities are the football pitch and the medical clinic, and I can imagine that broken feet and cuts are quite common. The boys play barefoot, with surprising skill and genuine ferocity. I might end up appreciating the need for that island ambulance after all.
This post has been written in the staff room. Possibly outside the "terms of acceptable internet use", but I've done my lesson plans and preparation, and Sunday is my lightest day in terms of workload. I finish teaching my second class at 8.40, and then don't resume teaching until the final session commencing 11.50. So not an awful lot to do in the interim, and I decided to fill in the gaps left in Thursday's post.
This afternoon I do have stuff to do though. Firstly, shopping for some fresh fruit and vegetables. I've been living on noodles, rice, curry for several days now, and feeling the effects of extremely serious malnutrition. Not a word of hyperbole. A nice vegetable stew will do wonders - washed down with Coca Cola and biscuits of course. Secondly, there's a presentation to arrange. It's a PD Day on Thursday, but gone are the days when this was code for a free day off. Who knew teachers were actually working on those glorious termly interludes?!
Instead, I have to create a one-hour talk/slideshow combo and present it to the staff body. For this, I've been paired with a very nice man called Sobah. He teaches Accounting, and speaks fluent English, especially since he spent four years studying in Malaysia. He also became a father ten days ago, and I've already met and held his tiny baby son. There was a steady flow of relatives coming to the house to greet the new member, so I felt honoured to be invited along! But understandably, Sobah is rather busy right now, and I offered to compile most of the presentation.
The SMT have now decided that this is to be on "pronunciation, phonemes and dipthongs". Three days ago I only knew what one of these words meant. Now I'm selling the idea that English isn't a stupid language simply because the combination of "ea" can be pronounced in so many ways: steak, head, bead, sergeant, cereal, fear. I'm sold. English is a damn stupid language. Dhivehi - the Maldivian script - makes lots more sense. They have the consonants, and they the vowel sounds are stressed exclusively by accents above or below the consonant. Much easier.
Anyway, it's now 11.43, and I'm preparing to face 8A for the coming half-hour. It's just a simple interactive activity with prolonged class participation. What could possibly go wrong...?
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