Travel to Eydhafushi

July 13th-15th

We were able to have a lovely lie in Saturday morning as we didn’t need to go anywhere, until later that afternoon. The morning consisted of a lovely cooked breakfast, by Rachael and Adeola. Adeola had never cooked eggy bread before, so Rachael was there to teach her, but she did have one rule. Adeola needed to write down the instructions. As part of the breakfast along with the eggy bread, we had two types of luncheon meat, one chicken and the other beef. (One tasted better than the other - which one was which we don’t know)!! 

The night before we had been liaising with Imm, one of the Malé Young Leaders, to arrange a taxi or two to the jetty. We arranged for the taxis to pick us up at 12:30pm. However, Raza another YL phoned in the morning to change the time of the taxi to 12pm. Which meant it was a little bit of a scramble to finish packing and tidying, before we left the apartment. 

The taxis arrived and we all piled in. Three in one car and three in the other. The first car that was ready was with Lyndsay, Rachael and Sophie. They set off for the jetty before we had even locked the doors. Once Lottie, Adeola and Alyson were in their car, they set off for the jetty too. 

Surprisingly it was the second taxi that got to the jetty first, we were trying to look out for the other team members, but couldn’t see them. That was because they haven’t arrived yet. As their taxi pulled up, Imm arrived to greet us and guide us to our ferry launch to Eydhafushi. 

We were the first at the ferry and were able to pack all our bags on and get first choice of seats. This boat was extra special, as it had individual seats (with cushions) and they were all forward facing. We all went for the back of the boat, as that is the best place to sit. Especially if the sea is a little bit choppy. As the boat set off we were able to spread out a little more as not all the seats were taken. This meant we were able to write our diary entries and edit photos and videos while on the move. (It was a nice smooth boat ride - the first one). 

We even had time for a little nap before we arrived. 

On arrival at Edyhafushi, we were greeted by the Stars and they gave us a lovely palm leaf bowl, full of plumeria alba flowers and an invite to their colour party. 

We then went along the line to shake hands with the Little Maids, Guides, Leaders and parents of the island. 

We were then placed in two lines and had a procession down to the school. We were told a couple of times that we were walking too fast for the rest of the procession. So we had to stop and the dancers went in from of us. We then continued to the school, where we were shown stalls of all the traditional crafts of the island. We were also able to try some of the traditional methods, like rolling the coconut husk into small sections, that can then be used to make rope. We were also able to try dehusking the coconut, which Lyndsay thoroughly enjoyed. Alyson was also able to put her degree into action on the hand made loom, weaving small strips of palm leaves to make a large mat. 

Once we had been round all the stalls, we ended with a stop at the sweet short eats stand and we tried all the different types. It was very tasty if a little sweet. 

We were able to sit a lovely air conditioned room, where we were asked if someone would make a speech for the media, so Alyson as team leader went and gave an interview to a man and phone. We are not too sure where this footage has gone, or what they did with it. 

At 4:30pm, it was time to party with the Stars. The Stars has met us at the jetty early in the afternoon and they had all gone home and changed into their beautiful red dresses. The theme of the party was strawberries and everything was red. The stars wore red and all the food was also red. We had red bread for tuna sandwiches with red food colouring in the mayo. We also had red drinks too. Alyson got called upon again to give a speech to the stars. She thanked then for the inviting to the party and said how excited we all were to have our games session with them. 

Once the party had finished, we had a little time to go back to our accommodation, before heading out for our first session with the leaders. In this session we started to lay the ground works for what makes a great leader, which we were going to continue with in a couple of days time. The session was 1 hour long, and we mixed in some games and songs too. 

After the session it was time for food again. It was the lovely rice, tuna and chilli favourites. 

When everyone had finished we went back to the accommodation to prepare for the following day. By this point we were ready for bed!!