Final days in the Maldives

Thulhaadhoo 16/7/19

After a late night of food, songs and games with the Leaders of Eydhafushi, we had yet another early start to make our journey to Thulhaadhoo. We finished packing and were out the house by ‪6am, with bags on our fronts and backs, heading to the school for breakfast. We said our final farewells to the leaders before loading the tuk-tuk vehicle up with our bags. We gave gifts of shortbread, badges and tea towels, as well as a handwritten thank you post card. 

As there were not enough people for the ferry, we had to get a private launch to get us to Thulhaadhoo. We all wondered if the choppy sea put the locals off traveling this day. Despite the large movements of the boat we got the Thulhaadhoo in an uneventful 45 minutes.

We were welcomed by Girl Guides and Leaders from every section, as well as parents. We said hello to all those that had come to see us and received real flower lays, palm tree hats and wooden bracelets (with our names carved into them) as gifts! We were given a cold facecloth to cool our faces and a coconut to drink. 😊 We took pictures with each guiding section before being led to the school where we went over the schedule for the next few days.

We then walked a short distance to our accommodation for the next two nights, where we ate our second breakfast of the day!  We were hosted by a local gentleman (the apartment belonged to his aunty) who done a great job of keeping us fed and watered. After breakfast we had some down time till lunch at 12.30pm. Most of us caught up on sleep whilst Lottie caught up on reading.

After a filling lunch we headed to the school to deliver our first session on the island, with 33 Little Maids. We were outside for the session, under some trees for shade. In their sixes the Little Maids set up some mats to sit on. We played parachute games, Me Too! (with shoes to replace chairs) and were introduced to a game called mouse and cheese. The activities we done were: Praise a Little Maid and This is Me! We finished the session with songs including Crazy Moose and The Penguin Song. 

Before heading to the harbor area to run a session with the Stars, we had a short break to change into our swimming clothes for the sightseeing trip we were going on after the session. When we arrived at the harbor there were 32 Stars ready for games and songs. We brought the parachute out for the final time, played cut the cake and sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Hokey-Cokey, the banana song and more. After the session each Star had an individual photo with us inside a picture frame that said, ‘Be My friend’. The Little Maids and Stars sections only started on Thulhaadhoo this year and we were all really impressed by their enthusiasm.

As we were already at the harbor it did not take us long to get to our next activity. The six of us, around eight leaders and the photographer all piled into two speed boats. Lyndsay, Alyson and Sophie were in the slightly smaller boat. One of the leaders was not too keen on the speed boat so kept hold of Lyndsay’s hand for the duration.  We headed towards an island but the other boat with Rachael, Lottie and Adeola was not in sight. After a bit of scanning across the choppy sea we spotted them on an Island. Originally, we were meant to be going to the island that we were at, but the sea was too rough for the other boat to get to, so we sped off to join the others.

When we got to the island of nothing but sand, we tried to disembark the boat smoothly, but it wasn’t to be. One of the Thulhaadhoo leaders fell into the water when getting off, getting herself and her bag wet. Once on the island we took some photos, made sand castles and turtles, played in the waves and took a walk round the island (which took two minutes). We named the island Sand Island (unsure of its real name) due to there being only sand on the island. We didn’t stay on the island for too long and took the smaller speed boat for a bumpy ride back to the main island, leaving some of the leaders there for the second pick up.

Back at the apartment, we got the sea water out of our hair and settled down for another magnificent meal of fish, rice, chili chicken and vegetables before heading back to the school to do a session with the leaders. We had 16 leaders of different ages and experiences. Some of them had only started in guiding this year, whereas other had been in guiding since they were a guide themselves. The activities that we ran were: I’m a leader because, what makes and good leader, the sweet game and lego communication. We also played human knots and crosses as well as signing lots of songs including Funky Chicken, Beaver Song, Singing in the Rain, Yogi Bear, Boom-chicka-boom and Linger to finish. The Leaders gifted us with shell earrings that were hand made by one of them. We ended the session with some photos before wandering back to the apartment to get some much-needed rest before counting the days back to the UK.