Author: Trudy Rilling-Collins

A new island, a new life..I felt like cutting my hair short today as half our teams started work on a (closer) nearby island. I will miss Eydhafushi and all it held, especially the energetic youngsters and our wonderful health officer team mates, but I had to move on. We won’t stop!

It was neat getting to know the streets of a new island with a totally new feel (and golly, only a few miles away from the last!), and I think we already made some friends at the health center. I was just starting to know my way around Eydhafushi! But I think highlights for today were sharing mango juice in the shade with a homeowner and the young coconuts we were offered as soon as we arrived! But then there was the crane ride. No joke, dangling 20 feet in the air, in a rusty bucket with Sydney to seal an elevated tank at the heavy machinery yard. The foreman was apparently our kind of Action Now! guy, he drove the the behemoth right up to the shoddy tank tower and expertly lowered us to the proper working level. This was definitely not in my expectations or job description. We do whatever it takes! (I’m sure photos will be posted. I am kidding you not)

Also, we snorkeled like 10 feet of the beach here at Landaa Giraavaru in order to see about a hundred fish species coexisting. I sure enjoyed that! Absolutely unafraid of people. Nice!

Our first full week of working on the ground in the Baa Atoll has commenced, and what a week it has been. We started by working together as a full team unit on our first day, learning how to tackle specific situations regarding mosquitos and their breeding zones. From the terrible T’s (tires, tanks, tarps, and toilets) to buckets, gutters, and plastics, mosquitos are not picky in choosing their breeding habitats. Each individual standing water location may have its own solution, and identifying that solution is where critical thinking comes into play. How can we handle each scenario to make sure mosquitos don’t have access to that water again? Additionally, how can we handle each scenario in a way that is sustainable for the community?

With these questions constantly in the back of our minds, we set out going from home to home, lot to lot, and beach to beach with our supplies at hand. It’s pretty amazing the attitude homeowners have when we knock on their door. They are incredibly welcoming and warm, often times providing us with drinks and a joali, a Maldivian chair used for “hanging out” (they are often times hung from a beam or tree). As much as the hospitality is appreciated, we have a ton of work ahead of us at all times, so we try not to get too comfortable.

While the mosquito hunting and “Dengue destroying” has been exhausing, the most tiring event of the week came on Saturday with the Eydhafushi beach clean up. Working together with the local school, more than 200 volunteers showed up to help us clean up their island! What we thought would take an entire day ended up taking just a few hours to scour the beaches and streets for trash, namely anything that could potentially be a mosquito breeding site. It was such an encouraging site to walk up to the school and see so many volunteers who showed us that they truly about their community and wanted to be a part of something special. My group in particular consisted of fifth through ninth graders and a few women. Their incredible work ethic, enthusiasm, and resilient attitude reminded me of the power and spirit we share as human beings. Although the beach clean up was definitely the most exhausting and work filled event of the week, it was the by far the most uplifting.

As much as the work on this volunteer project has been tiring and debilitating, it is incredibly fulfilling. It is such an honor and privilege to be able to help people in need, and the Maldivians we have shared the work with have been nothing short of spectacular. What a first week!

Today myself and four others started fresh at Dharavandhoo. We were warmly welcomed by a member of the island council and several hospital employees, including a coconut for each of us! I think that we have a great team there and we got a lot of work done today. It was awesome working with Zenia, a woman who works at the hospital. She is very thorough, works really well with the home owners, and isn’t the least bit afraid to get her hands dirty working.

Our team has discussed how the most difficult part of this project will be making it sustainable after we are gone. This challenge is apparent at Dharavandhoo and I am not sure how we will overcome it. The stakeholder meeting scheduled for tomorrow should help, as will working with the school. However, I am getting the feeling that we will not be able to complete this island the next four days that we have to survey it. It is a fairly big island and there are over 300 homes. The best we can do is just work hard each day and, along the way, try to inspire the home owners to take responsibility for controlling mosquito breeding within their property.

I can already tell that I am going to be totally exhausted after the next 5 weeks. However, I don’t think that I will have any regrets about how I spent my time. While this is hard work, it is also fulfilling emotionally, intellectually, and physically. I am happy.

Yesterday we presented to students at the Baa Atoll Education Center in Eydhafushi about our project and the mosquito lifecycle. This was an amazing opportunity and a very big learning experience for our whole team.  I am looking forward to working with the schools on the other islands we visit later in the project!

So, first day of actual work and what a day it was. From running around climbing on tanks to sitting on the beach with light above and below. This whole trip is just surreal and I can’t believe that I am still here. The people are just so cool, we could talk about just anything and I love the discussions we have and the fact that even though we come from such different countries, we have such a lot in common.

My partner today was Jessica. She is the coolest haha. She never seemed to run out of energy, be it carrying ladders, pushing the wheelbarrow or climbing up onto tanks. She pushed herself and inspired me to push myself as well. Quite a cool partner. The day was tiring but even coming back I felt so excited! We had done quite good, I thought. I wanted to just keep going, finish up the block and stuff. I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.

There’s so much that I just can’t put into words. I’ve already gotten so much in these few days, I have no idea what more could be in store for us.

Tonight was just beautiful. The meteor showers and the beautiful plankton. I’m so glad I got the chance to come here. So glad.