Imagine this… You wake up every morning over 3000kms away
from your real home. You work long days and at the end of every night you Skype
your 6 year daughter and family back home through an unreliable connection and
distorted image. You return home once a year for two weeks to visit your family
before traveling back to work to make money to support your daughter.
Meet Neela. This is her life.
At the end of last year, completing school was my first
priority and a feat which I thought would be a significant challenge in my
life. So, it was ironic to learn that in order to discover the real challenges
which people face every day; I had to travel to a faraway land, barely visible on
your average world map.
When my family and I first decided to travel to the Maldives
in January 2012, I expected a luxury holiday, lazing on the beach and eating
lots of food. I never imagined that I would learn so much about a life outside
of my own, in the most amazing way.
For those who don’t know about the Maldives, don’t worry,
you’re not the only ones. A small pod of islands located between Asia and South
Africa, the Maldives is known by many as a must-see destination and after spending
10 days there, I discovered why.
Map showing the Maldives.
Image courtesy of: http://www.eifl.net/system/files/201105/maldives_location_worldmap.jpg
After leaving our home and traveling to the airport on
Monday night, the 9th of January, my family and I boarded the
11:45pm flight direct to Singapore. You always know you are going to have a
great trip when your captain informs you at the beginning of the 8 hour flight
that they are expecting 2 hours of severe turbulence. Not quite the news I
wanted to hear, but there was inevitably no turning back; quite literally. At
this stage we were heading for take-off so, there was genuinely nothing I could
do. I was dreading the flight and grew increasingly nervous as I waited for the
final 2 hours of the flight when we experienced… no turbulence, none; I had
worried for nothing.
We finally arrived at Singapore airport after a… calm flight
and waited at the airport for 4 hours before we boarded a connecting flight to
Male, the capital of the Maldives. Male was not quite what I had expected. We
stepped onto the tarmac, into the heat of the day before heading towards the
small building which, I soon learnt, held customs. After traveling through the
bustling Singapore Airport and into the secluded Male Airport, the contrast was
incredible. However, this part of the journey was necessary as I could see that
regardless of the fact that we were only a 4 hour plane flight from Singapore,
we already seemed worlds away.
After a short speedboat ride from the airport; beyond the
picturesque blue waters and seclusion, we arrived at our resort, greeted warmly
by the friendly staff on the island.
The view of the resort as we arrived.
It was here that I noticed the first
significant difference from my world and theirs; their hospitality was like no
other. Hundreds of staff lived on the island and worked hard to make our
experience memorable. The largest numbers were the staff who worked on the
gardening and general maintenance of the island. Every morning they would rake
the sand evenly across the entire island and water the plants because, well
let’s face it, it’s quite difficult to grow anything in sand. The majority of
the gardeners were local Maldivian people and some could not speak English very
well. However, every morning, passing them on our way to breakfast they would
stop what they were doing to simply look up and say “Good morning.” In fact,
this happened whenever and wherever you went on the island. They had a
completely different approach to hospitality than in Western culture. They
treated us as though it was their privilege to have us, not that we should feel
privileged to be there. One morning, a man even stopped a phone conversation
just so that he could smile and greet us. This got me thinking. Regardless of
their lives, away from their families, working hard every day, they still
manage to remain positive and appreciative of the fact that they have a job at
all. This was quite different to my own life in which, many times you meet
people in their jobs who really would honestly prefer to be… anywhere else.
However, they get to travel home every night to their family and live
relatively comfortably. How is it that our values could be so different from
theirs?
After a few days, we started getting to know many of the people
who worked on the island and they shared their stories with us. Abdulla is a
local Maldivian who cleaned our rooms every morning and night at the resort and
every night he would give us the lowdown about the weather the next day. One
night, we were explaining to Abdulla where Australia was on the world map, so
Mum showed him on her iPad. He smiled and said: “I have the iPad as well. But
not the iPad 2, just the iPad 1.” The fact that he had an iPad was interesting
enough, let alone him knowing that the iPad 2 existed. We thought we were teaching
Abdulla something new by showing him an iPad, but in fact he taught me about how
small our world really is. He then went on to describe how he plays PlayStation
with many of the other workers in their rooms on the island and I was amazed to
hear that they are all just like us. It was in this moment that I realized how
technology has connected the world. Whether you live in the Western world or in
a third world country like Abdulla; technology is universal. Technology has
allowed Abdulla and Neela, along with many others, to connect with their family
regularly and has enabled third world countries to develop and advance through
the use of technology and a closer connection to the first world.
Abdulla.
As for the invaluable learning experience of the Maldives…
After complaining about the plane flights, turbulence and jet lag, among many
other things, I have realized that so many of the people who we met, would love
to live the life I do, in the country that I do. Neela works at the resort spa
and her story alone has proven to me that, no matter how tough things may seem,
I can guarantee that it is nothing compared to what so many have to go through
every day of their lives. I have realized that I only face ‘first world
problems’ and, although our destination was world class, I was able to
appreciate my life simply through my interactions with the local people. I
didn’t need great food or beautiful accommodation to show me that; I just
needed a reality check from real people with real stories.
Great Food...
Beautiful Accommodation...
One particular moment which inspired me was when, on our
second last night, we met one of the management staff at the resort. He told us
all about his life and the people he had met before coming to the Maldives;
including how he had been a butler at the Gandhi household. But, one thing he
said struck me and is something which I will never forget as it is especially
important for me as an aspiring journalist:
“No-one’s a stranger; you just haven’t met them yet.”
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