my birthday news

About this time two years ago, I was chatting with my friend Susannah before we headed to a special "closest friends" birthday dinner. It was a beautiful day to be alive and living in Barcelona. I had a party at The Latin, where I acted as Public Relations. That night I announced my amazing job offer...in New Zealand. I had planned to continue to live in Barcelona because the city had captured my heart and imagination. The New Zealand job was forgotten because I had applied for it some 3 months before...then one day I got a job offer. Wow. What an opportunity, and it WAS. Needless to say I went, and I love New Zealand. It's such an amazing country. It was a fantastic year. I'd do it again.

Here I am, back in Barcelona. It's a few hours before my birthday party in The Latin- which has been transformed into an after hours club. Toni and Pedro (the owners and good friends of mine) are opening it up at 10:30 tonight just for my party. It's a beautiful day to be alive in Barcelona. I just spent two hours dying my hair what now seems to be exactly the same color as before. I'll meet up with some friends later, and then we'll all go to the Latin. Then tonight, I will announce an incredible job offer...in Maldives. I came back to Barcelona with the intention of living here for a minimum of 2 years, and haven't applied for anything outside of Barcelona in months, and have actually turned down two jobs because I wanted to live here. I applied for this position in Maldives some 5 months ago. Wow.

*note: for all of you that read this and are NOT surprised, I think you are cruel and unjust to me. I for one, am ALWAYS surprised by everything I do. :-)

The Scoop

I will be living and working at a private five star resort island.
The entire island is the size of a football field (no, I don't know
exactly what that means either except that I can see what colors the
people on the other end are wearing).

the pros and cons:
Although the salary is not large by Western standards, there is an excellent renumeration package, the highlights of which suport my passion for water sports: free use of all equipment for diving, surfing and what
have you (guests have first options of course)
everynight there is an employee ferry the goes to the main island for
three hours if I need to get out a bit

The job:
I will create an english program for all of the employees of two
islands from level zero to advanced. There are between 150-200
employees, of which about 5 are women

I will not only create, but I will be the ONLY teacher. I will work 6
days a week, 9 hours a day including preparation time.
not an easy job!

the kicker: much of Maldives has only had an education system for the last 20
years. Many people have a fairly good level of english but can't read
or write even their own name. most can't read or write in their own
language. I've read conflicting reports on this. Some even claimed that Maldives has an astounding 93% literacy rate...this was in direct contrast to the information given to me by those that I spoke to, one of which was a Maldivian.

I will have to prepare the more advanced students for the TOEIC test.
This will be a difficult program to begin.

All in all, I was very impressed with the progressive attitude of the
people I've talked to there. They are very keen on improving their
employees. I like that. The managers talked about everyone as being
kind of a family.

Maldives is a tiny island country. Look closely at the map, it's just
southwest of India and over the equator. The climate is the same year
round, about 30-35 C or lows of about 80 degrees F and highs of about
90F. It's made up of roughly 1120 islands, mostly uninhabited. The capital
is Male atoll. there are 87 islands devoted to resorts. Education is
a new thing, but nowadays people are even going abroad for school.
Satellite school from Australia is another popular option.

*Maldives is a country which could disappear with Global warming.

The religion is Sunni Muslim, but unlike their Arabic counterparts, on the island at least, I've been told that the women commonly where shorts and shortsleeve or sleeveless shirts. It was described as very relaxed. Since most Maldivian families are
still too conservative to let their girls go off to work on resort
islands, I will be one of about 6 women on the island of about
150-200. There are many people from different countries working at
the resort, including a spaniard (the diving instructor) who I hope to
get on (get along) with, so that I don't lose my spanish.

I will spend the next month in Barcelona as I await all of the paperwork that needs to go through. I will then return to England for a couple of days to change out my stuff for stuff that's more appropriate for island life and jungle vacations (Sri Lanka). I also need to think about the load of shots I'll need before I begin vacationing in Sri Lanka.

Que vida!!!

I AM more than a little sad to leave Barcelona again. You know it's my home. I
love the people here, and was very touched at how helpful everyone has
been. If I didn't get this job after all, I wouldn't have wasted a
moment in wishes. I would have been content to be here. I can't pass
up this opportunity though. Besides, I had just added "Jungle
trekking in Sri Lanka" to my "Life to do list".

I'll bring my jungle shoes!!!