MALDIVES

 

READ

In December of 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia caused a massive tsunami that devastated the coastal regions of several countries and killed more than 200,000 people. Fifty-seven islands in the Republic of Maldives experienced severe flooding, and 108 people on the islands were killed.

This tragedy appears to have been the basis for the plot of Ocean Hues, by Maldivian author Amyna. The author offered to send me a copy of this book when I wrote to her a few years ago to ask if she had been born in the Maldives. I had been planning to read her book, Foiled, but was delighted when she sent me Ocean Hues, so I decided to read it instead. 

The book opens with an introduction to a young couple, Hawwa and Hussein, who are living happily on an island in the Maldives with their five-year-old son Shuaib. Hawwa has not seen her parents, who live on an island a twenty-minute boat ride away, for more than a year because Hussein has been too busy with work to go with her. She persuades him to let her and Shuaib go for a week-long visit without him. They are very much in love and have never spent a night apart during their marriage, so the idea of being separated for a week is hard on both of them. Nevertheless, Hawwa and Shuaib embark on their short journey to visit Hawwa’s parents.

The first couple of days go well, with friends and family coming by to visit. But one morning, when Shuaib and his cousins are playing on the beach, a huge wall of water comes toward them. They can hear Hawwa’s voice pleading with the boys to come to her, but they are powerless to move.

The tsunami has also reached their home island. Hussein clings to a pillar to avoid being swept away, and watches as the water carries several items out the door. After the water subsides, he tries to call Hawwa, but there is no phone service. He finds an acquaintance who is willing to take him to the island where Hawwa and Shuaib are staying. When he reaches his in-laws’ house, he’s overjoyed to see that Shuaib is safe. His joy quickly turns to sorrow, however, when he learns that Hawwa is missing.

Meanwhile, a beautiful young woman has been found unconscious, floating in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka, by a group of men on a pleasure-fishing excursion. They rescue her and take her to a hospital, where it becomes apparent that she has amnesia.

The plot drew me in and kept me interested from beginning to end. Almost all of the characters were likeable and honorable, trying to do the right thing for everyone involved. The suspense came from the circumstances that kept the characters in the dark as they looked for answers following the chaos that nature wrought.

COOK

When Hawwa and Shuaib go to visit Hawwa’s parents, they have a lunch of the curries that Hawwa’s mother had cooked in anticipation of their arrival. I looked online for a Maldivian curry recipe and found one for tharukaaree riha, a vegetable curry, on the International Cuisine website. It’s different from other curries I’ve made because it doesn’t contain curry powder or any type of curry spice blend. Instead, the recipe calls for six curry leaves, which I found at a local Indian market. It also calls for pandan leaf, which I wasn’t able to find at all. I searched the Internet to see what I could substitute for the pandan leaf, and found several suggestions, most of which bore no similarities to the others. Since one of the suggestions was cilantro, which I had on hand, I just used that. The dish featured sweet potato, pumpkin (I used butternut squash instead), green beans, carrots, and coconut milk, and I really enjoyed the rich taste. I would definitely make this again.

GIVE

GlobalGiving, which is my go-to organization for international non-profit projects, didn’t have anything listed for the Maldives. So I did a little Google search and found the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme, which “is a research-based conservation charity dedicated to studying the whale shark and fostering community-focused conservation initiatives in the Maldives and the greater Indian Ocean.”

According to their website: “…we seek to advance the field of whale shark knowledge and to advocate for sound conservation policy in the Maldives. By encouraging and valuing community and industry stakeholder participation, we are able to leverage the scientific research to safeguard the rich biodiversity and fragile marine ecosystems that are the basis for not only whale sharks, but also life, livelihood and culture in the Maldives.”

More information about this organization is available at Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme | Conservation through Research and Community Mobilisation.

 

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