That night, I told Jeremy about the phone. I tried to take it apart and let it dry out, but I never got another response out of it. I think the combination of the water and its salt content had shorted out any sensitive components. I could not even get the damn thing to charge again. At least, I thought, that was the disaster of the trip. Fate had other ideas for me. That evening I was working away at the tiny desk squeezed in between my bed and wardrobe. I leant back on my chair and felt the back leg wobble. I looked down and saw all my weight was pushed onto the leg, which was now merrily slicing through my adaptor cable for my laptop. I jolted forwards and reached down to grab the cable, but it was too late. all the exposed metal had been sliced through and mashed together, and the only reason the unit stayed in one piece was because the plastic on the underside of the cable was still joined by one or two tenuous threads.
I had about two hours battery life left to do any more work on Male. Or so I first thought. What were the chances that there was a shop which sold the right sort of cable for my laptop? I went and explained to Jeremy who looked at me sympathetically but also was probably thinking – this guy always screws up when I meet him.
It was late in the day now and shops were already shut, but a search on line revealed there was a small computer shop about 6 blocks away from the hotel. Early next morning after breakfast I stole through the streets alone trying to find the shop. It was more obvious than I expected once I was in the right street; it had a large window display of computer parts showing. I went indoors and was greeted by a very enthusiastic manager and his sheepish assistant. I got the laptop and cable out and explained the problem. He sucked through his teeth for a microsecond then waved for his assistant to go searching in a bunch of drawers below the display cabinets. Eventually they found a multi plug adaptor and the manager eagerly tested each plug. I was relieved; one fitted. The cost was not as horrendous as I had expected either, although it was still a dumb amount of money to have to be paying out if I had been more careful with my cable in the first place.
I thanked them profusely and went to the office to catch up with Jeremy and Dave. We had one more day together, which was spent at a preliminary debrief meeting with the minister, but then Jeremy and Dave were heading off on their island hopping tour for several days and I would pretty much be on my own apart from the meetings in the government buildings. I worked mostly in the office in the Government complex and would head back to the hotel around 4pm, once the civil servants had finished work. This then gave me a couple of hours of daylight each night for about four days to walk the streets of Male. We’d spent most of our time in the south western quadrant of the island; the government office being on the south coast, our hotel towards the top right corner almost in the centre of the island and all the restaurants we had been to in between. Otherwise it had been the ferry dock to the airport and that was it. I needed to tromp the streets and find out more. I started heading out the east, not really having a plan but a general direction. I would zigzag through the narrow side streets observing the home commute and families getting back together at the end of the day for their main meal, or splitting off into groups to play in the street, court on the promenade or have a good old natter on a corner.
The familiar streets of our commute
When I Went To 