Craft fair?

        Addu Atoll has been crawling with police and security forces for weeks.   The local cops set up roadblocks along Link Road.  The first time we were stopped the officer wanted ID, and asked where we were going, and when we arrived in the Maldives, and when we planned to leave.  Sometimes they just pull everybody over, scooters and bicycles as well as cars, and write down the license plate number and count the passengers.  I was reluctant to drive for a few weeks, because I did not have my passport with me; it was in Male along with my application for a visa extension.  Once I had the passport back, I braved the roadblocks.

Cops in grocery store

       I told myself that the Maldivian police had to practice for the high security planned for the SAARC Summit.  They were just young men like the ones in the grocery store buying water.    They were  polite and not physically threatening, but implacable.  The Dynamo workers who travel up the Link Road from Equator Village have been halted for stretches of time while the police practice for motorcades.  Until the parallel Main road was finished being paved last week, there was no good alternate route. You  had to sit on Link Road until the police were finished with their exercises.
     There are hundreds of foreign security forces on the atoll as well.  Sri Lanka is providing airport security, including drug-sniffing dogs.  Dogs are  forbidden in the  Maldives because they are  considered unclean in Islam.   When there is an exception made for security dogs, it's difficult to find local people willing to care for them.
      So I knew we would encounter some police when Maxine and I set off on Wednesday to find the big exhibit of authentic Maldivian handicrafts at the new convention center.  All of us in our house were eager to see some  genuine Maldivian art and craft.  This  atoll produces fish and coconuts and bananas.  It is difficult to find anything made in the Maldives, much less useful objects made by hand.  The things for sale in tourist shops are junky and mostly made elsewhere.   For more about local efforts to improve marketing of crafts, seehttp://minivannews.com/travelandarts/local-handicraft-producers-join-forces-against-imported-counterfeits-27984 .

Authentic Gadhdhoo mat

         I was unable to get any information about the exhibit other than that it was happening.  Maxine and I were the reconnaissance troops.  We drove Jon to work, came back and tamed Maxine's hair.  We packed our bags: water, a snack, hats for both of us, John Jacob in Maxine's princess backpack.   Into the car and down the newly paved Main road where crews were sweeping up construction sand with hand brooms.  Main road is an exercise in dodgem.  We got to the end of the pavement, not quite at the convention center.  Army guys had blocked the road.  "Craft fair?"  I asked, "Construction zone."  So we turned down an unpaved street back to Link Road, past the busy police station.  I waited while six official vehicles cut onto the road ahead of me.   We turned into the wide drive  to the just-completed convention center.
     This time, a very large military man with an automatic weapon stopped me.  "Craft fair?" I asked hopefully.  No English here except for the one word he spoke, "Pass."  Several other men outfitted the same way surrounded the car.  They were too big to be Maldivians.  We kept repeating the exchange.
      Grandma with kid in the car: "Craft fair?"
      Soldier with weapon: "Pass."
 I signaled that I would turn around.  They kept very close to the car until I did.