We circled the Male airport for half an hour due to a power outage, and then I waited in immigration for a last minute approval on my business visa, but as soon as I walked out of the airport I was among friends. Mohamed Hilmy and Ashiya Luthfee worked with my team in 2008 on the media training and voter education program. They are now in President Mohamed Nasheed's press office. Ashiya brought her son who was barely a toddler the first time I was here. They kindly gave me a day to catch up on sleep before going full speed ahead into the business of public relations training.
The first sessions on government public relations will be held in the Islamic center, that is on the grounds of the island's largest mosque. 
On a brief visit to the College of Higher Education, where I will be assessing the progress of the first class of journalism students, I saw another familiar face: Ali Sulaiman, the tsunami survivor who has left TVM and now reports for the private station VTV while completing a degree in language education. He was a teacher before the tsunami wiped out the school on his home island.
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