The good, the bad, and the ugly

Greetings all,  My internet is back up and so am I.  I had a touch of GI distress for the past 24 hours, but am better now.  It started last night after I ate that fish I talked about in an earlier blog.  I don't think the fish was necessarily bad, but I saved it for 2 days before preparing it, and probably should have eaten it the first day.  I was up all night, but made a valiant effort to get to the shop this morning.  Two of my new friends are leaving the island tomorrow and I needed to say goodbye.  I was hoping that my stomach would cooperate and allow me to dive with them one last time, but alas, it did not.  I got a ride back home.  When I arrived in August, I was thrust into an environment that was new and scary and they made it easier and fun.  I will miss them.

About that new environment.  I am here, on Roatan for a reason.  It's not a vacation, and there are many things about being here that aren't ideal.  I could have chosen to do my dive master training in a number of locations.  Resorts all over the world offer training courses.  You stay in hotels, dive the confined water in swimming pools, and the gear, boats, shops are top of the line.  But that's not real life. Plus they are very expensive.  My purpose for coming here and to this shop was because it wasn't going to be easy.  I was to experience what it would be like to have and run a real dive shop, in all kinds of conditions.  I was to work as well as learn.  I sweep in the morning, I haul tanks, and I set up, take down, and wash gear.  And so does everyone else.  The shop has serviceable gear, boats that run, and an atmosphere that we are all in this together.  And sometimes there are hiccups in all that, and I am learning how to deal with them.  It's hot sometimes and it pours sometimes.  The nature of being in a third world country is around all the time.  I have, for the most part, only written about the good things and the beauty.  But I don't want you to get the idea that it's all peaches and cream.

The shop got busy this week with fun divers.  Those are people that have come to dive as tourists.  The beauty of our shop is that we take small groups - 4 to 6 per dive master.  Fun divers get personal treatment and virtually one on one with their dive leaders.  We handle all the set up and tear down for their gear and for any rental equipment they use.  We have two boats and most dives last close to an hour.  There are shops here that cater to the cruise shippers.  They have up to 19 boats, and their groups are 10 to 15 people.  The dives aren't personal and last only 40 minutes maximum.

When there are fun divers, often one of the DMTs goes along as back up.  We stay to the rear and keep an eye out for the divers safety and add another set of eyes for spotting cool things throughout the dives.  The shop also does instruction for novices.  That's a lot of the time when I come in.  We have two instructors and the DMTs assist and demonstrate techniques on those dives.

This week I am starting to do practice leads, practice briefings and continuing to knock off the skills requirements and my specialty certifications.  I hope to be all through by the end of the month, but I have a 2 week safety cushion for days like today.

 

Remember the rain I talked about?  Here's a 30 second taste of a downpour that lasted about 30 minutes.  I walk to and from work as I've said and the main road in town is paved , but the part of the road near my new place is not.

When they paved the main drag they added sewer lines and potable water.  They brought those lines all the way out to our house, but not the paving.  Plus they never re-rocked the road.  So when it rains the road gets pretty sloppy.  On the way to work, it's not so bad.  I wear flip flops so my feet get messed up, but by the time I get to the shop and have walked for a bit on the paved part, they've been washed clean again.  And at least I can see where I'm stepping.

Now the way home is a completely different story.  It's dark.  I can't see the deep spots and the ants that the rain disturbs jump on anything that floats.  They bite too.  Someone told me that there are tarantulas and snakes, but luckily I have not seen any... yet.  This picture was taken the day before yesterday, between storms.

Some of the ugly that I've seen is the trash.  I have traveled a lot of the world and I know what happens in under-developed countries as far as a lack of infrastructure.  But I will never understand the lack of caring that a local population has for their immediate surroundings.  It often appears like they just don't care.  A trash can could be steps away but the trash is just dropped, or thrown into the sea, or buried in the sand.    I will have more about this subject in a later blog in hopes of sparking a Rotary movement.  On a particularly cool dive two weeks ago, as we were ascending we looked up and saw a horrific sight.  Floating in the water above us, some on the surface, some partially submerged was what looked like a dump truck's worth of trash.  The DM, who was leading the dive, took photos and he will be forwarding them to me.  We came up through it and boarded the boat floating within the cloud.  The mood for the rest of the trip and that evening was of quiet despair.  I cried and was overwhelmed by the tragedy and this was but a minute part of the greater problem.

I did mention in my last blog that I am working out the bugs on my new camera.  I've showed you some of the stuff I have taken underwater but I thought I'd share some more.  Please don't compare my photos with those from Carey Satin from an earlier blog.  My camera cost two hundred dollars, hers was two thousand.