The world has tears of gold

The media seems to be in contrast lately between wonderful Olympic coverage and reports of tragedy around the nation. I do not understand how Missy Franklin a young, grounded Olympiad can be from a town miles away from where a young man plotted a massacre at a midnight playing of Batman. During the Olympics, the news is filled with reports of athletes striving to be their best and proud to represent their country. They compete along side the best of the best in each country and for a couple weeks the differences and distances are set aside as people unite in a common goal. Yet only miles away from my family and friends their is a shooting in a temple possibly a hate crime against a different religion and way of life. Today was a day of Ohana (family), my Wisconsin family, my growing Hawaii family and my world family. I was extremely excited to attend a UW Madison Alumni Association event in Hawaii to congratulate the scholarship winners and to send off the new freshman to Wisconsin. I met the Madison alumni some originally from Hawaii, one from Illionis and others from different walks of life and ages but we all gathered for one goal. We smiled and laughed as we all came together to reminsce of our common uniting education. Two of the Junoir Madison students had received scholarships as incoming freshman for a program called First Wave. They presented one of their works for us and it was breath taking to hear a girl from Hawaii poetically describe the difference yet beauty of UW Wisconsin campus to incoming freshman. Contrasting the serene call of the beach compared to the calming Mendota Lake, bundling up for the Wisonsin cold yet feeling and seeing snow flakes for the first time. I wish I could write as elegantly as this young lady and she wrote it that day, outstanding. The other student who has performed on broadway, an opportunity yielded via a First Wave competition, had a bouncing monalog describing first love in card playing terms from the game of hearts and not able to play unless hearts are lead, go fish, and more. The comparisons were unreal and how someone can think this story up is mind boggling. It made me proud to hear that First Wave is a program that only UW Madison has which gives outstanding young leaders in the high school performing arts the opportunity to enhance that talent through an education at a big ten school in whatever major of their choosing. I was able to hear another young lady explain what attracted her to Madison and her excitement to start as a freshman this fall. She also had only known Hawaii as her home and went to Madison and was sold that she wanted to be there for her education. It was a proud night to be an alumni and Wisconsinite. Yet to continue with the media contrasting trend their was an elephant in the room as we discussed the positives of Wisconsin. Unfortunatly today was not just a day to have Wisconsin pride due to the shooting in a Wisconsin town a little over an hour from campus. It tainted the spirit of the evening and came up in discussion a couple times. As I discussed where I worked in Wisconsin being the level one trauma center someone recognized the name of the hospital from the news reports of where the victims of the shootings were taken for their trauma care. Once again the contrast of a celebration of young intelligence on their way to Madison being in the same presence of a horrible ignorant crime. As I think about the Olymics, I think about how far I have come in the last four years. Visiting nine countries in this time, I was not narrow minded before but my eyes have definitely been opened wider. As I watched the opening ceremonies I was excited to see the representives of the countries I have visited, the countries I can not wait to see, and the countries people I have met along the way, call home. I wanted to know how many contenders each country was sending. As I watched the events unfold, I obviously bask in the USA victories but I also am excited for the fast men and women of Jamaica and to see Britain medal in individual gymnastics and the duchess talk with the USA gymnasts. To me this Olymics was about the common love for the game that all the different countries share. People working hard to achieve greatness and how humbling they congratulate each other when they win and when they lose. It makes me miss my Filipino friends, my Fiji friends, my diving collegues the Brits, Scottish, Canadians and Irish. Four years ago the Olymics to me was about the USA great and now it is about the world's best and celebrating each countries' journey to gold, silver, and bronze. As the media has been in contrast I appreciate the Missy Franklins of the world that are in the media for the journey to make her country cry tears of happiness not the tears of tragedy. Her smile, her motivation, and her victory. That is what I would want to go down in history for. I hold my blanket closer, my husband tighter, and extra "I love and miss you to family and friends".

We'll miss you Malapascua

We slept in a little bit this morning since our boat ride to leave the island was not until noon. When we did get up we started with a little bit of packing then headed off to Oscars for breakfast. We got to eat breakfast with a couple of the other interns which was nice. It was definitely a little sad knowing we would be saying good bye in a few hours. After breakfast we went off to the room to pack up all of our stuff, our friend from the dive shop, Jun Jun, showed up shortly after to get our bags and bring them to the shop for us. We snapped a few pictures of what had been our home for the last month and said good bye to our little simple room. We went back to Oscars to wait out the last hour hoping to catch as many people as possible to say goodbye to. While Jeff was gathering pictures and scuba info from Ryan and Garret, I went around and snapped a few pictures of the dive shop area. I even went next door to say goodbye to my little puppy friend Boracay that was always next door to the shop. She was a very cute but naughty puppy as she would often come and steal peoples slippers (flip-flops) that were left outside the dive shop. I went around and said my goodbyes to everyone I could find. By chance I even saw the little girl Quinn who had been my dance student at the disco weeks ago. Before I knew it the clock struck 12 and it was time to board the boat. As we left it was sad to see the island get smaller in the distance, as this had not really been a vacation, it was far more like a short term home. This really reiterated what Jeff and I had been telling people since we decided to move, we really enjoy and appreciate the island life. Now Oahu is very much so a different island than little Malapascua but it is a step in the direction that we want to go. It is all about finding a happy medium between the busy city and the secluded island village.
After about 25 minutes, we reached the Maya port on Cebu where we had arranged for a van to pick us up. This was the first car we had seen in a month and once inside the largest dose of air conditioning as well. It was a very bumpy 3 hour car ride to Cebu city, through a maze of villages and one lane roads due to the forever ongoing road construction. My stomach was not feeling so well this morning and the bumpy ride was not helping. The driver dropped us off at Bella Vista which was the hotel we stayed at the first night we arrived in Cebu. It felt very strange that it had already been a month since the last time we were in this hotel. After we dropped off our bags in the room, we had to grab a taxi to the SM mall so that Jeff could pick up his passport. We had sent the passports to Cebu city 2 weeks ago in order to extend our visas. The owner of the dive shop had picked mine up and brought it back to the dive shop but Jeff's passport was not available for pickup at that time. When we arrived at this mall it was absolutely massive, It was four stories and three wings of store after store. I later found out tht SM stands for super mall and boy was it ever. After a short search for a directory, we came cross an information booth and asked them for a map. They of course were all out of maps but she did point us in the right direction to find the travel agency that we needed. Fortunately when we arrived they had Jeff's passport and we could then focus on finding somewhere to eat. There were several restaurants and there was a food court, I found the food court to be rather confusing. There were at least 20 different places to choose from and all of them had large kettles of different kinds of food to build a plate from. They did not really have any prices on anything though and we were unsure what a lot of the food was. It did not help that by this point we were both very hungry and not in the right mental state to make a decision in this overwhelming enviroment. Eventually we chose to just eat at a Thai restaurant. The food was good but nothing to get excited about. We did not spend a lot of time in the SM since Nick, who had been one of the instructors when we started, had forgotten 2 boxes at the dive shop when he left for Cebu this morning. They sent the boxes with us and we were to meet up with him later tonight so he could reclaim it from us. We did not have a cell phone and when we had called his phone from the hotel he did not answer, so we did not want to be away for too long in case he showed up at the hotel. Interesting fact, in the Philippines cell phones do not have voicemail, so we could not even leave a message for him.
When we got back to the hotel he had called and left a message for us that they would stop by around 1800. Which it was now about 1815, they ensured us that nobody had stopped by looking for us so we went to the room grabbed our Ipad and took advantage of the wifi in the lobby while we waited. They showed up around 1900 which is surely island time for 1800. They were nice enough to buy us a beer for bringing their stuff down to Cebu. It was nice to sit and talk to Nick and his longtime girlfriend Lana. They are actually getting ready to buy their own resort, which from the sounds of it will be the kind of place we would like to visit. Their plan is to have a place that will not only have nice sand beaches but also offer up as many adventure sports as the geographical location will allow. It was a very nice laid back evening to end our last night in the Philippines. We then retired to our room where we had cranked up the air conditioning. We had been so used to sleeping in a super hot room with only a fan and on a 4" thick foam excuse for a mattress. In our room here it was nice and cool with what seemed at the time like the most comfortble mattress and blanket in the world. I knew I was going to get a good nights sleep tonight.

An American Birthday abroad

After sleeping in for a little this morning, it was soon time to get to the dive shop for a 9 AM departure, we were headed to Gato island and the Dona Marilyn wreck for a day of diving. This would be the first day trip Jeff and I would be going on together and it was my birthday. Betty also came with which added to the fun. With Betty there I would have someone to soak up the sun with on the boat while Jeff hid in the shade from the evil sun rays. Betty showed up at the dive shop and had brought me a birthday gift, a ChocoMucho bar in peanut butter, my new favorite. I thought this was a very nice gesture, we had also brought ChocoMucho bars to share with the boat staff. We all had a nice boat ride out to the Dona Marilyn wreck. As Betty and I chatted on the boat, I learned she is from a town in England that has a reality show much like the Hills here in the states. Betty is a very real, funny, down to earth person which made it interesting to hear she is from a town that is very into superficial looks and status. I definitely want to check out the show and see what living in that part of England looks like. When Jeff and I signed up for the dive internship I formed a mental picture of the people, island, and our requirements, this turned out to be very different from our actual experience. I had pictured interns that were much younger than us, more so just out of high school deciding what they wanted to do for a living. Instead most interns were like us and had a career that they were leaving either temporary or possibly permanently to seek out travel and a dive career. Even the younger interns were very mature and level headed, this included Ryan who appeared to be 12 and could barely read/see. As being his elders we all urged him to get glasses only to find out he had contacts which he refused to wear. It was refreshing to be among other people that were in a similar boat as Jeff and I, following our travel dreams. Our group was a lot of fun and I will definitely miss them. My initial vision of this internship may have been different but the actual experience had far exceeded my expectations.
Soon it was time to get ready to dive. Last time this dive did not go so well for me but I was confident that this time would be different. I had talked to a couple of the instructors about the dive and Kurt had given me a tip on how to go down the line by crossing my arms in front of me and letting the rope slide between my body and my right arm. He had thought the apprehension I experienced last time may have been due to vertigo and descending in this matter would ensure that my feet were well below. This would possibly help my body adjust to descending into constant blue without having a reference point until the wreck is seen many meters below. As I jumped in and approached the line, I tried to remember Kurt's advice as we descended down the line. It definitely helped but if it decreased my vertigo I am not sure, but for one thing it distracted me from staring into the blue and instead I concentrated on my arm placement on the rope. I had wondered if this was a real tip from Kurt or just a distraction method. Regardless it worked brilliantly and before I knew it I was at 28 meters deep and enjoying my swim around the Dona Marilyn.
The Dona Marilyn is a 98 foot Filipino ferry that was sunk over 20 years ago by Typhoon Ruby. It now lies on its starboard side almost completely intact at 32 meters and is home to many hard and soft corals along with a vast array of marine life. It was amazing to dive deep to shallow around the wreck enjoying the view of attached corals that now decorate the ship's exterior and interior. It was fun to take my torch and peer into the port holes to see what still remained in the ship. As we dove around the wreck, we could identify the wheel house, mast and many other ship features that were now camouflaged with beautiful, colorful coral and home to sweet lips, nudibranches, and other marine creatures. There was quite a bit of current on the wreck today which made it a little difficult towards the end of the dive when we were inspecting the top of the wreck. It was best to stay as close to the wreck as possible and tuck behind anything that protruded to shield us from the current and to make staying in one place easier. It was very neat to watch all of the soft corals sway in the current, almost like a field of wheat grass blowing in the wind. That is if the grass were pink, white and yellow of course. I thought the visibility was better today but after talking to one of the local divemasters he said the visibility during other months is far superior. Either way to me it was a great dive and I felt good to make my mends with the Dona Marilyn.
For our surface interval I had packed Jeff, Betty and myself lunch instead of getting the usual sandwiches from the dive shop. Our lunch was provided thanks to a dive guest (Rebecca) that had left me three bowl of noodle meals. Rebecca had said that these were the good ones, from Japan. She had been worried about eating foods from the Philippines and had packed her bags full of these noodle bowl meals to last for her week long vacation. Later to find out that her hotel room did not have hot water to prepare these meals. I think she quickly realized the food is very safe and would provide a larger variety than the noodle bowls everyday, every meal for a week. This was a perfect lunch for us on the boat as the crew always makes up hot water for tea. It was a little tricky as I had never eattan one of these noodle bowl meals and the directions were in Japanese. I could follow the pictures relatively well but it did help that another dive guest on the boat had eattan these before and read Japanese, he gave us a leason in preparing our lunch. We each had a different flavor and the bowl yielded a hefty portion of noodles that satisfied our post dive hunger. As for the taste, I would eat one again but would rather eat the Filipino food than noodle bowls during my stay. While we were eating, the boat continued on to Gato island where our second dive would be. When we arrived we still had a little more surface time left so Betty and I decided to jump in and enjoy the water. I absolutely love being in the water and was happy Betty was as interested in playing around in the water, just for fun, on the surface. Soon after we jumped in, came a splash entrance into the water from Jeff and a couple other guests, we had started a surface swimming trend. Eventually it was time to get on the boat and kitted up for our next dive. We jumped up and got ready for our next adventure.
We dove down and the aquarium begins immedietly as you submerge. The beauty of the corals and marine life that were surrounding us were awe inspiring. Gato island was like our own private scuba diver's playground. There was a rather strong current around the island today which made it a little more difficult to slow down and look at all the beautiful corals and fish. We found ourselves tucking behind large coral heads just to slow our momentum enough that we could attempt to take in everything that was around us. As we were buzzing along in the current, we came across a group of 4 or 5 large pregnant white tip sharks. We found a spot to kneel down in the sand so that we could watch these sharks as they rest on the bottom. Due to the heavy current the sharks were able to stop moving and rest on the bottom. Normally this type of shark would not be able to breath if it stopped swimming but in this case the heavy current forced enough water across their gills that they could breath. Each shark had at least one if not two or three remoras attached to it as they rested. It was very neat to watch as they would swim up and reposition every now and then. They actually allowed us to get pretty close, we kept our distance anyway as we did not want to spook them. I later found out that as we were first kneeling down to look at the sharks, the current had pushed Jeff into a sea urchin and he too had his taste of an urchin to the knee. His reaction to it was much the same as mine, it hurt for only 2-3 minutes then after that he did not hardly feel it. After about 10 minutes the dive guide motioned that it was time to head to shallower water. It was right about then that I spotted a large cuttlefish out by the sharks, I pointed it out to Jeff and it took him a minute or so to find it. The cuttlefish was rather well camouflaged, we then pointed it out to the guide and Jeff went to get some pictures of it. After he was done with pictures, we went to catch up with the group. Much to our amazement the russian couple that was in our dive group were way ahead of the guide and fighting the current to head back the direction that we had come from. Normally Gato is done as a drift dive where you just go along with the current on the entire dive and the boat picks you up at the end. We had no choice but to follow along as the guide attempted to catch the 2 russians that were fighting the current. He made several attempts to get their attention but the couple never turned around. So the three of us fought the current all the way back around the tip of the island to where we had started the dive. At this point the couple had stopped, I would assume they stopped because this is where the boat had been anchored when we jumped in the water. The reality is that they could not have gone much further as they were just about out of air from having had to work so hard against the current. I think there was a realization of serious error on the Russian's part when he surfaced and found that the boat was no longer anchored where it had been earlier. The dive guide explained to him that we were not supposed to swim back to the boat but it was a drift dive, the man appologized but I do not think he quite understood how bad of a decision that he had made to swim off without the guide. The boat came and picked us up, then shortly after we went and picked up the second group that Betty was in. Then it was time to lay out in the sun for the 40 minute boat ride back to the dive shop. I think most of us slept on the boat ride back, between the high current diving and the amount of sun we soaked up we were pretty exhausted.
After returnng to the dive shop, we cleaned up our dive gear in the wash bins for the last time. We went back to the room to get cleaned up and ready for my birthday party tonight. First we had to meet at Oscars and make sure all of the instructors and interns knew that the plan was to meet at the Other Place around 1900. We decided to talk to the kitchen staff at Oscars and find out if we could buy cheese for the burgers we planned on having at the Other Place (since they are almost always out of cheese). They informed us that they would have to charge us 50 php per slice and that we would be better off trying to buy cheese from Ging Ging's. So a little bit before 1900 we headed off to the Other Place to get the party started, on the way Jeff stopped off at Ging Ging's and was able to buy a 6 pack of cheese slices for 70 php, he bought 2. We then gave the cheese over to July and had her start making burgers and fries. People started slowly rolling in, as they would arrive I would welcome them and in Filipino tradition and buy them a drink. Since I had received that very generous $100 tip I told July that drinks could go on my tab until it reached 3000 php. With drinks costing 50-90 php this allowed the tab to run almost the full evening. We had a very impressive turn out as all of the instructors other than Dan and the new course director showed up to the party. At one point early on, Jeff had disappeared for about 20 minutes, he had said he ws going to drop off something in the room but it seemed like he was gone a long time. When he returned he had put together my ChocoMucho cake. He had broken the candy bars into bite size pieces then arranged the white ones in the middle so that it said BB (my initials), he then arranged the darker ones around the outside as a border. It was the best ChocoMucho cake Malapascua island had ever seen. We all sat around and told dive stories and talked about places we had been. A little later in the night Onjay, a friend we had met during our stay, showed up with ice cream cones. How cool is that a birthday party in the Philippines and I still get burgers and ice cream. I was very happy for that treat. About 45 minutes later Onjay's friend Marja, who we had gotten to know also, showed up with 2 pizzas. The pizzas were excellent and disappeared in record time. Before they vanished she showed me that she had made one of them special for me since she knew I really liked cheese. Marja had loaded the pizza with as many kinds of cheese as she could find, it was perfect. Towards the end of the night I went and checked on our tab to see how we had done on spending. 3120 php, which ended up being our total at the end of the night. It was perfect between the tab, the Choco Mucho's and the tip we gave July, my $100 covered it all. Overall I was very happy with my Filipino birthday party, I felt I had a very good turn out of guests. A couple of the interns even commented that they had never seen that many instructors turn up for an event outside of Oscars. I also appreciated the ice cream and pizza, it was a very American, Filipino birthday and my new Filipino friends were the ones helping supply some of my hometown favorite party foods. We also had a few games of charades and I may or may not have busted out some dance moves to Britney Spears "Hit me baby one more time". What a great last evening in Malapascua, Philippines.

Snorkel test

It was another early morning by our choice. Since we would surely not feel like waking up for sharks tomorrow or the following day, this was our last chance to potentially see our friendly thresher sharks. Even though we had to wake up bright and early, I felt the day had a great sense of relief to it knowing there would be no workshops or skill circuits, only fun dives. We made it to the dive shop on time by 4:30 and we were ready to start the day. We dove on Old Monad and I feel like the sharks must have known that we were leaving as we had 2 very good encounters. My group was the last to jump in. The other groups had all gone to the right therefore the divemaster took us to the left where we spotted a very nice shark right away. I was staying back a bit to see if the paying customers wanted to take the prime viewing spot. They did not seem to take this opportunity and then the divemaster motioned for me to get closer. This shark came so close to the divemaster he could have petted it. The divemaster told me to stay close to the bottom and limit my bubbles when the shark came close to optimize the encounter by keeping the shark happy. Soon Jeff's group came over and he got to see my new shark friend close up as well. We watched this shark for probably 20 minutes. Later in the dive we had a second encounter that was not quite as close but was still very exciting. I would have to say that this was a good last day diving with the sharks

After the shark dive, we had a nice breakfast at Oscars with some of our fellow interns. We had signed up for the morning dive at Quilliano and when we checked the dive board in the moring Jeff and I were on the dive together without a staff divemaster. This was a dive site we had never been to before, but seeing as how we were now qualified as divemasters we had no problem diving the site without a guide. Jeff and I took our time on the dive site searching for any neat little creatures we could find. We found several small shrimp, a snowflake eel, some saddleback clowns and some well camoflaged filefish. Jeff had heard that there were some pygmy seahorses (they are only 1/2" full grown) at this dive site so everytime we found a sea fan he would carefully search it. He did not find the elusive pygmy seahorse this time, and later learned the sea fan that had the sea horse was a short swim off of the main reef. We had our good friend Betty on the boat with us for this dive yet she was in a seperate group for the dive itself. We still got to enjoy her company on the boat and seeing her around the dive site.

After returning to the dive shop and washing up our gear, we headed off to the village. With tomorrow being my birthday we figured we would go to the one and only bakery on the island and order a cake. It seemed like an easy task as we had already done this once for Betty's birthday, we already knew what size and flavor we would order. Jeff had decided to have them write "Happy Birthday Bugs Bonnie" on the cake since CiCi, one of the waitresses at Oscars had given me that nickname recently. Much to our surprise when we arrived at the bakery the woman told us that they could not make a cake since they were all out of cake flour until Saturday. The island had been so busy with fiesta over the last weekend that they had used up all of their stock. This just did not seem fair Betty had 2 birthday cakes on her birthday and I could not even get one. Jeff and I put on our thinking caps, we had to have some kind of birthday cake solution. That was when it hit me, let's make a Choco Mucho candy bar cake. So off to the little store across from our house we went. The decision was to get 2 different flavors and arrange them in some kind of cake configuration. We bought one case of the peanut butter and caramel along with a case of white chocolate, a two tone cake seemed appropriate. With it being so hot here all the time, we thought it best if the candy bars would be frozen so we placed them in the freezer in the common area of our housing. With two cases of Choco Muchos costing only 200 php instead of 800 php for a cake we now had extra money for drinks and a make shift cake (The $100 USD would stretch even further). While we walking around the village, we came across two little girls. They were whispering and looking over at me, oh the little disco girls I realized as tehy approached me. They did not speak much English but I could tell they were excited to see me and wanted to know when we could all dance again. I twirled the girl around a little and reminsced about our dancing night. She asked if she could come see my home but I did not think this would be appropriate to have these little children walk off with me, who is technically a stranger. I also did not want to hurt their feelings. I tried to explain my busy dive intern schedule and eventually headed out of the village. I think they followed us to the edge of the village before they returned to where we met up with them. It was nice to see them again. After all of this running around, we decided not to even try and get on the afternoon dive. It had been an early morning and would no doubt be a late night so back to the room for a nap seemed like a good idea.

After getting a couple hour nap in, we headed off to the dive shop to finish up all the necessary paperwork for our divemaster course. We sat down with 2 of our instructors and looked over what it was we had accomplished and how we had scored overall. Both of our scores were rather impressive, we were very happy with what we had completed. We then discussed our opinions of the program and what we thought could make it better. Once all of the I's were dotted and the T's crossed we headed over to the table with all of the other interns and had a nice dinner. This was when the waiting began, they tell everyone that the snorkel test will happen around 1900. However this is never the case and when it was our day for the snorkel test it became a little nerve racking waiting for them to make the big announcement. Knowing full well that once they do, a very large crowd will form around us with all eyes on whomever has the snorkel. As this waiting game continued it became a realization that after tonight we would only have one more night with this great group of friends that we had acquired over the last month. It is funny how a big group like this can come together over a passion that we all share, spend this long together, then one by one all go off in separate directions. As the instructors started gathering I began preparing myself, just as I was telling myself I was ready I noticed a tray full of shark bite shots. The announcement was made that tonight had a variety of events that they called the appetizer, main course, and then dessert. The shark bite shots must be the first course. I had forgotten that we still had the shots coming for our 2 specialty courses that we had completed. The instructors each announced their students and what the certifications were. By the end all of the interns had at least one shot, most of us had 2. The exception was Rick, who had not drank since he got here a month ago, he had decided he was going to put his sobriety on hold tonight. This was good timing as he had 3 shark bite shots to take. After all of the shots were down the hatch, we had another short wait until they called me up to the bar. I motioned for Jeff to come with me but Mack told him to sit back down. What was going on here? They always have interns doing the snorkel test on the same day come up together. Mack handed me the blacked out snorkel test mask and snorkel. He motioned to put it on, I am certian I had a very puzzled and maybe a little nervous look on my face at this point but I went with it. As I sat on the bar stool not being able to see what was going on I hear them announcing how "Bonnie is very competetive and always wants to be first at competitions". At this point I had come to terms with doing the snorkel test first, then they start telling everyone "Bonnie did something very special that no other intern did". Ok now I am scared, what could I possibly have done that I am now going to pay for, was it my squirely behaviour from the other day, or what could it be. The next phrase I hear is "because what she did was so special she is going to get this" then everyone in the restaurant went nuts. Ohh no what is this going to be, at that point Mack tapped me on the shoulder and tells me to take off the mask. Much to my surprise one of the instructors was holding a Thresher Shark Divers polo shirt with my name on it. It was from the petition competition to save the sharks. On the back of the shirt it read "I gave sharks a fighting chance". That was a mean trick, they had me all worried that I was going to get something awful in my snorkel test. I was also given a very impressive balloon animal made into a seahorse that one of the guests had created. This seahorse became very popular later in the night and was used in several skits acted out by interns and instructors. It is amazing how entertaining the group can be, I found this to be a great substitute to watching TV. I went back to the table to once again wait patiently for our spotlight moment. This time it was a rather short wait and they called Jeff and I up to the bar. It was decided that I would go first then it would be Jeff's turn. As I sat on the bar stool once again blindfolded by the mask all I can hear is the comments of Dan as he creates the concoction behind our backs. Everytime he pours something into the pitcher the audience goes crazy, I had found this portion to be fun when I was in the audience. Now that I was the one on the bar stool it was a much different feeling. Dan would state he was adding a little red, white and blue for the Americans, some of the local spirits, a little of this for Mack in Scottland, a little of that to represent the Russians, Mexicans, and so on. Once the lethal mixture is ready, the procedure is to take 3 deep breaths then give them the ok to pour. Since I was wearing a scuba mask that covered my nose, the only way I was going to get another breath was to either drink everything they poured in the funnel or spit the snorkel and drink all over the floor. As they poured it in the snorkel I went for it. I drank it down as fast as I could and was able to claim a valiant victory over that snorkel test. Everyone applauded for me and I was glad to be done with the final task of my inernship. Jeff was next, he also was victorious over the all mighty snorkel test. After this the instructors came up with our divemaster badges and we posed for some "cheesy pictures" as Mack liked to call them. There it was, Jeff and I were certified divemasters WoooHooo. We hung out at Oscars for about another hour with the instructors and interns. This included several very interesting rounds of charades.

Much like many other nights during this month in Malapascua, we chose Malditos to be our final stop of the night. We sat around on the comfy cushioned areas surrounding the pool table as some of the interns and instructors played pool. There was lots of chat about where the other interns were headed after they were done here. I also informed everyone that they needed to come and visit us in Hawaii, as we would surely know all the good dive spots in no time. Several people seemed very interested in coming to visit us. I am not real sure how exactly it happened but around midnight a group of the interns and a couple guests decided it would be a good idea to go swimming in the bay right outside of the restaurant. So in we went, unfortunately we had not thought about the fact that it was low tide and even going out 20 meters from shore the water was only about 16" deep. This of course did not stop us from cooling off in the warm ocean water. It was unbelievable the number of stars that could be seen. I was impressed the other night at Ocean Vida and this was way better. We spent about half an hour in the water mostly just tackling each other and just splashing around. After the swim, we decided to call it a night and walked back to our place dripping wet. I believe, Jeff walked all the way back to our place in just his nickers. It was a very fun ending to a fun filled day.

A lesson in sharing

We had a few loose ends to tie up and hopefully we would have all the DM requirements completed today and tomorrow we would only have the infamous snorkel test to tend to. In the morning we met at the dive shop by 0830 as usual but this morning we did not have a planned activity besides studying for the final exam. We studied in the dive shop restaurant before and after breakfast all the way until it was time for our afternoon activities. While we were there we chatted with a new advanced dive course student Hana (the little blond Dutch girl with big guns). She was a little nervous about the navigation dive but we gave her some insight on how it is run which helped put her nerves to rest. She was a young blond girl that appeared very innocent but it was hard not to notice her gun tatoo which was located on her inner arm below her shoulder. Surely I would find out its meaning but this was not the time as I was busy studying.

Our afternoon was full of activites. First we were "students" for Adam and Ryan's discover scuba diving class (the intro to diving). Jeff, myself and either Adam or Ryan whichever was not playing the instructor, were the pretend students who had tons of problems. Mack does not take it easy on the interns. The toughest part about assisting in the DSD course is to not watch the instructor working with the student but instead watch the students that should be patiently waiting for their turn. Once the dive master starts to watch the instructor the other students start to bounce, flop, panic, and sometimes head for the surface. It is all mind over matter and a left alone student has plenty of time to get worked up and assistance is needed. Everytime Mack would question why Adam or Ryan did not have a handle on the students, the same reply was stated that they were watching the instructor working with the student and this distracted them from watching the rest of the group. Eventually they got the hang of it and then we all took turns practicing as instructors. We worked on maintaining control of the student while watching to see if the student was performing the skill correctly. Jeff and I had both completed this workshop already but the extra practice did not hurt. This was a very relaxed, fun exercise and eventually resulted in all of us becoming a little squirely. I for one became very distracted when the IDC interns "the instructor course interns" started heading over to cemetary in order to complete their skills assessment. Mack had to keep reminding me to stay focused. I had been a very good DMT up to this point but by today nearly the last day of the month long internship, it was hard to keep me on track. Any slight comment or shinny object would set me on a tangent. I was a whole lot of goofy that afternoon and was happy that I had kept this side bottled up as long as I did. Some of the comments that jumped out of my mouth made me also look a little silly since they were not exactly thought out and Mack's expressions in response to my off the wall questions were priceless. Soon the fun games were done and it was time for Jeff and I to get serious as we completed our last requirements. It started with me completing my BCD removal and replacement just one more time to show I had it down. Mack demonstrated the skill to me first but I was confident that after my practice yesterday I would be able to nail it. When it was my turn, it was spot on, except my alternate air source hose got buckled in between myself and the BCD. I completed it one more time and then nailed it for sure and with everything landing in the right spot. Mack seemed surprised since he had heard I was struggling with this skill and I demonstrated it to him with no problems. Next Jeff and I had to complete our emergency rescue of an unconcious diver. I went first and then Jeff. We both completed this with only minor suggestions and therefore were signed off. With only one more skill remaining, it was time to complete the dreaded stress test. Jeff had actually practiced this with Ryan one day and did not think it would be too bad. Technically we are not suppose to practice this skill prior to being graded to see how we would really respond in this stressful situation. The stress test consists of two divers exchanging BCD, fins, and masks while under water. The catch is that this must be completed while buddy breathing off only one regulator. Sometimes other stressors or obstacles are incorporated such as extra free flowing regulators with bubbles flowing everywhere or visiblity being intentionally stirred up by tossing sand around. The point is, we would not find out if other stressors would be added until it happened. We reached the bottom at about 3 meters below the surface and started with passing the regulator back and forth, taking two breaths each time. Once we felt comfortable with this Jeff would start by removing his equipement and I would try to do the same so that we were both at the same pace. Our plan was to only work on the equipment exchange when the other person had the regulator, this would keep us occupied and also make sure the person with the regulator was focused on breathing and passing. We maintained a pretty good routine and the BCD exchange was completed before we knew it. The fin exchange was even quicker. The mask was a little tricky since at some point both of use would have our masks off and not be able to see well before we were able to clear the mask. To clear the mask we would need to breath out of our nose which would be hard for both of us to complete at the same time since only one of us would have a good air supply. During this daunting task, we all of sudden had free flowing regulators added to the mix which made it impossible to see each other. I would pass the regulator through the bubble chaos and hope it was in the direction of Jeff's mouth on the other side. Soon our masks were exchanged and cleared, the extra bubble mess had subsided and Jeff gave me the ok sign to ascend to the surface. Since Jeff gave me the ok sign, I almost forgot to pass him the regulator on the ascent. Eventually I remembered and he appeared ok, he did not look blue. As the instructor would say, this skill was spot on. Afterwards Jeff and I discussed the equipment exchange and he reassured me I passed him the regulator far before he needed it eveytime. This could be a dangerous skill to complete with a significant other especially if I was an air piggy and left Jeff alone as an air hungry hippo. I am glad we passed the stress test without any complications.

I can not believe there is only a 60 question multiple choice test left between us and our snorkel test which is where we recieve our divemaster badges. As we sat to take the test I was unsure of how difficult it would be. The first ten or so questions were a little scary as they were about specific types of tides and currents. We had not really read that chapter we just skimmed it and answered the questions in the book. Fortunately after the first ten, the rest of the test was based on the final chapter in the book which we had studied rather thoroughly. We both passed the test with flying colors and in true PADI test fashion Jeff got a better score than me but only by a couple points. It was an excellent feeling knowing that we had completed all of the requirements for the DM course and now could have a relaxing day before our snorkel test tomorrow night.

We were chatting with some other interns in the restaurant when Mack called me over from across the room. A couple of the staff divemasters were at the bar and seemed in high spirits which caught my attention as I walked toward Mack. He handed me a tip envelope with my name on it. It was from the father of the two children who's open water course I assisted with. To my amazement, a crisp $100 USD bill was in the envelope. Mack congratulated me for a job well done. I realized later that this was tip day and that was why the staff divemasters were also having a bit of a high moment. It definitely feels good to be appreciated and this could not have come at a better time. It is Filipino tradition to treat everyone on your birthday and a $100 USD could provide a very nice evening for my birthday party guests. I had already decided we would check with July and see if they would have enough burgers at the other place so that the crew could eat there. I had also decided if she did not have cheese I would try to find some and tomorrow I would make sure to put in the order for my birthday cake. We are finished with all our skills, tomorrow is the snorkel test, the next day is my birthday and I had a shinny new $100 bill, what could be better?

The interns decided to go and eat at Ocean Vida for dinner. We ran into Hana at the dive shop and invited her to come along with. It turned out she was actually staying at the Ocean Vida hotel so she gladly accepted the invitation to join us. We had a very nice meal sitting on the bean bags around a table on the beach. We had eaten at Ocean Vida a couple of times before but never outside on the beach. It is amazing the number of stars that can be seen when there is limited lighting from surrounding buildings. The constellations can be easily picked out and even the milkyway galaxy can be pointed out by an untrained eye. The last time we were able to see this many stars was our trip to Fiji a couple of years ago. I would have to think that the reduced amount of pollution in the air would also have an effect on the clarity of the sky. After dinner, we headed over to Malditos for some games of pool along with discounted rum and cokes. Hana came along with us to Malditos and I got the opportunity to ask her about her gun tatoo. It turns out her and her friend were in Thailand and all of the guys were all about showing off their "guns" (muscles) so the girls decided to get their own guns to show off. It was definitely a unique tatoo especially for such a sweet innocent looking girl to have. After Hana's story, it was off to bed as we had signed up for sharks in the morning since it was our last opportunity for the shark dive.

Underwater aviation

I woke up around 4 AM to the sound of the alarm clock. I still did not feel quite myself and was happy I could quickly go back to sleep since I was no longer on an AM shark dive. Jeff rolled out of bed and headed off to the dive shop as he was on the shark dive along with his previous students Sam and Katy. They had finished their advanced course and were doing a fun dive so they could see the sharks once again before leaving the island. Jeff was sent along to assist on the dive. Mack thought it might ease Katy's nerves as she still was not overly comfortable in the water. When they arrived at the dive site Katy was already very nervous because they had gone to new Monad where there was not a mooring line to descend down. Jeff had one of the boat boys put together some rope and a spare weight belt figuring she would feel better if he gave her a rope to descend along. She continued to look very nervous as they kitted up. When it was time to put her fins on she started coughing uncontrollably and almost threw up. Sam and Jeff tried to calm her down but after a second coughing fit she decided she was just too worked up about it and would sit this dive out. The rest of the group jumped in the water and continued the dive. During the dive they saw at least four thresher sharks and a couple of large trigger fish. At one point they were up on a ledge and had two threshers swimming below them. When they got on the boat Katy was rather sad that she had missed the dive.

When Jeff got back from his shark dive, I got up and felt much better. A good night's sleep paid off and hopefully this would give me the rest I needed to complete the remainder of the internship on time. Jeff and I have been very lucky that we have not had any serious infections or injuries requiring a doctor's visit. Being that there are no doctors on the island of Malapascua, it becomes a higher time commitment to travel to another island by boat and arrange for transportation a couple hours to the nearest doctor. A couple of the interns had to make that trek while we were here. Adam for his foot infection and Garret for his ear infection. It sounds like once they got to the the doctor it was good medical treatment. The antibiotics and doctor charge were also in Filipino pesos which made at least this portion of the trip a bargain. The doctor was concerned Garret would not be happy with the 300-400 peso medication bill and 90 peso doctor charge. Garret felt this price was rather reasonable and paid the equivalent to about $12 USD and was happy to be one step closer to healing his ear infection. It seems like the trips to the doctor for Adam and Garret were well worth it but I am still glad Jeff and I have not had to make a doctor's call yet.

When we got to the dive shop, we found out we would start the day with knowledge reviews with Mack to prep for the final exam and later in the mornng we would go on a "fun" dive with Mike (an instructor that just returned to the island). Mack was very thorough going over the knowledge review including a lot of explanation which would be helpful as these were the most challenging chapters of the dive master manual. During this time our dive site for the morning changed three times until it was finally settled that we were going to Lap Light. Jeff and I were happy with this final decision as we have not dove this site yet unlike the earlier sites that were written on the board. Mike seemed to have a scatter brained idea for this dive and it felt a little akward as he had no idea of our dive progression and was talking about working on some bouyancy skills. This seemed rather odd to be working on when we are only a few days from finishing our DM program. We agreed to play along, Jeff, Adam and I got our gear together and got in one of the small boats to head around the island to the dive site. At the beginning of the dive Mike set up his SMB on the bottom and we played a game of airplane. He started with the SMB unrolled and anchored to the bottom so that it stuck up about 4 feet off the bottom. We then had to circle around like an airplane with our arms stretched out to the sides. When it was our turn to be the airplane, we were to have a controlled landing by touching our regulator to the top of the SMB then pull up gracefully by using our breathing to control our "take off". It was very much like a touch and go in the aviation world yet our playground was underwater. I felt I was a very good airplane VROOOOOOOM!! Mike would then lower the SMB and we would repeat our airplane moves. This continued until the SMB was only about 6 inches off of the bottom. After this we swam around the dive sight where Jeff spotted a small harlequin sweetlips, and I spotted a gigantic puffer fish. The puffer reminded me of a big fat cat as it sat there on a coral and looked like it needed to be petted. Fortunately for the puffer I am a trained professional and know better than to touch, poke, prod, pet, or ride the wildlife. We ended the dive by practicing our SMB deployment procedures. This was probably a good dive for Adam to get his feet wet again since he had been out of the water for the last 2 weeks due to his foot infection.


After lunch we were off for another attempt to get our skills signed off. This time we would be going to the dive site lighthouse which would hopefully have calmer waters. We ran through our skills again and they were even better than ever, until I got to the dreaded BCD removal and replacement. I fumbled through the skill and then asked the instructor for a do over. He nicely decided to demonstarte the skill for me with some tips prior to me trying over. My next attempt was far better and I had picked up some tips from the instructor that made it easier for me to control the kit. I made sure that whenever possible I had two points of contact with the kit. We then repeated this again, with him demonstrating and then I followed after. Being able to practice this a couple times in a row and seeing it completed with tips, was very helpful. I am now confident that I could complete this skill on my own with a score of 4-5. The instructor went over our scores after the dive and as we thought all the scores were spot on, except my BCD skill which was still a lousey three (maybe a 3.5?). Jeff's skills were signed off and the instructor gave me the option to sign off my skills now (with the stinky 3) or I would have a chance tomorrow to prove that my BCD could be tamed. I opted for showing my BCD who was boss so another skill set for me tomorrow.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to bed early again to ensure we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for another day of DM training.

Trapped in a cage

I woke up feeling awful. Was it my late night two nights ago, my long day yesterday, 3 weeks with only 1 day off, or could we blame the cute little Maldito cat that made me sneeze the night before? I had slept 12 hours so it definitely was not that I had stayed out too late this time. Whoever the culprit, I was feeling crummy. Hopefully they will give me the day off. We arrived at the dive shop by 0830 for our standard meeting. I found out that I was going to have another very busy day, not a day off. Jeff and I would start off the day with a skills session and hopefully this time we would get signed off. As we looked out to the beach while eating our breakfast it was evident that skills today were not going to be easy. It was rather windy and coming from just the right direction to cause cemetery to be very wavy. This was probably the worst weather we had seen since getting here. Even the crummy weather was not going to send me back to bed but instead we would have to bare with it and attempt our skills in the whirlpool like conditions. This was no joke, our skills are to be calm, controlled, and look simple which was not an easy task today. We struggled against the crashing waves to stay close to the instructor as we completed the above water skills. Maybe it will be better once we start the underwater skills. As we reached the bottom at 2 meters deep and kneeled down to start our skills, it was clear the underwater conditions would be a struggle as well. I basically had to get right up in the instructors face as I completed the skills since the visibility was too poor to see past 1 meter (usually the visibility is 15-20 meters). Luckily, this allowed me to score higher on my confidence and assertiveness. All the skills went as well as could be expected with these conditions until it was time for my BCD removal and replacement underwater. I can complete the task which gives me a score of 3, but I have to complete it to demonstration quality appearing to be in control at all times and making the task look easy. I start off great taking the BCD off and showing which arm to take out of the BCD first and the sequence of steps. It all goes south when I firmly place the BCD and tank in front of me and have to try to get it back on. The once controlled BCD and tank unit starts to wobble in the water and the kit now becomes in control of me. Eventually I get secured back into the unit but streamline and controlled would not be the descriptive words used. I already know I do not have this skill down in calm conditions therefore the extra waves and visibility challenges did not lend kindly to me improving this skill today. I completed the BCD removal and replacement with once again a score of 3. We were all relieved when this skills sesson was over and we could take a slow swim as we fought the waves back into shore. The instructor was pleased with our performance when conditions were not ideal and we scored fairly well. He told me I appeared more confident but I needed to show the BCD who is boss and cannot let it control me. After we got our scores, I admitted to the instructor that I had not been feeling well and still felt a little bubble headed from maybe a cold or allergies. He did tell me that if I did not feel up for my certified dive lead this afternoon we could reschedule. This seemed like a tempting offer and retreat back to bed for the rest of the day but I told him I would see how I felt after lunch. As I completed lunch, Mack another instructor came up to me to explain that my certified dive lead would be at Chocolate Island. I would be leading Jeff and Betty around. Once again I was happy to be in a group with Betty as she is a lot of fun, poor Garret had come down with an ear infection and would be out of the water for 7 days. I mustered up some energy to find a white board and sketch out the dive site along with some quick notes so that I would be sure to conduct a complete dive briefing. By this point I was still feeling a little ill but really wanted to stay on task so that we could complete our course on time. Today is Sunday and our last day of the internship is Thursday. We were really hoping to be done even earlier so that we could relax the last day and have fun dives. With this in mind, I got ready for the dive and made sure everything was on the boat. Since the current was so strong, we actually had to walk to the other side of the island and catch the boat there. We had never done this before, I really hoped that the dive site would not be affected by the current as badly as cemetary. Once we reached the other side of the island the water was calm which was reassuring that the dive site we chose around chocolate island will most likely be the protected side as well and calm. It was a bumpy ride out to Chocolate island but this could not impede me from walking all around the boat to assist some of my divers while they get their gear ready. I also took advantage of this time to ask Jeff and Betty about their dive experience which would give me some insight about the problems Mack would assign them. Ryan (acting as boat crew) and Mack were surprisingly added to the group and were playing the part of newly certified divers. On the way to the dive site I gathered all of my divers together and gave them a briefing on how the dive was going to go and what kinds of things to look for. Once we arrived at the dive site I was relieved to see us anchor on the very well protected side of the small island. I got all of my divers ready and after I got into the water they all followed. During the dive, Mack was giving the other divers all sorts of problems to act out. At one point, Jeff swam off in one direction and his dive buddy Betty swam off in the complete opposite direction. I had to stop my group then swim after Jeff. Once I got him back with the group I then had to chase off in the other direction to catch Betty and get her in the group. I tried to get her attention first by banging on my tank but after this did not work, I started to sprint after her. Mack was by far the worst and everytime I looked at him I had a new problem to address from bouyancy issues, flooded mask, and at one point he had started following a different dive group around. Mack even dropped his weight belt, I had to recover it and get it back to him. I definitely did not have time to feel sick while I had to take care of all these dumpties. Finally the dive was over and I had returned us safe and sound to the boat. After my debriefing with Mack, I was completely spent. My body had turned off since my battery was drained and I was in desperate need of recharging with some quality sleep.

When I got back to the shop and waited to hear the plans for the next day, I was astonished when the instructors told me I would be on a shark dive in the morning assisting Kurt in addition to another skills session. The shark dive was not a requirement and after the long day I had while being sick I could not believe the instructors would think this was a good idea, were they kidding? When I found Kurt, I mentioned to him that I would be with him on the shark dive, his response was I am busy and I do not know what is happening yet. This along with how sick I felt and the thought of another early morning left me overwhelmed and I could not fight the tears any longer. I asked Jeff to pick us up dinner and I was going to shower and get ready for bed. After my shower, I still felt awful and it was clear that I needed to tell the instructors that I needed to sleep in and would not be on the shark dive in the morning. I headed back to the shop and could only find Kurt, I explained to him the situation and he told me he would let the other instructors know and that if I was that ill the last thing I should be doing is an early morning shark dive. He also had hoped his unhelpful response earlier did not add to my frustrations, I assured him that I was just sick and needed to sleep. By the time I got back to the room, Jeff was still gone in search of dinner. Max and the new guy Carl were outside the room discussing how Carl's key had already broke off in the lock and this was the first night he was staying at the intern lodging. Carl did not seem happy, he stated he thought everyone's key should still work. I did not think much of it and went to my room to sleep until Jeff got back. It seemed like he was gone for a long time. When he finally arrived, he explained that his key would not work on the lock and he had to jump the fence. He was able to get in but he would not be able to open the lock to get out so hopefully someone will realize this and fix it tonight. I told him about the discussion I had overheard between Max and Carl. I did not realize Carl would just put the lock back on with the broken piece of key in it and leave for the evening. He did not even think to inform the shop. As we ate our burgers, we heard a few others try to get into the gate without luck. With the instructors and the manager living here, I am sure someone will inform the shop and get it fixed, hoepfully. The burgers we ate tonight were from purple snapper where Marja works. Marja and Onja are two local ladies that I became friends with one night at the Disco. Marja was very sweet and put smilely faces on my burger wrapper to cheer me up. After the burgers, I went to sleep but kept waking up to the sound of Jeff helping one of the staff, Jun Jun try to fix the lock. It was a very on and off, delusional sleep for awhile until I finally woke up completly with a burst of energy. I scavenged around the room to find safety pins, bobbie pins, a tweezers and anything else that may help them fix the broken lock. I also made sure to grab a ChocoMucho bar for Jun Jun to thank him for trying to free us from our large cage. Shortly after this the lock was fixed, I could finally get some peaceful, much needed sleep.