I'm late I'm late for a very important date

The days keep getting busier it seems. At least today Jeff and I are together for today's hectic activities. To start our day off, why not wake up early and be at the dive shop by 4:30 for a shark dive that would count as our TSD shark specialty dive. It was difficult to get out of bed since we stayed out a little too late at the restaurant last night. The applause as we reached the dive shop at a little past 4:30 was an indication that some of them had bet we would have "accidently" slept in. Based on this entrance, obviously it would make sense to put us in charge of leading the first half of the dive. Our early morning rolled out of bed, got tons of sleep look surely sent the message we were eager and ready to go. The call was made, Jeff and I would lead the other dive masters and instructor down the rope to our first look out spot at Manta Point. I thought it would be good if Jeff led this time since I had led the beginning of this dive before. Everything was going as planned until I realized the rest of the group did not follow us, I tried to tell Jeff but the communication was not clear under the water. Eventually Jeff found the group as well and we met back up with them. I guess we had over shot our point and had ended up slighly past it. The rest of our leading was spot on so I think our little detour did not affect the overall dive. We saw a few sharks and a couple of devil rays therefore it was not a bad start to the morning.

After the dive we felt much more awake and ready to take on the many activities that were still to come. Next on our agenda directly following breakfast was a scuba review workshop. Scuba review is one of the courses we will be certified to teach, it is for scuba divers who have not dove in a long period of time and need a refresher. For the most part the skills that we talk about practicing are the skills that a student needs to perform in a scuba review. Since we did not have actual students needing a scuba review, the instructor brought along Betty and Garret to be our students. It started with the instructor running through most of the scuba review with Betty and Garret as students. The purpose of this was to demonstrate proper positioning as an instructor. Some of the skills are higher risk for panic or error so the instructor needs to be much closer during these. Then it was our turn to be the instructors, I was given Betty as a student and Jeff worked with Garret. While we were performing the scuba review session, Betty and Garret were given intentional errors to perform, as instructors Jeff and I were to correct the errors. There were two main reasons for the problems, one reason was to ensure that we would catch if they were doing the skill incorrectly. This came into play during the skill that involved removing and tossing away their regulator. I watched Betty to make sure that she was leaning the right way and that she would correctly find her regulator, all while I was holding on to her BCD. While ensuring that the big steps were completed, it is vital to ensure the small critical steps are not missed. In this case I had to also watch and make sure Betty was blowing bubbles whenever the regulator was out of her mouth. Never hold your breath is the number one rule in diving to prevent any lung over expansion issues. She was not blowing bubbles which I had to either correct during the skill or at the end of the skill remind her about it and have her repeat the skill. This error I found surprisingly hard to detect given the number of key points to watch for, however I did catch the error but it requires a keen eye. The second reason for these errors being introduced is to see how we react from a control of the student point of view. This type of error came into play several times, for instance during the weight belt removal Betty dropped her weight belt. This can be a very bad thing because she immediately becomes positively bouyant which requires me to grab her weights and hand them back to her before she starts to float away. Also during the fin pivot the student adds air to their BCD to become neutrally bouyant. In Betty's case she added way too much air and I had to catch her and let enough of it out to stop her from floating to the surface. It was a challenging balance between watching for procedural errors and maintaining control of the student at all times. Fortunately Betty and Garret were only given problems for about half of the skills they had to perform. This was a nice workshop to have as it gave us another opportunity to practice our skills. Betty and Garret have also not been exposed to the demonstration quality skills much yet as they are still awaiting the start of their DM program (a minimum of 40 dives are required to start the internship and they are just a little short of this number). We found this to be very benficial as it was easier to perform a skill in demonstration quality when it feels like the person being demonstrated to will actually learn from the demonstration, rather than an instructor who is just scoring the skill.

Today between the scuba review and our equipment specialty class, I was really hoping to make it to a baptism party for Mel's baby. Mel is one of the Filipino ladies that works at the dive shop restaurant. She was one of the first staff members whose name we learned. Her smile is contagious and I felt honored when she invited me to be part of the festivities. We got back from scuba review by 1200, I brought my stuff with so that I could get cleaned up at the dive shop. I was ready by 1230 and Mel was going to come get us at the dive shop between 1230-1300 and I had to be back for class by 1400. The instructors do not take kindly to tardiness and since this class was taught by the operations manager, Dan I knew I should not dare be late. The time was slipping by and it was about 1310 when I finally ordered lunch deciding I would not make the get together since Mel had not arrived yet. Shortly after ordering Mel arrived, I can not blame her for being a little late with all the preparation that I am sure the day had for her. I tried to tell Mel that I would not make it since my next class was at 1400 but somehow during the explanation I commited to going for a quick visit. She was far too excited to say no to and hopefully I would not be too late and get into trouble for this quick trip into the village. Adam was also invited and came with us, Jeff stayed back to ensure one of us was there on time and he had the task of eating both lunches we ordered (meals here tend to never fill us up). Just as we started down the dirt path, Mel linked arms with me and whispered into my ear all the food she had prepared. She was very excited to share her cooking with us. We followed the paths through the busy village that was still enjoying the festival until we reached our destination which was a few blocks beyond the village. This area was a little quieter and had a great view of the beach and ocean. All the houses seemed to circle around to face the same center point where there were a few pigs in the central open area. Based on the houses I have seen so far in the villages, this place seemed bigger. She invited us in and stated this was a simple house that her mother in law lives in. It had a sitting area for meals, a raised room for sleeping and a kitchen area with a place to cook meals on an open fire wood stove. It was simple but still very charming and more than adequate. I got to meet her baby, her brother, and many other family members. Her brother was very young himself, maybe 10 years old but he helped take care of his baby niece like he was much older. She sent one of the girls off to buy Sprite for us to drink even after Adam and I insisted water would be just fine. She had a huge pot of rice, another with a pork stew, and then she cooked up fresh spring rolls for us to dip in sweet chili sauce. I shared part of the spring roll with her brother as she had intentionally served us first but I figured it was a good gesture. Everything was delicious. I feared I would be rude to dine and dash but she was also aware of the time and told me I should get back. I was very happy she did not mind that I was on such a tight schedule. She made sure Adam walked me back through the village as she insisted that I would not walk alone. She also stated she would send some more spring rolls back with Adam for Jeff and the other interns. This was surely not necessary but she kindly insisted.

As I rushed back to the dive shop I passed by the dance group that practices next to the shop and this time they were practicing in full attire, a dress rehearsal. I asked when they were performing and they stated 1400, knowing I was edging on being late and steps away from the dive shop, the 1400 performance must be on island time as they were all far from the disco stage and did not at all seem like they were in a hurry. I reached the shop with one minute to spare, well worth it. The next couple of hours were spent learning how to take apart regulators, BCD hoses, and other dive gear. We also had to learn how to fix the potential defect and reassemble the equipment. For Jeff this was an easy task, as for me, it could have went smoother but in all I think I looked like a somewhat mechanically intuned female. Jeff, I think enjoyed this class and as for me I definitely would have gotten some award winning acting nominations for my performance as the girl interested in repairing equipment. It is an important class and I got some good information out of it but after the first hour I had to try not to get too squirely. Half way through the class, Adam brought in some spring rolls from Mel. He had given some out to the interns upstairs and then gave the rest to us. This was perfect, now I had a tupper ware container to return, in which I could leave a thank you note, candy, and some ChocoMucho candy bars. My mind raced about all the ideas yet trying to still seem engaged to the equipment class. After class, I put my plan in action and signed the card from Adam, Jeff and I. The girls at the shop were in charge of giving this back to Mel when she returned to work the next day. CiCi did not hide the fact she was reading the note through the tupper ware lid as I handed it to her. The ladies at the shop are a lot of fun.

It had been a long day and we called it an early night after some Nachos at Malditos. I did get a nice dinner guest as Maldito the cat snuggled up to me while we waited for our food. Some purring from Maldito the cat and a few sneezes from me, it was time for Maldito to play elsewhere. Soon our Nachos arrived, we ate and then headed off to bed.