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.