Rescue Class or Hospital Taxi

During the past weekend I was extremely busy actually working 12-14 hours a day, most of it in the water, and then teaching classroom portions at night.  I managed to teach 3 different classes, Open Water, Rescue, and a CPR first aide class.  The Open Water class and CPR class went fine, but the Rescue class was the most eventful.

The first thing that was interesting about this rescue class, was that my student is from Sandy Springs, about 10 miles from Marietta my home town in the States.  He is also a professor at GA State, and his father works for IBM just like my Dad!  Small world to be teaching a dive class in the remote S. Pacific and your student was your neighbor in the states!

Now my student was a great, a fast learner, and attentive.  One of the local staff joined in and finished up his rescue also.  The problems came on Monday when we set out to do scenario practice.  Which is where we go out on the dive boat and I arrange for a bunch of "accidents" to happen, like missing divers, unconscious divers, panic divers etc...

The first unscheduled thing was when Craig the staff in the class, got a reverse block coming up, and thought he would not be able to dive for 1 year.  It is actually a minor thing but he was convinced he would miss out on his favorite thing, diving.  So my other student thought it was a planned accident and helped, and he did a good job, except for the language barrier.  After a few minutes I was able to convince Craig he would be able to dive in a week.

Next at lunch, I was walking in the shallows and got stung by something, it was like a really bad bee-sting.  Of course again my student starts to treat me, and I let them know to shut up and stop touching me.  I got over it and my foot went numb an hour later, and was able to finish the class.

The last thing that happened, was another staff on the boat had a minor cut from walking in the bush the day before.  Now for some reason it swelled to the size of a gulf ball after the second dive.  Needless to say on the way in we just stopped the boat by the hospital jetty and got some advice and pain meds then went home.  Nothing was serious just cuts and scraps, but added a bit of unscheduled excitement to the day.

Luke

Some Interesting Stories

So I though I would write a few things that have happend the last few weeks that you all might find entertaining.  The other day I went to go buy some chickens and eggs.  First of all we get a lot of guests that won't eat chicken here because they are afraid of contamination.  One thing to consider is there is a decent chance that chicken you were eating was running around an hour before that.  So fresh chicken is probally healthier then the preserved/frozen ones at home.  So I got my chickens and were waiting on the eggs, which they sell in boxes of 10 here.  It ended up taking the better part of an hour to get my eggs.  I asked why, and was told they only had nine left and had been waiting on a chicken to lay number ten.  I left a short time after with my ten eggs, thanks to some hard work by mother hen :)

 

I was reading the newspaper here, and there is usually a good article or two in it, and one I will recap for you here.  In a town in the eastern island of Malatia they just installed public phones.  Now the town is calling for the phone company to provide training and awarness of phone use to help correct the problems they have been having.  

 

For instance, when told to hang up, one man hung the phone receiver from its chord, which left the line open

 

Another caller tried to use the phone, and someone informed him you need a phone card, so they bought a phone card, and returned to the phone in which they became very agitaed and yelling at the phone, all they got was a beeping, no one would talk to them.  A passerby informed them on dialing the phone.

 

Another person received a phone call on the phone, and just stood there silent (but nodding there head).  The caller asked the person to pass the phone to the next person in the queue.  That person informed the caller, that the person had been nodding yes/no to the questions being asked.  They then informed the person they had to speak in the phone, that the caller could not see the head movements.

 

One man was found standing for hours outside of a shipping container, when someone asked what he was doing, he told them he was expecting a phone call and waiting for the office to open so he could use the phone.  They happily then showed him to the phone that was next to the container.

 

While this kind of thing is not typical to most people here, it does point out what we take for granted and use so daily that is seems like common sense, when we really learn it even though it may be at an early age.

 

Luke

Whales and Sharks

Sunday was one of the most incredible days, I had on the boat. After
two good dives, we were headed to fatboys for a beer before getting
back to town. On the way I spotted some dolphins, but Danny my boss,
said they might be whales. So we slow the boat and pull a few hundred
meters in front of them and kill the motors. I jumped in the water
with my mask and snorkel, and moments later about 12 pilot whales swam
underneath me, and started playing underwater and coming up to the
surface.

One of the coolest parts, was that following the whales were two
sharks. 1 a large reef shark, about 2 M, and the other an Oceanic
Silvertip Shark about 2.5 M. The silvertip was the exciting shark to
see, they are actually quite agressive and dangerous, but rare
thoughtout the world. They have white tips on their dorsal and
pectoral fins that seem to glow in a white triangle as they approach
you. I have not really had a fear of sharks, but I did just sit still
at the surface and tried to not move around to much as each shark
circled me to see what was going on then followed the whales again.

One customer did get a video at the surface, but we are trying to edit
it to the part with the whales but it is in some weird format and we
need a codec for it.

Luke

Earthquakes and Busy Business

We are getting into our busy season now, and have been running two
boats most days, compared to one boat a day. It has been nice,
because it has wipped the staff into shape and established a bit of
routine. Which in appreciable terms means less mistakes and easier
work for me! So through August we will actually have quite a few
people come through, and it is always fun seeing new faces, as long as
they are not jerks.

Speaking of jerks, there is an American here the 5th one in 8 monthes,
and ya he is a jerk. I heard him at the hotel bar, but I was not even
actually in the bar, he is that loud. He has a northern accent, and
is "In Country For 6 Months" I think I learned half this guys life
story and was in a different building, if that starts to paint a
picture. He is grossly overweight, and has bad tattoos on both arms.
He wears dirty stained clothes, and dresses like a soldier, yet
admitted to never being in the military.

Luckily since there are only 3 Americans in Town, everyone was sure
that we met, and that is regretable since he just sits at a bar all
day drinking yelling, and saying how he hates the place. He picks on
everything, and is probally the most obnoxious person I have every
met! Luckily I have a bush knife, lots of lead weights, and an ocean
full of sharks :)

Oh Ya, and earthquakes. Well we get them quite often here, the
problem is I always sleep through them. We have gotten some bigger
ones, 6.3's and such, and I wake up to stuff being knocked over in my
house. It is definatly a pain, but funny how everything moves on its
own, always is a mystery where things will fall (toothbrush always
lands in the toilet). It facinates me because I remember going
through earthquake drills in school, and now they seem harmless and
mysterical.

Luke