Day 08

I started my divemaster internship on Tuesday, and boy have I been busy!  Let me show you where I work.

The dive shop I'm doing my DM internship with is called Dive Friends Bonaire.  The business has five locations on Bonaire, the busiest and most popular location being Yellow Submarine.  Back a few years ago, when I did the CIEE study abroad program here, Yellow Sub was our next-door neighbor.

A photo of how Yellow Sub used to look, before the patio was installed.  I found this on the internet, as I apparently didn't take any photos a few years ago!

These days, Yellow Sub is looking a bit different.  The scrubby bits on the side of the shop have been replaced with a patio, the entire place has been repainted, and the inside of the shop renovated.  All in all, it's looking pretty good!  (The only downside is that it's less colorful.  Booo.)

Now you can see the fancy new covered patio.  I liked it better with all the pretty colors though.  :(

But I'm not working at Yellow Sub.  Most days I'm working at the Dive Inn shop, which is about a kilometer south of the main shop.

I have recently acquired a cheap bicycle with the help of my lovely housemate, but it's a Dutch men's bike.  It's gigantic.  The seat is above my belly button, and my feet are a solid foot off the ground when I'm on the bike.  Whenever a cruise ship is in port, they close the nice sidewalk to bicycles and I have to go on the street with all the cars.

Unfortunately, Dive Inn is past the cruise ship docks, and we have cruise ships in about three days a week.  I am not a good biker, and it's very difficult for me to stop the bike, so it's a bit scary for me to be on the road with the cars.  Also, the Dutch have a bunch of crazy rules for bicycles that I don't know about, which explains--too late--why people sometimes stare angrily at me on my bicycle.  (At first I thought it was just because I looked stupid, a tiny girl on an enormous men's bike.  It's probably also that.)

This is the dock right in front of Dive Inn.  Pretty nice, yeah?

The view from the dock.  The roped-in area is the confined shallow water area for Open Water Diver classes.

Anyway, back to work.  My duties as a divemaster intern are basically the following:
- fill tanks with air
- move tanks
- get gear for customers
- supervise snorklers on all cruise ship days
- work cash registers and sell things
- assist with classes

Filling and moving tanks sucks, but it needs to be done.  Same with getting gear for customers, except that the darn gear racks are so high at Dive Inn that I can't reach half the equipment, and the super-tall menfolk have to get it down.  Supervising snorklers is actually a pretty nice job; mostly I carry small things and watch the men carry heavy things, help build a large tent, make sure cruise ship's snorklers don't drown themselves, and then pack things up.  Cruise ship days are easy days.

Assisting with classes is the fun bit, and the part that's actually relevant to my (potential) future diving career.  So far I've helped with a Discover Scuba Diving class (a 3-hour-ish course that involves learning a few skills then going on a very basic, shallow guided tour) and an Open Water Diver certification course (the very first level of independent diving).  Divemasters (and interns) are helpful for these courses because new divers are usually pretty awful at diving--which is expected and normal--and need lots of looking after.  The instructor needs to watch everyone constantly if he's alone, but with a divemaster (or intern) he can focus on one student while the DM watches the others.

Basically, a DM intern is an unpaid babysitter for instructors.  Having a DM around makes their job a lot easier.  For the Open Water class, I help demonstrate skills too.  In the Discover Scuba class, I mostly follow them around yanking them up or down, depending on which wrong direction they're floating in.  It's work, but it's not bad work.  It's also nice to see how happy people are when they master a difficult skill or see a cool animal.

The dock of Yellow Submarine, where we practice rescue skills and teach classes.

It's not all work, though!  We actually have to learn some things and competently demonstrate some skills.  Yesterday I did a deep dive at Yellow Sub in the morning.  We went straight down to 130 feet, then did a few simple tests to see if we were "narc'ed," which means 'mentally or physically influenced by the increased nitrogen partial pressure.'  (This is fancy-speak for basically breathing laughing gas, the same stuff you get at the dentist.  It's usually quite pleasant!)  The tests included doing simple math problems, coordination exercises, and an extra-hard counting-coordination combination exercise.  (Try saying that five times fast.)

After the tests, we also did a color test (since colors look different at depth due to different wavelengths of light and so on) and cracked an egg, which is fun because the pressure keeps the whole egg together.  We saw lots of nice things on the way up, including a lettuce slug (woohoo, a nudibranch!) and some arrow crabs.  After the dive we practiced rescue skills, and I got a charley horse, but I'm trying not to let that ruin an otherwise lovely morning.

Today, however, was a special event: the quarterly clean-up dive!  Four times a year, Dive Friends offers free air tanks to anyone who wants to help clean up an area of reef.  Afterwards, there's a free barbecue for the volunteers.  This quarterly clean-up dive was around Karel's, the lovely bar/cafe on a dock.

You've seen Karel's before.  I'm pretty sure it's pronounced "Carl's" but you can never tell with Dutch names.

Instead of going to Dive Inn like I normally do, today I came straight to Yellow Sub and started preparing for the clean-up dive.  Over 100 volunteer divers showed up!

Asko gives a dive briefing (a dive plan) to the attentive crowd of volunteers.
(Photo from Dive Friends Bonaire Facebook page.)

A group photo of some of today's volunteers.  Many people leave early to get a good parking space at the site, so they aren't in the photo.
(Photo from Dive Friends Bonaire Facebook page.)

We give the divers mesh bags to collect the trash in.  They are only supposed to collect new trash.  After a few years, garbage can become part of the environment; coral may grow on it, or animals might make a home inside it.  Sometimes people get excited and want to bring up tires or cans that have been down there for years, and don't realize that they're destroying an animal's home.  Fortunately I didn't see any of that this year!

Look at all those divers!
(Photo from Dive Friends Bonaire Facebook page.)

This isn't a great photo of me, and the water looks nasty.  Who put this on facebook?!
(Photo from Dive Friends Bonaire Facebook page.)

The dive shop workers stand in the water to take the trash from the divers.  The trash is surprisingly heavy!  Mostly they're grabbing beer bottles full of water and sand, which is why the bags are so heavy.  Good thing there's lots of strapping young men to do the heavy lifting!

Strapping young men.

Some people chose not to dive, and stayed on the beach collecting glass shards.

The trash was collected, trucked back to the dive shop, and meticulously counted by volunteers with stronger stomachs than me.

A small pile of mesh garbage bags.
(Photo from Dive Friends Bonaire Facebook page.)

Brave volunteers with thick gloves, sorting and counting trash.

You can see lots of aluminum cans, plastic bottles, fishing line, and beer bottles.

Ewwww.

All told, nearly 3000 pieces of trash were collected.  There were over 500 beer bottles and 800 cans!  Other things found included a $20 bill, two pairs of pants, shoes, a screwdriver, a large vase, and two Christmas ornaments.

This is the dumpster full of trash.

Humans are icky.  :(

After the clean-up dive, it was time to set up for the barbecue!  A few years ago I did a clean-up dive and the barbecue was at Yellow Sub's tiny parking lot, but apparently they've been holding it at the new Hamlet Oasis location, which is north of Yellow Sub.

Hamlet is really nice and peaceful, and has two cute kitties!

Not a bad view of Klein Bonaire!  All the plates are for the barbecue.

A cute, cozy little shop!  They've also got two cute resident cats.

This cat has a heart on it!!!

This cat has the biggest eyes I have ever seen.

We spent a few hours preparing for the barbecue, and I'm happy to say that (despite my involvement) it went off without a hitch.  There was plenty of great food and cheap alcohol, and everybody had a good time.  I especially enjoyed the clean-up part, mostly because the bulk of the clean-up will be done tomorrow, which is my day off.  Mostly I got beers for everyone washing dishes, which I considered a pretty important job.

The next two days, Sunday and Monday, are my days off, and I'm going to try to get in some recreational diving.  Because I'm working for the shop, I get to go on the dives for free on my off days.  (Woohoo!)  The problem is that my gear is at Dive Inn, and the boat leaves from Yellow Sub.  I can't walk 50 pounds of dive gear for a kilometer, so I will need to work out a plan to move my dive gear accordingly in the future.

Hopefully I'll have some diving photos to share soon!  Wish me luck!  :)

Cheers,
Ashton

Day 01

BACK TO BONAIRE

I'm back!  In Bonaire, that is.  The tropical island paradise for divers, snorkelers, and windsurfers.

A map of Bonaire.  I live in Kralendijk, on the west side.  Lac Bay, on the east side, is a great spot for windsurfing.

The arrow points to Bonaire, the island outlined in white.  Curacao is in the middle, and Aruba is on the left.  These three islands were formerly known as the ABC Islands, but as of 2011 that association no longer exists.

On January 15th, 2011, I arrived in Bonaire for the first time.  It was my first study abroad experience, and my first time being in a foreign country without my family.  It was my first of several (and hopefully many) stints living abroad.  It was also when I started this blog!

My plane from Aruba (there are no direct flights from Detroit, of course) was delayed by several hours, but without a way to contact the program coordinators, I ended up stuck alone at the Bonaire International Airport at midnight.  It was well over an hour before anyone came to collect me, and I was having serious doubts about my decision to come here.  Fortunately, things got better the very next day, and I got to experience all the culture, history, and nature the island had to offer.

A few good memories from three years ago:

I was here for Carnival, the annual celebration.  Hopefully I'll be here for it again this year!

Windsurfing at Lac Bay.

Playing traditional instruments, poorly.

Transects!  (I really did learn some science-things here.  Honest.)

The very first photo I took--or had taken--on the island.  (Wow, I don't look any different.  I also still have that shirt, bag, and swimsuit.  Broke the sunnies, though.  Oh well.)

Three years later--almost to the day--I'm back on the island as a divemaster-in-training.   For the nondivers reading, "divemaster" is a level of certification for scuba divers.  Diving is fun and rewarding, but it's only safe when divers are well-trained and following their training.  To make it safe, the professional diving organizations (PADI, NAUI, and SSI being the major ones) have created different 'levels' of diver certifications, based on training and skill sets.

I'm a PADI-certified diver, which is the largest professional diving association.  (PADI stands for "professional association of diving instructors.")  PADI has a clear and ladder-like certification system, which goes as follows:

Open Water Diver (the most basic)
Advanced Open Water Diver (includes deeper diving and night diving)
Rescue Diver (able to rescue people while diving, and treat diving-related injuries)
Divemaster (able to work as a dive professional, leading dives and assisting with classes)
Instructor (able to teach new divers)

There are a few more levels for instructors, but this is the basic structure.  I got open-water certified in 2008, and AOWD and Rescue Diver certified in 2011 during my study abroad experience in Bonaire.  As a divemaster, I'd be able to work in a dive shop and lead certified divers on guided dives.  I'd also be eligible to become an instructor, an even more desirable position in the diving industry.

There are two routes on the path to divemaster certification: a paid course and an internship.  The paid course runs for two weeks and generally costs in the ballpark of US$2000.  The internship is usually two months, and while it's free, you also aren't paid for the work you're doing.  It's actually cheaper for me to fly to Bonaire and live here for two months, so that's what I'm doing.  (Plus, you know, I get to live on a tropical island for eight weeks.  Can't beat that.)

There are several dive shops on Bonaire, but I'm working for the one I'm already familiar with, Dive Friends Bonaire.

This is their main shop, Yellow Sub.

This is the boat pier for Yellow Sub.  The confined training area is on the other side.

Dive Friends was formerly affiliated with the CIEE (study abroad) program, which is how I got to know them.  My mother and sister were Open Water certified through Dive Friends, as well.  They have five locations on the island and several retail shops.  Yellow Sub is their main location, but I'll be working at a different location, Dive Inn, about a kilometer south of Yellow Sub.  (For those familiar with the island, it's near the Divi Flamingo resort.)  I report to work on Tuesday, and I can't wait to get started!

Now that I've bored you with all the technical details for why I'm in a tropical paradise, let's get down to my favorite part of this blog: the photos!

(A note to Mac users: I've recently learned that my photos look a bit strange on Macs, probably because the picture is so vivid.  They look good on my computer, and that's the best I can do.  Sorry!)

The walk along the water is still beautiful.

I'm pretty sure this 'construction' was still going on three years ago.  Also, see the Santa?

A lot of things have changed in the past three years.  City Cafe, which used to be a popular restaurant and bar, has closed.

Nooooo!  Now where will I get my delicious malibu-and-pineapples?!

There's still a lot of Christmas decorations up around town.

Still lots of cruise ships coming in. 

Near the tourism office.

This church has service in English, Dutch, and the local language, Papiamentu.

It might look dated, but it's actually a pretty church.

This plaza has a market on some days, but today was Saturday and it was empty, so I'm not really sure what day the market is on.

Sometimes bands play on the little stage, and people dance in the plaza.  It's a good time!

There's also a cafe on the plaza, but I've never eaten there.  Looks nice though!

I love walking along the water.  It's so beautiful, I never get sick of it.  I walked around taking photos, visiting old places, and going to the grocery store several times.  (I can only carry so much, you know.)  I think I walked up and down this stretch about 15 times today.

The water is so clear!  You can always see fish, crabs, and urchins in the shallow water.

Urchins!

Lots of birds!  They like to eat the fish remains that the fishermen leave behind.  Mostly fish heads, yum.

You can get a ferry to Klein Bonaire, the littler island, from this dock.

There are many restaurants and bars along the water, but my favorite is Karel's.  (I think it's pronounced like "Carl," but you can never tell with Dutch names.)  It's literally on the water, and the food and drinks aren't half bad!

They also have karaoke at night, but I'm not sure that's a good thing.

It's as nice as it looks, trust me.  They've also got a pretty good milkshake, as I recall.

A lot of things have changed.  The grocery store I used to frequent, Cultimara, has been bought out, shrunk, and renamed Top.  The art gallery on the water is gone, but there's a new playground next to it.  There's a few new shops with some cool art and gadgets in town, but a lot of things have been sold or are for sale.

That said, a lot of things are still the same.  My favorite gelato shop is still there and still has my favorite flavor, although they've finally translated it from Dutch to English, so I now know that it's lemon cake.  (Yum!)  Most of the bars are the same, Watta Burger is still the cheap drunken fast-food joint with the space-car kids' ride, and Cultimara still has cool mural-style paintings on the walls.

The murals still say Cultimara, even though it's been renamed officially.  People still call it Cultimara.

Look how happy she is with her cereal and paper towel!

And a windsurfing dude!  I love these paintings.

I got a lot done in the 24 hours since I arrived here.  I've met my new roommate, moved into my room, unpacked, arranged cellular service and internet, gone shopping, and met most of my new coworkers.  They've been expecting me, and they just so happened to be having a going away/welcome party for the departing and arriving divers!

To be fair, a lot of them were expecting me to be a guy.  Can't really blame them.

My family was a bit worried about my housing situation.  I did, after all, agree to live in a room in the house of a guy I found on facebook.  But don't worry, he's very nice, and his house is lovely!

He's even got a very friendly dog, Angel.  She's a sweetie.

I've got all the workings of modern life, with the exception of hot water and air conditioning.  But hey, who needs a hot shower in 85-degree weather?  And I certainly didn't come here to use the aircon--I kinda like being hot and a little sweaty.

The next two months will be busy, but I'm really excited about it.  Wish me luck, and check back again soon for more updates from paradise!

Cheers,
Ashton

PS:  If you weren't around for my last stint in Bonaire, or you just want to look at all the pretty pictures again, click here to go back to the very first post on this blog!