My fourth day was another intrepid explorer experience spent with my cool German Padi learners who were outstanding and I was keen to practice the diving! I gave my underwater camera to Jonas-cute 19 year old with bubbly curly hair who is a fish by nature to capture the experience underwater. I had improved massively from my first couple of dives and noo helium like experiences down under because I was given a shortie and less weights. How great the feeling was to float in the water and look at the glorious creatures swim in front of you and then all the voices in your head just begin to speak to you ‘oh gawd, my flippers are about to fall off…what if a flipper falls off and I lose the ability to swim’, what if..what if… and the panic set in as the depth got deeper.
The lack of control I felt in the deep blue sea despite the wondrous moments experienced was to say frightening. It dawned on me that I was actually floating in mid air and I could vision a cartoon with the main character suddenly realizing that they have ran off the end of the cliff and are in the mid air…the panic sets in again! I look down and boy do I feel the vertigo, the plunge, the big blue, the tall coral mountains and we are still only 12m. Is this part of growing older where we begin to doubt, question the certain facts, mechanics about things that are set in stone, like me with my diving equipment..its all in the mind I am often told and boy do I feel like its in my mind.
It is no doubt that I really do feel like I am challenged when I am in the sea but there is a degree of comfort in the routine that I find which is comforting. The idea that I will dive and clean the seabed is becoming real to me which is a good thing since I will be beginning next week. The theme of this week has been my reaction to my first dive ‘bloody hell’ the Germans, Belgians, Argentinian just loved that remark for some reason and every time I am venturing into the sea its ‘bloody hell’ and ‘Upside down’ comments referring to the spaceman like manuouvre-another nickname accompanied by the disco tune.
This diving lark really does tire you out, by 9.30 I am flat out, I cooked a courgette dish with the risotto like rice because I could not find any basmati. It was an experience once again and boy I should have clearly thought about what to bring with me apart from a trunk of unsuitable clothes. Here I can wear a sack and it would be fine. At least I have my spices, because the courgettes took so much time to cook usually something that can be cooked in 15min but it took 30min, what a pain in the butt! I forgot so much about living out here again it’s an education!
If you could all just see me now you would love it, here I am sitting on a lovely chair looking out towards the red sea with the sun streaming down on me and a soft gentle breeze filtering along minding its own business. I have to say something is wrong with my heating system it does not want to heat up, I am wearing a sweatshirt to keep me warm whilst everyone are wearing swimsuits and tshirts..hmm. It chills me bones, a strange affair!
Friday 5th Day
The gyptian staff are very supportive but also very curious about who I am and what am I doing here as a Pakistani muslim..they have been giving me lectures in fluent Arabic the importance of religion and prayer. They wanted to drag me down the mosque for prayers which is of course expected but how do I explain to a bunch of young boys that I am hailed by the divine to abstain at certain times of the month? On the other hand, I go to the bar and order my Turkish coffee and lo behold eventually I am asked if I am married, I reply no but I am engaged(inshallah). Next question, what is his name..i mouth ‘john’, don’t ask me why, I stumbled on names, Is he a muslim? before I could say anything the lady next to me blurts out ‘oh he is catholic’ –oh great now I have to brace myself for a lecture from the barman ala’ who on cue provides me with one saying that it is prohibited. His tactful response’ You cannot get away with it here or in Turkey ? Oh really who cares, Allah cares of course!
I, in the end just to avoid the ‘knowledge’ that would be bestowed upon me told him that his name is Jaan and we call it John in English and he is half English half arab..(hahahaha)..that actually made him feel better believe it or not, especially since he asked if I was Shia (on the understanding that is what shia’s do; go against rules). Expanding one's horizon is quite limiting for some people! I swear he was about to propose to me, since he kept saying after I do my work and when people have moved away he wants to talk to me…HMMMM. I exited as soon as he left the bar, I wanted to shout out behind me with my big speech bubble ‘I’ve heard that one before mate’.
Guys, my lunch today was the best and it cost me pennies, we drove to a shack that cooked falafels or to the Europeans, falafel burgers , something I was apprehensive about as you can imagine but they had the most amazing baked aubergines, and fried similar to bell peppers without the heat to compliment the foul. I felt contented to have some real Arab food instead of the pseudo European food that the Germans only appreciate. Now I want to explore going to the very male dominated restaurants where I guess we will get set upon by the hordes of interested parties. I think I will stop uttering random Arabic words because it gets me into trouble all the time!!
Sunday
It started out as a great morning, I gave myself a day off well I thought so, I walked down the very long street with the idea to take pictures of the area, which I was assured would not take me long. So off I go in the heat exploring the dusty area, I walk for 15 minutes with pretenders playing in my ears and suddenly begin to notice lots of gyptians staring at me. I would have thought I would stand out but oh no not in my harem pants, my wild hair, big sunglasses and brightly coloured shirt, nope, I am the centre of attention. I walk on until the mosque, now I love architecture and this mosque cannot boast of anything original in fact if it had the audacity to boast it would shout out ‘Reproduction’ on a modest level. At night the minaret is embedded with coloured lights, yup its eastern splendor does not want to escape its root..and why should it!! Whilst I decently pretend to be curious about the building, a stoutly looking man in a grey, murky galibaya is staring at me with his bicycle almost cradled into his armpit. He wants me to go into the building which I politely decline, as he speaks he is acutely looking me up and down and asking where I am from and that he is the Imam of the mosque . Hmm I bet you know what is coming next, ‘where are you from’ ..to win some’ holy, hoping you won’t rip me off points’ I mention Pakistan, instantly there is vigourous handshake ‘Alhamdilulah’ ‘YOU MUSLIM’ ..’oh yes’…’you my friend’ hmmmm….’You married’, I step into 3rd gear and say yes and he is in Pakistan and the imam just launched into his own family life story with a bit of a grimace that he had 4 daughters…poor him!!
I walk on after that conversation, mulling over my head the state Islam is in when we have Imams who really act as principle caretakers and they don’t exactly fill me with confidence. As I walked onwards, my thoughts began to take a mindwarping moment when my nostrils breathed in this wretched smell, forcing my eyes, head to follow the smell and there lay before me what was once cute, now looking like a wretch a small white bulldog corpse. In a strange way it lay as if it was mulling life besides a warm fire apart from the fact that blood at one point had seeped out leaving a neatly formed circle around it. The flies thought Eid al Fitr had arrived. I, quite honestly felt repulsed and walked on in the blazing heat thinking what else is going to receive me. My orientation skills are one not to be admired and what I thought was one simple road turned out to be a road with twists and turns to somewhere other than the coffee house I wanted to visit. As an uneducated rule, I can’t seem to force much water down my oesphagus and suddenly feel some dizzy spells as the sun begins to focus its rays on me. Hard stuff. I take some pictures and become afraid of the idea of sitting at some shack eating fish (since this signifies the area)..i ask some girl where the coffee shop is and that I am hungry etc, she mentions ‘stomach’ me thinking she means yes you need to fill it up! Oh no..it means would you like a stomach kebab! A stomach kebab, lovely stuff I have been told it is, but my desire to drink and eat normal stuff was stronger. It’s a strange thing sitting outside some shack choosing the fish you want to eat and then have half the world staring at a single, brown girl eating her dinner on her own in front of the world to see. I understood this was happening when a guy in a motorbike whizzed along and stopped shouting for the restaurant owner to come out, whilst his gun hung out of his holster. A complete show off, he just wanted to make himself aware to the tourist and the possibly irritated restaurant owner.
My intention was to not dive on Sunday but I ended up wanting to and prepared for my next dive, as I was changing into the gear the young German girl besides me begins to let me know how she heard about my banana split moves in the sea and asked me ‘where I am from originally, I told her Pakistan is where my parents are from? Oh yes, I thought so because you are not British, I thanked her for her general assumption and said I bet you say that to the German Turks as well, her response; ‘oh they cannot even speak German properly?!?! My mood went south, the girl was some spoilt brat who spent years in south africa and then 2 years in Cairo international school and was just horrible! My dive was just awful after that, I fumed at such ignorance. Not a happy day.
In the evening we decided to venture out into town and were told that we could borrow the truck because its quicker than getting public transport. Before we ventured, I asked to be dropped off the local shop to pick up some food like eggs, pastrami, tahini and bread. In the confidence of knowing where to go I walk head up high enjoying the warmth of the night and am immersed in my thoughts . I see a building and think ah yes keep walking suddenly the dusty roads become paved tarmac roads and it all becomes unfamiliar, I look up and there is this growling dog barking at me from a distance and I immediately cower under the thought of rabies, bite, death, foam! I pick up a paintbrush just in case and the dog happily leaves me. I continue walking suddenly realizing I really do not know where I am going, nor do I recognize this place. I am suddenly conscious of the way I look, no makeup(have not used any since I have got here) wild unruly hair, and fear in my eyes! I stand in the middle of the road trying to stop anybody that could help. Cars went by but one motorbike stopped, a middle aged man who looked bewildered and in my attempt of fluency in arabic I ended up getting a lift with this man who drove me two minutes down the road to home! Panic over, I was actually around the corner! Oh dear, Yes tim very nice but dim!
Monday was a fun day, no diving involved because the tourists wanted to go on the boat and dive, I wanted to remain alive. So we spent the whole day in the office which is right next to the beach, celebrating Easter with the rest of the Al Quseir population. It was a great day to see women in their headdresses, with long skirts wading in the sea with their husbands/boyfriend et al. There were crowds of people swarming the beach eating, laughing, listening to lots of music, celebrating Easter! For lunch, one of the guys suggested we buy some mackerel , sardines, bread and salad, I kindly obliged thinking where are we going to cook them. This was a traditional easter meal as I paused to think about it as we were sitting on a mat, underneath the shade with six of the staff who loved the whole idea that we went with them to buy and choose the food. It truly was a delicious feast most of the food here either begins with a ‘spicy’ tahini sauce dipped in bread or tahini poured over the dish with lemon so it flows into the juice of the meal like ours with fish oil and then lemon squeezed into it. Oh they just love sourdough bread here and who is in heaven..ME.
Tuesday was my day to embrace my diving. I asked one of the senior centre staff Michael, a strong, well experienced and direct communicative type of guy to help me with my fear of the deep blue. In one conversation we had already figured out what the problem was and he pointed out that in one dive session he will be able to help me out. I was only too happy to oblige and also throw the gauntlet of a challenge at him! Eureka, one session with him was the moment of euphoria, just being told what to do when you are in panic is all I needed. I was not breathing through my nose and found that I was always having to drain my mask and my breathing was too shallow to find my neutral buoyancy. Hence my panic at not being able to float downwards when I wanted to. I knew this guy was perfect for me, he took me into a cave and made me go through crevices which I would have not dared to go through for fear of being stuck and hovering dangerousl y close to the precious coral. Now, I can dive peacefully and thoroughly enjoy myself. Thank you Michael.
As you know I have been roped into presenting why the people of Al Quseir should keep their beach and sea tidy. I originally thought well its just a talk with a group of people from the community but then we had meeting with the other group that will be presenting and all of them were ‘marine biologists’. My instant thought was panic.. 'I researched everything on the internet’ and then when I met them they were reluctant to do the presentation, it was hilarious! They did not even know what their presentation involved I was actually feeling a lot better already. In fact, as you all know my character, I helped them shape their presentation and in exchange wanted their presentation to help my story with pictures. Niftily done J. It was a funny situation, there were 5 blondes who happened to all be German and then I blended well with the local Teachers and when other passerbys were introduced they would look at the blondes and say hello to them in English and I would be ignored, until I spoke of course. Even the Germans were surprised when I spoke up, originally they thought I was part of the décor until I was introduced and then there were guffaws and a sense of relief that I could speak English. Its soo funny being in International circles.
I do tend to relish the idea of wanting to go out at night but its not that type of town and my flatmates who are diving instructors as well as myself are so tired after the dives we don't want to do anything. Plus, they are not into food as much as I am so exploring the town is often limited to the restaurant down the road and thats ok, apart from the fact when they want to press a pizza upon us..'margarita, seafood...blah blah.
Thursday,
I have a very active swiss contingency that I met here at the resort and they are so funny and happy go lucky. Its been a real pleasure having them here and we have enjoyed our conversations and silly antics all the time. The parents were keen divers and were teaching their younger daughter to dive plus the older daughters boyfriend. The new learners took to learning brilliantly with michael it was amazing seeing them progress. One thing I hate about the diving is walking to the reef we tend to walk on slippery jagged surfaces on the sea and have to watch out for the potholes in the sea whilst wearing our weighbelts, jacket plus oxygen tank and then pop into the sea to put our flippers on. I am clumsy at it. I hate it and I am extra slow because I am afraid I will slip and twist my already twisted ankle again. Clomp, clank, clomp, arghhhh'I hate this' is often a melody I sing whilst walking to go under! But, this is not the case for everyone else, they seem to glide through and I am sure my fear once again rules me. How on earth have I managed to do anything in life?
Dive for earth day was an immense special day, we convinced the guests of the resort to do a dive focused on cleaning up our house reef. What an effort, I was asked to announce the start of it and in my typical fashion I got everybody cheering first and I was so pleased everybody reciprocated. It was great. We cleaned so much of the seabed which was covered in fishing lines demonically wrapped around the coral, strangling it from its life. One great swiss guy, found a tin can embedded in the seabed. It must have been used for burning because it had the ash still in it with clumps of sand, I am always scared to pick them up from the sea just in case some creatures has made it its home. In this instance, they were truly picky! The effort this diver took to try and crush the can underwater was immense, I watched and took photographs of him trying to stamp down with his flippers the rusty tin can. A valiant effort indeed it was fun to watch and fun to tell him that there is a bigger bag that would fit the can with one of the other divers! Typically wicked of me to use him as my source of entertainment but I adore people who really take to tasks very well. Its unusual at times to see dedication or else I am deluded.
Its great to be the butt of jokes once again in the Egyptian side and in the European side. I am known as the mistress of disaster, lord knows why but it seems to stick. Michael our Centre Manager is a typical stock German authoritative man and boy do I have lots of fun with him. I am often the butt of his jokes and I have to say they are really funny! Its contagious.
I presented today to a group of Egyptian ladies from the Al Quseir community and I prepared hard since my knowledge of environmental matters have until now been low. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on that presentation that used my own dive pictures and added the odd occasional 'I will get you to laugh' anecdotes- to dictate the importance of looking after their environment. I was I have to say greeted with applause and big hugs and kisses by the women. Some people around me were left quite bereft of the expression at the overwhelming sense of sheer warmth and gusto the women showed me. I have to say I was proud of myself as I held the microphone and held up my laptop goading the women into discussing the issue I brought up. A personal win of the day especially when all the micro biologists asked for my email address and wanted to meet up instantly for dinner. It was a good day, enough for me to want to pick up the litter on the beach and make a difference. The beach is normally covered in plastic bags, plastic bottles and other waste, its horrible to say the least. The frightening thing is that the plastic bag after a while disintegrate in the sea or the beach, these tiny fragments of plastic become invisible to the human eye and find themselves suffocating the coral, hence the coral dies. Education and reinforcing education is vital to the success of the initiative of Keeping Al-Quseir Beautiful.
Dolphin Day,
I have been looking for dolphins since I have been here and as we were discussing the appearances of Dolphins, two appeared from the middle of nowhere whilst I was at the helm of the boat in Titanic fashion. I was instantly elated and excited screaming ' Dolphins, Dolphins' some people came running and the dolphins disappeared. What a brief but elating moment in my life, I was so overwhelmed and moved to bits, I actually got emotional!!!
The sighting of the dolphin really made me reflect on what I have seen in the past two weeks and again I got so emotional. I am so fortunate. I have seen turtles, barracuda, morai eels, Napolean, lionfish, purple jellyfish, blue spotted rays, stonefish, dolphins, puffa fish and some stunning coral gardens. I have been given expert tuition in each stage of my panic and most of all I have been met with genuine warmth, support and love from the Al Quseir community.The boys in the pharaoh dive school have been exceptional really insisting I come with them to a wedding where I watched the boys dance some brilliant belly dancing that would rival any women I know!! I was asked why am I leaving in two weeks when everybody 'loves me'. I was immensely touched by their comments and had to explain bit by bit the loving people at home that I miss too. I vow to return here and recommend learning to dive in this dive site, because its so varied and rich! Nothing like I have seen before. My flatmates Petra and Thomas have contributed to quite a lot of the stability and warmth that I have experienced in the last two weeks.
Each morning we wake up very early about 6'sh to get to the Dive centre by 8'sh and I have to say its all you want to do is Dive. I was instantly jealous when Tomas said that he gets up in the morning and cannot wait to start work. I WANT that feeling back. I,for breakfast often end up eating Gyptian bread with walnut honey (yuuuummmmy) and then a half boiled egg. These days I could happily miss breakfast because I feel full in the morning and all I want to do is get to the dive centre and have a fresh bean cappucino! My love affair with coffee is on hold I am finding the turkish coffee is not having the right impact on me! I miss me milk.. Whilst I sit there drinking my coffee with my very friendly waiters, I begin to think about my day ahead, what rubbish will I pick up whilst diving, will I be able to keep my bouyancy whilst picking it up since sometimes it is in nooks and crannies that my mum told me not to go to when I was a kid! What else should I do? Then the day takes over and I find my fellow divers 'Gero' for instance picking up the rubbish with me in the dive. I am so impressed by his diligence and commitment to the cause and realise a big fat light bulb appears over my head and ping!!!!!!! Talk to each of the guests as to why I am here and encourage them to pick up the rubbish with me on their dives. Especially when they see the dreadful floating black bags as they dreamily dive towards a stunning coral garden or the big napolean fish himself! I heard that some people give the Napolean fish an egg and they reckon that the fish loves it because the yolk oozes out of their gills. I couldn't help but feel horrified at the thought that the fish is subjected to an alien food in their own environment and we would take great delight out of seeing how it oozes out of their body....what pleasure we take.
