Blessings in Disguise (very big disguise)

Last night started awfully enough with signs of a sore throat and going to bed before 10 with no power to run my fan. I woke up with the sunrise on sweat-soaked sheets sneezing and blowing my nose like it was my job. The sneezes were agonizing as they sent crippling waves of pain from my nose all the way down to the back of my throat. At 8:10 the power came on and my fan that had been poised all night finally started but it was too little too late: I left for the dive shop 10 minutes later. The early start was due to a French speaking fellow who came in the night before. He knew less English than I knew French and so I was utterly thrilled that I had the opportunity to speak with him and felt that I did so quite successfully. Not only that, but he didn't believe that I was American, a certain compliment to my accent.

I arrived at the dive shop with one thing in mind however: hot tea. After losing about a cup of snot from the crippling sneezes, all I could think about was getting something soothing to sip. As soon as it arrived, the dive manager said to me in a serious tone, and I paraphrase, “The Russians [the owners of the dive resort] have been talking and they're not sure why you're here. They don't like you using their power all the time (I very often have my laptop plugged in, hooked up to the free wireless hotspot) and have asked me to tell you to not hang around here anymore. That being said, let me separate that from how the rest of the dive staff feel: we don't want to kick you out and would be pleased if you simply cut back the amount of time you spend here. For instance if you're here in the morning, leave after lunch or vise versa.”

Ten minutes later after my tea was finished and said goodbye indefinitely. If the owners don't want me there carrying tanks, organizing gear, washing new masks, and making the dive shop look busy, I frankly don't want to be there.

Candid shot of Buddha Dive staff

I headed up the road and talked to three dive resorts getting the same response as the day before: “we're set right now, we have your number, and we will call you when we need an instructor, etc.” However, my last effort proved successful. As it turns out, at one of the dive resorts up north, the instructor isn't getting along well with his divemaster candidate, another is ready to begin, and the instructor is going to Bali for several days. Within 2 minutes of walking into the shop I was assigned both candidates going from completely unemployed to training two divemasters. Today started out as one of my worst days in months and turned into the best day since my family was here (now I just have to knock this sore throat). I have 16 days left here on Gili Trawangan and within that time I will certify two divemasters; it looks like we have to get down to business!