August 17, 2006

Guess what! It’s raining again. It’s not just raining (and freezing)…. “It’s a gustery blustery day,” as Pooh would say. Here’s how my morning went. Amy and I had booked a dive for 8:00 a.m., so we woke up at the butt crack of dawn to get our dive gear together. We had to be at the bus stop at 7:15 for the van to pick us up. Last night, when I was laying in bed reading, I heard the rain and hoped against hope that it would stop by morning. Of course, it didn’t. It just got worse.

We called the owner of the dive shop before we left to confirm that the dive was still on. Since it was, we put on our very wet, very cold, very stinky wet suites and hauled all of our gear through the downpour of rain and up-pour of mud to the bus stop. After 15 minutes, we watched the van, right on time, zip past us without even pausing. We assumed he forgot about us and would get us on his way back to the dive spot after he picked up the other divers at the hotel. So, we waited. After and hour and twenty minutes in the cold rain, Amy finally went back and called the dive shop again. This time, the driver of the van answered and Amy asked him where he was and why he didn’t pick us up. He said, “I drove by and you weren’t there.” EXCUSE ME!!! “Weren’t there” my ass! We were there before he drove by, while he drove by, and for quite a while AFTER he drove by. And, I can assure you, that we certainly wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to gear up (and through all the misery of the cold rain) if we didn’t have confirmation that the dive was still on. I was, yet again, furious. I began looking for my lightening bolt. Surely I should be able to smite someone for THIS! I have to admit, though, that what pushed me over the limit wasn’t being cold, which I hate more than almost anything, but the blatant, unapologetic lie told by Ganesh, the driver. I called Alex, the owner of the dive shop, to inform him of the situation, and to make sure that he knew what really happened… Not Ganesh’s fantasy version of what happened. He was, at least, apologetic. Do I need to appease the god’s of Fiji with some form of sacrifice to atone for my sins? Should I eat Amy, like a good cannibal, to show the god’s that I respect Fijian ways?

Yesterday was a little better. The rain at least paused for a portion of the day (but it wasn't any less cold). Amy and I spent the morning making algae extract strips. Several days ago we collected algae from the reef and extracted their chemicals while in Suva. We want to see if the algae produce chemicals that are detrimental to coral. This is important because it may explain why certain algae overgrow and kill corals while others do not. Anyway, we had our little electric burner to boil the agar, which is the jello-like matrix that holds the algae extract. We made molds out of Gorilla tape (similar to duct tape, but a hell of a lot better) and window screen. Then we added the extract to the agar and poured the mixture into each mold. Once it cooled we cut the mold into 1.5 cm wide strips to wrap around coral fragments. It was kind of fun because we felt like we were doing real science and it took a lot of creativity (along with trial and error). Anyway, once finished, we needed to put the strips out in the field. Of course, that’s when it started raining.
Here’s how we worked it. I snorkeled out to find the coral that we would be using and Amy followed on foot. The water was shallow enough for Amy to wade to the spot. She held the strips and handed them to me to attach to the coral with a cable tie. We started at 4 pm and didn’t finish until dark. I was so cold that my body was convulsing uncontrollably, which made putting delicate agar strips onto even more delicate coral, using uncooperative cable ties extremely difficult. I was so cold, in fact, that Amy informed me that my lips were completely blue. But, the coolest thing about the snorkel was our companion. An octopus, about the size of a medium sized dog sat just out of arms reach and watched us work. I swam over now and then to check him out and every time I did he would turn a deep, dark brick-red and hunch down into his hole. Also, while I was looking for the coral, I saw something move under a large coral head. Curious, I ducked under to see what it was. Shivers went down my back when I saw a tentacle bigger than my arm. Just a small part of the tentacle, mind you! That was probably the largest octopus I will ever encounter, and I only saw a piece of him.

"Sucks to your ass-mar!"
-Ralph, Lord of the Flies
(This is my new comment on Fiji.)