Hey there, world. You take some turns I don't expect.
Someone once said to me that I just needed to learn to trust the water. He was right. I don't know what it was that convinced me to take the scuba course. When I arrived in Dahab, I had no idea it was so well known for diving. I didn't even know diving was something you can't do without getting certification. And when I agreed to do the course, I didn't think much; just that maybe it would be interesting. I think I wanted to see how I would react.
Going under the first time is as awkward as everyone says it is. Also the second and the third. But once your body adjusts a bit more, and realizes you aren't drowning nor inhaling water, that the breaths you're taking of "artificial" air are actually sufficient if you learn to breathe it in deep enough... then there's a moment of calm once in a while. Where I find myself suspended between solid and liquid, knees resting gently on the sandy bottom while the instructor is doing an exercise with the other student, and I look around and see a fish next to me, and the sea-grass gently waving, and realize that I am doing something I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be doing... and not only that, but it feels okay.
And that's when it started to be really fun. Sometimes I would catch myself distracted by something, like a snail or the feeling of weightlessness, and realize objectively what I was doing (what, I'm underwater? Oh, right) and I'd start to laugh. Not a good idea, opening your mouth underwater. Especially a place as salty as the Red Sea. I had to learn how to laugh without breaking getting water in my mouth and coughing into the respirator.
Then, after being (pardon the pun) immersed in diving for two weeks, I accept an invitation to take very different plunge, no less life changing than the first - getting on a 12 hour bus ride and landing myself in a small town near Cairo, to stay with a new friend's family for a few days. I have so many impressions of Egypt and this culture and this wonderful loving home, but I'll have to save them for later, after I've digested a little. I am learning so much about what life is like here. My basic Arabic is coming along, I'm hoping it continues. I have to wear a headscarf and certain kinds of clothing when I'm out of the house, but I'm amazed at how quickly it's something you can get a little used to. I admit to feeling a lot safer with the scarf done in a Muslim style; unless someone looks closely at me and notices my lipring, there is literally nothing to distinguish me from the other people on the street any longer, so I blend in a lot more (at least until someone tries to speak to me, but I'm never alone without an Egyptian, so I seem to get along alright). Taking the ten minutes to get the scarf right before I go out has started to feel reassuring, even if it pinches a little around the chin.
So, here I am, making small cultural faux pas like cutting the lettuce too small or saying the wrong greeting, among dirt roads and donkeys and tuk-tuks and a lot of really beautiful dresses. And I'm loving every minute of it.
Hamd'allah, this is amazing. Too, too short.
Someone once said to me that I just needed to learn to trust the water. He was right. I don't know what it was that convinced me to take the scuba course. When I arrived in Dahab, I had no idea it was so well known for diving. I didn't even know diving was something you can't do without getting certification. And when I agreed to do the course, I didn't think much; just that maybe it would be interesting. I think I wanted to see how I would react.
Going under the first time is as awkward as everyone says it is. Also the second and the third. But once your body adjusts a bit more, and realizes you aren't drowning nor inhaling water, that the breaths you're taking of "artificial" air are actually sufficient if you learn to breathe it in deep enough... then there's a moment of calm once in a while. Where I find myself suspended between solid and liquid, knees resting gently on the sandy bottom while the instructor is doing an exercise with the other student, and I look around and see a fish next to me, and the sea-grass gently waving, and realize that I am doing something I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be doing... and not only that, but it feels okay.
And that's when it started to be really fun. Sometimes I would catch myself distracted by something, like a snail or the feeling of weightlessness, and realize objectively what I was doing (what, I'm underwater? Oh, right) and I'd start to laugh. Not a good idea, opening your mouth underwater. Especially a place as salty as the Red Sea. I had to learn how to laugh without breaking getting water in my mouth and coughing into the respirator.
Then, after being (pardon the pun) immersed in diving for two weeks, I accept an invitation to take very different plunge, no less life changing than the first - getting on a 12 hour bus ride and landing myself in a small town near Cairo, to stay with a new friend's family for a few days. I have so many impressions of Egypt and this culture and this wonderful loving home, but I'll have to save them for later, after I've digested a little. I am learning so much about what life is like here. My basic Arabic is coming along, I'm hoping it continues. I have to wear a headscarf and certain kinds of clothing when I'm out of the house, but I'm amazed at how quickly it's something you can get a little used to. I admit to feeling a lot safer with the scarf done in a Muslim style; unless someone looks closely at me and notices my lipring, there is literally nothing to distinguish me from the other people on the street any longer, so I blend in a lot more (at least until someone tries to speak to me, but I'm never alone without an Egyptian, so I seem to get along alright). Taking the ten minutes to get the scarf right before I go out has started to feel reassuring, even if it pinches a little around the chin.
So, here I am, making small cultural faux pas like cutting the lettuce too small or saying the wrong greeting, among dirt roads and donkeys and tuk-tuks and a lot of really beautiful dresses. And I'm loving every minute of it.
Hamd'allah, this is amazing. Too, too short.
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