Week Sixxxx

So here I am at my sixth week with ORCA. Mental.

On Monday I did my practical guiding exam. This involves being the guide on an Ocean Blue boat to paying customers. I did it on Gaia, the smallest boat to about 9 people. Of course I wasn't the only crew member on the boat, Nino was skippering. I wasn't really that nervous about speaking in front of people (I do that everyday at my job at home) I just wanted to make sure I got all the information right. And I think I did! I haven't been told if I passed or not yet because Nino who was assessing me had to head straight off when we got back to shore. I'm pretty sure I passed though. After the boat I joined a township tour. Ocean Blue offers these tours to people who want to learn more about the local township Qolweni. (Qolweni is where the preschool is). The tour guide was Aggie who actually lives there. Although I have been there many times before, it was interesting to learn more about the place and see it from the perspective of someone who actually lives there. Back at Ocean Blue we carried out little tasks like cleaning the small aquarium and data entry. Other than that I can't remember. My memory really is bad!!!

Tuesday was Freddie's last day in South Africa, so although he wasn't on the program anymore he joined us on the morning boat trip. We saw a shark jumping out of the water which was pretty cool. I think it was a thresher shark or something like that. After the boat Charlie took us tag and release fishing. We went to a river where we waded in as deep as we could without getting wet and fished! It was really fun. As I'd never fished before I started off with Charlie. He cast his first line and immediately he got a bite. He then handed me the rod and I reeled in the fish. It was so cool! The fish was stronger than I'd expected it to be but I managed to reel it in successfully. We then brought it to shore, put a tag in it, and released it back into the river. I didn't touch the fish, but next time I am determined to! The only other fish we caught that day was one that we were allowed to eat. So we killed it (but cutting off its head, which was really gross) and took it home with us to braai that evening. We then did a beach clean up and got lots of lovely rubbish to sort out and weigh. Because it was Freddie's last night we had a braai, invited people round and got drunk. It was really fun although it was sad to say goodbye to Freddie.

On Wednesday I was supposed to go birdringing again but I had a really dodgy stomach from something I'd eaten the night before (I think!) so I couldn't go which was really annoying as I really wanted to! I spent the day in bed feeling sorry for myself. It sucked.

Thursday was preschool as usual. I was still feeling a bit horrible from the day before but I didn't want to stay in bed again. I was glad I went as it made me feel much better. The kids are the best. After preschool we fed the turtles and then came back to the house to sort through a million CDs. We have to take all the photos of whales and dolphins off them and sort them out into dates and animals. It is going to take a looong time. Last Thursday a new person came to stay in the house. Alejandra is staying for two years and is researching bottlenose dolphins for her phd. So we're sorting out the photos for her to use. In the evening I read my open water diving book as hopefully (weather permitting) me and Marlies are continuing with our diving course at the weekend. Yay!

On Friday we went to feed the turtles like we do every morning and then we came back to the house and learnt stuff about stuff from Dr. Vic. I then sat in the lovely African sun and studied more for diving. Even though it's approaching winter here and sometimes it can get cold, when you're in the direct sunlight it can still be booooiling! Like 10x nicer than the nicest English summer day. I love it. Tracy helped me with the dive tables which can be slightly confusing which was very nice of her. Me and Chanel had decided a few days ago that we should make a design for an ORCA Foundation hoodie. So I started sketching out some ideas for an image to go on the back. I need to refine it but I think it should look quite good once it's finished! In the evening me and Chanel went over to Hilde's new flat (she moved out on Wednesday, which is sad because now my room feels lonely again, but its good she's still in Plett and hasn't left completely!) It's a really nice flat! We had a braai then went to Surf Cafe for a bit but I didn't drink much or stay out too late as I wanted to be fresh for diving in the morning. I'm excited!

Saturday me and Marlies went diving to begin to complete our Open Water course. However the sea was crap and the weather was crap so we spent the whole day doing theory. It was ok at first but got sooooooo boring and my mind began to melt and by the end of the day and I think I was a bit delirious. In the evening Hilde came round and we watched 127 Hours with James Franco. I hadn't seen it before but I know what happened. It was a good film but I only half watched the whole arm chopping off bit. Ew.

Sunday and we finally got to go diving! But the sea was still rough so we had to just stay in the pool and do all the pool stuff, which was fine as we would have needed to do it at some point. I'm definitely getting more used to it now and I really like it and I'm excited for actually being able to get back into the sea and dive for real! Hopefully tomorrow. Depending on the sea. Stupid sea.