Whoops it’s been awhile. Man does time fly. I have just left Indonesia which I have called home for the past seven months. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone.
There were many times that I wanted to write because silly things like yes of course, more visa problems, and airport fiascos. But I’m going to focus on the good and everything I appreciated about my time here.
For starters, I am now a divemaster! That means I can (hopefully) get a job as a dive guide. From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty hard to do without being an instructor. Kind of like being more qualified with a Master’s rather than a Bachelors. That isn’t going to stop me from trying though. I’m hoping my degree will maybe help me with that.
Since my visa run and my last blog in May, I have pretty much been going non-stop. Probably not a surprise to most of you. Divemaster takes up a lot of time and then add social media onto that you can probably imagine I didn’t want to touch a phone or computer at the end of the day. For awhile I was out of clever things to say because the captions took it out of me. I don’t know why I didn’t say this earlier, but if you’re interested in seeing what I did, follow NEREN Diving Komodo on Facebook and /or Instagram. The past 5 months is all from me and there will be a new intern taking over from now on.
https://instagram.com/nerendivingkomodo?igshid=162i4dgx94trf
The social media definitely grew on me. I don’t think I could ever do it as a full time job but maybe I could help out whatever company I work for since I have some knowledge of it now. It was really cool to see the customers grow and engage from the things I was posting. I could see what people liked and didn’t like so much and was able to cater to them. Mostly I went for funny or pretty deep with not much in between.
Now to talk about the people I met. I will forever have a family in the little town of Labuan Bajo. People that I will continue to talk to and definitely visit. Though the town didn’t have much to offer, I couldn’t have asked for anything else because the relationships I made are worth way more than that. I had a very hard time saying goodbye and tears were definitely shed.
If I named everyone who impacted my stay in Bajo, you may stop reading (if you haven’t already). From my instructors and mentors at NEREN and Azul, I don’t think I would have learned or enjoyed it as much somewhere else. Then I have my fellow divemaster friends. We got to push and learn with each other and, more importantly, bitch when things got hard.
I completed 186 dives in five months and spent more time in the water than I ever could have with a regular divemaster program. I had some incredible animal encounters. And I got to learn to navigate and guide some difficult spots which will only help my experience for future jobs.
I believe my time here has made me a better person. I have lived with very little and appreciate the small things. Like hot water. A hot bath is calling my name.
I have also become much more patient. Island time is very real here but different from Maui. I work well with island time because I’m usually always later than I say I will be (to the unimportant things of course) so that part I didn’t mind. But there is absolutely no rush for anything in Indonesia, even when it comes to immigration, which I visited way too many times.
I was very sad to leave my kitty Hari. He lived with me for 4 months and was the best little kitten. I wanted to bring him back with me but I didn’t have things done early enough. I would have also payed quite a bit of money and needed to take him on a boat back to Bali because bringing animals to different islands by plane isn’t allowed. So I will be back to see him for sure. Luckily, the intern taking my spot gladly took him for me. It’s nice to have a companion while on a tiny rock. (By the time I published this, Hari passed away. I was so heartbroken to hear it but I know he had a much better life than he would have one the street. Thank you to Danny for taking care of him for us after we left. A proper funeral was had and the little terror will be missed so much!)
I also made friends outside of diving. Hard to find people who don’t dive but it was possible. I even started a little line dancing club, the last couple weeks, at one of my favorite spots to hang out when I wasn’t diving. The local girls absolutely loved it and they even taught me their Indonesian dances which were actually very similar. It was so much fun and I was glad to bring something from home and a little country to share with them.
After I was officially done with the internship I hung around for a couple days to get the most of diving. I also got a visitor! Lauren, who I played water polo at Poly with, came to visit. I got to show her my life for the past half year and then we also got to play tourist for a bit around Indonesia. I found new places that I could definitely go back to visit. I ended up leaving a little earlier than her but only by 2 days.
I’ll be back in the states running around for a couple weeks but stay tuned for the next adventures!
The Travelling Cookie 