Written by Reid and Megan
Jambo!
This week we spent our days relaxing on the beach and learning how to SCUBA!! After two days of theory and skills in the pool we finally got to go out on our first dive on the third day! We started off with review of the important skills we learned then went on our first dive at Mnemba Atoll. We split into small diving groups and cruised along a huge reef and saw all sorts of beautiful fish and corals and moray eels. The underwater world was incredible we also heard dolphins talking bud didn’t see them sadly they were probably talking about how funny it would be avoiding us. We spent the nights talking before the trip was all over and enjoyed our buffet and cuddled with dogs Ganja and Hash and sat by a fire making new Tanzanian friends. Reid Hanya and Ben found dead puffer fish on the beach and even found a dead giant leopard moray eel.
On our fourth day we woke up early to prepare for another under water adventure! We took a bus to another beach where we were picked up by our boat and set sail for our final dive before earning our Open Water Certificate. We all back rolled into the clear deep blue and descended down 18 meters or 60 feet. We saw more beautiful and funny looking trumpet fish and needle fish and some big trigger fish who have buck teeth which they use to flip over sea urchins to eat at the less spiky belly. We encountered an octopus more eels and huge grouper and once again the dolphins came to taunt us but our SCUBA instructor saw them for a slit second I was busy filming the beautiful reef. At the last moments of our amazing dive we saw the beautiful endangered Green Sea Turtle which was found resting on the reef I got a video and pictures of our cute little friend.
It was time to end the dive only 40 bar left after taking a three minute safety stop we surfaced and finally became certified divers! After getting lunch on the boat and taking apart our BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) for the last time we took group pictures and went home. We ate our last dinner in Zanzibar and traveled back to Dar before going home. We said our goodbyes to Hanya at 2:00 AM and said our goodbyes to Ellie B and Ellie G at 12:00 PM and the rest of the group departs at 11:55 PM to finally go home after our 3 month adventure. We all had our ups and downs we started off as strangers but now we are more like family and this isn’t goodbye its only until next time.
I would like to thank Cari and Frederick from being great mentors and role models and teaching us so many things and making our trip amazing. Thank you Cari for your nonstop positive energy and support when some of the gang was down in the dumps you helped me when I was feeling down and thank you so much I will never forget you. Frederick I will never forget the strange funny moments and all the singing on the choo in Swahili and all the knowledge you shared us about plants and cooking thank you for being a good teacher and thank you for the frog napkins.
Kwaheri Blog and Cari and Frederick,
Reid and Megan
