Earlier this year, I had the amazing opportunity to work at Dive Grenada, a 5 star PADI certified dive shop located at Flamboyant Hotel, at the end of Grand Anse beach. For the 4+ months that I was there, I made lots of amazing connections and friendships as well as added to my list of amazing life experiences.
What made it so amazing to me? Lots of things. Whilst the folks around me were busy becoming doctors and lawyers, even though I'm teetering well into my late 20s, there were a few things I've always wanted to do. Many years ago, when I was younger, I had come to that very same dive shop and asked about learning to dive and the cost. Of course then I was too young... probably about 10 or 12 years old. However, after I finally finished up university last year and wanted to get a job that allowed me some extra time to play with, I couldn't pass up this opportunity when I heard they were looking for a dive shop attendant. A few years ago,
I had dedicated my summer to conquering my fear of the sea. I had developed a good relationship with the lifeguards and was able to persuade them to help me on my quest. As fate would have it, Andre, the lifeguard and dear friend that went out with me the most, helped me score my first(and only) job on a sailboat where I got to practice my free diving skills that he taught me on professional snorkel tours. Then, it so happens that he had worked at Dive Grenada coincidentally prior to my arrival there.
I had the delightful experience of being in the sea almost every day, carrying out tours guided by yours truly, learn about marine life live and direct and be in the position to find out as much as I wanted. Phil and Helen, the owners, were awesome. Phil was in the British Navy and Helen was a medical doctor in the UK. They were incredibly patient with my millions of questions regarding health and safety with scuba diving as well as identifying marine life. I was blessed to be around such highly skilled and highly patient people with so many amazing life stories they were willing to share with ease. I particularly looked forward to Phil's random life stories like when he told us, the staff, the proper and real way to walk with a staff as a shepherd if ever we ventured to become one in Scotland. It was so random, yet so precious and endearing.
Also, as with everyone, nothing is ever perfect. However, they were among my best professional experiences to date. I don't remember if I had told Phil, but it was truly refreshing to have a boss that addressed personal and individual issues personally. I wasn't made aware of other staff transgressions, nor were they made aware of mine. He was incredibly patient and understanding and should something pop up that he doesn't like... he'd simply pull you aside and address it privately. My collective recent work experiences to date locally seem to trend with your boss either shouting at you in front of everyone or in other cases, shouting at the customer. I don't recall ever witnessing that there. The staff, including the two dogs Jack & Jerry, were just as friendly and welcoming as well. I made some amazing bonds there. I still meet up with my old coworkers from time to time to catch up. My most amazing underwater shots, that you're going to see (not in this post), were taken by Ricardo, who was also one of my dive instructors.
Ultimately, I was faced with the current job opportunity I'm at now which I felt was a good career move and we parted on good terms. I still drop by every time I'm in the area. I won't lie, I miss the place and the people. My current office is located in Black Bay, St. John. Every day as I venture to the office, I traverse the same route on land along the coast as I did when I worked there. It pulls my heart strings sometimes to be high up on land and not dashing to the Marine Protected Area by boat, prepping to gear up and enter the water. The good news is a few of my projects are going to be sea based and I was given the privilege and trust of the assignment from my experiences from Dive Grenada.
Working there is definitely not a decision I regret and one I would encourage any 20 something year old, even those falling into 30 to try at least once. The sea has a way of calming the spirit and reminding oneself that you're a part of the huge ecosystem and world, and not the one that controls it. Who doesn't need such a reminder from time to time?
Half way through working there, my Ricoh underwater camera finally arrived and I was able to get some beautiful shots from some of my snorkel trips and scuba diving experiences. Even though work has doubled up on me since I started the new job and projects are finally about to roll out, I'm finally dedicating time to edit and post about my experiences there in pictures.
Hope you enjoy! These were taken in Flamingo Bay.
What did you think? Post a comment. (Click on the post title to open up the post and you'd be able to comment at the bottom.)
Oh... and I have more pics where these came from... expect some more underwater posts!
Love Shell-aye
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There is one truth that most should know about me and that is... I love fruits. The older I get, the less I discriminate among fruits as well. Recently, five finger (carambola) got added to my list of favourites. However, one of my absolute tried and true favourites are mangoes. I love the fruit, I love the fruit juice, I love the fruit candy, I love mango upside down cake, etc. It's safe to say that this is one fruit I love in all shapes and forms. I remember even going to my favourite gourmet supermarket Garden of Eden in Manhattan when I was studying overseas just to get the bottled mango puree juice from India. It's just so yum!
Suffice to say, when I visited a friend's house last week and discovered he had many mango trees in different varieties behind his house, we ended up trekking in the backyard. Ironically, he hates mango. I've come to the conclusion that that's the number 1 reason why I never noticed that he had mango trees. He felt inclined to make this revelation about the trees after I ranted all upset about my mum claiming a celon mango that I had been patiently waiting to ripe. In fact, I think everyone that crossed my path heard the injustice of the boldface claim of my mango. Of course, no one understood... but that's ok! His backyard is like endless mango ville.
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| My unprepared self going to trek through the mud to get mangoes. |
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| We have to cross those two planks/makeshift bridge to get across. |
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| Guess who was a happy camper with a huge bag of mangoes? |
No, there are no pictures of my bag as I'm not trying to motivate anyone to claim my mangoes again. Easy lesson good for dunce.
What fruit or food do you love this much?
Love & light,
Shelli
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Today was a Facebook meme turn into reality - specifically the ones that ask if you can survive without Internet. However, it was worse than that. I woke up this morning to no cellphone service or Internet. What does this feel like? Incredible disconnect. Last time I experienced something this similar was post Ivan, the major hurricane that hit Grenada.
I felt slightly sick this morning and picked up my phone to call my boss but then? No cell reception. I left home and remembered I never called back my dad but then? No cell phone reception. I was running a few minutes late for work and was about to call my coworker Roxanne but then? No service on my phone. Got to the office and was about to see if any work emails came in but then? No internet. Wanted to follow up on an order I made but then? No internet.
So what do you do when you can't make any calls, any messages, any emails, etc? Essentially disconnected from the world and anyone aside from those immediately near you?
You go with your coworker and pick mangoes from the estate. The real perk of working in agriculture is not the Internet and communication accessibility, it's all the fruits that pass your way. Today was the first time since I've been working here that I've ventured beyond my office deeper into Black Bay.
My coworker Roxanne is at expert level of picking mangoes in that not only does she have an accurate "poke" with the rod but she catches the mango as it falls too!
Here is where some of the cocoa, that is used in the Grenada Chocolate Factory to make delicious chocolate, gets dried and prepared for sale.
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| Me in my work dan dan in the bush. |
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| Yonder the estate. |
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Roxanne was absolutely terrified to stand this close to the edge as there's a very long drop.
She took this photo of me standing as close to the house as possible... |
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| The view |
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| The estate house. |
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| Roxanne and I |
**Update** Well when I got home and eventually got connected to the rest of the island and world once more, I learned that there was an earthquake that did something to the submarine cable and disconnected the data, internet and phone LIME service nationwide. Additionally, we were and still are code Orange Alert for Kick 'Em Jenny's pending eruption. Kick 'Em Jenny is a underwater active volcano. So apparently the day could've very well indeed ended up feeling like an Ivan experience.
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***Warning: Lots of photos ahead!***
Every time I go to the beach or out on the boat, my mind starts humming the tune from The Little Mermaid "Under the sea." I feel so excited and can't wait to get in.
This Easter weekend I had the opportunity to be on a cruise that included a tour to the sculpture park, that I was not working on, with Chuck. Of course even though I wasn't working, Chuck and I were the first in the water and off we went on my tour. Since I do the snorkeling guides on my days at Dive Grenada, I have a general personalized mental tour map so... I took him around to the different sculptures and then we joined the rest of the tour.
For Christmas he had got me an underwater camera that just arrived finally about 2 weeks ago. We took lots of pictures from this little trip.
Ciao lovies!
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Hey everyone! Hope everyone's been doing awesome - it has been awhile - not intentionally though.
Since my last post, I've been busy planning my direction for my life. I became a certified scuba diver as of last Sunday. It's absolutely beautiful down there. My absolute favourite reef thus far is in Dragon Bay. Why? Well... It looks like clear defined patches of forest, except underwater. Being a Wildlife Conservation Biology major, and doing most of my research work to date in forests, I was enthralled and fascinated at seeing something that replicated it underwater. There's lots of tall sea plumes, corals and lovely fish in the little patches. There's also a small wreck nearby. Perhaps I'm a strange diver. As much as the fish and coral fascinate me, I find it far more interesting how each little community of corals is clearly separated by a bed of clean sand. It creates a sense of order and balance in my mind... or at least the illusion of it.
My Society6 store has finally started receiving sales. If you haven't peeked it yet, you probably should now. ---
Shellon Art
That's all for now.
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I Iove to travel, even if I'm just "traveling" to the supermarket. In my mind, there's always some adventure waiting to be had outside my house.
In my circle, I have a few 'stray-way' spirits like myself.
One of my stray way adventures brought me with a friend to visit Belle Isle in St. David. The primary purpose of the trip was to collect my paintings from a closed exhibition at the gallery in Westerhall. It was such a beautiful little spot. After visiting Dominica, I now notice many different things in Grenada. In Belle Isle I saw little glassy pools and caves from the wave erosion. I didn't get to see the pools in Dominica, but I imagine they must look similar to the ones I saw and a bit bigger.
After that, we found a dirt road that led to a lovely bit of mangrove. I could hear the clear calls of the mangrove birds and critters. I saw little tadpoles swimming around in the pools of water.
As we walked along the path by the mangrove, we discovered it led to a long beach.
Needless to say, if nothing else, that day provided all the necessary evidence for leaving the house. I couldn't have found any of this in my backyard.
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