Education To The Test: Have you ever been at sea in the middle of a rainstorm? There is a perfectly round bubble surrounding the vessel with a radius that matches the distance of visibility in all directions. It’s kinda cool to be in the middle of a rain bubble . . . kinda.
Galynn, Alana’s younger sister, trekked out to Dumaguete to spend almost a month with us. In an effort to get out and see another part of the country, we took a 3-day hiatus to a little island on the northern tip of our neighbor island Cebu called Malapascua. Malapascua Island is famous for Thresher Shark dives and we were blessed to share water space with one.
We stayed at classy, well-managed, three-year old dive resort on the beach called Evolution. They had quaint accommodations, excellent and healthy food, and a very friendly and helpful local staff. On the second day we headed out on the Evolution boat, the Haldane, a 36-foot Filipino cruiser, for a day trip to Gato Island.
When we woke that morning we were unsure the Haldane would set out because it was raining, or we at least thought our 9:30am launch time would get pushed back. Not a chance. All the dives we had been on so far were with one of the two Irish owners, Dave. He may have made the decisions to cancel or postpone after looking at weather forecasts, considering safety, and such, yet he was taking the day off.
Alana and I headed out with four gals from Ireland, a young man from England (Daniel), a young woman from Spain (Belan), and one of the two Haldane boat/dive crews. The local Haldane crew consisted of a captain, two deck hands, and two dive instructors. All of them had seemed super capable and competent so far and our dive expeditions had seemed very routine.
As the thirteen of us wheeled around the southeast corner of Malapascua we could see Gato Island straight ahead shadowed by a towering rainstorm. Gato is an uninhabited island about the size of four football fields and someone on the crew told us it would take about one hour to banka (boat) there.
There were decent size swells coming at us and about half way there we were entering the rainstorm, which had by now engulfed Gato Island making it difficult to see. I wondered for a few minutes if it was safe to dive during a storm and figured as long as there wasn’t lightning, which there wasn’t, heck, we are going to get wet anyway, what’s the difference?
Less than 10 minutes later the wind picked up considerably and I figured out what the difference would be . . . cold! The Haldane’s pace slowed down a bit, the stinging rain was nearly horizontal and advancing directly at us, and all the guests were scuttling into their wetsuits for protection from the elements. The Haldane started feeling like a 15-foot Sunfish in the waves and our situation started to feel a bit dodgy. The foreigners were looking slightly nervous while the locals continued displaying those standard, deadpan, Filipino faces.
By this time, even though we were two-thirds of the way there, Gato had been swallowed whole by the storm and was nowhere in sight. To make things worse, it was obvious by the wave direction that the captain was swerving back and forth as if he was guessing which direction the island was in. I looked over to see if he had a compass. He did, a nice looking hand held model sitting on the boat dash, yet it didn’t appear he was using it. I thought to myself, “What kind of boat doesn’t have a built in compass? . . . Pinoy!”
I started watching for signs of confidence or terror on the crew’s faces . . . nothing. They just stared into the storm as if they had experienced it thousands of time. As Alana and I started to talk about the situation, I shared with her my emergency plans; if the boat went down we would grab our scuba gear which would keep us afloat and give us air to breath if we needed to bob on a rainy and wavy ocean surface for hours. I could then also save other people because I had breathing gear if they panicked and held me underwater. I was starting to envision myself as some superhero in a 007 movie as I my mind was trotting away from me a bit J . . . ego check . . . I digress.
As the adventure continued to deteriorate, all the guests, fully uncomfortable now, started making sarcastic comments and jokes about our situation out loud yet no one, not even the Haldane crew, suggested we turn around. I wondered what was going on in everyone’s minds because we had slowed down considerably and were feeling lost as the crew looked around for signs of the island. Even though it was possible we were four-fifths of the way to our destination, continuing further from Malapascua in the relentless storm didn’t seem like a good idea to me, yet I wasn’t saying anything either because I didn’t feel it was my place to do so.
Alana mentioned, “If Dave was here he probably would have decided to go back a long time ago and it feels like the crew is lacking leadership.” We started talking about the boat crew’s critical thinking abilities. Aged between 20-30 years old, I was fairly sure I had some idea about the quality of education they had received, if they had gotten through school at all. Obvious that they had been trained well, I realized none of them would have cancelled or postponed the trip that morning because they don’t think that way . . . they are taught to carry out the task they are given by whomever is in charge.
In general, the education Filipino youth seem to receive have nothing to do with higher order thinking, analyzing, evaluating, reflecting, problem solving, decision making, communicating, time management, feedback, or self-confidence. Their education seems to be about other worthy areas of development; work ethic, positive attitude and faith, following directions (especially from authority), being a team player, mimicking/copying, and flexibility/adaptability, none of which seemed to be helping in our current situation.
A few minutes after I told Alana I was convinced none of the Filipino crew would make the call to return to Malapascua, the young woman from Spain yelled out, “Why don’t we turn around!” and the boat came to an immediate stop. Not more than 10 seconds later, one of the dive instructors announced, “We will turn around and find another dive site at Malapascua.” Wow . . . very insightful to watch this process . . . and it wasn’t over.
The Haldane’s engine cranked up and we whipped around. This would have been a good time to reverse our bearing on the captain’s compass because it was only obvious we were headed back by the new direction of the wind and waves. Again, nothing was in sight outside of 200 meters as the rain continued to pour down.
A few more minutes of the captain swerving back and forth across the direction of the waves and we were once more at a full stop. The captain and a dive instructor started reading the directions to the compass and a crewmember went to the front of the boat and started looking for the sun . . . through the stormy rainclouds! Not a good time to be taking a bearing now when we can’t see anything!
The guests exchanged disoriented looks while splurting out giggles of unbearable anxiety. One of the Irish gals licked her finger and held it up to the wind. I felt blessed with the ability to laugh and wanted to make sure we weren’t disrespectful to the locals who were “running the show” since we didn’t seem secure in the conclusion of our adventure thus far.
A few more minutes of reading and looking around and crewmembers were suggesting all kinds of different directions for the captain to continue in. This didn’t instill confidence in any of us. One of the crew pointed like he had seen land and the captain immediately heading that way. It was painfully obvious to me, with visibility still around 200 meters, that the crewmember had seen nothing. At one point a seagull flew by and I thought the captain might even start following her.
Finally, the bloke from England looked enlightened, scurried to the dry box, and popped out his iPhone 4S. A half dozen taps later he was showing the captain a GPS screen and our fearless leader, who throughout the entire ordeal maintained his stony look, adjusted to what seemed to be our most informed heading yet.
All went well and Malapascua Island finally popped into view. There would be no 007 capsized boat rescues for me on this day. Thank goodness for Apple and thank you Steve Jobs (rest in peace) for your relentless and unequalled vision of technology being an appendage to every human on earth . . . or at least every bloke.
It’s never too early to think about the Third Goal. Check out Peace Corps Experience: Write & Publish Your Memoir. Oh! If you want a good laugh about what PC service was like in a Spanish-speaking country back in the 1970’s, read South of the Frontera: A Peace Corps Memoir.
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