paavima

A Star is Born (2 actually)

2007-10-08T18:05:00.000+02:00

Today I bring you the story of one of Paavima's greatest triumphs, the certification of Indika Gunawardena as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, one of just a handful of Sri Lankan scuba instructors in Sri Lanka today.

First a little background on Indika. Having grown up managing his father's guest house, The Beach Inns, Indika has commanded a working knowledge of English and an excellent knack for lateral thinking, problem solving as well as a cross cultural sensibility. Indika graduated from high school, passed his exams and has worked on and off at his Dad's hotel ever since, making friends from around the world. Indika has served as a consultant, advisor, translator and cultural liaison for Paavima from day one. Of course, Indika also spent countless hours making sure that these strange visitors didn't violate too many cultural norms. And violate we did, whether it was doing too much on Poya day (full-moon), not having our boats blessed, or having our girlfriends parade around in bikini's, he was always there to keep us straight and inform the rest of the village, that hey, these dumb foreigners just didn't know any better.

Last year, Indika finished his Assistant Instructor PADI certification with our own Vladimir Soto and since that time, Paavima.org has been hard at work raising money to fund his Instructor Development Course (IDC) and Instructor Examination (IE) that we scheduled for September in Phuket, Thailand with Bjorn Täckmann (http://www.idc-phuket.com). Due to the language barrier, someone needed to go with Indika to the IDC and to help him out when necessary. I could not bear to miss this chance to skip out on work and fly to Thailand with Indika, especially considering that it was his first ever plane ride, his first trip out of the country. Our destination was, Kata Beach, Phuket, about 10 minutes from Patong, the Thai equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah. Of course, I wanted to go for my own instructor certification as well. So we arrived at the Dive Asia center (http://www.dive-asia.com) about 3 days prior to the IDC and began our pre-study sessions, which involved some skill reviews in the pool and taking a few practice Theory exams.

A quick note for those non-divemasters/instructors out there about the exams. The I.E. exams come in 2 parts, the first of which is broken up into 6 sections, Physics, Skills & Environment, Dive Planning, Equipment and Physiology. There are 12 questions in each section, no more than three can be missed in each. The second part is a standards test, where the candidate must find answers to lengthy questions about PADI standards in various parts of the PADI Instructors Manual, a tome that makes Crime and Punishment look like light reading. Now, keep in mind that not one line of PADI course material comes in Sinhalese, one of the two dominant languages in Sri Lanka. If you're a geek like me, you like saying things like “decreased partial pressure causes supersaturation” and “mediastinal emphysema is a very serious barotrauma”. Perhaps that's why I didn't have many dates in high school. Nevertheless, to one who's fluent in English, such phrases can be solved with Google or god forbid, the dictionary. But for a non-English speaker, with little formal training beyond tourists, the task is utterly Herculean, even if you do know how to order a beer in 20 languages.

So, after the first day of exams, the results came back and they were not good. Steve, the Master Instructor who was assisting Bjorn pulled me aside with a worried look and showed me the exam. Honestly, it looked like a highlighter had exploded on the page: the tally? 49%. “Yikes”, I thought to myself. My results were fine, little brush up here and there, but not much to worry about, and so our journey began. Indika is a close friend of mine and he trusts me implicitly. However, he looked very worried when he saw his test results. I could see everything in his eyes, expectations of his family, his friends, 10 of us Paavimates, a dozen or so donors around the world and then the 100's if not 1000's of Sri Lankan's he was destined to train and help with his work through Paavima.org. The only thing I could do was reassure him to trust me and that we were going to get through this together, one step at a time. I told him one of my favorite sayings, “How do you eat an elephant? The same way you eat everything else, one bite at a time.” This always gets a bit of a laugh since elephants are so respected and revered. BTW, Please don't go making this joke around people or in countries, you are not intimately familiar with.

You might be asking yourself, how can this happen, when he was a certified Divemaster and Assistant Instructor? The answer is simple. Many of us, as professional divers, perform 'spot learning' when it comes to the Theory material required for the Divemaster course. Most 'normal' divers, never use this knowledge and thus when the exam is over, it's gone faster than the memories of a rough night out drinking (before cell phones had cameras anyways.) That , combined with the fact that much of Indika's exams were done orally, means that very little of the material had sunk in, probably no different than you other divemasters out there reading this article. Regarding the I.E, the overwhelming majority of candidates who fail, do so during the test portion not in the water.

How was Indika in the water? Steve, Phill, Bjorn and Nikki all commented immediately on how comfortable Indika was in the water and how good his skills were. So, my job was to tutor him on the classroom material. And so we began, in the mornings from 7 to 9, and after dinner from 7 until, very frequently 2 or 3 in the morning. After 3 days, we took another exam. His result, 89%! I couldn't believe it. I'm not that good of a teacher. But so it was, and we began to relax a bit, which was a mistake. The issue? The practice exams vary tremendously in difficulty. These exams were easy and when the next set came in a few days later, the results were very similar to the first. Our strategy was simple, work through every missed problem. When an area indicated significant difficulty, we would stop and do an extensive review of the topic, each of which needed to be followed by a verbal confirmation that it was understood. At this point, we were 1/3 through the IDC, we were stressed out, out of sleep and no one was having much fun. Then we hit another bump, the study habits instilled by the Sri Lankan school system. The problem? There were none. Indika was not taking notes and thus doing the problems in his head! I emphasized the importance of writing everything down, notes, problems everything. Now halfway to the I.E, we had another exam to take and we were both exhausted. We had to stop our all-night study sessions and needed to get some serious sleep. My own test scores had been slipping since the first day due to exhaustion and stress. The next day, we did better, down to 2 out of 5 sections that we needed to pass. Physics was killing him. Strangely, all the laws made sense to him. Indika knew what happened to gases and liquids when various parameters where changed, temperature, pressure, etc. But when moving on to the advanced tests, the numbers we were dealing with were no longer even divisors of he other and thus basic algebra was needed. The bomb was dropped. Indika had learned little basic algebra years ago, and no math competency was required to pass his high school exit exam. Ugh. So after swearing never to enroll my kid in that school, I set out to teach the basic principles of interval arithmetic, variable substitution and algebraic reduction. Even the word 'variable' was a hurdle. Imagine trying to teach someone about what a 'variable' is, that it can have any name, any number of letters, often implicitly has a multiplication factor in front of it and that there may be more than one in an equation. Are you frightened yet? I was and wishing terribly that I knew the Thai word for Valium. Another tricky one: The concept of negative numbers. -1 + 1 = 0 could never be more difficult. And the rules of reduction; remember how easy it was to 'multiply both sides by a constant factor'? So, in addition to dive planning, we worked algebra every day. Indika never broke, his attitude never failed. I asked him to trust and believe and he did. He was up before me every day and asleep after me every day. And no matter how tired he was, he never said “I can't do this”. Many of the other students gave us strange looks when I'd ask Indika over breakfast what -3 plus 1 was.

The rest of the course was going reasonably well. Indika performed well in the water, especially during the problem solving scenarios. The only other challenge was the teaching presentations, which needed to be in a defined format. He wasn't the only one having difficulty with that, as others in the class also wrestled with changing their focus from the notes to the class to the white board and back. But his smile and enthusiasm just blew everyone away. No matter what he did, he was having fun when we has in front of people. So, with just a few days to go, the next hurdle came up, a practice standards exam. Indika came to me the next day and said it had taken him 2 hours to get the answers to 3 questions. As we both had electronic versions of the Instructor Manual, this one came down to a bit of computer tutoring and the wonders of the search button. But the language barrier was still killing him. Even with the search button, it takes a fluent speaker to absorb the context of the results to see if the match is appropriate. But we continued to work with it. Bjorn, the course director, spent an extra amount of time going through each of the standards sections in the manual, in an effort to make us all more familiar with the material.

At this point, we were at the end of our IDC. The exam was around the corner and we had one more practice exam, both Theory and Standards. On the Theory test, Indika was close to passing but not yet over the hump. On the standards test, he was beaten up pretty badly with a 60%. The course director suggested we reschedule our EFR training (Emergency First Response) to another day so we'd have another 18 hours to study. And so we did. Again, working through every question of that 3-hour test over the next 18 hours. Indika was looking worried still. And, unbenounced to him, I had started emailing the rest of Paavima to prepare him for what was the inevitable. Indika would fail this test and I had failed him as a tutor and we needed to have a backup plan. Bjorn had spoken repeatedly about the big party that was happening after the I.E. and all I could think of was being at that party without Indika. I gathered my thoughts and said to him, “You are doing the best you can, that is all anyone can ask. Tomorrow, go into the exam and do exactly as you've been doing. There is another I.E. in a week if things don't go our way. This is not an all-or-nothing affair my friend, this is just you doing the best you can. We will get through this together.” Now, when you give such a speech to a 24 year old, you don't really expect them to listen. But Indika did, he looked visibly relieved and we set out on a marathon study session that mandated 6 hours of studying, 6 hours of sleep followed by 6 more hours of studying before the exam the next day. Upon review, I was given new hope! 75% of the questions Indika missed, he did so because he did not understand the question! This was good news, as we were allowed to ask as many questions of the examiners as needed to make the question clear. Upon review of his score with the questions that he could have gotten correct, he just might pass. I told all my friends that night to pray to their god of choice for a little help. We were going to need it.

We met the next day at the hotel and Indika and I sat side by side. He still smiled and joked in his nervous way. His hand kept moving from his head to his chest. I paced, smoked cigarettes (I'm not really a smoker) and drank coffee nervously. The Dive Asia crew Bjorn, Steve, Phil, Nikki were all there, as were the other candidates, Lais (Brazil), Luke (Canada) and Tyler (US). Everyone became friends during this IDC, everyone helped Indika and everyone wanted him to succeed. As we sat down, I was to take the Standards test first and Indika was to take Theory. I kept telling him to ask questions. After we started, I got to question 10 of 50 on the standards test and thought “Shit, there is no way he can pass this test.” The exam I was given was nearly 10 years old and each question was 3-4 sentences long, with difficult vocabulary and construction. It didn't resemble the practice tests we had been taking very much. During that 90 minutes, I asked about 20 questions, both to ensure my own success as well as to demonstrate to Indika that I had no shame in asking questions about everything. Fortunately, Indika was awarded a bit of extra time as the PADI materials are not available in his native language. We didn't finish together so we were not able to talk during our 10-minute break. Eventually, we were both at our desks again and this time he was taking the Standards exam. I kept peeking over to see how it was going. He was blowing air out his nostrils in frustration and I could see he only had a bit of the answer key marked. I took a big risk and whispered to him “Indika, you have got to ask questions”. He whispered back, “I don't understand any of this!”. My heart sank. “Please just ask.” I said. And at that, I went back to my test. He was on his own now. If I could have failed for him, I would have, but it doesn't work that way. I finished my test and went outside and the others followed shortly. We all gathered and talked about our scores. Everyone had passed the exam. Everyone was waiting for Indika. The only analogy to the IDC and IE could be basic training commonly known as boot camp. The friends you make there, you surely never forget. It was hard to celebrate our own success, we all knew how difficult the test was and how Indika must be feeling. Periodically the door would open and groups of happy candidates would come out. Every now and then, one would come out and you knew what had happened. I saw the look on the face of a French woman who had failed the test and prepared myself to face a good friend, with that very same look. The door opened and Indika stepped out. He was walking like John Wayne, two steps closer he broke out into a smile, opened his arms for a hug and said “I fu#$ing passed the test man!”. I yelled “Holy Shit” at the top of my lungs, it echoed throughout the atrium of the 5 star hotel. We all hugged each other, we jumped, laughed, screamed. All decorum was lost and all youth was regained. His success was our success. Our success was his. A new instructor was about to be born.

On return to the dive center, we broke the news to Steve, our Master Instructor. Steve, hadn't let his guard down around us much throughout the IDC. When he heard the news, he dropped his cool British demeanor and grabbed Indika and hugged him like a father hugs his son after he's been away from home for years. Everyone was in a combined state of elation and stunned disbelief. He had done it. Next up were 2 days of practicals, which we had rehearsed repeatedly, with Bjorn, Steve, Phil and Nikki. We were ready. During those next 2 days, Indika wasn't the only one who exceeded himself. I saw everyone in our group perform better than they ever had before. I don't know if it's like this for every I.E., as I never ever hope to take one again. But the inspiration that Indika provided us all to exceed surely fueled our stellar performance those next 2 days. On the last day, we were to teach some skills from an open water class followed by each of us performing an in-water rescue. Conditions were horrible. 1-meter seas, downpour, and visibility about three meters, but we all did it. No one made any obvious critical mistakes, but the final word would come from Rob, our examiner. It is so easy to fail the I.E., as missing one critical mistake in a simulated student could result in severe injury later on. So, the pressure is really on. We did our final briefings and then it was time for the results. I passed and then waited for the results for Indika. There would be no premature celebrations. Indika received his marks and emerged with that broad smile. Indika grabbed me and we hugged, laughing, congratulating each other. We danced around for a while, with exclamations of “Get a Room!” being shouted in at least six different languages from the others on board. Only our group knew of the magnitude of this accomplishment. At that point, it was truly over, I could finally relax and let go, so put my hands and head down on the table, stretched out and had a good cry in plain sight of everyone on deck. Years of work had come down to this one simple moment, a triumph of the individual over seemingly insurmountable odds.

If you are like me, you find it hard to find many things to be hopeful about these days. There is so much conflict driven by dogmatism, greed, fear and ignorance that many things each of us find important in life don't get much press anymore. Rarely ever do we read a headline that gives us a true sense of hope for humanity as a whole, one that gives us faith in human nature. My friends, this story is one such headline and it is a privilege to share it with you. The reality is that the world functions on the accomplishments of the individual, but those individuals need support, be it family, friends, communities or merely a group of strange foreigners who thought helping out in Sri Lanka is way more fun than going to work. My fondest memory of this occasion was Indika smiling, holding his head with his hands and saying, “I never thought I could be doing anything like that.” This isn't just a story, it's a lesson. Next time you're thinking about something that seems impossible, think about Indika down there in Madiha, Sri Lanka, probably a world away from where you're sitting at this very moment. He did it and so can you. Indika, way to go my friend.

Indika, myself and the rest of Paavima will continue to operate the non-profit dive and eco-tourism center down in Madiha, Sri Lanka as well as to provide community outreach and training programs whenever possible. Should you be in the area and feel like going for a dive, checking out the wildlife and/or volunteering some of your time, please contact us at info@paavima.org. Note that Paavima.org is still searching for additional funds to help cover Indika's costs for the IDC/IE. If you'd like to make a donation, please visit the website and use our PayPal account.

Many thanks and humble regards,
Philip Mucci, OWSI, Paavima.org

go, indika, go!

2007-08-03T10:54:00.000+02:00

During the couple of years the paavima.org project has been active, all of us that have been part of it have seen some amazing developments and most of these in one way or another have had the positive influence of a bright young man, Indika. Now, dozens of dive courses, much effort and hundreds of dives later Indika is about to shoot for becoming an instructor himself, thus being able to continue nurturing the project on a constant basis and allowing others in Madiha and the vicinity opportunities to earn a livelihood in a safer manner never before available to them. If you're reading this please join me in wishing Indika much success in this exciting endeavor.

Go, Indika, go!!

Vlad.
--------
Padi Master Instructor 165157

2007-02-12T09:27:00.000+01:00

I will remember Damith as strong and shy; genuinely funny and sweet.

Damith had a bright light in his eyes for the future, and in his memory we should continue to illuminate this light.

I will miss the smile that he represented.

Francesca

in memoriam

2007-02-11T18:54:00.000+01:00

From the twilight of day till the twilight of evening, a leopard in the last years of the thirteenth century, would see some wooden planks, some vertical iron bars, men and women who changed, a wall and perhaps a stone gutter filled with dry leaves. He did not know, could not know, that he longed for love and cruelty and the hot pleasure of tearing things to pieces and the wind carrying the scent of a deer, but something suffocated and rebelled within him and God spoke to him in a dream: “You live and will die in this prison so that a man I know of may see you a certain number of times and not forget you and place your figure and symbol in a poem which has its precise place in the scheme of the universe. You suffer captivity, but you will have given a word to the poem.” God, in the dream, illumed the animal’s brutishness and the animal understood these reasons and accepted his destiny, but, when he awoke, there was in him only an obscure resignation, a valorous ignorance, for the machinery of the world is much too complex for the simplicity of a beast.

Years later, Dante was dying in Ravenna, as unjustified and as lonely as any other man. In a dream, God declared to him the secret purpose of his life and work; Dante, in wonderment knew at last who and what he was and blessed the bitterness of his life. Tradition relates that, upon waking, he felt that he had received and lost an infinite thing, something he would not be able to recuperate or even glimpse, for the machinery of this world is much too complex for the simplicity of man.

Jorge Luis Borges

In memory of our friend Damith, who passed away last Thursday, February 8th.

Great moment.

2007-01-29T14:43:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

There have been many amazingly touching moments from the many I've spent working on the paavima project, but this past Monday 22nd I had without doubt, one of the best as this group of 5 divemasters (and dear friends) finished all their requirements to become PADI Assistant Instructors.

Among them were Indika and Sameera, who were both certified from PADI Open Water divers up to Assistant Instructors through the paavima program and in large part through me as their instructor.

The idea of becoming PADI instructors is not as distant for any of them now that they got a taste of what it will take, and for all of us that came to Madiha offering to share our love for diving and the ocean it's encouraging to see that perhaps what we were able to offer might actually leave an echo that could last quite a while. Hopefully, Indika, Sameera, Chamin, Rishan and Shirly will soon be able to help the communities throughout the island who earn a living by diving do so in a safer, better way.

Once again, congratulations guys!!!!
Vlad.

Captain Sameera taking us there.

Sameera and Rishan showing off their impecable buoyancy.

Indika showing off his impecable buoyancy.

Sameera and Vlad.

Rishan and Vlad.

Chamin and Vlad.

Indika and Vlad.

Shirly and Rishan.

See more paavima pictures here.

B & L.

2007-01-29T14:26:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

Brigitta and Leigh decided to take an open water class through paavima after hearing about the project from our mutual diver friend Aaron.

Not only are both talented divers but their enthusiasm for anything underwater is truly engaging.

Hope to see you guys in Madiha often!Vlad, Brigitta, Leigh, Dr. Terney and Sameera.

Brigitta, Leigh and Sameera.

Brigitta meditating without a mask underwater...

Dr. Terney entertaining Brigitta and Leigh with a bit of Sri Lankan magic...

See more paavima pictures here.

Vivian and Nikki

2007-01-29T14:22:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

When we met they were said they were hesitant to even snorkel on their own and now, they're confident divers!

We won't take credit for that one, either. We believe Vivian and Nikki were merely undiscovered naturals at this diving thing.

Thanks for participating in the paavima project Vivian and Nikki. Hope we get a chance to dive together again one of these days.

See more paavima pictures here.

John and Werner come to Madiha

2007-01-29T14:19:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

paavima.org exists thanks to the volunteers that make it happen. Luckily for the project, John and Werner answered a post I placed on the PADI website some time ago and they are now in Madiha continuing to nurture what we started last season.

Unfortunately, this time around I won't be able to spend another 7 months in Madiha like I did last year along with Phil and Chava, but I'm glad, as I know they are too, that John and Werner are here to grab the teaching torch and run with it.

Guys, thanks!!
Vlad.

John

Werner

See more paavima pictures here.

Thumbs up, Thusitha

2007-01-29T14:14:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

It took him a few months and a few bouts of claustrophobia but our friend Thusitha finally earned his very well deserved PADI Open Water Diver certification.

Great job buddy!

See more paavima pictures here.

Jason is now a diver too.

2007-01-29T14:09:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

Jason is not only one of the founding paavimates but is also, now, a certified diver!

Congrats buddy! (And Rach, you're next!!)
Vlad.

See more paavima pictures here.

Real life rescue by paavima-trained divers

2007-01-29T14:05:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

Sameera and Jayanthadas came to the aid of an older man swimming beyond the reefs in Madiha beach a couple of days ago.

As the man was struggling to stay afloat Jayanthadas saw him, and with Sameera, swam immediately towards him from the beach. Between the two of them they were able to drag him back to the shore within minutes and to end the episode nicely take a smiling picture all together. Nice one guys!!!

Commenting on the rescue and what happened...

The misleading and dangerous reef area.

A truly happy ending.

See more paavima pictures here.

Ruhuna University marine biologists go advanced

2007-01-29T13:54:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

Sujeewa, Anushika, Kumara and Asela, just completed the requirements to become Padi Advanced divers.

Here are some photos as Dr. Terney, also from Ruhuna serves as divemaster during the course.

Congrats guys!
Vlad.

Divemaster candidate and boatman, Chamly, vigilant over the swells, from the boat.

Dr. Terney

Nayani going down the line.

Anushika, Asela, DM Indika, Kumara and Sujeewa.

Anushika and Asela.

See more paavima pictures here.

Thanks Aaron!!

2007-01-28T11:10:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

Hey buddy, here's a blog hug not only for being a great dive buddy, but for all the support, good vibes and other great friends you've sent paavima's way Aaron.

Hope we get a chance to dive the memorial together one of these days, and perhaps, even the Cote D'Azur...

Cheerios,
Vlad.

Aaron

See more paavima pictures here.

Great way to start the year in Madiha.

2007-01-07T06:19:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

ow class 29dec06-01jan07

Christie, Steve, Scott and Brad gave paavima a fantastic new year gift by completing their open water course with us on Jan first. This was the first course of the season we were able to hold and we were all elated at the opportunity to activate the program after the harsh monsoon season. Indika, the star divemaster did a fantastic job, Sameera impressed us all as a divemaster candidate on the verge of making the grade and Chamly, Chamin, Jayanthadas, Ravindra, Indika Muna Singh got some good practice helping out with the class and putting in time and effort as divemaster candidates.

Below are a few photos from the class and also some great notes from Christie and Steve, Scott and Brad.

Christie & Steve said:

We did our course over the new year weekend- what a fantastic way to bring in 2007! Vlad was a great instructor, really patient, thorough and fun, and the other dive masters, esp. Indika, were extremely helpful. Also great to pay such a good price, and to help the project out!!! ~ Christie & Steve

Scott said:

A meaningful way to get certified in a reasonably quick and affordable way; contributing to a worthwhile, local eco-friendly initiative, and also interacting directly with the local culture. -Scott Chaplowe (American Red Cross)

Brad said:

Just a note of how totally stoked I am with your paavima open water dive course last week down at Matara. Sri Lanka is great on top and even better when submerged! Thanks to your professional tuition - and alot of patience and care - I'm finally with all my underwater friends who I've so long wanted to hang out with. I mean the fishes.. as well as the new dive buddies I made from the American Red Cross who took the plunge with me on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. Vlad, you're an ace teacher and totally cool bloke. The organisation you guys have created is such a welcomed gig and the way you've structured it to help others less fortunate in giving locals access and knowledge of their marine and coastal environment is breath of fresh air (21%!!) on this war torn, post tsunami island.

Seriously, keep up the great work and its been a pleasure dealing with you.... see you through the mask and bubbles real soon.

Brad Farmer
Project Manager, Alangkara Resorts, Sri Lanka
50 Church Street, FORT GALLE
(Founder, Surfider Foundation Australia)

See more paavima pictures here.

On their way to becoming divemasters...

2007-01-07T05:59:00.000+01:00

See more paavima pictures here.

Sameera, Chamly, Chamin, Jayanthadas, Ravindra and Indika Muna Singh are working hard towards their divemaster certification. We've been practicing the 20 basic skills and in-water rescues and they guys have been doing a great job. Here are a few picts:

See more paavima pictures here.

Ruhuna marine biologists AND newly certified divers!!

2007-01-07T05:49:00.001+01:00

Congrats to Nayani, Sujeewa, Harsha, Asela and Kumara who after a few bouts of sea sickness showed true Lankan resilience and finished all their Open Water Diver requirements. They are now fully certified divers AND marine biologists! They'll be starting their Advanced Diver course shortly.

why not volunteer in paradise???

2006-12-14T13:58:00.000+01:00

Hiya, paavimate Vlad here. We're looking for volunteers and good souls to come down to Sri Lanka and lend a hand.

paavima.org is a grass-roots organization (basically a bunch of diver friends) trying to help out a community in need. We're using dive training to enhance the locals' means to earn a living and have plans to build an amazing underwater memorial and artificial reef. Hence, the name paavima, which means buoyancy in Sinhala, the local language.

We're seeking dive instructors and English teachers (no experience needed), and we are also offering the opportunity to learn to dive with expert volunteer instructors for what is probably the lowest fee on the planet, earning a world recognized Padi certification. This is because your simple presence in Madiha, the town where the project is located would bring tangible benefits to the community we are trying to help.

So if you have 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months, come check out the project and consider giving of yourself in a fun and enriching way.

You can get more info at paavima.org

Classes: Women's Class

2006-11-10T07:16:00.000+01:00

There are about fifteen women signed up for the Women's class but on average five to ten show up each time. They are a lot of fun to be with, even if we don't sing the Fruit Salad Song. I think one of the biggest pleasures in working with the women's class is their diversity. There are some young women there who are educated, who go to school, one who even drives, as well as older women and married women, one who is 63 years old.

The older women especially are not so used to standing up in front of a class and acting things out, or singing songs together or even throwing a ball around. I like coming up with games that challenge their comfort zones a little and get us giggling. It is such a pleasure to see them learning and to reinforce the risks they take when they open their mouths to speak.

(Photos: 1. Chamili & Guayanee. 2. BanduSealy, Dilka & Anusha. 3. Chamili and Guayanee.)

Classes: Children 6 - 11

2006-11-10T06:34:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday there were 35 children in my younger children's class. I walk down the street in the strong sunshine with fifteen minutes before class. Several students join me on the road. At first they are bursting with enthusiasm. "Jenny! Jenny!" they scream. I say hello. They fall into step and walk quietly beside me, their store of English exhausted. They sneak shy smiles at me when they think I'm not looking.

When we approach the school another group of children run out across the field to greet me. "Jenny! Jenny!" It always makes me smile, no matter how I am feeling. It is like some scene from Anne of Green Gables. I say hello to each child and we continue our slow walk in the sunshine.

When I enter the classroom, all of the children assemble to greet me formally and sit down. I look at my watch. There is always still at least five minutes before we will start. "Five minutes of play," I tell them. Every time they seem surprised, scream in delight and run around in aimless circles for awhile.

I take off my sunglasses, take out my water, clean off the blackboard, find my chalk, take out my lesson plans and get ready to teach. By the time I am ready, so are the children. They are sitting in the rusted little chairs, behind the handful of desks we have left, with notebooks ready (not that we ever use them), looking at me expectantly. The number of chairs and desks in the classroom is steadily diminishing. This week the table I use for my teaching materials finally bit the dust. I don't know if the chairs are being "borrowed" by other houses, or if they, too, are falling into disrepair. The number of students is not, as I expected it would, falling off. Thirty five is a lot of children. Some weeks it's only twenty, but it never seems to fall below that.

Today we "warm up" with my favorite song, the Fruit Salad Song. The children love singing. No matter how rowdy they are, as soon as I start a song, they are suddenly and magically all seated, staring up at me like angels. This time, though, I don't want angels, I want noise and energy and wildness. That's exactly what I got, and then some. Before I knew it, the music was at the edge of control, increasing in volume, bordering on pure noise. With the help of a lot of my incitement, the children shyly added their own actions to the song. Some were clapping, others were just screaming.

When it was all over, a few ran over the the tap in the yard to get water and the rest of us panted for a bit while we caught our breath. I then started our lesson on prepositions.

Half way through, someone shouted, "Bananas!" and the song started up again in an instant. What could I do? I started dancing along too. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

(Photos: 1. Children singing Fruit Salad Song. 2. Same. 3. Children walking home after class. ) Today formatting photos is just not working for me. Sorry about that.

An introduction

2006-10-31T07:46:00.000+01:00

Hi!

This probably should have been the first blog I wrote and not the second, but here I am, and I thought an introduction might be in the works.

My name is Jen and this is a picture of me sitting on a rampart at Galle Fort in Southern Sri Lanka. I am a volunteer with the Paavima project, living in Madiha, Matara, for about two months, between October and November, 2006.

My mission: to give community members a chance to practice and extend their English conversation skills.

As I have taught my students to say: "Hello! My name is Jenny. I am 25 years old. I am from Canada. I have two brothers and no sisters. I am a teacher."

Anyone reading the blog can feel free to ask me any questions in by adding a comment.

I am from Canada but have been living in Thailand for the last two years. I started working as an ESL teacher maybe four or five years ago. My first job was at a summer school in Taiwan while I was still at University. For two years, I worked part time for the Montreal School Commission in three high schools, facilitating English activities. Then I worked for a year as a teacher in an English immersion program in a small school in North Western Thailand. I ended up staying on at the school, taking on some more administrative tasks, until recently when I felt the need for a vacation.

I found Paavima on the internet. A Rescue Diver myself, the idea of living and diving in a small town in the South really appealed to me. I am happy to have something to contribute and I love being back in the classroom again.

At the Polhenna school I teach four different groups twice a week. About 25 children (on average) show up for every Age 6 -11 class. The older children often have to attend extra tuition classes for school. There are usually about 15-20 of them. There are about 10 women who come to the women's classes. Some are married, others unmarried, widowed, old and young. We laugh a lot. There are seven men in the men's class, mostly divers from the Paavima project. They are excited to learn, or at least, excited to have a young female teacher. They are always asking me for more classes!

Already almost half my time has gone. I need to get my digital camera out more and take more pictures. Hopefully I will be in touch again, posting more about the project next week!

Settling In

2006-10-31T06:28:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Colombo exhausted. Jason picked me up at the airport and whisked me through the empty night streets of Colombo. I spent most of the next day in a stupor, waiting for immigration to extend my visa and wandering slowly through the streets. The next morning we were up before sunrise, before heat and traffick could choke us, and on the streets, making our way south to Madiha.

Jason is interpreting the landscape for me as we go, telling me about the tsunami, stories about the passenger trains, the government legislation, about people and houses and the path of the great wave. We breakfast at Galle and are installed at the Beach Inn while it is still morning. It's nice to have a place to rest for awhile. And rest is exactly what I need.

For the rest of the week, with the help of Indika and a local community member, Mr. Fonseka, we round up the troupes. This only takes a few hours out of every day, at the most, and the rest of my time, I sleep and walk the beach and go for long swims in the ocean. The waves are breaking metres from my door, the food every night is divine. There is always sand between my toes and a nap in the afternoon in the hammock between the cocount trees.

I propose to start work on Monday, so on Sunday we need to clear a space. Some women in the community volunteer to help me and so we find ourselves at the ruins of the Polhenna school, just across the way from the Paavima Dive Shack.

As you can see from the photos, parts of the classrooms have been completely laid to ruin by the tsunami. There is a new school being built next door and for now, all the rooms of the old school are empty and full of rubbish. It looks as if someone is living in part of the building. I select a long, open hall for the classes. There is a blackboard at either end. The floor is concrete, but missing in patches.

They tell me that it used to be the village green, where children played sports. Now there is a pile of rocks there and big machinerary noisily moving the rocks to cover the beaches and the turtle's egg laying places for some reason only the government really knows about. We have to climb over the heaps of jagged rock to get to the classroom.

One of the empty rooms seems to be a kind of wharehouse for the furniture. The women and I carefully extract rusty old chairs and broken tables from the piles and send them over to a tap where another woman does her best to wash them. I am soon covered in sweat and rust, walking carefully along the floor where panes of glass have broken to avoid accidents in my silly little sandals.

It doesn't take too long. In the end we have about thirty chairs of various sizes and we have salvaged about nine desks. The women set these up in rows as neat and orderly as the uneven floor and the rusted furniture allows. I smile to myself. "I'll soon be changing that," I think. We haven't really said much to each other, my Singhala is nonexistant. But we have smiled a lot and laughed in the sunshine, and carried things together.

It's a good start, as far as I'm concerned, looking around at this strange place where I will be teaching English conversation for the next two months. The first general meeting for all students is on Monday and I am excited and nervous to see who will come and what will result...

(Photos: 1. Polhenna school. 2. Mr. Fonseka and a few of my students outside the school. 3. Village women helping to clean tables and chairs at the school. 4.Damaged classroom from the tsunami. 5. Storeroom from which we extracated chairs. 6. My new classroom)

paavima's first official dm!!

2006-06-09T20:15:00.000+02:00

vlad writes:
just got news that indika's dm application got approved by padi, and that it very generously donated the corresponding fees.

so please help me send indika a big group hug and a very loud hari hondai!!!

as of now, indika is padi divemaster number 487792. hopefully we'll be able to make his dream of becoming a padi instructor a reality in the upcoming season.

----------------------

jason writes:
Wow, Indika you are the man! Well done. I now hope this will provide an
incentive for the rest of Madiha to strive to become DM's too.

----------------------

topher writes:
Yay, Indika!!!!

----------------------

phil writes:
Sweet! He got it before me. hahaha... (vlad: it only took phillythefish 3 years to get his...)

----------------------

bill writes:
that's awesome....congrats!

----------------------

salvador writes:
YEAH INDIKA MY FREIND
Cool!! Big boy now eh!!
Miss you buddy!!!

----------------------

chamipike writes:
Excellent buddy. "Niyamai!!" Good luck on your PADI career. Even though
I am not there physically, I'm always having an eye on all of yours'
success. A big thanks to Vlad, Phil, Salvador and the group. (you guys
are doin a remarkable job)

(Once) your translator

----------------------

wish you could have been there.

2006-04-27T17:41:00.000+02:00

vlad writes:

here's a long overdue update.

as for the shack, it would have been quite nice to be able to share with you all the moments we've had there these past few weeks. almost every idea we had for the shack's potential came to life in just the few past days. i taught an open water class with the assistance of dmc extraordinaires salvador and indika and the two students left with raving comments about their experience and the shack's energy. we had a couple of groups come for day dives and ended up staying for a nice dinner on the beach which was made possible by chamly, the shack's masterful culinary conductor. we offered stilt fishing classes. we had women from the village come and show some of their crafts for us to sell, an idea that salvador began to implement and had the season not cut our time here short for sure would have taken off in a great way. we also had a couple of volunteers. one through phil's brother. jeannie, who was wonderful. got together a group of kids and had some great art workshops which i wish i would have had the time to take myself. the shack looked great with the hanging mobiles, painted coconut shells and curd pots. definitely something to repeat next season. the other volunteer, marissa, actually came to us from a posting on one of the travel sites!! she had a cooking class with chamly and was so pleased she said she wants to contact the guy that put the posting up on the lonely planet site and thank him for the tip.

the only part of the shack we didn't get a chance to explore much was the tours. however, from the response we've had and the enthusiasm everyone that stops by the shack demonstrates, tours to the local attractions should not prove too difficult to get going. overall it's been incredibly encouraging to see the shack work as nicely as it has. the idea of creating an education and capacitation center as part of the program will definitely have the opportunity to live up to its potential next fall, when the seas calm down and the tourists return. of course we definitely need to fine tune the systems so the shack makes money for the community in the most efficient way, but without demand there is no money to be made. these past few weeks have demonstrated the demand will be there.

so what are you up to next fall? we're definitely gearing up to be back there to see the memorial being built of course, as well as to see the overall project bloom. we got permission from padi to translate all the materials into sinhalese and chempike is already working on the dm manual and after that one will tackle the diving knowledge workbook. that means the rescue divers in madiha will be able to prepare the academic part of the dm course for these next few months so when we're back it'll be much easier to help them fulfill the requirements to get certified as dm's. also, chempike will translate the open water book so the benefits of the training can spread to many more sri lankans, albeit with a minimal fee attached so there is inherent value on the training.

given these goals and the shack's potential we need to have at least one dive instructor in madiha during the entire season. anyone interested?

A Donation from the Web Site. February 21, 2006

2006-02-21T17:11:00.000+01:00

February 21, 2006
A Donation from the Web Site
It's so easy... Hi folks, just got our first donation through the web site from an Hopkins pal of mine, Ming for 2500 rupees...I think, at some point in the near future, each of us needs to make a push at our friend network to raise some money for paavima.org. All of us (at least the local crew) have agreed now, that new donations will only be used for material needs of the local operation...equipment, etc...Not travel or lodging. It really doesn't make sense to spend 1000 bucks on one of our tickets, when that single payment can set up an entire operation here. If we want to raise money for travel, we should do that individually and not use Paavima.org directly do to so. If any of you take issue with this, please say so. I think the local crew has signed off on it as has Kirk and Jason. So the engines have been picked up...let's hope there is money right behind them.

Other news is that many of the guys are taking off for Kalwella near Trino...already about 6 have left with more on the way. So I'm not sure how much off season training can happen...but I know a few are staying including Indika, Chamlie etc...

There is lots of talk in the village about the donation of 14 boats/engines and 70 tanks by SOS Malta in Polhena. The talk is that Madiha didn't get any because of the dive shack that we have set up. (The locals call it the dive center...) I have explained this to Thusita and others that this is not true...And to prove it I called Claudia in front of him and spoke with her. I really don't think they're donating equipment in the right way...everyone here knows that it's doing to be a dive operation for the Polhena Reef Garden hotel, which she's calling it a 'foundation for the community'. We'll see how many of 14 boats are left at the end of the season. Today I went diving with Charles, Prins and Chamlie.

Today I wanted to head towards Dondra and after running into Damit on the water, we headed out with them. The water around Matara is very interesting as even though the river is largely stagnant, it has quite a wide delta extending more than Km out into the ocean. Today prins explained something that makes perfect sense...A westerly breeze means diving near Madiha will be terrible...easterly means it will be good. Today the wind was going lightly west so we headed to about 2 KM of Dondra lighthouse. I called it Rubble Reef although 'Reef' is a bit of a stretch...lots of height, boulders and many fish...lots of splotches of what looks to be new coral growth, if I didn't know any better. So that, a few big lobsters, a giant red lionfish and a couple dozen man-o-wars, and the day was over. So now we have 3 way points and counting.

Tomorrow I have scheduled a meeting with the guest house owners of the area. We'll talk about the shack, the commission system and the business model. In exchange for their cooperation, I have guaranteed them a web presence. At sign in, they will fill out a form with information about their guest house, which we will list on our web site. I have visited about 12 of them and met most of the owners, all were friendly of course. But there has been talk that the dive shack will take away business, so that is something to be sensitive to. I'll let you know how it goes...

Tomorrow a river trip with Roshan...He just got accepted on to an oil tanker bound for Dubai. It's big money for him and he's tremendously excited...it'll be sad to see him go, but it's such a great opportunity. Ok, that's all for now. Phil
February 21, 2006

Egos and Philanthropy. February 16, 2006

2006-02-16T17:10:00.000+01:00

Egos and Philanthropy
The below message was one I sent back at the beginning of the project, where we went around and around for weeks about picking a damn name. At the time I felt very strongly that people were using this effort as an outlet for their own personal gain and creativity and my frustration and anger came through on this email. In retrospect, it makes interesting reading. -Phil
-----
Ok ok...I'm the odd man out again...
This isn't a brand we're talking about, nor some useless .com (which I also have experience in)...it's helping people! Branding ourselves I see motivated by ego. That and self promotion are fundamentally incompatible with philanthropy folks. Ask yourselves, if you weren't able to tell anyone else in the world what you've been doing with Madiha and Kirk and Jason, would you still have come?
If we need to resort to catchy-name or over-sexed-marketing efforts to raise money, than we should re-evaluate what is it that we are trying to accomplish...because the mission statement of "improving living conditions through the creation of a sustainable and eco-friendly local tourist economy" doesn't require branding...it requires awareness and communication...Francesca knows this better than anyone after arranging all this with a bunch of passionate emails/convos and a few toothy smiles! Now selling inflatable sheep on the web or funding Sally Struthers' rehab trips to Africa...that requires every trick in theook.
Many volunteer projects, including one major one on which I have worked, don't have the benefit of web designers, videographers etc.....and the fact is, the projects get done. Now I'm not tooting horns, I'm just providing a data point...For the village in Nepal, we've raised over $250K and spent it on things like tele-teaching, inter-village networking, fish-farming, duck incubators, 2 telemedicine installations and a brand new high school for 200 people, all without worrying about a domain name, a team name, blogs, business cards, or a documentaries. All donations were raised by a) well placed phone calls or conversations followed by b) quantitative and highly detailed proposals with explicit budgets, time-lines and resource constraints. The latter was far moremportant to the aid agencies (WHO). Donated dollars are not spent on promotion, and whenever volunteers show up, they are put to work. When promotion is done, it was done by those volunteers who wereff-line/site in response to a specific Request For Proposal (RFP) from a possible funding agency. Priorities dictated that all local hands wereeeded for building houses or connecting wires...every dollar went directly to necessary material cost...labor was provided free from volunteers who paid their own way.
Nuff said, I've never needed to call myself anything or have been part of a catchy team to make a difference. I am very proud to be working with so many creative people in this project...I just think we all need to counter-balance our natural tendency to gravitate to areas in which are experts with the bigger list of priorities. In my case, there areany more important things to be done other than developing our IT infrastructure, most of which I have only the slightest idea about how to accomplish 8-), thus I need to spend my time on them.
So instead of abstaining, I vote to leave it as it is...ScubaPOP, even thought I have been overheard saying it sounds 'gay' 8-)...in the hopes that we'll get back to other work.
-Phil
P.S. If you care or are interested....
www.nepalwireless.net www.himanchal.org
February 16, 2006
Donation for a Boat Ladder!
So some news, which you may have already heard. But Indika got us this dutch guy who we took diving from the shack. He did 2 dives, each of 3 guys on the boat made 800 rupees and the shack made about that also. Hey had such a good time and, since he was a philanthropist himself, he donated 200 euro to us, waving us down as we were speeding off in a tuktuk. (To fix the flat tire of the bike and do some other bits in town.) He said to put it towards a boat ladder, which we will, as well as other needs of the shack. I've already bought the stainless steel and met with a metal smith, courtesy of indika's help of course.
Last night, Mahesh took the money from us (400$) for the engine. SO it appears a done deal. I was told by my sources that he went out and spend 1000 of it on a Arak party...of course. Anyways, we know have a solid engine and it's the fastest on the beach. This latter point is actual a source of grief, since the boatmen seem to have no concept of the word 'throttle'.
Tomorrow I'm supposed to go on a boat trip with Roshan 'up the river'...one of the activities of the shack is bird watchin' and croc spotin'. We'll see if it happens...These guys do not have calendars and as such, 2 days from now may as well be next year.
That's all for now.
Phil
February 16, 2006