Dahab Life

Well I've only written 3 posts and have already gotten lazy about it and received a few complaints so this is an attempt to fill everyone in on our past few weeks!
The day after diving "The Islands" we arranged to dive "Canyon" and "Blue Hole" which is the most infamous dive site here in Dahab. The drive out to the dive site was an adventure in itself because while we were driving in the old piece of crap 4x4 jeep that almost everyone here drives, the hood flew up and smashed against the windshield. I was sitting in the passenger seat and about had a heart attack! And all of the Japanese sitting in the back immediately whipped out their cameras to capture the moment. Also the road leading to the site, if you can call it a road, is so narrow that you have to drive through two huge boulders that scrape the side of the jeep and then do a sharp turn otherwise you would go off the road and straight into the ocean all while hoping that no one else is coming from the other direction. The driver told us all to say our prayers and close our eyes. I was a wee bit nervous about diving the Blue Hole because lots of people have died while diving it and the most recent accident was a girl only three weeks ago, so sad. The first dive at the Canyon we went 30 metres deep into a cavern formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago. Then at the Blue Hole we jumped into the water and went straight down a chute to 26m then swam under an arch into the ocean and swam along the reef wall and into the Blue Hole. The hole is eerie because there is nothing except blue all around you (hence the name) and no bottom to be seen (it's something like 600m deep).
At the moment we are still living in Auski camp and paying 20LE a night which is $3.50 so $1.75 each. We have looked at 8 or so apartments but haven't found the perfect one yet. The nicest and cheapest one we saw was huge but it had tons of goats roaming around eating trash which supposedly stinks really bad in summer and it's not within walking distance of town which would be a pain because you'd have to haggle with taxi drivers daily. So we decided against it. But I can't wait to move into someplace and have our own kitchen. We've been eating all of our meals at the four cheap non-touristy restaurants in town and I'm getting sick of pizza and french fries everyday...never thought I'd say that.
As for jobs, the guy who Nigel thought he'd be getting work from has never called but we've heard bad rumors about that dive center anyways so he doesn't mind. We bought a cellphone and walked around to every dive center in Dahab (there are about 40 of them) and gave them our details so if they have work they either ring the night before or the morning of. Then we walked all the way to the resort area to do the same thing. When we arrived there Nigel said "So this is how the other half live!" It made where we live look like the ghetto. While our beach is all rocky with dark blue water, their beach has soft sand and turquoise waters and landscaped gardens and pools just for decoration. We were both surprised to see how many people were windsurfing in the lagoon. Apparently Dahab gets 260 days of wind out of the year and is one of the best places in the world for windsurfing which also means I'm going to have 260 bad hair days. So that brings two groups of people to Dahab; windsurfers and divers and it seems the two don't socialize with each other. I want to try it sometime thought because it looks like fun. I dropped my info in at the Hilton Resort to see if they had any bartending jobs. Nigel got rung up by their dive center later on that same day to work the following morning. I also got rung up by the food and beverage manager asking if I'd like to come in for an interview for an office position which was surprising. I went in for the interview which went well and then went in a few days later to observe what exactly I'd be doing. The position is for food and beverage coordinator. It's a great entry-level position that I wouldn't get the opportunity for in the US without having the degree and experience but here they are so desperate for an English speaker. I'm really torn as to whether or not to accept it. I came here to work as a Divemaster, not to be cooped up in an office six days a week. But the perks are good and if I stayed a year I could transfer to other Hiltons but I'm not sure I would want to stay here for a full year or if I even want to go into that line of work. Dilemma!
I also started working at Tota which is the biggest bar in town. The owners are really nice and gave Nigel and I free drinks the two times we went in to talk about starting work. The bar is shaped like a gigantic boat and is all lit up at night. There is an outside upper deck bar, a huge inside with pool tables, a movie area and dance floor and then a big beer garden with lots of tables and a bedouin seating area around a fire pit and a projector movie screen. Working there is unlike anywhere else I've worked. My first night the owner asked me for the first time if I'd ever worked in a bar before and then left me to it. I worked with a really nice 18 year old, Hamada, who showed me everything although there isn't much to learn since everything is really basic for example there is no ice machine so we use the old school ice trays and a drawer under the bar serves as the cash register. Since I am a woman I don't have to do any of the hard labor like stocking the bar or fridges or taking out the trash, easy eh? All of the liquor is Egyptian made knockoffs of the real thing like Becardoi rum. The owner brings his dog in and it's allowed free roam of the place and at one point it was walking along the bar. All of the employees smoke while working and find it unbelievable that I don't smoke. At 1am the power went off in all of Egypt and everyone inside was forced out into the beergarden where they sat around the firepit and started a drunken singalong. I worked the next three nights from 6pm-3am and was on my own in the beer garden bar. I met a ton of locals who come in regularly and two of them were Americans. The funniest thing I saw all night was a Bedouin guy sitting at the bar (he was about 4'11, dressed in a full robe and headdress, with a big black moustache and glasses) doing tequila shots and using the "f" word which is a huge no no with their religion. If the bar is dead I just sit and watch the movies. I get paid 75L.E. a shift plus tips (one night I got 220 L.E. from some drunk guys) and plus I can eat and drink whatever I want. I was really excited about this because it's western food and it's delicious! The pay doesn't seem like anything when you convert it to US dollars but by Egyptian standards it's really good. I found out all the guys I work with come in five hours earlier than I do and stay til 3am as well and only get paid 24LE a shift plus they only get a basic Egyptian staff meal. Of course I think this is unfair but it probably evens out because I will get charged more for everything in the town and alot more on my rent when I get a place. I've picked up some of my Arabic from the guys who work there since sometimes it's hard to communicate with them but it's such a hard language to learn! The common question I get is if I'm married since I live with Nigel. Apparently you can get married in Dahab so that it is legal for you to live together but the marriage isn't binding anywhere else in Egypt or the world, kinda silly. Nigel wasn't too thrilled about me working all of these nights while he was home alone in our small room without TV so I made him come in one night and introduced him to some people and gave him free beers all night....now he seems to be okay with me working there :) I was surprised to see that alot of the couples coming into the bar and in Dahab in general, are Egyptian men with white girlfriends, not because I am not used to seeing that but because I don't consider the men to be particularly attractive....hygiene seems to be a big problem. Nigel has been really disappointed by the Egyptian women as well and thinks he's been tricked by the media. He thought there would be scantily dressed belly dancers all over the place but it's mostly women totally covered... what a shame :) But like the saying goes "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Hamada told me the Egyptian men go for any white woman because they're after the money.
Dahab is a blend of two cultures- the Bedouin people or dessert dwellers who were here first and the Egyptians who then came to build up the tourism. Although I haven't noticed, there is supposedly some tension between the two. The most noticeable thing though is the lack of local women around town...it is totally dominated by men. I have only befriended one Egyptian girl who is not married because she says she chooses freedom (you can see why I like her already!) Her grandmother was married at the age of 11!
The morning after my first night working at Tota the Hilton resort dive center called and asked me to do a check dive for two people that day. I accepted then hung up and immediately began to panic! I had no idea what to do for a check dive and it was going to be my first time ever working as a Divemaster and my first time at the Lighthouse dive site. Luckily Nigel came home from his job at lunch time and went over everything and was somewhat reassuring although he was laughing at me as well. My two customers were a middle aged couple from New Zealand. I was confident while talking to them and thought I sounded professional and had them fooled but then we got in the water and I found that they weren't properly overweighted enough to kneel in the shallows and do their skills. So I ended up stuffing rocks into their BCD's but it was still nearly impossible. After the skills we went for the dive and I got lost for the first few minutes but after that it was a great dive! Two days later the dive center called again and my first thought was they were calling to complain but they were asking me to be a snorkel guide at Blue Hole the following morning. Although the Hilton is one of the nicest dive centers to work for it's a pain in the ass because you have to take a taxi there (usually a pick up truck and you just hop in the back) and the fare is only 2LE but every single day you have to argue with the drivers and tell them you are a local so they don't rip you off. Usually I don't have to argue long but they give Nigel a harder time. Anyways, after getting home at 4am from Tota I dragged my tired butt out of bed at 8am the next day and took two British couples snorkeling. It went really well (kinda hard to screw up snorkeling) except one of the guys who was about 6'4 slipped on the wooden platform and brought me down with him. I made the rest of them crawl to get out which looked silly but the one woman was pregnant. We sat and had tea and drinks afterwards at one of the many Bedouin restaurants along the dive site. The good thing is that guides get whatever food and drinks they want for free. On the drive back we encountered a few hundred tourists on camels which took up the whole narrow road and our small jeep was surrounded and sometimes had to go up on it's side to make room and I was sure we would tip. I was exhausted and crashed as soon as I got home. Nigel has gotten alot of work as well. He ran into the couple I took diving at the Hilton and asked them how I did and they said I was wonderful and when he told them it was my first time ever and I had been nervous they said they were shocked and would never have known, which made me feel better! It was a busy few days! It kinda sucked too because Nigel and I didn't get to see eachother much but we've both had off the past three days. One night we decided to treat ourselves and eat at one of the nice restaurants by the seafront. It was romantic and the food was delicious! The meal cost us what we usually spend on food over two days, but oh well. Last night Tota had a huge party with a live band, belly dancer, fire twirler and sofie dancer. Tickets were 50LE and included one beer and a buffet but we got in free. The sofie dancer was really cool and he just spun around in a fast circle for twenty minutes and swirled all of these materials around him...no clue how he didn't fall on his face! Afterwards we met up with our Egyptian friend Reggi and he took us to another bar where my dance partner was an eight year old Egyptian girl. She was so cute. The kids here stay up til all hours, it's weird. I got a call from the owner of Tota this morning though and they said they were getting in alot of trouble with the government for employing foreigners without work visas so for now me and the two other girls have the week off. The one girl I work with, Keira, has the biggest bunch of colorful dreadlocks I have ever seen (Heather Dale I know you would love them!). I have also been offered two counter jobs at dive centers which aren't well paid but you get free use of dive equipment and also I would be in a position to get myself and Nigel more work through that particular place so I may do that a few days a week. I purchased my first piece of dive equipment the other days- a new Cressi 7mm wetsuit. It was cheaper than Nigel would get it through his work in Australia at cost. I would get alot more equipment here but supply is limited and no where seems to have my size. Nigel and I also bought a pair of speakers to replace my stolen ones. These were only $7 but they do the job. I wish now I would've gone to the police when my other ones were stolen, oh well.
Nigel finally went to the dentist and got his teeth fixed. He'd been putting it off for so long because he was worried about the expense but the pain became too unbearable. We scoped the dentist out first to make sure he wasn't also Dahab's butcher but he was very professional and all of his equipment was state of the art. Nigel was relieved to find out his three visits would only cost $200! The dentist told us the majority of his clients are Europeans who fly over just because it's so cheap and spend the week at the beach and getting their teeth worked on. Not a bad idea so if anyone wants to come visit there is another incentive!
So that's pretty much what we've been up to. And I promise I will send pictures out just as soon as I get them all organized!
x
R&N