The highlight of my planned 10-day trip to Malawi was going
to be a 4-day diving course in Nkhata Bay (about an hour or so from Mzuzu).
Firstly because it is one of the most affordable places in the world to get your
PADI Open Water Scuba Diving certifications, and secondly, because Aqua Africa has nothing but rave
reviews online for their two scuba instructors.
After a shouldn’t-have-been-long-but-was trek from Chitimba
to Nkhata Bay, and a terrible night’s stay at Big Blue Backpackers (highly not recommended-but more on that later) two nights ago, I woke up early yesterday morning and headed over to Aqua Africa to
check in, eat some breakfast, and begin my PADI course.
However, I wasn’t able to even put my pen to the paper to
begin filling out the form when the fact that I have asthma came up, and the
instructor informed me that between liability on his end and personal safety on
mine, we actually couldn’t move forward at all unless I went to a major city,
got a bunch of specific medical tests done, passed them all, and came back
[which was clearly not going to happen].
I put on a brave face and shrugged, saying that I had had
done some online research and didn’t think it was going to be a problem and
apologized profusely for not alerting him beforehand about my asthma, then
quickly ran up to my room and onto my balcony, where my tears fell a little
more freely {sidenote: I haven’t cried so much in about a year as I have this past week}.
It’s really hard to hear that your body, despite how well
you try and take care of it, just isn’t healthy enough to do something. I’ve
made peace that I may never run a marathon [but I can run a 5K!] and although I know I can still kick some athletic butt, hearing from an instructor that my body
can’t be trusted to hover even 30 feet underwater without probably killing me
or exploding my lungs is pretty devastating. Obviously, it’s not the
instructor’s fault. Annoyingly, it’s also not really mine. And frustratingly,
there’s literally nothing I can do about it. Stupid little huffy lungs of mine!
Researching lung enhancers is now going on my short list. Do you think those
are even a thing? Actually, I’m sure they are. There are pills for everything
nowadays.
But I digress.
After an hour and a half of intermittently wallowing and reading,
I decided to hop in the shower to clear my mind and take stock of where I’m at.
Here’s what I realized:
1.
I AM IN MALAWI. ON VACATION.
2.
I’m paying $35 a night for a deluxe $80 room
with a private balcony overlooking Lake Malawi and a shower that has great
water pressure [clearly a shower thought]
3.
Without meaning to, I saved $350.
4.
I have four days where I was going to be busy
from 9-5 to do absolutely anything my heart desires – that’s 32 hours of fun to
be had!
5.
While I may not be capable of scuba diving, I am capable of snorkeling, kayaking, trekking, biking, cliff jumping, laying on beaches and watching
eagles – all of which are offered in the Bay.
6.
I could also just relax, which is apparently this activity where you kind of just
stay still and calm and gaze into space or maybe read a book, all the while
counting down the hours+minutes until the next hot meal. I could do that.
7.
Finally, the grocery here sells a Malawian
knockoff of Cheese Doodles for $0.50 a bag. Just saying {I've eaten a bag a day}.
 |
| This is my balcony view right now. I KNOW. [not pictured...cheese doodle dust all over everything] |
So that’s where I am right now [well, where I was after my shower]. It’s almost lunchtime, the
WiFi at my hotel is amazing, and chicken enchiladas are on the menu....as are
nachos and chili con carne…it’s almost like I’m also in Mexico!
After eating, I started four days of above-water
Nkhata Bay fun. Who needs to pay to get closer to slimy fish anyways?
Xoxo,
M
PS: If you came across this blog post because you were
googling ‘lung enhancers’ because you too were unable to get PADI certified due
to crappy lungs, we should probably be friends. Email me.
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