Over the years, I worked with many groups, there is always a Diva, an Ass and a Complainer. But not this group, both the staff and the guests were kind, helpful,friendly, pleasant and many were very funny. I hope I was one of  the funny ones.

THE STAFF

The staff is led by Polly, British, Managing director and founder of the non profit Reef Conservation International. She is married to Captain Roland. Capt Roland, whale shark spotter and can back out the boat from the narrowest crevice. I especially appreciate him. When returning into the boat after a dive, the younger divers, can walk up the ladder with their tanks, Bcs, and weights still on. My little arm strength makes it difficult for me. So before I got on the ladder to exit the water, I would unhook my BC in the water, Capt. Roland would reach down and pull my equipment up into the boat. Sure made it easy for me.

The head diver master, Simon, British, seems serious, but very knowledgeable and very kind. His girlfriend dive master, Tracy, from North Carolina, they met when working at Reef CI,  so sweet.

The other main dive master, Steven, from Belgium and his girlfriend, Kaylee, a dive instructor from Great Britain, they met while working for a dive shop in Egypt diving the Red Sea. Steven and I got to be friends because we had things in common, I went to Belgium a few years ago, and he was a DJ before a dive master.

Then another new dive master, Sami. Sami is Canadian and travels all over Central America solo, working at dive shops to support her travels.  I admired her very adventurous spirit.The other staff was the chefs, two sweet Belizean ladies and very good cooks.

Angel, from Belize did general work, like refilling the dive air tanks.

Additionally, There were Capt Roland 2 boys, Byron age 11 and Anderson age 7, really sweet boys that ran, played and laughed all day, visiting for the holiday.

Finally, the dog,SPOT, a shelter dog, part pit bull, and took his dog’s responsibility of being ready to save all the humans, very seriously.

THE GUESTS

Our group were all interesting, 3 couples and 4 singles. Maria and Rick, baby boomers like me, newlyweds after meeting on line. Maria encouraged me go try on line dating and she offered to help me write a profile. I digress to say that I am afraid of on line dating, seems there are weirdo’s out there  and have no idea who they might be, after all the effort to get to know them.  On the other hand, its been over a year and half, since Randy died, sure miss having a man in my life.

Noa and Manny, darling newlyweds on their 3 month honeymoon, are from Israel but live in Sidney, Australia. He is from a religious family and she from an Atheist one.    I never got to discuss that issue directly, but I did give them unsolicited marital advice.

Rich and Lizzie (Elizabeth) British, childhood sweethearts, from the cold country on the north sea and are oysters farmers, aquaculture. They were funny and  really sweet couple. They did free diving to the depths. It was scary and fascinating to listen to them tell of their free diving adventures. They are well traveled and spending a month at Reef CI doing an internship.

The singles were Ben, young and British, had a sparkling personality and great sense of humor. Ben is a dive master and recently traveling over Belize and central America. One night when I retired, Ben was sitting, with three cute girls his age, fawning all over him and laughing at each witticism. In the morning, I said,  “with those 3 girls hanging on your every word, I thought to myself last night, I would have been too bad, if you were gay”, got a big laugh. Ariel, American, in college studying geology and works at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. She is getting her Rescue Diver Certification while here. Think she and Ben have chemistry.

Haley, a pretty British girl, and very sweet. She is getting her diver certification.

And me, Ann. We all spent time talking about what we do at home, why we are here, how we all converged at this exact place and time, where we like to travel. Everyone has a bit of wanderlust and desire to experience the world. I shared with them my bucket list…want to be a DJ, check…work on reef conservation…check. Want to try stand up comedy that is educational, see if it works? Told them I was writing and working on 3 topics….why I was called the Viagra Nurse, my experiences of being a businesswoman in Japan, and my personal experience of why I think confession is porno for priests. The only one complete is the Viagra nurse. They encouraged me to do it for practice with this group on the last night, I agreed, thinking if I bomb, I’ll never see these people again.