Adventure with a Purpose

Meeting new people

2012-01-31T21:02:00.000-05:00

A "long-time" friend of mine (I’ve been told I can no longer use the phrase “old friend” especially when it relates to a female friend) contacted me yesterday and asked if I would photograph a friend of hers. He needed pictures for his website. He is running for political office and needed them as soon as possible. And that was how I ended up on the state capitol grounds today. I had forgotten that the legislature was in town so parking was a bit of a challenge, but I found something eventually. And I was early anyway…this will come as a shock to no one.

I’m going to avoid identifying this politician. He is new to the political game, and I didn’t ask his permission to mention him here. But I had the great pleasure to meet a person that struck me as a genuinely nice, cerebral and gentle man. We were only together about half an hour (we had to shoot these photos during his lunch hour) and during that time I took nearly 70 photos. In spite of having my camera to my face nearly the entire time, I enjoyed the meeting. We talked and joked. It was fun. I hope he does well.

My first reaction on meeting him was, “he doesn't seem like a politician.” I hope that comes through to the voters in a positive way. Politics today is way too full of people who are way too full of themselves. I will definitely keep an eye on him. I have no clue about his party affiliation or his stance on anything. He just seemed like a really good person. As I have grown more and more disappointed in the tenor of politics lately, both from the politicians themselves and the partisan sniping among the general population, it was nice to meet someone running for statewide office who didn’t seem to have any pretenses.

Afterward, I decided to stop for lunch. It was 65 and sunny today so there was no way I was going to eat inside. I got a seat on the deck at the Tricky Fish on the east end-just a few blocks from the capitol. This is one of Jon Steele’s three places. He advertises it as a “beach shack.” Just a moment later, a woman came in, sat down and asked me to tell her about “this place.” I assumed she meant the restaurant since it is somewhat unique. After a moment, I realized she actually meant Charleston. She was just passing through, heading down I-64 on her way to Louisville, Kentucky. We ended up talking through lunch as I told her about the town, things to see and places to go. It was fun for me. As I have written, I have just moved back here after being away since 1998. I hadn't even thought about my hometown in that regard for a while. Fun to dredge up the tour guide memories.

As we talked, she told me that she that she liked to go places and experience them from the local perspective. She likes to travel and stay in hostels or in people’s homes. I told her that was the theme of my website and this blog...experiencing life and having a purpose. We agreed that life is much more fun that way.

I’ve had the tremendous good fortune to travel and experience a lot of really interesting parts of the world. But I like an adventure wherever I can find it. Sometimes you find it at the other end of a plane trip. Other times, you can find those new experiences and the energy that comes from them just down the street.

All in all, I’m gonna call that a good day.

The Writing Process

2012-01-24T14:41:00.002-05:00

Aside from saying I hear voices in my head when I write, for me writing fiction is like watching TV in my mind. The difference being, I get to decide what the characters do and say. I always find it interesting that even though I have an outcome in mind for a “scene” in a book, how I get there often changes.

Earlier today I finished the first draft of what will become my fourth novel. I’ve been very fortunate to have the motivation and the time to write lately. And the words have flowed onto the keyboard. The story ended up where I expected, but it took some twists and turns that even I didn’t expect.

Today, I was writing the final conflict scene between the hero of the story and the bad guys, the denouement if you will, of the story. When I sat down at the computer, I expected one thing to happen. As it developed, I went an entirely different route. It ended up at the same place, but I moved people around and had a totally different person die than I had originally imagined. (You’ll have to read the book when it comes out to know what I’m talking about.)

The process is far from complete, though. A first draft is just that, a draft. It will go through four or five more revisions. Friends will read it for me, make comments and get as tired of the story as I am by the time I finally say enough is enough. For the record, there is no such thing as “complete” or “perfect” when writing something like this. You can always go back and tweak this or that, add or delete a detail, or revise one more thing. But there does come a point where you have to kick the bird out of the nest and say “It’s done!”

But this stage in the game is interesting, too. When I read a really good book that draws me in and carries me away, I’m often a little sad when it ends. It’s like missing a friend. You want to know what happens next in their lives. Writing a book is the same way, if even a bit more intimate. They aren’t just friends in a book. My characters are mine. They are my imagination. And when the story is “done”, I miss them. It makes me already start thinking about what will happen to them next. And this is the point where my notoriously short attention span kicks in (squirrel!) and I want to begin the next project before this one is finished.

I’m happy with how this story has come together, though. I began it a couple years ago and just couldn’t find the thread. It stayed on my To Do list for a long time. And then, suddenly, the spillways opened and out it flowed. I think with each novel and each short story I’ve written, I’ve gotten better at telling a story and making it flow. I hope you agree.

If you’ve never read one of my novels, the first chapter of each one is available on my website. Just go to the “Books” page.

Boat trip

2012-01-06T08:55:00.001-05:00

(This is the last of four blog posts about traveling and working with the NBC crew to tell the story of the lobster divers of Honduras.)

In my previous trips to Honduras, I had seen many, many injured divers—at the clinic, at home and on the streets. The one thing I had never been able to see was the divers actually at work. Last year when National Geographic was working on their online profile, they couldn’t find any photographs of the Miskito Indians diving either. (If they can’t find any diving images, you know no one has them.)

So, when NBC offered me the opportunity to go along with their camera man to act as a safety diver and shoot photographs of the divers in action, I jumped at the chance. Even with that motivation, the boat was not exactly a pleasure cruise. At no time was I ever threatened or uncomfortable, but there was a time when we were 90 miles off shore, out of radio contact and not even sure what waters we were in, I got a little nervous.

Our captain, Nelson, and his crew liked to smoke pot and drink beer. A lot. There was some irony to that as well. The boat was originally a US flag vessel which means it carried the standard US Coast Guard placards that describe the no tolerance policy for drug use on board. Just a few feet away from that sign was where the crew prepared the pot to smoke it.

I’m not sure what the actual design of the boat was originally, but it had been dramatically changed with storage bins on the bow and stern…presumably for lobster. To make the trip, we were carrying extra diesel fuel in barrels on the narrow decks. Several times we had to stop so the crew could siphon more fuel from the barrels into the fuel tanks. Often the crew did this while smoking cigarettes. At one point in the middle of the night they must have spilled some because the smell of diesel filled the cabin where we slept and the next morning everything was greasy.

When we finally arrived at the lobstering grounds, it took us a few hours to find the dive boat we were supposed to meet up with. And when we did, he was in Nicaraguan waters. We were going to wait on him, but it was going to be a couple hours before he came back to Honduran waters. Fortunately we found another boat close by and they were willing to help. Bruce got on board and shot for a couple hours. It turned out that there was an injured diver on board the dive boat and so we brought him home with us. Elmer took began his care and he flew back to La Ceiba on the plane with us. It was the first time he had ever flown.

Chris and I went out in the skiff to dive. We had asked to have our own tanks, which we didn't get and also have lead weights which weren't there either. We ended up using tanks from the dive boat. We had to try 12 different tanks to find four that would work. They all had garbage for o-rings. Fortunately Chris brought along weights so we could dive, although not together. He did three dives and I just got in one, but still got in some good shots.

At one point Nelson brought the bigger boat over to tell us we needed to move. We had drifted into Colombian waters. During the trip, we had ventured from Honduras, to Nicaragua and then Colombia. All without ever setting foot on dry land.

It was around 1 pm when we got back on the boat. And we still had to go home. Heading back to Puerto Lempira we had good weather and a following sea so it flattened the ride out nicely. We slept some and relaxed...until about 1130 when Nelson woke us up to tell us that he had run out of oil. We were only 10 miles or so from shore, but we decided to wait until first light to go in then. I didn't really sleep the rest of the night. It was hot below decks in the cabin so I went up in deck and lay down on a pad. After the moon went down, the stars were amazing. I spent the night on a rocking boat staring at the stars.

It took us another 2.5 hours and another boat transfer to get back to Puerto Lempira. A total of 38 hours from the time we left. The rest of the crew was frantic when they met us at the dock. Natalie Morales, the correspondent, had already left that morning, but she called as soon she got to La Ceiba to check on us. Dr. Mejia had been in contact with the Honduran Navy and they had a boat out looking for us.

All in all, a pretty amazing trip. We were exhausted when we got back to town, but it was worth it. We got some fantastic footage that made the Rock Center with Brian Williams piece that much more special.

I hope that this show will bring some attention to this problem. It is slowly killing off an entire generation of indigenous people.

If you are interested in making a contribution to help support Dr. Mejia’s clinic, you can do so here.

Watch the story online from Rock Center now.

Find out more on my website.

La Moskitia

2012-01-05T08:47:00.001-05:00

(Day three of traveling with the NBC crew to tell the story of the Lobster Divers of Honduras.)

Tuesday morning, October 4, we got up at 3:30 am to go to the airport for the flight to Puerto Lempira. We had the flight to ourselves which made it nice considering how much gear we brought along. And that was with leaving part of it in the hotel.

The Miskito Indians live in a region of Honduras and Nicaragua called La Moskitia, also known as the Mosquito Coast. It spans the far eastern end of both countries and the Indians pretty much ignore those borders. To get there, though, you have to fly or take a boat. There are no roads that lead from La Ceiba out to La Moskitia.

Same airport, same plane, but this picture was taken on my
first trip to La Moskitia.

The plane is a small high wing puddle jumper…which was appropriate since it was the rainy season and we landed in the rain with mud puddles on the dirt air strip. The recurring theme of this trip was equipment. It took a while for the baggage handlers to get everything off the plane so the rest of the crew wandered around the “terminal” buildings for a few minutes. They were surprised that one of the first human beings they saw was a paralyzed diver in a wheel chair. He was sitting in the terminal making crafts for sale.

The Moskito Indians are the only Hondurans who dive for lobster. And their semi-isolation tends to keep them close together. This makes them easy to forget about until you land in Puerto Lempira. Then, injured and paralyzed divers are everywhere.

We went straight to the hotel and then got ready to go right back out. We took most of our gear with us. Later that afternoon, we were going to meet up with the boat that would take some of us out to see the divers in action.

Before we left the hotel, though, Natalie was able to interview the director of the lobster divers association. He was the first to say it, but not the last, that even though groups hold meetings and make promises, they have received nothing from those organizations, not even a pencil.

The director and assistant director of the diver’s association accompanied us on a small water taxi boat to Kaukira. That is one of the villages where many of the divers live. When we got there, we went to the home of Nelson, who would be our boat captain as well. We loaded into his truck with his wife driving and went off to visit divers at their homes.

At the first one, where I had been before, the people next door were drunk and began yelling at us to go home, saying that people come to La Moskitia and point their cameras but nothing ever gets done. He yelled most of the time we were there.

We visited a couple more homes, taking time to talk to the divers and listen to their life stories. Most of them were just trying to feed their families. They didn’t really understand the risks of diving, even though they all knew others who had been injured before them. Every family in Kaukira has a disabled diver in it.

As I said, we all piled into Nelson’s truck to visit the divers. I tend to identify more with the camera guys, so I jumped in the bed of the truck with them. I was seated on the tailgate, with my camera up to my face most of the time. When we hit one deep rut in the dirt road, the rusted-through cable that held up the tailgate broke, nearly sending me crashing into the mud. Fortunately, Dr. Mejia was sitting beside me talking and he grabbed my arm to steady me while the camera crew yelled for the driver to stop.

When it was finally time to go to the boat, we cut straight across the peninsula, rather than going back around to the roads. We drove through a swamp and then came out on the beach where we met a small boat that took us through the surf to get to the large boat.

As soon as we got on the boat we knew there was a problem. It was old and run down and there was no bathroom. Space was very tight and there were only 5 bunks. We had 10 people with a crew of 6.

Very quickly we decided that three of us would stay on board the boat to see the divers diving. The rest of the crew returned to Kaukira and Puerto Lempira and visited more divers in their homes. It really worked out for the best as we had almost no room for ourselves and by splitting the crew, we got a lot more done.

If you are interested in making a contribution to help support Dr. Mejia’s clinic, you can do so here.

Watch the story online from Rock Center now.

Find out more on my website.

Another day, another diver

2012-01-04T09:43:00.001-05:00

(This is the second installment of the behind-the-scenes account of traveling with the NBC crew for the Rock Center story.)

Monday morning dawned early for most of us. The time difference was two hours then (daylight savings time was still on) so even though most of us wanted to sleep to be.

It worked out just as well, though. Photographer Bruce Bernstein and soundman/grip Chris Nickless and I were having breakfast around 7 am when Dr. Mejia came to the hotel. He was on the way to the dock to pick up another diver who was arriving right then. The man was more severely injured than the divers the night before. We all jumped into a car and took off for the clinic.

Dr. Mejia opened his hyperbaric clinic in November of 2009 to treat divers. This diver was his 227^th patient in less than two years. He had serious weakness in one leg and no strength at all in the other. He was also unable to urinate on his own. Elmer placed a catheter and began the treatment; another US Navy Treatment Table 6. Dr. Mejia said he believed the diver would make a good recovery. He was already showing signs of recovery after the first few oxygen cycles of the treatment.

This treatment was the 596^th time Dr. Mejia had run a treatment since opening the clinic. He averages seven treatments per patient; often multiple divers are in the chamber at the same time. While Dr. Mejia sees the most severe patients, almost always with some level of paralysis and often with bladder control issues, he has had tremendous success. He has an 81 percent success rate of divers leaving the chamber under their own power. Often they need a cane or a walker, but they are in much better shape than when they arrived.

What still amazes me is that Dr. Mejia only charges about $300 US per diver. That is for all his care, not per treatment. Care includes treatment, food, lodging, physical therapy, any tests he has to run. Dr. Mejia doesn’t charge the divers. He charges the boat owners, although sometimes they won’t pay. He is reluctant to raise his prices any, however, as he is afraid the boat owners will refuse to pay, or worse will skip treatment all together.

I asked Dr. Mejia what he needed. His first answer was a generator. It is Honduras and the power goes out from time to time. He said he was afraid every time he began a treatment at night that the power would go out. He needs a better air compressor, too. The one he has is an industrial compressor, not designed for this type of work at all. He said he needs money for wheel chairs, walkers and canes as well. And shoes. Most of his patients don’t make it to the chamber with shoes as they are taken right off of a boat and brought to the chamber.

But he does an exceptional job with very little. And he keeps doing it because it has to be done.

For anyone who watched the story last night on NBC’s Rock Center and are interested in contributing to help Dr. Mejia, you can do so here.

Watch the story online from Rock Center now.

Find out more on my website.

Working With NBC

2012-01-03T08:49:00.000-05:00

A little more than a year ago, NationalGeographic.com profiled the problems with the lobster divers in Honduras; they used several of my photographs and quoted Dr. Matias Nochetto from DAN and I about the issue as we were both working on the Harvesting Diver Project.

In September of this year, I was contacted by a reporter from the New York Times who was headed to Honduras on a different story but remembered the NatGeo piece and wanted to do a follow up. That story ran in September (almost a year to the day to after NatGeo).

Just after the NYT story ran, a producer from NBC contacted me to get more background information. Over the next couple weeks I spent approximately 6 hours on the phone with them, talking about logistics and helping them understand the diving situation and terminology. They finally invited me to join their news crew for a few days when they went to Honduras.

And that is how I came to be standing at the airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras on a Sunday afternoon surrounded by security, a dozen people and more than 35 cases and pieces of luggage. The camera guys had 23 cases of their own just for equipment. I knew this was going to be a completely different trip than any other trip I had made to Honduras…or anywhere for that matter.

Natalie Morales from the Today Show was the correspondent for the story. She is an extremely down-to-earth person and didn’t really want any special considerations. The network was nervous about her being there so they had hired security personnel for the crew and one man, Frank, was her personal security.

After getting all the equipment and crew packed into five cars, which took a while, we headed out for the two-and-a-half hour drive from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba where Dr. Elmer Mejia operates a hyperbaric chamber. I’ve written about him several times in this blog previously.

During the drive Dr. Mejia was on the phone with a boat owner. We learned that injured divers were on the way to the chamber. First it was 3, then 4 and finally 5 divers were going to arrive at the clinic. Since the story was developing so quickly, the crew decided to go straight to the dock to pick them up. By the time we got there it was pouring the rain and dark, but the camera guys went down to the docks with Dr. Mejia and got them. The rest of stayed outside as the port security was edgy about too many of us going inside.

With so many injured divers at one time, Dr. Mejia had to put two divers in the outer lock and compress the entire chamber at one time. This is not safe, as there is no way to lock someone in or out of the chamber if there was a problem, but Dr. Mejia felt he didn’t have a choice. After examining each of the divers, four had relatively minor problems, but one had more severe injuries. He began a US Navy Treatment Table 6 at 7 pm. The treatment would not end until nearly midnight.

Day 1 has a happy ending, though, as after a shorter treatment on Monday morning each of the divers was released to go back home. Whether it was the quick treatment or luck, we will never know. Unfortunately, many of the divers don’t have that sort of luck when it comes to dealing with paralysis caused by decompression sickness.

Before the group of five divers left the clinic, Dr. Mejia fed them lunch and got them cleaned up. And then Thelma Sakeyama came to the clinic. She is a special evangelical pastor to the people of La Moskitia. She sang and preached for them and they seemed to appreciate it. Before they left, she took down all of their names.

The next couple posts will detail my experiences with NBC in Honduras to help them tell this story. They asked me at the time not to publish these stories until their story was ready to air. The trip began on a Sunday and I flew home on Thursday afternoon.

For anyone who watched the story last night on NBC’s Rock Center and are interested in contributing to help Dr. Mejia, you can do so here.

Watch the story online from Rock Center now.

Find out more on my website.

Tomorrow, I will post about our first full day on the ground in San Pedro Sula. Stay tuned.

The issue with Miskito divers

2012-01-02T18:48:00.002-05:00

In October, I traveled to Honduras with a news crew from NBC to help them understand the diving issues revolving around Miskito Indians diving for lobster. They often end up paralyzed or dead. The story also profiles an amazing human being, Dr. Elmer Mejia, who has dedicated his professional life to helping these men.

Much of the background the crew used for the story came from the documentary work I did while working at DAN. They were carrying around copies of articles I wrote for Alert Diver Magazine and had all seen the 10 minute documentary I created while working on my final certificate in the Documentary Arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Below are links to some of my blog posts from Honduras and my thoughts and observations on the problems. Tomorrow, after the story airs tonight on NBC’s Rock Center, I’ll begin posting behind-the-scene blogs and photos from the trip. It was fun and interesting to travel with the large news crew. And it was also rewarding to see them begin to appreciate the scale of the problem as we traveled around.

We plan to use this information…

Boat Captains

Hyperbaric Clinic in La Ceiba

Purpose

Lobster Symposium

Cayman Revisited

2011-12-30T14:51:00.001-05:00

In 2003 and 2004 I spent several weeks on Grand Cayman. Those trips planted the seed for my first novel, Cayman Cowboys.

I still remember the germ that began to grow with that first book. Steve Barnett was showing me the blowholes on the east end of the island. As we walked across the iron shore--craggy coral exposed to the air and rain--I first imagined what would happen if I fell. Bleeding was sure to commence. Second, my imagination ran to "how scared would someone have to be to run across this stuff". And from that, a novel was born.

Much of that first book revolves around Sunset House and My Bar. Mainly because that was where I stayed on those first two trips and because it's a cool, laid-back place with lots of character. This morning, for the first time since Cayman Cowboys was released, I'm back on Grand Cayman. It's sunny and gorgeous, warm with only the slightest of breezes. I'm staring at the 82-degree flat-calm water in front of me and am about to go make a dive. Just the way I remember it.

I'm working on my next novel and it's coming along nicely. A lot of the action takes place on an island not far from here, but I don't want to spoil the surprise. After some major changes in my life, I lost the motivation to write fiction for a while. Major case of writer's block. But I've crossed that hurdle and the words are flowing again.

With each story, I think I get better at writing and creating characters and scenes. But I owe a lot to this place for getting me started writing about diving. That first book wasn't a work of high literature, but it's a fun story. A friend who lived and still works around the island, visiting regularly, told me "it is so Cayman". I'll take that.

Will there be a Cayman sequel? Never say never I guess. Who knows what will happen next? I sure don't.

Real Spirit of Christmas

2011-12-16T08:34:00.002-05:00

I have to admit I’ve been frustrated the last few weeks as people have used Christmas to grind axes against political parties, politicians and each other. All in the name of what is supposed to be a holiday about peace and love.

But then again, there are conversations that make me proud of my fellow man again.

· I've had this conversation twice in the last two days with totally separate families. That tells me the feeling is more common than I realized. People are talking about cutting back or skipping the exchanging of gifts because there is "nothing we need" or "we have so much already." Then they talk about finding ways to help other people out with the money knowing that there are people who need the help. And I'm not talking about rich people. Face it, most of us go buy things when we want them. We aren't waiting on Christmas for someone else to buy it for us.

· A good friend of mine went to Goodwill yesterday and cleaned out nearly every coat in the place. Today she is giving them away to anyone who needs them at a party for people who are struggling. She isn't asking for any recognition and would kill me if I said who it was. That isn’t why she’s doing it. She is doing it because it is the right thing to do and she wants to do it. Simple as that.

· I was blown away when I read the story about people paying off the Kmart layaway accounts for other people. That’s pure genius. Most people are doing it anonymously or are walking up to strangers in the store and doing it on the spot. Not for any personal gain, but because it can help out someone who might be having a tough time this year. If you didn’t read this story, here is thelink.

For years people have gone together and sponsored families or donated toys to toy drives and I think that stuff is great. I just see people really getting involved on a personal level and that sort of thing makes me really proud. They aren't waiting for an organization or the government to do something. They are doing it themselves.

That is really what Christmas and this season is about for me. Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I can't think of a better way to do it than to put aside our own “wants” and do something for someone else. You never know, you might just get a bigger gift in return.

Pearl Harbor Day

2011-12-07T08:55:00.001-05:00

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. December 7. Seventy years following the actual events in Hawaii.

Tony Sereno, part of the WWII exhibit at the WV Culture Center.

About five years ago, I wrote and published a story called Pearl Harbor Christmas. It's a story of one family's experiences over the 18 days from that infamous day in 1941 until Christmas day. It's based on the real-life experiences of Anthony Sereno and his family in West Virginia. I am proud to say I knew Tony, even if it was in his later years. He was a wonderful, funny, genuine man. No pretensions in him at all. He wouldn't have known how to have them.

Unfortunately, we lost Tony earlier this year. He was 94 when he died on July 19. He could have died that morning in 1941 as he worked on the model he was building of the very ship he served on...the USS West Virginia. I don't know how often it happened that a sailor served on a ship named for his home state, but it did this time. Tony didn't talk much about his experiences in the war. He simply served his country, came home and raised a family.

I guess those of us living today are fortunate. We think the most important things we have to complain about are changes to Facebook or whatever the latest reality TV fool is up to. I would bet that someone like Tony would say that's ok. I'm sure he would prefer that none of his family would have to go through the things he went through ever again.

As we prepare for the Christmas holiday, I would simply ask that we all take a moment to reflect on a day like today about the things that are really important. Do something nice for someone else. Remember the Christmas season is about love and giving and sacrifice. Not just the best deal at the department store.

My daughters are proud of their great grandfather.

If you are fortunate enough to know a veteran of World War II, tell them "Thank You." And take another moment to say thank you to the other veterans and the people who have sacrificed for you. An old friend of mine that I am very happy to have reconnected with recently, Scott White, often talks about what a privilege and honor it is to talk to the “old” veterans when he visits the VA hospital.

I didn’t serve in the military. I didn’t have to and it wasn’t my calling. But I am glad others made that choice. But I am working on a new project that will allow me to use my skills to recognize those who did. More on that later.

If you’re interested in reading Tony’s story, go to the Short Stories section of my website and download the story Pearl Harbor Christmas. It’s a pretty good read, if I do say so myself.

Thankfulness

2011-11-24T08:02:00.001-05:00

Things I am thankful for:

· Being surrounded by friends and family

· Being in a loving relationship

· Knowing that God has a purpose for my life and knowing that purpose is falling into place

· Seeing friends I haven’t seen in years

· Making new friends

· Being excited about new opportunities

· Having time to write

· Getting my internet connected…finally

· Being able to spend more time with my children…and not having to use Skype to do it.

· Friends who are still willing to help me move (although probably never again ;-), thanks JD)

· One of the kindest landlords I have ever heard of

· People who believe in me

· The ability to use my skills to touch lives

· People that disagree with me (it makes me think)

· Blessings and mercy I don’t deserve (but have received anyway)

Change is necessary. It can be painful and it can be exciting. Over the last few months, I’ve gone through some pretty major changes. There are times when nothing seems to work and everything seems to fall apart when you touch it. And then there are times when everything seems to fall into place. Those are the days when you know you’re on the right track. I am thankful for those days.

Different Perspectives

2011-11-18T14:31:00.001-05:00

Nearly 22 years ago I made my first scuba dives in Summersville Lake in West Virginia. I’ve made hundreds of dives since then in some amazing places, but that freshwater, manmade lake will always hold a special place in my logbook. I often tell people one of my most memorable night dives was there, lying on my back watching my bubbles rise into the reflection of the full moon on the surface.

I’ve also had the opportunity to dive there with my dad. Definitely one of those father/son moments. When I would come into town, we would grab gear and run up there for a day. Not that much to see, but always fun to blow bubbles and bond for a bit.

An interesting factoid about West Virginia is that there are no natural lakes in the state. The terrain is too vertical. There are lakes all over the place, but they all have a dam at one end where men decided to create them—usually as water reservoirs or for flood control. The dams and spill ways that make them work provide an interesting opportunity for divers. Every year, the US Army Corps of Engineers lowers the water level about 80 feet to “winter pool”. This allows them to hold back water in the winter and spring as heavy rains and snows roll through the area, protecting property downstream. But every 10 years they lower the lake even further –about 130 feet—to perform maintenance on the flood gates and other submerged structures.

What better way to look at your familiar dive sites from a totally different perspective? Take the two photos of my dad for example. One is him tying off a dive flag last summer and the second is him standing beside the same rock with the empty lake in the background.

Another photograph shows Battle Run campground where it juts out into the lake. It’s hard to see in this photograph, but near the bottom are a picnic table and some small concrete statues—between the two large rock outcroppings. These were placed there by some divers I happen to know. When the lake is full, they are more than 100 feet underwater.

I think looking at that hole in the ground where water is supposed to be represents my thoughts on my return to West Virginia in general. It is at once familiar and different. Seen through different eyes and from a different perspective, I’m trying to figure out where I fit in again and how I can be involved.

Home again

2011-11-07T09:43:00.000-05:00

I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from writing this blog the last couple months as I reorganized and re-evaluated some priorities. But, I’m ready to talk about my next adventure—if you’re interested in reading about it.

I’ve moved back to my hometown after nearly 14 years away. I have lived in California and North Carolina and had the great fortune to travel the world during this time. I counted it up a few days ago. I’ve made 35 trips to 15 countries.

There are lots of reasons for this decision—all personal. And my reasoning behind this move isn’t what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the act of going home. In some ways I’m the same person who left here in 1998. The core values and sense of humor remain the same. On the other hand, I have seen a lot and experienced things that have shaped the person I have become. It will be interesting to see how the modern day me adjusts. I’m just as curious as anyone else.

Several years ago, a friend asked me why I’ve never written about West Virginia. As a newspaper reporter here, I loved telling stories of the people I met. After I left, it just wasn’t something I thought about. In the last year or so, as I finished up the documentary work in Honduras, I began to think about home.

So, I have returned to Charleston, West Virginia to see what I can see and write about West Virginia for a change. I hope, though, that it will be as much about discovering me at the same time.

I hope you continue to follow along. I think it's going to be interesting.

Eric

Learning from diving

2011-07-18T15:36:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday and Friday, seven teens were certified to dive in Key Largo, Florida. I have no doubt that is an extreme understatement, but, these seven teens were a bit different than the average teen learning to dive. They were all foster kids.

Family Support Services of Northern Florida (an organization that administers the foster care programs in several counties) taught the students to dive as they were about to “age out” of the system. In just a few months, each of these teens would be 18 and no longer covered by the foster care system—effectively out on their own. (From what I understand, Florida has a great support program beyond 18 years old, but their foster families are no longer paid to house and support them.)

A friend I’ve known since elementary school happens to work for the program and invited me to speak to the kids and go diving with them. I hope the kids learned something from what I talked to them about; I’m sure I learned from them.

While the kids were learning to dive and appreciate the ocean and the wonder of a clear water and marine life all around, they were also learning bigger lessons. They were learning about team work and supporting their buddies. They were learning about responsibility. And they were learning about setting goals. None of these kids have had it “easy”. They’ve grown up without parents. They’ve grown up without family. I’m sure counselors could tell me all the things that does in a person’s mind even when things go relatively smoothly. There is no way it is a good thing for your self esteem.

But these kids had a spark about them, and they were excited. I asked a couple of them if they were nervous about diving off of a boat – thank you Ocean Divers in Key Largo – and they said yes, they were, but they immediately launched into how excited they were to be there and how much fun they were having. It was a whole new world for them.

My talk was about diving, traveling and the opportunities that can come through working in the diving industry. But I also hope I got across the message that whatever they care about—whatever it is that makes them excited—there can be a future in that as well. In diving, there are engineers, designers, graphic artists, marketing people, accountants and every other job description you can think of. Every company needs business people to make it run. I encouraged them to figure out what it was that excited them and to figure out how to apply their own talents to it.

I came away from my time with this group of seven kids energized. They were so excited and happy to be learning to dive. Better yet, they saw opportunities and potentials. They had learned their lessons of responsibility and leadership. They had also learned to look out for each other. Was it perfect? Not hardly. My hat’s off to the chaperones, by the way. I would not have wanted to deal with those seven kids that far from home. But the kids taught me to keep focused and keep moving forward. They weren’t letting the challenges they have faced stand in their way.

So, when I want to complain or let someone else’s anger and negativity get in my head, I’m going to think about those kids. And I’m going to get excited!

Check out this Youtube video about the SPLASH program.

Sea Turtles

2011-07-11T18:17:00.000-04:00

A couple years ago, as I read through the umpteenth Magic Treehouse book with my daughters, I realized that you can communicate important historical or scientific concepts to kids—you just have to make it fun. About that same time, I also remembered that A) I am a writer and B) I make a living talking and writing about diving and the ocean. From there, it was a fairly simple leap to decide to write a children’s chapter book that my girls could read and enjoy.

That was the easy part. The much harder part was thinking about what to actually write about. Even more difficult was how to write it at the appropriate level. I write a lot for adults – and usually that comes in at around the 8^th grade level. But when you’re writing for kids it has to be believable and understandable, but not too simple either. Kids will get bored or annoyed when something is too far above them or two far below them.

I finally settled on sea turtles. Most divers will tell you turtles are one of the coolest big critters to see in the ocean. They are infinitely graceful and at ease in the water. They move slowly and majestically – well it seems slow. But if you get in a turtle’s way, or make it uneasy, and you will quickly see it swimming away and there is no chance you’ll ever catch it.

Sea turtles are also endangered. The pressures of human development, trash in the ocean and declining habitats make it important that we protect them. Even more significant, sea turtles are a big, cool creature. And if we protect them, we end up making the oceans better for all the animals –and for us at the same time. In some ways, sea turtles and other large animals become the canaries in the mine. They decline, get sick and die before other animals might, but also while there is still time to correct the damage we have done. Scientists can tell you all the reasons that it is important to protect the ocean and all the ways a healthy ocean supports are lives even if we don’t realize it. But personally, I can’t think of a sadder place than an ocean with no sea turtles.

After the book was finished, friends arranged for me to share the book with the children at Seaside Elementary school in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The kids drew pictures for me to illustrate each chapter. In return, I spent an entire day talking to their classes about sea turtles, diving, writing and everything else they could think of. The pictures they drew became the art used to illustrate the book.

The good people at Oceana believed in this project and took it on as a supplement to their Sea Turtle campaign. They printed 1000 copies of the book and have distributed them at sea turtle functions. But the book is also available online for free. You can download it and share it with your own children.

I have placed a link to the book on my website. Go to www.booksbyeric.com and follow the link from the front page to Oceana’s site. Download the story, email it to friends, neighbors and anyone else you think might be interested. Or, share the link with them. I donated this story to Oceana simply because I want every child in the world to understand and appreciate sea turtles just like my own daughters do.

Changing lives—promises kept

2011-06-30T10:17:00.000-04:00

In June of 2010, I traveled to Puerto Lempira, Honduras to meet with representatives from the Association of Handicapped Miskito Lobster Divers. I wanted to understand the forces that drove them to sacrifice their lives and their health to harvest lobster.

As part of those meetings and discussions, one member of the association told me that other groups had visited with them before, taken pictures and notes and then nothing had come of it. Mentally I promised them that I wouldn’t be one more visitor who simply took from them without giving anything back.

Earlier this month, almost a year to the day from when I visited with the association members, Dr. Elmer Mejia and I conducted training for each of the boat captains so they will better be able to care for divers on board their boats when the inevitable happens. During that training and the accompanying symposium, I also ran into one of the men from the association. We simply said hello, but I wondered if he remembered the discussion we had at the association office.

Dr. Mejia and I also made a series of recommendations that, if enacted, should reduce the risk these divers face daily. We also recommended that those previously disabled divers should be trained as on-board medics. The idea was that these divers would be dedicated to caring for a diver, and be prepared to administer oxygen, insert a Foley Catheter if necessary and even deliver an IV if it was appropriate. This serves several benefits for the divers. They would have a knowledgeable person on board to take care of them—and someone dedicated to their care, rather than the boat captain. I also can’t think of a better “role model” as a medic than a diver who has been hurt before. “If you don’t want to end up like me, listen to what I say.” That is an extremely powerful testimony.

Overnight, I received word from Dr. Mejia that the boat owners association and the handicapped divers association are working together to make this happen. Small groups of the disabled divers will soon begin traveling to Dr. Mejia’s clinic in La Ceiba to receive 6 weeks of training in diving medicine and caring for injured divers.

As I’ve said many times before there are no easy answers to this problem. But this sure seems like a good start to me.

Lack of empathy?

2011-06-16T18:13:00.000-04:00

Earlier today, the people who produced the documentary film “Fresh, new thinking about what we’re eating” posted a blog on their website that I wrote about the situation with Harvesting Divers. The documentary film is all about our nation’s food supply and is well worth watching. They are also getting into the realm of sustainable seafood and so they were interested in this topic.

I am grateful for the additional attention this group brought to the issue, bringing it before an entirely new audience. When they posted it, they also posted their link on their Facebook page, again putting the information in front of a new group of people. Read the blog here.

I was surprised, though, by a couple of the comments people posted on Facebook afterward. I realize that not everyone sees the gravity of this situation, understands it, or cares – but this was interesting.

How can people working in this industry not understand the dangers?
I do sympathize with these divers, but they are making the consious (sic) choice to take this job.
For starters, we could reconsider *what* we eat, and take a different job that doesn't involve taking life like this — yours or the creature's.
Know and respect the dangers... In any line of work! Common sense, too.

The problem is, for most of these men, there aren’t alternatives. They are fishermen. That is all they know. Many are illiterate. They don’t understand what happens to their bodies. Ok, there is actually one alternative – at least for the divers in Honduras. They can get involved in the drug trade, helping to distribute drugs to the US from Colombia.

These are men working in an industrial setting for a company doing hazardous work. I see no difference between this and coal miners in the 20s and 30s, migrant farm workers in the 60s and 70s and sweatshop workers or people working in packing plants today. The only difference is, their actual working environment is even more dangerous –with the exception of the coal mine perhaps.

I just thought we had learned from our mistakes and moved forward, understanding the need for safe working conditions and proper training. I guess not everyone sees things the same way.

Caveat Emptor Lobster

2011-06-13T15:19:00.000-04:00

I’ve written a lot about lobster on this blog, the practices around harvesting it and the terrible cost harvesting divers pay when they go out to catch lobster. One aspect I’ve never talked about, though, is the people who are buying them and then selling them in the US. I hope to dig into that topic more in the near future, but here is an interesting little tidbit.

Over the weekend, a friend took a picture of lobster for sale at a local discount warehouse store with a pretty large seafood section. There is no way of knowing if this lobster was caught by hand or by trap—both techniques are used in Brazil for harvesting lobster. The interesting part is there has been a 6 month moratorium on harvesting lobster in Brazil. It was done so the lobster would have time to reproduce and grow. The moratorium was just lifted on June 1, 2011. The package says this lobster was packed on June 3. While it is technically possible that this lobster was caught on the first day of the return to fishing and rushed off to market in the US, the odds are low. And if it had been, why would it be frozen?

So, either this lobster is very old and has been frozen a long time, or it was harvested illegally and inappropriately. The package does say “previously frozen”, but I doubt any consumer would expect it to be frozen for 6 months or more. I wouldn’t be thrilled to pay $25 US for something that had been frozen that long.

I’ve said it before and it bears repeating now, I’m not opposed to harvesting or eating lobster – although I haven’t had lobster since I began the Harvesting Diver Project. Simply stopping the harvesting of lobster would simply put a lot of people out of work with no real solution to the problem—it would simply make lobster that much more exotic and expensive without helping the fishermen. I can just see black market lobster being sold at exorbitant prices rivaling the drug trade. That said, this is another great example of a supply system that needs fixing.

If you don’t believe me, read the original article yourself from Brazil talking about the return to lobster fishing. It’s in Portuguese, but your browser can translate it.
“Icapuí Hoje é um dia de voltar à rotina: madrugar no mar, mergulhar manzuá e esperar que dali venham lagostas bem graúdas, porque por seis meses elas se reproduziram e ontem acabou o período do defeso. [...]”

"Icapuí. Today is the day to return to the routine: up early in the sea, diving manzuá and expecting to come back with big lobsters, since for six months they must have had enough time to reproduce and grow big, and the banning period has just ended yesterday.[…]”

Exploring

2011-06-05T23:50:00.000-04:00

I realize I’m very fortunate to see parts of the world that most people never dream of seeing. I get the chance to see beauty in forms that I have never seen before. And I relish every moment of those experiences.

We took today off and explored a bit. Elmer wanted me to see the mountains and see how people live in the villages in the mountains ringing La Ceiba, Honduras and some of the beauty that is the jungle. After driving to the near the head waters of the Cangrejal River, we made our way back down to the Pico Bonita National Park. The office is on one side of the river, but to get to actual park we had to cross a very long, very bouncy suspension bridge. We were probably 75 feet above the rocky river running below us.

We had planned on a short hike, 30 minutes or so, just to get a feel for the land. Not expecting to be gone too long, we opted to leave the water in the car. That is one of those decisions you see in the movies and you immediately scream at the actors that they are making a mistake. The route that the people in the office told us would take about a half an hour was actually just to the point where we could go back another half an hour to see a water fall—we opted against that. But we still had another “half an hour” back to the bridge. Except it took us about an hour to get to place to make the turn and finish out the loop.

Granted, I stopped a number of times to take photographs. And it was hot and humid. Most of the time, the air barely moved. It could even get dark and oppressive. This was a single track trail, up and down over rocks and leaves and fallen trees. I slipped a couple times, and once actually made it a couple feet over a hillside. Fortunately, I was holding onto a small tree when I did it. And Elmer grabbed my arm to steady me as well. On that final leg of the hike, well into the second hour, we passed a couple plastic bottles other visitors had left behind. Elmer reached down and carried them out with us.

If you want to see more images from the day, check out the album I posted on FB. If you’re not already a “Friend” send me an invitation.

But, while we were driving around and exploring, some other things caught my eye that weren’t quite as beautiful. The road up the mountain was dirt and gravel. In a couple places, small children were standing beside the road—and I mean 5-9 years old—throwing dirt into potholes. Whenever a car would come through, they would stick out their hands for money.

The air was filled with smoke in a lot of places. I finally realized why. The farmers were lighting fires on the hillsides to clear land in preparation for planting beans. And the rainy season is coming on. I am sure they have been planting that way for many, many years, but with the steep terrain and the hillsides cleared of vegetation, you know almost all of the topsoil will end up in the river. And they will move on to the next hillside the next year.

There were other things, public health and sanitation related, that disturbed me even more. I realize there are many things in the world that need fixing and no one person can do it all. I have no interest in trying to save the world. And frankly, some of the things I saw can probably be found just as easily in the United States, too. I chose not to photograph those things. Without having a reason, it felt like it would have been exploitative.

I didn’t watch Oprah’s final show recently, but I understand she called on her viewers to find something to be passionate about; something that makes life worth living. I would repeat that. I have no (serious) issue with most of the “entertainment” on TV today, but it is simply mind-numbing entertainment. We all need to relax from time to time and that is fine. But there are other opportunities in our own back yard to get involved and make a difference in someone’s life. Helping out one person, or one situation, can often have a much greater influence than you even realize.

Appreciate the beauty around you, but find a way to make it even better. Maybe it simply starts with picking up a discarded plastic bottle or two on a trail. You never know what might happen when you do.

Six o’clock news

2011-06-04T20:34:00.000-04:00

This morning as we were getting started, a member of the National Congress entered our training and spoke for a few minutes. But more importantly, he listened for a while. He wanted to hear what we were teaching the boat captains. Just a little while after that, presumably after speaking to the congressman outside, a crew from the La Ceiba television station and a photographer from the newspaper showed up and watched our training for a while—the odds are good we will be on the evening news.

The government had decided to close the lobster fishery all together in Honduras. But after pressure from the divers and the boat owners (and the rest of the fishing industry) they have decided on a two-year extension. But in that time, they dive community has to make serious steps to fix the problems. The government wants to see the number of divers injured each year drop off sharply. Actually, the government has made no promises after this two year extension, but the boat owners believe if they can fix things, the government will allow them to continue.

Over the last three days, Dr. Mejia and I put on an eight hour training program for 54 dive boat captains touching on everything from oxygen first aid, to stocking first aid kits, to how to prepare and use a Foley Catheter. We prepared certificates of completion for each of the participants to show what they had done. We just found out that the boat captains association (APICAH) has laminated those certificates and boat captains will be required to display them (along with other certificates showing their equipment is in good working order) or they will not be allowed to leave the dock and harvest lobster once the season reopens in July. That is a tremendous step, and is also an indication of why every boat captain has taken the training so seriously.

I can only hope that more organizations with a stake in the lobster industry in Honduras get involved and work to make things better. It’s not a simple fix. It’s not the “evil boat captains” taking advantage of the divers. It’s not the “drugged out divers” not following the rules and getting hurt. Neither of those things exists–at least not as a group. Everyone has a role to play to fix the problem, keep more divers healthy and protect the fisheries here in Honduras. They will have to work together to do it. Things look promising from here on out, though. We will just have to wait and see to make sure each group follows through on its plans.

More later, but after the conversations I have had on this trip with the stakeholders in the industry, I am more encouraged than before.

“We plan to use this information…”

2011-06-03T20:00:00.001-04:00

“We plan to use this information to have fewer injuries among the divers this year.” That is what two of the older boat captains said to me as they left our training today. Wow. Pretty incredible feeling, and a little daunting, to realize they are putting so much hope on the information you are giving them. I hope they manage to do it. It will be an uphill battle and attitudes and practices will have to change on both sides for it to happen. They all realize they can’t continue on this way, though.

In the 13 months from December 2009 through the end of 2010, Dr. Mejia treated 130 severely injured Miskito Indians at his clinic. These divers had significant weakness and paralysis. There wasn’t a minor injury among them. The government wants to shut the diving down entirely. Or at least keeps making noises about it. So, if the boat captains want to keep fishing, and the divers want to keep earning a living, they have to find a way to do it—without jeopardizing life and limb. No one expects this will be easy, but at least they are making efforts.

Next week, Dr. Mejia is planning to spend a week or more in Puerto Lempira working with the divers as well. He wants to educate them in the same way that we are educating the boat captains. Yesterday we chatted about the idea of training some of the disabled divers as boat medics who can care for an injured diver and not require the boat captain to do it. I can’t think of a better person than a previously injured diver to discourage bad diving habits and encourage good ones.

But while today may have ended on a high note, it started out a little crazy. When Dr. Mejia picked me up at the hotel, he told he me he had just heard on the news that the city was going to shut down power to the eastern end of town at 8 am. We planned to conduct our training today at the offices of the Association of Industrial Fishermen for Caribbean and Honduras (in Spanish, the acronym is APICAH for Association Pescadore Industrial…). And those office are on the eastern end of town. So, we got there and waited. Eight am passed so we thought we were safe and we began to set up. Just as we were about to get rolling, the air conditioner turned off. It was 8:30 am. So much for being prompt. Since most of what we planned to present included laptops and projectors, we had to move.

Across town we headed in caravan to Dr. Mejia’s clinic. There was barely room, but we made it work. Everyone just got close and friendly. I will easily concede that today was not as good as yesterday. The captains were not quite as serious in the afternoon. And the two men who spoke to me at the end were some of the prime instigators of the disruptions. Not that they were intentionally causing trouble, just wisecracking and talking amongst themselves when we were attempting to explain something. But, in spite of their inattention, even they got it. They understood the seriousness of the day and it’s importance.

A very cool feeling. So far, we’ve had a tremendous opportunity to speak to 40 boat captains in two days. Tomorrow, another 19 or so. And that is nearly all of the boat captains working in Honduras with Harvesting Divers. A pretty tremendous accomplishment. Will they all change? Not even close. But a few will. And the word will get out that those boats are better to work on. And the Miskitos will change, too.

One step at a time.

Boat captains

2011-06-02T21:58:00.000-04:00

Today, Dr. Elmer Mejia and I spent more than 8 hours talking to a group of 18 boat captains about oxygen first aid, the causes of diving injuries and how to better care for their divers. And the amazing part was, they never stopped paying attention. Even more amazing—there wasn’t a single monster in the room.

Every time I talk about the Harvesting Diver project, it seems like the boat captains end up being the ones who get blamed for exploiting the divers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be that simple. If they were exploiters, I can’t imagine them taking an entire day out of their lives to learn about providing first aid for an injured or disabled diver. There is the liability side of it, of course, but if they were forced to be there, I don’t think they would have had the attitude they did.

We spent the entire morning addressing the skills and information necessary to provide oxygen first aid, using the DAN course. Because Elmer was translating for me, and they asked a lot of questions, we spent more than an hour and a half working our way through the knowledge development portion. They preferred that over a subtitled video—they wanted to be able to ask questions and learn more. We went over CPR and everyone took their turn on the manikin. And each person got a round of applause when they were finished. Doesn’t sound like a group of monsters to me.

In the afternoon, Elmer took over with a more detailed lecture on dive accidents. And then taught the boat captains how to prepare and insert a Foley Catheter when the divers surface but aren’t able to urinate. I didn’t hear a joke or a single person make a snide comment like they weren’t willing to do that. Maybe it was peer pressure. Maybe today was just the best of them and the next two days will even out a bit, but I was impressed.

My guess is the next two groups of captains will have the same attitude. Makes things much harder to figure out.

Lionfish side note: Lionfish are an invasive species that aren’t supposed to be in the Caribbean. But they are here. This is the one fish that everyone (the fishermen, the environmentalists) agrees on. We need to eat them into extinction—at least those on this side. Not the ones in the Pacific. Throughout the Caribbean, people are organizing fish rodeos and encouraging restaurants to prepare them. So, today we had Lionfish Ceviche as a snack and then fried Lionfish for lunch. First time I’ve had it. It was good. Not terribly fishy and had a good texture. So, eat up world. Lionfish is the next delicacy. And we are supposed to overfish this one!

Lobster Symposium

2011-06-01T21:08:00.000-04:00

More than 150 people attended the opening presentation of the “Symposium of Spiny Lobster” that began today in La Ceiba, Honduras. The meeting is all about the sustainability of the lobster harvest, throughout the Caribbean, with a focus on lobster here in Honduras. And it just so happens I’m on the agenda, too!

Ok, I knew I was coming down to lecture and provide training for the boat captains who take the harvesting divers out to the dive sites. I just didn’t know it was this big of a deal. Pretty impressive, all together. And that opening presentation had some really interesting statistics on the state of lobster harvests as well. I have asked for a copy of it so I can reference it later–after it is translated of course.

After that opening, though, the wheels came off a bit. Last week, I sent a shipment of equipment and materials to use in the training this week so it would be here in time for me to use. And it arrived in San Pedro Sula last Thursday. And that is as far as it got. For some reason it got hung up in customs.

At first they needed additional information from Dr. Mejia. And that delay tripped it up. On Monday the Customs computer system was down. FedEx finally retrieved the box yesterday. When they confirmed it to us this morning, but said it might take a day or two more to get it out to us Dr. Mejia and I jumped in the car and drove three hours up the road to pick it up. That’s one way.

The organizers of the event were very understanding, and actually somewhat apologetic since they knew it was their own governmental system that caused the delay and not us. We’ve rescheduled the four groups of boat captains into three and will get all the training done beginning tomorrow. Just the way it goes. We begin at 8:30 in the morning teaching oxygen first aid. I’ve honestly taught this DAN program to more than 500 students and in a couple different languages (through interpreters) but I am really looking forward to these programs the next few days. I can’t think of a place it has ever been more needed or a single class that I think could have a better chance of directly improving the life and health of a human being. That is pretty cool.

The picture above is of the opening presentation. But more important to me is the fact that the men sitting at that table are the divers themselves. I met a couple of them last year when I was in Puerto Lempira. At the time, they commented that people had come to meet with them before. Those people took pictures, made promises and then nothing happened. It has been slow in coming, and this is a first step, but I hope they see that we are trying to do something to improve their lives.

Full Circle

2011-05-31T21:48:00.000-04:00

The sights, sounds and smells of a place like this come back quickly when you step outside. The semi-controlled chaos on the streets, the brush fires set to clear away growth from the fields, the odd combinations of English and Spanish on the road signs and streets. The heat and the ever-present humidity. But there is also optimism and an energy that is hard to beat.

It was a little more than a year ago when Dr. Matias Nochetto and I joined Dr. Elmer Mejia in La Ceiba, Honduras to see what we could do to help out the hyperbaric chamber here and, in turn, help out the Miskito Indians who harvest lobster.

On that visit, we learned how dire the situation was: more than 2000 men were disabled because of diving, and hundreds more joined them every year. And those were the men who lived through their injuries. Many others didn’t.

Now I’m back in La Ceiba. Dr. Mejia invited me down to help him put on three days of training in Oxygen First Aid and additional measures for the boat captains and owners. These are the men who care for (and are responsible for) the divers. This problem isn’t new and there isn’t an easy solution. If you shut down the diving—like has been proposed and the government has attempted to do—the men have no way to make a living and no way to support their families. Their only other option is smuggling drugs. But if something isn’t done, more men will die.

This scheduled training is a great first step. The boat owners realize they have to do something. They have to be more responsible. And they have to take better care of their divers. If they don’t , the government is prepared to shut them down for good. And then everyone loses.

So, I was thrilled to hear from Dr. Mejia when I arrived that he had been invited to speak to the Honduran National Congress in Tegucigalpa today and give his recommendations on how the divers can reduce their risk and how we can improve their care. That is a tremendous first step and a great recognition of the work Dr. Mejia has done. He has not been alone in this. Many others have pursued this project over the years. Groups have conducted training for the divers, lobbied the government and provided health care opportunities. The changes we are seeing (I say very hopefully) are the culmination of many different people working for many years to improve things for these men who harvest the sea.

The next few days should be interesting as we are going to attend a symposium tomorrow where various groups will be taking up these exact same questions. And then the training begins the next day. It should be an interesting week.
Hopefully this won’t just be a circle, but an upward spiral.

For more background:

Milestones and projects

2011-05-19T09:45:00.001-04:00

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

Over the weekend, I passed the 10,000 photograph milestone on my current camera body--not in general. I wouldn’t even begin to guess when I passed that milestone as a photographer, but I am sure it was sometime in the early 90s. And, ironically (or appropriately) the 10,000^th photograph on this camera wasn’t taken in some far flung location, but rather in my hometown. It was of a friend’s daughter at the local ice rink playing with my own daughters.

And while numbers are simply numbers, it made me think about photographs taken and lives touched by them. An image may be technically perfect and still leave viewers flat. Other times an image with technical flaws (backlight, exposure, composition) can touch people in ways you never expected.

The last two months I’ve been staying fairly close to home to complete a certificate program at the Center for Documentary Studies at DukeUniversity. I began the program several years ago, but then life and travel got in the way of completing it. In a way, though, it seems as if the delay worked out for the best. I am in a much better place in my life and career now and much more able to put together a final project of the level necessary for completion of the program.

The most important and significant portions of this certificate program for me have been the things I have learned from my peers (see Conversations with Peers). In these last two programs, my “style” wasn’t even remotely similar to any of my classmates. We all worked in different genres and used different techniques. Alternately, their work left me flat or blew me away. Sometimes those reactions changed week to week. But every class I learned something from them and realized things about their images and stories that touched me and moved me.

Tomorrow, I will present a multimedia documentary presentation of the Harvesting Diver project, called “For Cheap Lobster”, showing the devastating affect that diving has on these groups of men who harvest the sea. Thiswill be final presentation as part of the CDS Certificate program and where Iwill receive my Certificate in the Documentary Arts.

Probably one of the most interesting things about this project for me, in the context of CDS, has been the reactions my classmates have had to the images. They have wanted to know more about what was going on, even though not a single person in either class was a diver. They wanted to know if there was anything they could do or what steps we were taking to help the divers out.

And ultimately, that is the power of the photograph. To tell a story. To make a connection. To make the abstract real. It is possible as a writer to tell a story and elicit that visceral reaction from a reader. It can be done, but it’s difficult. The reader has to pay attention and focus on what you’re writing.

Photography has the amazing ability to connect the viewer to the subject in seconds. The reaction is usually immediate and profound. That is the power of photography. The words tell the story and explain what is happening in the image, but the image itself has the power to touch the viewer on a deeper, more personal level.

Now that this phase of the project is done and the certificate program is complete, it’s time to get back out on the road. Time to make more images and tell more stories.