We had to abruptly cancel swimming classes today due to an influx of jellyfish, floating happily along the shore in the wind. On closer inspection and with my huge wealth of marine knowledge they turned out to be blue squidgy things officially known as Portuguese Man Of War (PMOW), very small ones though. Remembering holidays in Scotland and being told to "just keep swimming" when surrounded by jellyfish we carried on lessons after one child was stung until more of the blighters appeared and we all made a hasty exit! If it makes me sound very callous for not abandoning lessons when one student was stung, maybe I am! However students tend to be in excruciating pain very, very often and are often stung by invisible creatures that leave no mark on the skin and do no long term damage, so all injuries are taken with a healthy dose of salt (although not jellyfish stings as that would be dangerous!). Not being an expert at marine life, the students mother was called and I took her up to the hospital to make sure she was checked out, thankfully as it was only a small PMOW Nauma's hand is making a good recovery. Sadly no photos of the annoying things as I didn't want to hang around in the water for too long despite the fact other people were swimming around and collecting them in bottles!
In other marine animal news; I had an excellent time snorkelling yesterday on Villingilli with the Liz, another English girl slightly bemused as to how she ended up here, where I saw my first sting rays which blew me away. Too deep to get a really good look at, they moved so serenely along the edge of the reef, a grace that I showed no degree of when I tried to dive deeper to have a better look! It has just made me more excited about learnign to dive, I cannot wait!!!!
Swimming update - with Ramadan fast approaching (a very witty pun if you know where to look for it) it is a great relief that Hisan, one of the youngest swimmers, managed to swim by himself today for the first time and I got a photo!
Swimming update - with Ramadan fast approaching (a very witty pun if you know where to look for it) it is a great relief that Hisan, one of the youngest swimmers, managed to swim by himself today for the first time and I got a photo!