Years ago, when I first started working as a dive guide, I experienced something that I will never forget. I had just exchanged my busy office job for working at sea and had left for Egypt. As an instructor I already had a lot of experience, but I was aware that I didn’t know much about the sea. Now it was my dream to work on safari boats, but with my lack of knowledge of the sea I thought it was better to do some simpler diving work first. And so I started working day trips on day boats and in dive centers. And during those first experiences as a guide, nature showed me that we as humans don’t understand it yet.
All hope was gone
For example, I helped for a few days at a diving center that also has a day boat. We went out and I got to do introduction dives and sometimes guide some guests. Now we had a Dutch couple on board who had been diving with us fanatically for two weeks, let me call them Mark and Sandra. Sandra adored Ahmed, the owner’s 2 1/2 year old son. The little boy could often be found with her to play, joke and joke or go for a swim. And that’s how I got into a conversation with her about children and touched a nerve. Sandra said that her big dream was to have children, but it turned out that she can’t have them. They had already tried IVF without success and now they were considering adopting, but she would much rather have a child of her own.
dolphins poked Sandra
That same afternoon I was the guide for Sandra and Mark and we planned to do a dive at the Dolphin House of Hurghada. And when we were in the dive for about 20 minutes, we were joined by a school of dolphins. Dolphins are very playful and smart animals, they follow each other closely or on the fin, play tag and toss shells. The first dolphins that came to us swam around us and 1 of them went straight to Sandra. He tapped his belly on his nose and I heard Sandra giggle, especially when the second dolphin did exactly the same. It was like a game, in which the dolphins poked Sandra one by one in her stomach. Later that day, when we got back to the dive center, Sandra told I how fantastic she thought the dolphins were. And that it was strange that she only poked her in the stomach. As soon as I got a chance to talk to her alone, I took Sandra aside. Hey Sandra, I don’t mean to upset you, but dolphins can sense a heartbeat. Now I’m no specialist, but who knows, they might have heard your second heartbeat.” Sandra was shocked, of course, she hadn’t thought about that, but it would explain why she only touched her on the stomach and why they all did that. Hmmm… maybe just do a little test, you never know.
The next day Mark and Sandra stopped diving and I never saw them again. Yet Sandra contacted me after a few months, she sent me a photo of an ultrasound, so anyway. She said if it was a girl she would call it Delfina, beautiful eh.
Love life… blow bubbles… Anke