Yvonne Foong: Fighting NF

Pelf says…

So, when I asked my blogger friends for ideas to “survive” the Blogathon, I received only a couple of suggestions. But then again, those suggestions are enough to keep me occupied from now until 3am. But yeah, if you have anything YOU would like to hear from me, do let me know, OK? *winks*

Now, first things first. Charmaine wanted to know whether being a hydrophobic gets in the way with my work with the turtles. Yeah, you read that right, I am a hydrophobic. But before you ask whether I am afraid of taking a shower or whether I am afraid of the rain, NO. I am NOT that extreme =)

Let me tell you a true story (though I know I would be laughed at):

I “took up” my SCUBA diver’s license in 2002, if I am not mistaken. I paid RM 700, but I did not make it. I passed the swimming test, but when I made my first dive with the Assistant Instructor, I kept telling him that I did not want to descent. I kept shaking my head and making that “no-air” sign with my hands. But I went all the way down nonetheless. And that was when panic set in. The Assistant Instructor probably saw my expression and realized that I was serious about getting out of the water, so he finally led me up to the surface.

I cannot possibly explain how I felt down there, in the water with a 16 kg oxygen tank holding me down, but what I was sure was that I HATED that feeling. I hated being helpless in the water. Back in 2002, I probably weighed a mere 43 kg, and with that 16 kg oxygen tank strapped onto my back, I could barely walk towards the sea by myself. And when I was in the water, it was so impossible for me to stand on one leg while I fasten my flipper on the other foot. I had to cling on to J and whenever the waves came in, I felt… Completely helpless..

So I made up my mind that I wasn’t going ahead with the SCUBA course and J asked me to think about it. While the rest of the group went out to practice their diving skills, I sat at the beach, looking at the sea. I tried to convince myself that once I got over the first few dives, the rest would be fun. I tried to trick my mind into believing that SCUBA diving was fun.

J even spent about an hour trying to convince me that “it was all in the mind”. But the harder he tried, the harder I cried. Looking at my friends performing the necessary skills in the sea just freaked me out. So in the end, despite all the well-wishes and “think about its”, I gave up (though I attended all the theory classes)..

I felt bad for giving up too. I felt bad for literally throwing RM 700 into the sea. But at the point in time, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it..

In the third year of my Bachelor’s degree, I conducted a final year project that required me to go to the sea at nights to deploy home-made light-traps to collect zooplanktons. My sampling schedule was determined by the new moon, first quarter moon, full moon and third quarter moon. Whenever J took me out to my sampling sites at night, I always felt the chill running down my spine. I always wished that I did not have to deploy the light-traps in the middle of the night.

So, back to Char’s question. No, being hydrophobic does NOT get into the way in my work with the turtles. Because I was so terrified of going to the sea at nights, I made sure that I did not have to do anything like that before I started on my Master’s project =) I made sure that I did not have to conduct my samplings in the sea.. I made sure that I did not need a SCUBA diving licence in order to excel in my research project..

P/S: We need more sponsors! All proceeds will go to Eden Handicap Service Centre. Click here to pledge.