Dive Against Debris with Kontiki Divers - Thank you very much!

Thank you very much to Lotty, Ian, Ivy and all Kontiki dive staff for participating in Dive against Debris on September 4th, 2011. Now our House reef looks much cleaner! We found all kinds of debris including: plastic bottles, beer cans, paper plates, glass bottles, shopping bags etc. All these debris were found in just 5 meter deep water which is obvious where it comes from. We wish that all the visiting boats are more careful about the garbage disposal. The reef we have here is not just for us but for the future generations therefore we ask everybody to do the part. Kontiki Divers will organize the same kind of event very soon again. We are thinking perhaps every month to help our reef to look good.

By: Greg Maciejowski

Alta Cebu Village Resort and Diving with Kontiki Divers

Kontiki Divers Team is proud to announce that has joined forces with Alta Cebu Resort which is located in Cordova on Mactan Island. This beautiful resort has more than 50 rooms including function rooms, swimming pool, restaurant, hot shower, cable tv and many other functions. Kontiki Divers is going to provide scuba diving education for guests from Alta Resort. We offer scuba diving experiences, courses, fun diving, day trips, dive safaris and other great diving adventures. The good this about Alta Resort is that they have the swimming pool where we will be conducting Discover Scuba Diving and confined water training from most of PADI diving courses. After initial training in the pool all the students will be transferred to Kontiki Divers in Maribago where they can complete rest of the course in the ocean under direct supervision of Kontiki dive staff. For more information please contact us directly.

By Greg Maciejowski

Dive Against Debris with Kontiki Divers

September 4, 2011 from 9am - 11am, Kontiki Divers is organizing dive against debris in front of our dive center in Maribago. All certified divers are welcome to join for free with exception of entrance fee. During this dive we will collect all the debris and make a report that shall help local government institutions in creating new laws about underwater protection. We need to stand together in order to secure the future for ourselves and our kids so they too one day can come, make a dive and say: "what a beautiful reef we got here". Project AWARE created this event as a additional event towards already existing Underwater Clean-up Days. We wish that all divers, regardless of training agency will join the forces and do something about the state of our oceans. We are planing to start this event on Sunday, September 4th at 9am with a briefing then after assigning teams we all go and do our part underwater then after the dive we collect and log all the debris on the special data card which we will send to Project AWARE. Please let us know if any of you are interested to join and we will be happy to provide more information.

By: Greg Maciejowski

GUE Fundamentals Course with Kontiki Divers.

Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) is a non profit diving organization based in Florida, USA. GUE courses are becoming very popular in the Philippines. Their philosophy 'DO IT RIGHT' has been well known for many years. Rigorous training, standardized dive equipment, good knowledge and good stamina are the core components of every GUE course, whatever recreational or technical. Kontiki Divers is very much aware and PRO when it comes to safe diving therefore we were glad to sponsor and facilitate the first GUE Fundamentals course in Cebu. Ivy Maciejowski, Joe Espiritu and Mike Espiritu were the first GUE students in Cebu. Thanks to Dr. Graham Blackmore and Michael Puz for making it happen. Kontiki Divers wishes new GUE divers all the best in their future diving careres. DO IT RIGHT.

By Greg Maciejowski

Next Dive Safari August 27-30

Guys, we still have open space for our next dive safari on Aug 27. Price is 660 US$ for 4 days. We dive Cabilao, Balicasag, Alona Beach and other dive spots.

"OK"

Living and Diving in Cebu – Behind the Scenes

Here at Kontiki Divers we are approached regularly by people who need our help. Even small things like donating notebooks have a great impact.  Here is an account on what I experienced Yesterday:

That man beside me lost some of his fingers. Having survived from the
 illness he regained his confidence and decided to go to school.
 He is already a grade 2 student.

Being a scuba diver, I have experienced so many great things about life; the underwater world, the people I meet, the places I go to, and most especially my kind of job. I just got back from our 3-day diving safari and it was awesome! It was part of my job. But having this passion, working with it, never felt like a job to me. Backed up with the proper standards during my training makes me confident about what I am doing and so I enjoy working! All of these things gave me a reason to always give out a diver’s “OK” sign may it be underwater or on land. Yesterday, I took my day-off, stayed at home and in the afternoon I was scheduled for a meeting- The chance to visit a community composed of cured lepers. They built an organization to help others with the same illness that they have- to encourage, provide care and give hope. This visit was part of Kontiki Divers’ annual act to help local communities who needed assistance. We chose to help this community. I was amazed to see that most of them already have families of their own. Some kids were running around still in their school uniforms, obviously curious about what I was up to. (One member told me it isn't so often that they get visitors). I had the chance to have a chat with the organization’s officers who also had the disease before. And each of them had stories to tell about the lifetime effects of having experienced this kind of illness. Stories of rejection, hope, love, and acceptance. While we were talking, they showed me evidences of how this illness destroyed them, physically. Incomplete set of fingers or toes, etc. And it struck me-“Just the other day, I was with a group who had no physical defects and gave out the “OK” sign freely anytime they wanted to. And now, here I am with a group who kept holding both hands to hide them. I wanted to see them give out the same sign too. I wanted them to know it’s OK.” I arrived a bit early so the casual conversation went on while waiting for the other kids to come. Told them about my diving adventures, showed some underwater photos on the camera. And just like me they were amazed by the underwater scenery. As soon as the kids arrived with their parents, a short introduction was made and then I gave out the notebooks. It wasn't that much of a gift but the smiles on their faces were filled with delight. We were having fun, it felt good being able to share to them what Kontiki Divers have always enjoyed, and they were happy too. We gathered for some photos and with the thought still in my head; I asked them to give out the “OK” sign with me.

"OK!"

Leprosy or Hansen's disease (HD) is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external sign. Left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Contrary to folklore, leprosy does not cause body parts to fall off, although they can become numb or diseased as a result of infection; infection results in tissue loss, so fingers and toes become shortened and deformed as the cartilage is absorbed into the body.

The age-old social stigma, in other words, leprosy stigma associated with the advanced form of leprosy lingers in many areas, and remains a major obstacle to self-reporting and early treatment. Effective treatment for leprosy appeared in the late 1930s with the introduction of dapsone and its derivatives. Leprosy bacilli resistant to dapsone soon evolved and, due to overuse of dapsone, became widespread. It was not until the introduction of multidrug therapy (MDT) in the early 1980s that the disease could be diagnosed and treated successfully within the community. MDT for multibacillary leprosy consists of rifampicin, dapsone, and clofazimine taken over 12 months. Dosages adjusted appropriately for children and adults are available in all Primary Health Centres in the form of blister packages. Single dose MDT for single lesion leprosy consists of rifampicin, ofloxacin, and minocycline. The move toward single-dose treatment strategies has reduced the prevalence of disease in some regions, since prevalence is dependent on duration of treatment.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy

      

San Juan Wreck

I was working in a call center before I got this awesome job with Kontiki Divers. It was just one ordinary working day before Christmas of 2010 that I got invited to go wreck diving- San Juan Ferry, which sank during a storm some time in 2000. It rests 50m at the bottom on it's starboard side. Kontiki Divers regularly conducts diving expeditions to this wreck for advanced and experienced divers and I was just lucky to be invited and be part of this expedition with our Tech Director- Satoshi "Toyo" Toyoda, one of the world's most renowned Technical Diver. Immediately after end of my shift at 6:30 in the morning, Christmas day, I took off from the office straight to Mactan. No time for sleeping.. I'm going diving! I thought to myself that this is gonna be one unique Christmas celebration for me considering that this is my first shipwreck diving. And that was indeed a great experience! And that started it all. Just can't have enough about the underwater world. It never ceases to amaze me.

Last week Kontiki Divers Team set off for another expedition on this wreck. Take the tour with me guys! Check out this awesome video: 

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150310731557247&oid=168526919858433&comments