12 Things I learned while snorkeling in the Red Sea

I’ve been debating for a while now, how best to use my blog. My life is fairly unstable at the moment. We’ve moved to the other side of the planet, and my boys still aren't registered in school. So I have two big fiery balls of energy racing, bored through my only writing space for about 12 hours a day. This, while I also attempt to relearn to cook with a range of ingredients I’ve never heard of before. It’s been a long process to figure out what I can find and what has to be made from scratch and what can be learned and what has to be lived without. I also have to learn at least enough of a new language to be able to maneuver my new city. And set up a household, not being able to find half of what I’m used to living with. And all this after probably the most exhausting six-month period of my married life. I feel as though I’m relearning how to live. It’s a good thing I get the occasional adventure on the weekends.

So I haven’t been writing all that much in the past several months, which means that I haven’t felt like I had that much to write about here either. But I have been learning, and note-taking and storing away for later.

I remembered this weekend that the whole reason I agreed to come here was to learn and to write. So that’s what this blog is going to be. It’s going to be a place for sharing the things that I am learning.
With that in mind, here is a list of things that I learned while snorkeling in the Red Sea. Some of these will end up in stories someday. Some of these will not. All of it has been incredible to experience.

1.    The Djinn – you may know them better by the name of Genie.

We had a wonderful Saudi host named Zuhair, who was more than happy to talk to me about legends, stories, belief, and superstitions.

According to Muslim belief, each time a person is born, their very own Djinn is also born. It's your own personal Djinn. Unlike humans, which are temporary, djinn live forever. So the world is positively filled with them. But while you are alive, the two of you are connected. That feeling you get when you suddenly shiver with fear, and you don’t know why? Your Djinn has seen something that you have not, and you can sense it through them. They also are the conduit of bad dreams and dark thoughts. But they are not necessarily evil. They, like humans, are good, bad or neutral. But they do tend to be tricksters.

A person may be born into a certain religion, but your Djinn does not necessarily share your same beliefs. They may have been born Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or any other religion. Mohamed is famous for having converted his Djinn to Islam. Zuhair tells me that it’s a story that’s written in the Koran. It was one of the miracles that Mohamed performed as a prophet. Not having read the Koran, I’m going to take his word for it.

2.    It turns out I’m not afraid to swim in water that I can see through, even deep water.
I’ve had a lifelong fear of deep water, so I was nervous about this whole snorkeling thing. I’ve even had swimming pools freak me out if I couldn’t touch the bottom. But the waters of the Red Sea are extremely salty, so first off I was ridiculously buoyant. The boys didn’t need lifejackets. If they got tired, they just lay back and rested. They couldn’t sink if they tried. And they did try.

But I was still pretty nervous getting in. We started in an area about 3 meters deep. It wasn’t that deep really, but there are sharks in the Red Sea, and I couldn’t touch the bottom. I started hyperventilating the moment Kaalam shoved me off the side of the boat and into the water. (Yeah, he’s that kid!)

Brandon saw me starting to panic and told me just to stick my face in, look around. I wasn’t convinced, but I obeyed, and the world that opened up was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The coral was brilliant red and purple and yellow, and there were schools of tiny, colorful fish everywhere. There are some sights in the world that are just too beautiful to be afraid of. I spent hours in the water and never wanted to go home. We’ll be starting scuba certification soon. I can’t wait!

3.    I desperately need a GoPro camera.

4.    Zuhair fished for most of the trip. He’s an avid fisherman and shared several fishing tips with us as well. I know nothing about fishing, so I have no way of dissecting truth from lore, but I love the thought process that surrounds it all.

Never expose caught fish to the moonlight. They will go bad immediately. If you go fishing at night, choose only the darkest nights. When the moon is shining the fish see it and swim deep to get away from the light, so you won’t catch anything. But if there is any moonlight in the sky, you have to cover the fish with a blanket or your catch won’t make it home.

He says his blanket has wrapped up his family and his fish, and it all smells the same. It’s the best blanket he’s ever owned.

Fish should always die out of the water, never in.

The Red Sea fish all look like something that belongs in an aquarium. But they’re yummy anyway.
 

5.    At 3 meters deep, a teapot looks an awful lot like a sea turtle until the boat comes to a stop and the waves settle down. But it still makes an amazing treasure for an 8-year-old boy.

6.    Flat fish are a result of the parting of the Red Sea.

There is a kind of flat fish, with both its eyes on the same side of its head. They were in the way when Moses parted the Red Sea and the weird, flat shape of them is the result.

7.    Kites will fly really well off a boat. Right up until they invert and end up in the water. Once wet, they will not fly.

8.    It’s possible to play with a whale shark.

The Red Sea has whale sharks. They’ll come up alongside your boat at night if they see the boat lights. Zuhair says the best way to get rid of them is to lay a plumb line weight on top of their head. They’ll swim down 30 meters to the end of the plumb line when the weight finally comes free. If you’re serious about catching fish, you should turn your lights off and let the whale shark bother some other ship. But if you’ve caught enough for the night, you can do it again and again, until the whale shark grows bored and swims away.

9.    There is an ancient way of rigging up your bait for deep sea fishing that lets you wedge the bait between 2 stones. This protects the bait until it gets to the depth you’re looking to fish and pulls the bait deep without the use of another weight. When it gets to the end of the line, you pull a trigger line, and the stones fall away. Then you can fish for the big fish. Zuhair still does this occasionally. He likes not having to haul the extra weight up along with the fish.

10.    Saudi has a dessert made out of shredded wheat that is to die for.

The shredded wheat is coated in honey and wound into the shape of a tiny little nest. Three shelled pistachios nuts are nestled into the center. Whatever else is in it, I need to learn to make it because it’s amazing!

11.    There are jungles in Saudi. Sadly, I’ll probably never get to see them. They’re in the mountains by the border of Yemen. As adventurous as I’d like to think I am, I’m not going near a war zone. This makes me sad.

12.    Mada'in saleh cannot be camped at.

The Nabateans, the ancient civilization that built the Treasury at Petra, built clear down into Saudi. There are great big structures carved directly into the stone. According to the stories, Mohamed traveled past the ruins with several of his followers. His followers wanted to stop for the night, but Mohamed told them no. The ruins were of a different time, belonging to a different people. Zuhair may have briefly inferred that the ruins were haunted, but I’m still working on fully understanding the accent.

Either way, to this day, the Saudi’s do not spend the night there. No surrounding city has ever been built.

Zuhair really likes us. He’s offered to drive us up, and tour guide the ruins for us. He’s also offered to take us out on the boat again. Once in the afternoon for more snorkeling, and once at night, to do some fishing.

This is going to be the most amazing experience of my life. I can’t wait to start getting it all into a story.