it's a rough snorkelling life

i just returned this evening from 3 1/2 days in sabang, a small island off the very northern tip of indonesia. Genassist had a weekend workshop for their staff, and our team had a weekend of hard work as well... snorkelling and laying on a beach.
we left friday afternoon, and arrived at our "resort" by about 7 pm. laura and i were hoping for an actual shower, but no such luck. buckets in a bathtub it was. but the cottages were very nice, clean, and even had air conditioning. we ate dinner at a tiny restaurant on the beach. i had a tuna sandwich and almost passed out from the incredible taste! it wasn't rice! (did i ever mention that i have been eating rice and sardines/smoked fish 3 times a day for 3 weeks. yes, i eat cold sardines for breakfast.)
on saturday, while the indonesian team had team building workshops - laura, matt, and i had a little team building of our own. we strapped on snorkelling equipment and spent 4 hours snorkelling off the beach. it was really incredible! i don't know much about fish, but the variety was astounding! hundreds of different types of fish, snakes, eels, jellyfish (got stung a couple of times). there is red, blue, green, and grey coral in every shape imaginable. some of it even looks like brain tissue for all you neuro nurses. i was at work in spirit, really!
and if my niece katie or her parents are reading this, i saw nemo and his friends!! he is just fine!
i spent some time just suspended over an area where the coral reef drops off sharply and you can't see the bottom of the ocean floor. it felt like a different universe! it was so incredible.
i can't begin to understand the imagination that God has with all the different ocean life!! and i can't begin to explain all the cool things i saw under the water! so i will spare you five pages of fish details...
on sunday, we took motorbikes/mopeds with some genassist staff up some very bad roads to a place called "zero kilometer". it is the most western point on a road in indonesia from which the rest of the distances in indonesia is measured. there was one indonesian island west of us, but there are no roads or people on it.
sunday afternoon, we hung out on the beach with genassist staff and got to know eachother a bit better (at the end of course). in the evening, some people fished off the pier, caught some squid and other fish. laura and i went to karaoke for awhile (we sang pretty woman by roy orbison). then at 11pm we went to eat the fish that the guys caught.)
on monday, we snorkelled again in a different area for 4 hours - what a rough life! and now i am back in town!
i will be in banda aceh for a couple of days - so i will try to write again...