Finding the internet

Cutting mangos with dull knives isn't recommended

This morning I tried eating a mango I bought recently at the local market. Surprisingly, it was quite challenging cutting the mango with the dull knives from the kitchen. I think I could have cut the mango easier with a brick. Today my goal was to find out the best way to pay for my Instructor Development Course (IDC). I was disappointed to find out that I couldn’t directly transfer money from both my bank accounts in the US to the dive center’s bank account.

Sander previously mentioned that I could try using Western Union to transfer money. I’ve never used Western Union before. Looking at their website, it looked quite promising. The easiest would be to do it all online but I couldn’t because there’s a $999 limit which wasn’t enough. Damn, just my luck. I guess I had to do it in person, which meant I would have to go to Tagbilaran to do it. First though, I had to find out if Asia Divers, the dive center I was going to do my IDC with, would accept Western Union as a payment method.

I had already asked Asia Divers if it was okay to use Western Union and needed to check my email for a response. I don’t have much time to pay because the course director graciously extended their early bird discount of 10% off tuition if paid in full one month prior to the start of class. As with my luck, all 3 internet cafes I visited didn’t have internet - internet was down on the whole island. Damn.

I decided to just hang around Alona Beach where I hung out with Sander at Genesis. Several hours later, I tried checking internet again at a local internet cafe and on the way I saw Bob from Oops bar! It was good to see him and find out where he went after he left Oops bar while I was in Japan. The internet was online and Asia Divers emailed me back saying it was okay to use Western Union. This made my life a lot easier.


- jason