crippled divers

12/03/23

An American man sits down on a hammock near me and begins to chat. The light flickers and goes out. Another power outage. The stars shine very brightly. There are no mosquitos.

He tells me he has been coming to Nicaragua now for 15 years. He initially came with a church group but he quickly got disillusioned and continued on his own. He records the names of lobster divers who have been left paralysed by faulty ascents from their deep dives. The government has promised to help. NGOs come down with fancy hyperbaric chambers and dive instructors. But the damage continues. The divers still dive poorly. He says it is ignorance but also machismo and that youthful sense of immortality. "It won´t happen to me." And the indifference of the boat captains. He has gone into the small villages up above the port town to collect his names. The divers are young Mesquito men as young as 16. Never over 30

Now he is hanging out waiting to do dental work.