Typhoon Maria made it to Guam a day ahead of me. While I missed out on the main event of the natural disaster, I've witnessed the uprooted trees, flooding, and residual heavy rainfalls. The sun came out this morning and the Philippine Sea was calm enough for some snorkeling. The area we tried was reachable from land and, though, reported as one of the best spots on the island, it turned out to be marginally better than my pool.
While I was looking for something interesting, I had the Thai soccer team on my mind. The world is pulling for the team and coach as well as the rescuers. I'm relieved they have started the rescue as the idea that oxygen concentration in the cave was down to 15% had me particularly worried. Clearly the team's current state in the cave was undesirable and not sustainable. The desired state (rescued) is where they all need to be. But the challenge is the transition from the current state to the rescued state. It's a treacherous trip compounded by their fear, weakened state, and inability to swim. At one point, I heard talk about drugging them so that they didn't resist the rescue attempt, particularly those portions underwater through tight areas. It is human nature, I suspect, to resist rescue despite wanting to achieve that desired state.
When I was in high school and college, I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor during both summers and school years. While I was most afraid of teaching the infant classes (4 months to 2 years of age) infants were actually much easier than toddlers, youth and adults because they didn't fear the water.
Fun fact: If you gently blow in the face of an infant, they close their eyes and hold their breath. Then you can dunk them under water and push them to their parent who is standing about 4 ft away. The parent then brings the infant out of the water. The infant is surprised but not afraid and rarely cries as a result of the experience. While underwater, many infants actually move their arms, swimming.
Adults are a far different story. Drowning victims often claw and climb on their rescuers, potentially drowning the person that is trying to get them to their desired state. As a result, you often teach adults, and even teens, to swim from the deck rather than within the pool. I learned this the hard way during a high school lesson (our swim team coach had the team members teach those who couldn't swim during PE class). I will keep her name anonymous but I distinctly remember fighting to get away from her and telling her to just stand up – we were still in the shallow end of the pool.
Drugged or alert, here's hoping the rescue continues to go well and everyone stays safe! The fact that everyone is working as a team with a common goal is certainly to their advantage.
For me, the opening reception was this evening and it's a full day of meetings tomorrow and Wednesday. I suspect it will start to feel like I was drugged at times. We have some good topics on the agenda so I remain optimistic the conversations will lead us to our desired state.