By Kim Molenaar
It has been a crazy day. The wild rush of people, faces and names, fade into the background with the gentle crashing of the waves breaking on the shore. The palm trees a bending silhouette against the drooping warmth of the late afternoon sun. Once again I am overcome with disbelief; my life is truly a paradise.
My name is Kim Ann Molenaar, I am twenty-five years old and a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer living and working in Indonesia. The underwater world has always been a massive part of my life. At the age of three my parents taught me how to snorkel in the Maldives with baby sharks and that is where my passion was ignited. I have never known a fear of the ocean and I never will, the only fears that now I possess are for the ocean and its inhabitants. As a scuba diving instructor I have devoted my life to training environmentally friendly divers who will act as ambassadors for the marine environment by demonstrating knowledge of its inhabitants and protecting the fragile coral reef systems from further damage. I believe that as divers we are responsible for educating the world about the importance of conservation for the marine environment.