Important Swimming Lessons

I've started volunteering with my friend Heidi to teach swimming lessons on Tuesdays and Thursday for the kids at Women Against Rape's Women's Shelter. I'm not a qualified teacher by any means, but as with many things here in Africa, knowing something is better than nothing.

Teaching people to swim here is incredibly important. For the last 30 years, the delta, the rivers, and the Lake Ngami have run dry. For the Batswana, who primarily live in the Kalahari Desert which resides in most of Botswana, water is a very important resource. This is why fear of drought and praise for rain (pula - also the name of Botswana's official currency), is very important to people here. Only in the last 1-2 years have rivers started flowing through Maun and water filling the Lake Ngami outside of Sehithwa. Many people didn't even know that water used to run through these parts and some have never even have seen it causing them to be deathly afraid of the water and anything that could be in or around it such as hippos, crocodiles, or even catfish. Because these peoples have been living in the desert so long, many have no idea how to swim and stay away from the water if they can.

I've been teaching these kids for a couple weeks now. They were originally being taught by a couple of volunteers from Australia for 2 months and since the volunteers have gone back to school, Heidi and I have taken their place. The teaching has been very basic since the kids are 2, 4, and 6. Molooki was originally very afraid of the water and had trouble getting in. We've been starting on basics (necessary, especially with limited Setswana), blowing bubbles, dunking heads underwater, holding breath.... It's amazing to watch kids learn and grow just because they do it so quickly.

Last Thursday, we took the older kids from the shelter swimming. One man at the pool, perhaps a maintenance guy from the lodge, was observing us with the kids. Initially, I thought he was going to accuse us of not being allowed to use the pool. Instead, he was just happy that we were trying to teach the kids how to swim.

It was a coincidence, that there was a terrible accident the night before. 4 people were out on a mokoro (dugout canoe) at sundown. Just as they were about to dock, a hippo overturned the canoe. Even though the hippo didn't attack, it managed to snap the boat in two while they were just a few meters from shore. 2 of the 4 people did not know how to swim. 2 people were able to get to safety, 1 who could swim and the other who couldn't, was helped ashore. One of the others, able to swim, went back for the 4th person who couldn't swim and both went missing.

Search parties were out during the night looking for the 2 missing people while the 2 that made it ashore received medical attention. By afternoon on Thursday, we learned that both people were found dead and had drowned. It was very unfortunate that they were all people that my new office mates knew.

Accidents like these can happen anytime. Especially during the rainy season, there are flash floods because the sand does not absorb all the water and causing riverbeds to overflow. It's stories like this one that remind me how priveledged I was to grow up with a pool and have people able to teach me to swim. For the kids at the shelter, it has worked wonders on their disposition. They have gone from initially being afraid of the water, to being very excited to go swimming. Also, since many witnessed domestic violence all of their young lives and were only recently removed from those family situations, they were very shy and have become a little more outgoing and confident since they feel more empowered after swimming lessons.