I was called something today for the first time ever in my life: a "professional" swimmer!
Yup, that's right, watch out London, I'll see you in the pool!
I almost hate to admit it, but the Conference Centre where this workshop is being held actually has a swimming pool! So, I can swim anytime I want... well, that is, any time I'm not sitting in the classroom and the pool is open. That basically means from 5-6pm! Which isn't too bad, actually, as it's just time enough to go to the pool and get a bit of much needed exercize! Today a few of my Kenyan co-participants joined me in the pool. We had a ton of fun! But, you see, many folks in East Africa have never really learned how to swim. Either they grew up near a river or a lake, and they just sorta grew up floating and doggy paddling around in the water, or, in the case of one of my friends here who grew up near a river, there were too many crocodiles in the river to be able to get anywhere near it to learn how to swim. Very few people have actually taken swimming lessons (though that's changing now in the cities as school children often have lessons at a local hotel pool as part of their phys ed classes).
Anyway, it means quite a few adults really don't know how to swim very well, though they're pretty brave in jumping in the water in pretty much any sort of attire, and trying to paddle around! After I had swum a few lengths (thanks to my few swimming lessons as a child!), I became the "coach" today. I wowed and amazed my class with my ability to tread water. I was called a "professional" because I could breast-stroke and do a basic front crawl without drowning. I was the talk of the pool because I could kick without displacing the water 10 feet out of the pool... I had some really good students today, and we had a lot of fun! One of the joys of being a teacher (even if it is teaching something that I'm truly as talent-less at as swimming) is seeing the joy and pride on learner's faces when they "get it"! Fatuma's grin as she swam towards me without sinking was so priceless!
So, at least I had an hour of good fun in the midst of a LOT of work! This pre-primer is turning out to be a LOT work... and I don't even know if I'm really on the right track with the tone stuff, because I don't have any mother tongue speakers to ask about it! Hopefully the two guys will arrive on Sunday and will stay for 2 weeks here with us so we can start working on it together!
Yup, that's right, watch out London, I'll see you in the pool!
I almost hate to admit it, but the Conference Centre where this workshop is being held actually has a swimming pool! So, I can swim anytime I want... well, that is, any time I'm not sitting in the classroom and the pool is open. That basically means from 5-6pm! Which isn't too bad, actually, as it's just time enough to go to the pool and get a bit of much needed exercize! Today a few of my Kenyan co-participants joined me in the pool. We had a ton of fun! But, you see, many folks in East Africa have never really learned how to swim. Either they grew up near a river or a lake, and they just sorta grew up floating and doggy paddling around in the water, or, in the case of one of my friends here who grew up near a river, there were too many crocodiles in the river to be able to get anywhere near it to learn how to swim. Very few people have actually taken swimming lessons (though that's changing now in the cities as school children often have lessons at a local hotel pool as part of their phys ed classes).
Anyway, it means quite a few adults really don't know how to swim very well, though they're pretty brave in jumping in the water in pretty much any sort of attire, and trying to paddle around! After I had swum a few lengths (thanks to my few swimming lessons as a child!), I became the "coach" today. I wowed and amazed my class with my ability to tread water. I was called a "professional" because I could breast-stroke and do a basic front crawl without drowning. I was the talk of the pool because I could kick without displacing the water 10 feet out of the pool... I had some really good students today, and we had a lot of fun! One of the joys of being a teacher (even if it is teaching something that I'm truly as talent-less at as swimming) is seeing the joy and pride on learner's faces when they "get it"! Fatuma's grin as she swam towards me without sinking was so priceless!
So, at least I had an hour of good fun in the midst of a LOT of work! This pre-primer is turning out to be a LOT work... and I don't even know if I'm really on the right track with the tone stuff, because I don't have any mother tongue speakers to ask about it! Hopefully the two guys will arrive on Sunday and will stay for 2 weeks here with us so we can start working on it together!
No comments:
Post a Comment