Back on the CHICKS camp out of 16 kids between 8 and 11, a handful could swim, not that they were just not that good, but they just hadn't been given the chance. Really!
So another hurdle these kids had, another mission we had. Now CHICKS has a pool, a little one but a pool nonetheless, with toys and all. A continuous plastic ball fight began, no not the kids, the volunteers of course, a day in and we already had pent up rage to take out! Somehow it's always the adults that start these things. In between onslaughts however we spent time trying to get several of them in the pool let alone teach them. They'd been suited up with arm bands and we eventually got each kid to take a turn, helping them back and forth across the pool. Definitely hard work and it was early on, they weren't really at the point of trusting us yet. Water is scary to an 8 year old!
A trip out, this time to a swimming pool half way through the week. A big pool this time, fitted out with a sort of high speed whirlpool bit which you swim in and it powers you round. Pretty darn cool. Once again we fitted the kids up, some headed to the paddling pool others approached the main pool fearfully. A few went straight in and powered off into the distance. I remember not being that good at swimming at their age that's for sure, i hated water not that i couldn't swim i just didn't like it, still not that confident. But i went in and turned around to a group of children standing by the ladder considering their options. With some time and some pleas from the kids to make sure i was there to catch them if they sank like a rock they began to delve in. Most of them now, after only a few days trusted us as though they'd known us through their lives, I still find that incredible with any kid let alone these ones.
I followed a few kids round the edge. They certainly don't trust arm bands and they don't really work that well if you go into a fit of fear upon letting go of the edge. It takes time. However one child decided he was too good for arm bands, threw them off and swam well enough, it was when he stopped the problems began. You'd ask him if he was alright or wanted help and he'd bob up and down in the water saying "I'm, gurgle gurgle, okay, bubble bubble" as he went underwater and then back up. We worried for a while but he wasn't drowning, we decided eventually that he'd be alright. Meanwhile back at the others, it was like fishing as i jumped from kid to kid, I've never done so much swimming in my life. It turned out that get one into the whirlpool and the speed keeps them above the surface, what a brilliant idea. You got a kid into it and they had a head start at swimming. Once you followed them through a couple times they got used to the idea and went through on their own, awesome. Of course i was then basically a taxi service to help them swim back to the start. Their confidence grew tenfold. The swimming improved just as much, from no ability to confidently swimming off. It went from me being yelled at for help at the start to cries for me to watch them as they swam off into the beyond. Now that means something to me, even the immense aches and pains from all the swimming were easily dwarfed by that satisfaction.
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