BORN TAO: Memories of swimming in muddy water
What you need to know:
- There is a clear distinction between a dufo mpararo and a swimming pool swimmer.
- In dufo, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke styles are not entertained
was our hood version of a swimming pool. It simply meant a seasonal river that formed every rainy season on the peripheries of our estate.
, we all used to say, was what separated men from boys because we had to swim with mudfish and tadpoles.
There is a clear distinction between a and a swimming pool swimmer. In backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke styles are not entertained, we had style, swimming like the alligator, and we could even navigate corners.
I into the club when I was in Class Three.
It was on a Sunday afternoon after attending Sunday school classes that my friend suggested that we pass by .
STERN WARNING
My mother had issued a stern warning against ever swimming on seasonal rivers, but for a curious boy, rules broken.
Our friends and joined us. Back then, was an boys-only affair, just like was a girls-only game. We hurriedly took off our clothes, everything including the inner wears placing heavy stones on them in case the wind blew them into the water.
was thirty meters long, fifteen meters wide while the deep end was five meters and the shallow end was one and half meters deep. The colour of the water was dark brown like tea tossed with over tea leaves.
A SHARK TO BEHOLD
was an expert swimmer, a shark to behold. He dived through the deep end and after 20 seconds emerged at the shallow end. We by his skills.
A foolish but brave also dived in right after Shei but landed on his stomach. He cried in anguish as he flipped his arms, desperate to save himself from drowning because he had zero swimming skills.
laughed out loudly before he dived right in helping him out of the water. has gulped several glasses of the murky water.
dressed up and left for home after vomiting his guts out. We were extremely afraid to get into the water but it was then or never. We entered by the shallow end, the water was flowing by our waistline. Slowly, we gained courage and I jumped into the slightly deeper end of the pool, hurting my leg in the process because I stepped on sharp glass. I bled profusely and had carried away.
My friends had to carry me all the way home and we concocted a lie to tell my mother about how I got the injury but as we got ready to leave, a swarm of bees attacked us and we jumped back into the pool fully clothed!
For a few seconds, we remained submerged in water. We must have gulped about two muddy glasses of water but not Shei because he had mastered the art of holding his in water.
We couldn't go home with soaking wet clothes.
the expert by circumstances to play a little man like the rest of us. He asked us to keep a watchful eye for , the estate bully who hid the clothes of and demanded ten shillings in return.
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