Swimming orphans

Teizeen:

Yesterday, I joined my friend Rachelle and her friend Elizabeth for a swim at Kiboko Bay Resort. This is a fancy local hang-out place with expensive food, two small swimming pools, and a view of Lake Victoria. It is frequented mostly by expatriates, visiting tourists, Indian families and generally, the richer local population.

Elizabeth works at a local orphanage and she had a wonderful idea: to take all 20 or so of the orphans, ranging from 2 years to 14 years in age, swimming at Kiboko Bay Resort (in the pool, not the lake). I offered to help out in the pool. The whole platoon of kids was quite a sight. They were absolutely excited about swimming, and scrambled out of their clothes into all assortments of swimming gear ranging from actual swimsuits, to underwear, to other clothes. One of the kids, Sylvester, had recently had surgery on his foot and he got to dip one of his feet in the water while the other hung outside the pool, wrapped in a plastic bag. Sylvester played catch with a ball for over a half hour in that position, with the other kids who were in the pool, the smile from his face never fading.

One of the staff tapped Elizabeth on the shoulder and asked her, “Are they all swimming? How many are there? There is a fee, you know.” Elizabeth assured him that she had talked to the manager about bringing all the kids over and was well aware of the fee, and would count the kids and tell him how many there were.

Almost everyone in the resort, lounging in chairs around the pool, stared at us and the kids splashing and screaming in the pool, having the time of their life. We pretty much took over the pool space. But the kids had no idea that people were staring. They simply had a blast. They even got soda pops.