Swim Race - by Michael
Then the swimming began. The announcements were all in Kinyarwanda, which made it difficult to know when we were to race. We listened closely for the words Abahungu—boys, Abakobgwa—girls, and the age. We were the only white swimmers; the rest were Rwandans. The majority were teens and younger kids from a few schools that had swim teams and access to pools around Kigali.
Once the races started, the meet was surprisingly well organized, but very slow, sometimes ten minutes between each race. Breaststroke was a favorite of the Rwandan swimmers; nearly half swam it. Some swam very well with good form. Others swam with funny variations of strokes: two kicks to a pull, swinging arms like windmills, or/and swimming through the water like a weighted barge.
Swimming in Rwanda is not common as a sport. Besides Lake Kivu, there are only a few swimming pools in Kigali; I was very surprised that Rwanda has a pro swimmer (from Lake Kivu). Other sports like football (soccer), basketball, volleyball and tennis are played much more—football especially. Daniel, Nathan and I are practicing with a football team near our house. (more in next blog post). Rwanda’s National football team has also done well among other African teams and the U17 team just competed in the U17 World Cup in Mexico a few weeks back.
Last week, as Nathan, Mom and I were swimming, Jackson, Rwanda’s pro swimmer, and two of his teammates were swimming right alongside of us . They were training before flying to Beijing to compete on the 19th . In the States I never would have thought about swimming with someone like Michael Phelps, but here we have met Jackson at the lake, competed in the same competition, and have swum together in the same pool!