Swim Race

Swim Race - by Michael

One advantage of living near the capital is a sports club where we can swim, play tennis, and use the internet. Our house just outside Kigali doesn't have good internet though coverage is all over the county through cell phone towers.  The club is also a peaceful place to bring our books to settle in and do our school work. 

          At the pool we have befriended Moses who works daily as lifeguard/manager.  When he saw us swim he invited us to sign up for a swim race to be held at the pool.  His English is broken so we didn’t learn until we arrived that the swim race was Rwanda’s 1^st National Swimming Championship! 

There were about 100 swimmers categorized in age groups from 9+yrs.   There are so few swimming pools here in Kigali I was surprised to find so many swimmers.  A lot of them came from Lake Kivu (see our last Blog post) including Jackson, Rwanda’s #1 Olympic swimmer, whom we met at Kibuye 3 weeks ago. 

We arrived 20 min late—still getting used to the drive into town—but we were some of the first to arrive-- chairs and lane-markers still needed to be set up.  The opening ceremony was scheduled for 8:00 but was 1 ½ hours behind.   A traditional dance group performed on the pool deck for nearly 30 min (followed by a lengthy speech by the president of the Rwanda Swimming Federation).   It was the second time we had seen Rwandan dancing. The men wore a head band of colibus monkey hair and carried a spear and small shield.  The ladies danced with woven baskets.  Each wore shakers on their ankles and rhythmically stomped as they danced.  A drummer hammered away on three large drums next to a group of singers.  Their lyrics sounded like stories that changed in mood and energy.

           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.

          We had a great time—once the swimming began.  My bros. and I swam two strokes of our choice. We swam well though it has been a few years since we swam on our hometown team in Redding.  Daniel and Nathan swam with kids 9-14yrs; I swam with kids up to 19yrs in breaststroke, free and back.  I placed first in the 100m breaststroke race and won a backpack. 

          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!