Although we are rapidly approaching the rainy season*, the sun without fail comes out at twenty past three each day for swimming lessons at three thirty. Each day we have one class from Bufuka Primary School, one week girls, the next week boys. P6 and P7 are quite good swimmers already and most of them can even leave the swimming platform and swim in the lake. There is a an artificial island 100 m out in the lake which they can swim to and practice diving off. For the other , swimming lessons are an exercise in becoming confident in shallow water - this means lots of games and encouragement.
Our people live very near the lake and use canoes regularly, however, most locals cannot swim, and are excessively afraid of water. Therefore it is extremely important to familiarise children with water so they don't irrationally fear the lake.The main challenge in teaching Bufuka Primary School how to swim is the language barrier. It is difficult to tell a child "Don't panic! I won't drop you!" when you don't speak a word of Rukiga. So swimming teachers have learnt the essential Rukiga words for swimming ...
- teera amaguru - kick with your legs,
- kola bati emikono yawe - do like this with your arms,
- guruka - jump,
- yiruka - run,
- ija hanu - come here,
- gyenda kuri - go away,
- and yoga - swim, which is of course not very useful if they don't know how to swim! :-)
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