I will talk about an outdoor sport which I would like to try for the first time. This is swimming, its a sport that I have always admired so much and so common, I have always watched some other people swimming. As a person who grew up in the villages of Nkayi in Zimbabwe, there were many pools all over in the bush especially during the rainy season. We were discouraged from getting into those pools by our parents because they said it was dangerous, none knew how deep those pools were and they were muddy as children, we will get stuck inside there and suffocate, drown or even die. Our community elders communicated fatal information to us about those pools even though some children disobeyed and always jumped into that water, so through that, I grew up scared of any deep waters and I lost all the interest of learning swimming.

After my tertiary education, I got a job in Namibia and I was deployed to this small coastal city called Swakopmund. I worked in the biggest hospital in that town. For the first time in my life, I saw the wonders of this world that I had just learnt about at school and had failed to even visualise what the teacher was talking about: I saw the sea, saw the sand dunes, and the so called barren land the desert. Initially I had nightmares the land was too open for me, water was too much, I was used to bushy thick forests and at least some noise from birds and animal sounds, gently flowing rivers not that amount of water with all the violent strong waves at times. I noticed that most people could swim comfortably if the sea was calm they got into that sea water and enjoyed swimming and when the temperatures shot up to the 40s. They cooled themselves nicely there.

That sea water made me change my thinking about swimming, I now realise the importance of leaning that special skill and even the need of teaching children how to swim. Through talking to the people around I got to know that there is clean reasonable sized pool called Dolphin park, where people go for coaching concerning swimming. On announcements through whatever means, people are encouraged to learn swimming There is a small fee that citizens pay and it’s worthy it, comparing the number of people who drown and die and those who recover in hospital. The city council has made it compulsory that all schools include swimming in their extra curricular activities so as to ensure that all the children are well equipped with this skill. As I still continue staying in this coastal town, I have to swim no matter what. I have realised that swimming is a survival skill especially these days with these natural disasters that we see because of climate change. Dolphin park has many trained coaches for all the ages. I feel confident now more than before and leaning will be easy because they first give a lecture before letting leaners dive into water and have some protective leaning devices to keep learners floating before they can be left to swim by themselves.