Swimming lessons on the Lake!

On the afternoon of the 13th August, we got the late news that there was going to be a holiday the next day. So we decided it would be a nice idea to take all the children from the Street Kids Rehabilitation Center out for the day.

Trekking through the jungle

After a disasterous start (trekking through the jungle in search of a waterfall which turned out to be a tap!), we headed down to the lake. The children were VERY excited about this, it was hard to control them not to jump in as soon as we got there. With Ama (the mother of the center) and a few others standing on the side watching over, and the rest of us in the water being life guards, they were off!!

We all had so much fun! The younger ones stayed by the edge, spalashing us and jumping in from the bank and the older ones were determined to learn to swim. By giving them alittle bit of instruction and support they picked it up really quickly and were soon swimming well out of theit depth! Keeping a close eye on them, they got stronger and stronger.

Ashmita and Roland having a game iof pat-a-cake whilst in the water

 After an hour we were all feeling a little tired so we jumped out for a few mintues to have a banana and a few biscuits. We were then greeted by the Chairman of the center who heard what we were doign and wanted to come down to see! He was really impressed how much confidence they had and asked if we could start brining them down on a regualr basis to teach them to swim.

Chrissy giving swimming lessons to some of the older ones

We spend a lot of time with these children at their home, usually after school helping with their homework, preparing the evening meal and playing football, skipping etc, but is was so nice to see these kids outside of the center, carefree and really having a wonderful time! A great day by every standard for the children and the volunteers.