the roller coaster continues

Introduction to lifejackets before hitting the water
Second week of the swim project is over! The first week went wonderfully. The whole crew was excited to get in the water, and the whole crew showed up on time every day. We started them off fairly quickly - after showing how to put on a life jacket we lined them up and had them get right in. The pool is 3 meters (10 ft) deep throughout - no shallow end, no place where you can touch bottom. There were more than a few terrified expressions when they got in for the first time, and a few people panicked despite having the lifejackets on. Luckily the pool has a little mini-pool attached that's only 1.2 meters deep, so Holly took these few over there to introduce them to the water a little more slowly. Mostly though, they were splashing around and enjoying themselves within a few minutes of hitting the water. By the end of the first class, some of the trainees even took off their lifejackets and swam across the pool by themselves! Certainly those are the few that already had some idea how to swim (there's 3 or 4 that are decent swimmers already and one that is really good - he can swim from one end of the pool to the other underwater while wearing a lifejacket!). All in all it was a very encouraging first week, especially considering that we weren't even sure we were going to be able to do the project at all a mere two weeks earlier.

We had a bit of a surprise when we arrived Monday for the second week of the project - the pool was looking pretty green and murky. We got in the water anyway though, and had a good day. Some of the crew were looking a little tired after last week, but most of them were still psyched to be there and didn't want to get out of the water when the class was over. After class we talked to the pool owners and they promised to put some product into the pool to clean it up.

Tuesday went a bit differently. By then the pool was a dark grass green and completely opaque. We decided that we couldn't get the class into the water, it was just too gross - even the Malians (and I've seen Malians drink from standing water in irrigation ditches) were worried that it would make them sick. The day wasn't a total waste, as we did CPR training for the two groups, but then let them go home. We talked to the pool owners again, who promised to put more product in the pool and that it would be ready for the next day. Part of the problem is also that the pump is broken, so that the water isn't getting filtered. Bottom line is that the water was really gross.

The mini-pool is slightly less green, but smells like mildew
Wednesday was no better. In fact it was worse - they had obviously put a bunch of product in the pool the previous night, but without a working pump it hadn't gotten mixed at all. There was a good film of solid chemicals floating on the top of the pool. We were getting frustrated by this point and might have gone in the water despite the color, but decided we'd rather not end up drinking a whole bunch of pool chemical concentrate. The trainees were getting antsy too - a bunch of them aren't from Bamako but are only here for the project, so when they're not swimming they have nothing to do. They were already disappointed to only be swimming three days a week, and tell us that they aren't getting the per diem that the Protection Civile is supposed to be providing them for living expenses. All in all morale was very low, and the pool owners' assurances that they would get it fixed if we could give them a couple more days were not very helpful. We told all the trainees that we wouldn't have class at all that week and that we'd have to see about next Monday.

The pool was so murky you couldn't even see the second rung on the ladder!

Plus there was a nice film of algae and dead flies on the top

After class that day we weren't at all sure that we had a pool for the project. We're already doing the project in a week less time than we'd planned, thanks to our late start, and we weren't at all sure how much longer the trainees from outside Bamako would stick around if there was no swimming. We figured that if we didn't have a pool by Monday we would be in serious trouble. We decided we couldn't just wait and see if the pool was fixed by Monday, we had to have a plan B - so we spent the afternoon driving around Bamako in a Peace Corps car looking at other possible pools; both at hotels and at expat houses. The most promising one we found was at an expat's house across the river, but the pool was about one third the size of the pool we were in currently. It was a load off, though, to know that we'd be able to do the project one way or another!


Makan, our CPR trainer from the Malian Red Cross, demonstrating proper CPR techniques

Our Country Director told us not to lose hope - he said his pool can get green and nasty like that, and all it takes is the right combination of chemicals to perform a miraculous transformation. We were skeptical - with all the algae in the pool I was pretty sure the only way to get the pool in decent condition would be to remove all the water, scrub the pool clean, and fill it with new water and chemicals, and who knows how long that would take! I was wrong.Who says you need to get IN the water to practice your flutter kick?

Thursday afternoon I got a call saying that the pool owners reported having fixed the pool. I jumped in a cab and headed over to check it out and sure enough, the pool was blue again! We called up a few key members of the Protection Civile and told them practice was back on for the next day (Fridays are our optional practice days). When we showed up Friday morning the pool was not only blue but clear - we could see the stripes of lane lines on the bottom. I hadn't even realized there WERE lane lines before.


Practicing the reaching assistPracticing glidingSwimming with the aid of a lifejacketHolly demonstrating proper arm technique for the front crawl

Friday went very well despite the fact that half of the group hadn't been in the water for a whole week. In fact nearly every one of the 30 people that showed up Friday (the Gendarmes' commander isn't letting them show up to practice) ended up taking their lifejackets off and swimming across the pool without it - even though this was only the second time in the water for the vast majority of them! I continue to be amazed by how courageous they are and how quickly they come along. Actually they may be a little too courageous - in Monday's class we had to repeatedly rescue a couple people who would try to swim without the lifejacket, sink to the bottom, have to be pulled out, and then try it again 30 seconds later. They did much better on Friday.One of our better swimmers, without a lifejacket alreadyMaiga, our star swimmer

So now we're on another upswing, hopefully this one will last. I just hope that they can keep the pool clean for the next 5 weeks!