Sunset Swimming (and Large Insects)

It’s now warm enough (boy, is it!) to swim in the outdoor pool near where I live. It’s a pretty nice pool, 25m, slightly salty instead of highly chlorinated, and made better if my goggles are a little foggy and I can’t see the crud. Yesterday a distant relative of a mutant grasshopper--perhaps the largest insect I have seen in my entire life--was thrashing about in my lane. I lifted it out with a kickboard to toss it far away, and it was actually heavy on the kickboard. Yum.

The pool is open late, which is key for after-work swimming. I generally swim through about 60% of the sunset (approx 6:30) then hurry home, since it's not really a great idea to walk home when it’s dark.

While I can generally remember to drive on the left in Botswana, I have much more trouble remembering to swim on the left. I keep forgetting and wreaking directional havoc when there is someone else in my swimming lane. I have met some friendly people at the pool (crashing into people has its advantages!), many of whom are not shy about asking for swimming tips. Since Botswana has no coast, no real lakes, and no year-round rivers in the south, it seems the majority of people never learn to swim. There’s one girl, probably around 16, who is there every Friday happily dog-paddling and wants me to teach her backstroke. I got her started on trying to learn how to float on her back first and we’ll take it from there.

What else? Oh, next weekend I am planning on attending “Botswana’s First Hip-Hop Extravaganza Experience” I mean, how could miss something like that?