Swimming like a fish

A lot has happened since I last blogged, so I'm sorry for the delay, but I plan to write a lot more and post more pictures. Wohoo for the plan! So as I explained in my last blog, Ali and I get to teach swim lessons to the kids at the local orphanage every Thrusday. At this orphanage there are about a total of 40 kids, 25 of which are old enough to play in the pool. There are two groups: the “grandes” and the “mas grandes”, which means “big kids” and the “bigger kids”.

The first week, we were able to take the grandes to the pool. There were a total of 10 kids in the pool, ranging from 2 to 5. All of the kids are required to first start out wearing life jackets in the pool until they can swim on their own proficiently. It was amazing to see their enthusiasm to get in the water. Especially after I heard that a few of the kids were completely terrified of even getting into a bathtub when they first arrived at the orphanage. One boy in peculiar, named Joseph, wouldn’t even get near a bathtub a couple years ago and now he is jumping into the pool like it was his home. So incredible.

A 2-year girl named, Pricilla, was pretty scared of the water. When the water even got remotely close to her face she would start to whine. So I started with letting her hold onto me and slowly she became willing to put her face in the water for a couple of seconds to try to blow bubbles. It was so precious to see her slowly embrace her fears and overcome them. Costa Ricans seem to have a lot of fears about things in life, fears that hold no truth. That is why many Costa Rican’s don’t know how to swim. In fact, all of the Costa Rican caretakers at the orphanage don’t know how to swim, and were asking us if we would be willing to teach them also! Oh how awesome that would be, I would love to do that, we just need to figure out time in our work schedules. But anyways, it’s sad to see the fears that the parents hold in their lives get passed onto their children. So I pray that the children can be freed from these empty fears, if anything from their fear of the water. Not to mention the incredibly beautiful beaches that surrounds Costa Rica, that I hope they can one day enjoy.

The following week, we went back to the orphanage for another week of swim time with the “mas grandes”, but then we turned out to have both the groups of kids for a total of 15 kids in the pool at once! I know it sounds like chaos, and believe me it was at the brink of chaos at times, but great fun nonetheless. During our little session, we were able to show the kids how to blow bubbles, and how to kick while holding onto the wall. It was awesome to see some of the naturals swim so well on their own, something so fun to be apart of. The time that I get to spend with the kids is definitely expanding my love for them and my love for kids in general. I pray to develop the kind of love that the Lord calls me to have for these kids.

These are two lovely girls from the orphanage that I get to teach swimmming to :)