Swimming

I learned how to swim when I was a little girl with my sister Helen at the Rio Grande River (Mindanao) near Villaeron and corner Bonifacio Streets. At that time, there was a newly made makeshift laundry area at the river site with a roof structure and galvanized mesh underneath to protect the clothes from washing away. Few children, my sister and I included used the facility, like a swimming pool to learn how to swim. At first, my mother had a maid followed us to the river to watch over our safety. But seeing that it was pretty safe, we were soon left along to enjoy ourselves. The laundry structure I think was own by some Chinese guy. It was sturdy and quite safe. Being the younger sister, I pretty soon, began to catch up with Helen in swimming. She was bolder and always trying to prove better. I simply tagged along her daring initiatives. Not for long, from the laundry area, we crossed over to the river bank where the banca and motorboats were docked. There were many other Muslim kids swimming around. We tried to follow their maneuvers. The river had strong current but I would hold on to the boats' balancing poles (katig) or sides and traversed from one boat to another. It was challenging and very fun. I specially love the high tide where the river was always nicer, deeper, greener and cleaner. And thus how I learned to swim, not from the university swimming classes that taught the scientific method and/or free style swimming, but rather from the river with the Muslim kids doing the dog paddle, treading and staying afloat all the way. Until now, I can manage to stay afloat on the water for hours, not because I am a good swimmer but because of the buoyancy I guess. Hahaha. My son Roy once told me, that we were inherently natural floaters. I guess he was right. Hahaha.

Anyway, my sister Helen and I stopped swimming on the river when we became teens. My uncle Fernando came home from Manila one day and saw us swimming with other Muslim kids. He scolded my mother about us girls growing up. And hence, thus this ended our river frolicking era as kids. My uncle was right though. Thank you for your concern, Uncle Fernando.

Still, on becoming a youngster and even as an adult, I continued to enjoy the waters by going to Linik or Kusiong beach on special occasions with family, classmates and friends. When my kids were growing up, my husband and I brought them to the beach here in Cotabato during Sundays. My son Roy was asthmatic so if I could, I would bring them to the beach weekly. During summer, our vacation destinations would be to the different beaches here in the Philippines. My children just liked us had no proper swimming lessons. They also learned how to stay afloat on the blue waters of the beaches and resort pools with their siblings. Many kids now a days learned proper swimming from taking lessons on the pool. I guess that is the right way of learning how to swim though. Yet, for me, nothing really beats having so much fun, learning how to swim with your own family and friends.