What is strange to me is that none of the teachers realised that if a child fell into the water, it would drown unless rescued by one of us. Or worse still, a drama that constantly ran through my head and made me prickle with fear, if the boat capsized, how many of the twenty eight preschoolers would three of us wuzungu be able to save?
None of the teachers were able to swim - but they were all wearing adult life jackets, and being adults, they would all be fine - probably - unless they panicked. But of the twenty eight children, just one was wearing an appropriately sized and fitted child life jacket - the other twenty seven were wearing ludicrously oversized adult jackets with broken zips and hastily tied straps - and let’s face it, even if the zips had worked, the small children would have slipped right out of the jacket when immersed - or maybe a larger one would have flipped over with its head under water - either way, not a success story.
We were only on the lake for about ten minutes - if that. But I felt distinctly uneasy and watched the children like a hawk. At the other end of the boat, J was doing the same. Having given all his valuables to a teacher, he was poised ready to dive. All of the children were actually very calm and well behaved, so unless the boat leaking became worse, or a hippo (they were around!) came up under the boat, I suppose we were okay.
The three year old in the child life jacket screamed the entire time. He was intensely upset at having to wear a jacket different from all of the others.
And when the boat finally docked and we lifted the children one by one onto the rocks, I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. J apparently had the exact same thoughts as myself, as he shared with me afterwards.
Was the 1000KSH we paid for the ride worth the risk? I’m not sure I think it was.
It was worth it. Every Kentan shilling! For the childrens' sakes.
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