Little Fish

A lot of folks who move far away from their homes to live in developing countries feel that they are giving up quite a few things that they love and are important to them - houses, access to easy-to-prepare foods, malls, etc.  For me, the biggest thing I've had to (mostly) let go is swimming.  The nearest pool is about four hours away from Musoma.  Once or twice a year we're near a pool, and I try to seize every possible chance I have to enjoy the water.  We were recently at a conference held in Kenya at a place with a pool, so I was very excited about that!

I have great memories of swimming as a kid, and I hope Zarya will grow up loving the water, too.  I wasn't going to let having a little baby keep me out of the pool, so thus Zarya was "required" (you can see how very upset she was about this regulation) to play in the water with me for at least an hour every afternoon while we were there.  She worked hard on her paddling, kicking, and floating skills.  She also spent a fair bit of time just enjoying being held for a long time - it's much easier to carry her in the water than on land, so my arms didn't get as tired and I had a lot more endurance for lugging her around.