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Hot days, cool pool
"Uncle Dave, can you open up the swimming pool for us?" has been the first thing that I am asked when I arrive at Clifton Hostel since the swimming pool has been open for the season. The Hostel swimming pool is getting more use this semester than in years past and the times spent there have been wonderful. The reasons for the increased use are the increased number of dorm parents who can swim and are willing to chaperone groups of students, and the current grade 10 boys who, in their first year at Hostel, enjoy the allure of the swimming pool.
In my time as a dorm parent, I have not seen the boys develop their friendships with each other like they do in the swimming pool. I have seen swimmers teaching non-swimmers strategies for staying afloat and quiet, reserved students open up to the other boys in the pool. Grade 10 boys will splash around with grade 12 boys and the entire pool of students will erupt with a collective "Ohhhhhh!!" when a boy makes an ill attempt at a dive that turns into a belly flop.
On Sunday, 20 May, the Hostel dorm council organized an event they called "Sun, Swim, and Soccer," which was an afternoon filled with swimming, a soccer (or 'football' depending on your country of origin) tournament, and freshly made bun omeletes cooked by the senior class. The boys' skin turned prune-like at the end of 4 straight hours in the pool!
Hostel boys are not the only students enjoying the pool. Several other staff have chaperoned groups of male and female students from elementary school through high school. Mrs. Weber returned to her apartment clothed and drenched after chaperoning a group of high school girls in the swimming pool last week. Her response and rationale for her sopping wet clothes: "I saw all of the girls having so much fun jumping off the diving board that I had to get in myself!"