As a kid growing up, there is nothing my mother did not do to stop me from going to rivers nearby. She told us stories about how dangerous water can be and how many people water has caused more harm than good, but all her stories and warnings fell on deaf ears. I wanted to learn how to swim so badly. I was attending a day school (one where we could return home after school closes), but I had friends who discovered a river nearby, and we would sneak out of school to go and play in the water while those who knew how to swim very well tried to teach those of us who did not know how to.
I almost drowned countless times, but that did not stop me from wanting to learn how to swim. We even got punished by the school's discipline master on the days that we were caught at the riverside or on our way back, but it took a few days to find our way back to the river. Somehow my mom heard that my friends and I went to the river, and she was furious and mad at me for days, but the moment peace was restored, I joined friends, and we went back to the very place my mom was angry about.
"Kachi, I beg of you, please stay away from water. If anything happens to you, I don't know how I will deal with something like that." My mom said seeing that being angry and shouting did not work, she now wants to use words and scary stories to instill fear in me.
"Mom, nothing will happen to me; I have people who can swim very well with me. You have nothing to worry about." I responded.
"Kachi, do you think this is a joke? Do you know that water (rivers and streams) can eat a person, especially if they are not indigenes of the state or location of the water, which obviously you are not? When it is time to renew covenants or start a new year, it is always the non-indigenes that go in for that." My mom warned
"Mom, all of that are superstitious beliefs; nothing like that exists." I responded, and it only got my mother even more angry.
"I wanted to save you from going to a boarding school, but obviously it is your fate." My mom said with a mischievous smile on her face.
"What do you mean, boarding school?" I asked.
"Your dad and I have discussed it, and we agreed that if you don't stop going to swim in the river with friends, the only way to cut you off from them is to take you to a boarding school, so pack your bags; next week you will be going to your new school." My mom said as she walked away.
"But Mom, you people did not deem it fit to ask if that is what I want?" I asked with a loud voice.
"You made your choice." My mom shouted back. "Pack your bags." She added,
I thought it was a joke, as I felt boarding schools were no longer taking in new students, but to my greatest surprise, when the time came, I packed my bags, and I found myself in a boarding school. And as a boarding student, there was no more going home every day after school and no more friends who I followed to the river, but it took me very little time to make new friends just like the ones back home. I met new friends who have been in the school even before me, and they showed me the river at the back of the school they always visit in the evening and whenever they get the chance.
"We will go to the river later today; care to come?" Dennis, my new friend, asked,
"Why not? What is stopping or keeping me busy that will stop me from coming?" I asked.
"The school frowns at it, but we still don't anyways." "Mike," one of my new friends, said.
"The more adults and authority frown at it, the more fun it is." Dennis said with a smile.
That day we got to the river and found a boy floating on top of the river. Some of us pulled him out, and some ran to call an adult that would know what to do in a situation like that, as all of us had been pushed into confusion. The boy looked pale; he was unconscious and not breathing, and at that point all the stories my mom told me about water started playing in my head. He was later resuscitated, but that was my last time anywhere near big water bodies.
"Water is good, but it can do more harm than you can imagine if you are not careful around it." I always say to myself whenever I find myself around big water bodies.
