Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Swimming in Sarawak




Sarawak is a country of heavy tropical rain and rivers. Sibu, my home town is situated along Rejang River some ninety miles from the South China Sea. Rejang River is 350 miles long and is the longest in Malaysia. I learned to swim in that river. We started like my daughter, playing and until an older uncle considered us capable enough. Then he flings us to the deeper end. Then we frantically swim back to the jetty.

My oldest daughter D was two when she visited Sarawak. Her Aunt Elizabeth took her swimming in one of the tributaries of Rejang River near to Binatang. We all had fun. This was a tributary, not the main river, so it was shallow.



http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/




http://www.kissess4u.com/2012/04/water-world-wednesday_10.htmlhttp://www.kissess4u.com/2012/04/water-world-wednesday_10.html



4 comments:

Ginny Hartzler said...

Learning by just throwing in? That is too scary for me,the child must be so scared!

Ensurai said...

I was taught to swim in the same way too in the Rajang River...many of my own females were thrown into the Min river just a few minutes old and drowned purposefully......My kids..they had swimming pools and a Sarawak state coach to train them in Miri......how different is the fate of one generation from another..

Now many of us of also to learn to swim with sharks metaphorically....

The JR said...

I haven't been swimming in ages.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

Ginny,

you are right, in the 40s, my uncle drowned, he was 4,

but we were water babies. we were by the river 3 times a day,