Among the less well-know casualties of teaching swimming lessons to little tykes are internal bleeding and black eyes from getting kicked in various places while teaching (what else?) kicking; severely itchy skin from sitting in a bath of chlorine for more than two hours a day; and getting sick.
The first one I haven't experienced in years, but the second two continue to plague me.
Why would you get sick from being around kids in a pool? You might ask.. It's not like in daycare where, if they don't wash their hands every five minutes, the group of preschoolers becomes a veritable incubus of viral plague. You're in chlorine. It should kill it all.
You know what? It should, but it doesn't.
On the contrary.
See, when these little kids (of whom I have over 20 on Mondays and Wednesdays and over 30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays) are swimming - doing various kicking exercises with a floatie stick to support their arms or trying desperately to swim front crawl - and come up for air, it's usually right in my face.
And what goes right in my face when they come up for air? Spit, sneezing, coughing, snot, water etc.
I know. Really gross.
There were a few specific instances last week when the kid came up for air and spit, just as I was opening my mouth to say something, and the spit went right in my mouth. Not a loogie (sp?) or anything like that. Just a full spray-blast of water and other unknowns from their mouth and into mine, complete with all the little bacteria and viral yuckies (that's a technical term) that come along with little kids.
Now you wonder why I'm sick?
Oh yeah, maybe it's also because of my schedule - working 35 hrs/week on top of school. But I prefer to blame it on the spit.
Photo courtesy of http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/
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2 comments:
Ok, so this is definately not the most pleasing picture to look at, no wonder you were confused by my text message. I'll take the cafe in Eilat over the unappetizing body fluids. Maybe your old gas mask from Israel would protect you from being exposed to all of the copious amounts of unpronouneable bugs each child is spitting into your face. Hurrah for Emergen-C, Airborne and lots of sleep! Oh yeah I forgot, you're a working student--good amounts of sleep aren't an option (working on little bits of sleep seems to be a prerequisite to success in medical school, so you should be well used to it by the time you pass those MCATs and start your internship). Well, here's to being employed and having a purpose/goal to work towards--and a MIGHTY G-d that is providing for all of your needs!
Oh by the way, it is great to see you writing again!
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