Grade 7, Africa House College
It was on the 23rd of October 2020 when I, and my brother Dumisani, and his friends, decided to go and swim in the river. We were at my mother’s childhood place as schools were closed. We never grew up in the rural areas, and it was our first time visiting our grandparents. It was a very sunny day, and we were extremely excited. We were not afraid of swimming from the riverbank because we were used to swimming in huge pools in town where we lived with our parents.
Within ten minutes we were at the river. Dumisani’s friends were used to swimming in the river because they always came home when schools were closed. All went well; we enjoyed ourselves, but after swimming I started to feel a bit uncomfortable. My stomach was sore and I started running; I felt weak and did not know what to do. Dumisani and his friends carried me home, and when my mom saw my state, she drove me to hospital. On arrival, doctors confirmed that I had diarrhoea. The pain was unbearable, and from that day I learnt to never to swim in dirty water. I recovered after some days, when we had to go back to school.