No 161: I have a new hero

Actually I have three. They are all women. Two are Haitian. Readers of last week’s blog will recall that I have been in Haiti for the past few days, participating in the annual ‘Swim for Haiti’ event. My new heroes are all a product of this glorious event.

First there is Naomy Grand’Pierre. Naomy is 19. She is a feisty, self-assured young lady who positively exudes good-will and charm. She also happens to be 50% of the 2016 Haitian Olympic Swimming team. Seldom does one get to meet people who can instantly fill a room with just their natural charisma. Naomy is one such lady. Watch for her as the years pass, she will be outstanding. She is the whole package: gracious, funny, intelligent, focused, hardworking. She has a certain celebrity cache in Haiti and watching her give access to her fans, without ego or reluctance, was a wonder.

Naomy was one of the 20 or so swimmers who did the 10km sea-swim (another 40 did a 1.5km event). Her usual event is the 50m freestyle sprint. Clearly a 10km swim is a very different beast, requiring a different set of muscles and a very different mind-set. A gruelling sea swim marathon requires a unique mix of pig-headed resilience and old-man stamina, both attributes that I happen to possess. She may be a race horse, but this is an event where the plodding donkey should come up trumps. Such was my confidence that I would beat her that I confess before the swim I toyed with a title for this blog being ‘I beat an Olympian’. I could not have been more wrong. She completed it over an hour faster than me, coming in at 3 hours 20min. While I struggled on, praying for death continually for the last 2 km, she skimmed through the water like a dolphin. She even found time to stop and take selfies with her waterproof camera phone. The woman is a superhero. I feel an urge to go to Tokyo in 2020 just to cheer her on.

My second hero is a lady called Dominique. It would be ungallant to share her age, suffice to say that in the UK she would be drawing a pension. Dominique is a classical Haitian matriarch. When she speaks, you listen. It was she who corralled many of the local sponsors to support the event. It was she who got the beaches cleaned. It was she who went swimmer-by-swimmer before we set off, speaking in Creole to each of our fishermen (each swimmer had a dedicated fisherman who canoed alongside us). She explaining crisply and clearly to the fisherman exactly what each swimmers personal preferences were with regards positioning. This might sound trivial but it was vitally important. In a sea swim there is nothing worse than finding your fisher-companion is on the wrong side of you (or is behind you!). You have to keep stopping to re-calibrate your line of sight. It saps your energy. She had observed this from last year’s event and she wasn’t going to let any of the swimmers suffer the same fate this year.

Best of all however was watching her complete the swim. She was the last one out of the water and an enthusiastic crowd welcomed her home. I swear that everyone who had completed the swim watched her in awe, unable to fully process just how she had managed to keep on going. She spent 6 hours in the water, resolutely powering on. Some young bucks joined her for her last few hundred metres, providing emotional support for those last few pulls. It was a beautiful moment as we welcomed to shore this magnificent, generous lady. I can but aspire to have her gracious attitude and glorious resilience. 

And so we come to my third hero: Shaunna Cubberley. If you read last week’s blog you will know her story. Shaunna completed the swim and raised an impressive $7k for Watering Minds, the charity programme that provides water to schools in Haiti. Her donation alone will enable over 1000 children to have a clean safe supply of water for the coming school year. This might seem strange to those of us who need only turn a tap to get hydrated, but in Haiti that luxury is simply not available. Most schools in Haiti have no water supply. It has been shown that lack of water at schools can be a key driver for truancy, and that well-hydrated children work harder and play harder. They stay at school. They get educated. They achieve better grades. Society improves. The ripples that come from putting water into a school are far reaching.

To those of you who supported Shaunna, thank you. You have made a difference.

This blog, and previous entries can be found at: http://notesfrompiers.blogspot.co.uk/

No 160: Save your admiration/pity (delete as appropriate) for Shaunna…

On Sunday 19^th Feb I am doing a 10km sea-swim in Haiti. Long-time followers of this blog will recall that this is an annual event in my calendar. This year the swim is worryingly 3km longer than previous years. It is organised by Jim Chu, one of the most inspirational, hard-working and socially-minded entrepreneurs on the planet. Jim is the CEO for dlo Haiti Inc, a water kiosk business that provides water to the rural population in Haiti. Isle proudly supports dlo Haiti through REEF, the Isle ‘foundation’ which offers financial assistance to water-sector entrepreneurs in developing countries.

In previous years I have been joined in this swim by both colleagues from Isle and my sons. Indeed, last year Tim Day, MD for Isle Australia, led the pack, completing the 7km swim in an impressive 2hrs 47 minutes. I came 4^th (8 minutes after Tim), pleased simply to have avoided the jellyfish that blighted the previous years’ event, nor attracted interest from the local shark population. It is always good to get out of the water with both arms and legs still intact. 

It is well known that at a certain age many men go through a period of madness. Fast cars and affairs are not my thing so I have opted instead to ‘do something physically extreme’ in the vain hope it will prove my fading masculinity isn’t really fading, and might even give my life purpose. When this years’ event was announced I reached out to my colleagues and family to invite them to participate. There was the initial rush of enthusiasm. Buoyed by great intentions we quickly had a party of 7 joining me in my own personal mid-life tragedy. However, steadily the enthusiasm dissolved away and now the Isle representation has shrunk to just myself and Shaunna Cubberley, the marketing manager in Isle’s London office. 

Shaunna is not doing this to prove her physical resilience. Her motivation is pure and righteous. She is raising funds for the local charity Watering Minds, which provides clean, safe water to local schools. Neither is she is a sporting fanatic. Indeed, shortly after she committed to participate she visited her local swimming baths for a training session. Somewhat cruelly her teacher informed her she swam like a chicken. I have checked my sources: chickens don’t swim. 

I exaggerate of course. What her teacher actually said was that one of her arms was ‘like a chicken wing’, unable to fully extend. The odds on her swimming in a series of ever decreasing circles are surprisingly high. 

So please don’t feel either sympathy or admiration for me. I don’t deserve it. However please give Shaunna the support she deserves. She could have joined her other Isle colleagues and found an excuse to drop out. While they gradually melted away she stuck to it, resolutely and bravely determined to see it through, chicken wing or not. Drop her an email to wish her well (shaunna.cubberley@isleutilities.com). Or even better, contribute to her masterful fund-raising efforts here.  (https://www.generosity.com/medical-fundraising/watering-minds-a-water-for-schools-programme)

To redeem my own wretched, inexcusable failure to set up a sponsoring page I will joyfully match the first £2k of contributions made to her. Go on, contribute. You know she deserves it.