So, there we were, Ami and I, starting to do our laps, making comments at each other to heat up the competition..
when
this big guy standing on the edge of the pool interrupts and tells me he wants to talk to me. Ami is alarmed immediately, in her experience, that means she's about to be accused of something.
There is a woman lifeguard standing with him, and they both peer down at us in the pool with these stern,
disapproving faces.
I tell him ok, but Ami keeps asking 'what?' and I know it will be useless to distract her now.
He says it's sensitive, which only alarms us both further, so I tell him it's better to do it now, and get out of the pool.
He tells me he's the assistant manager, and repeats how delicate the issue is, we can hear Ami start to cry in the pool, so I tell him he'd better be quick.
He mumbles around for a bit, then tells me someone has been smearing shit all over the shower-recess, and they think it's Ami.
I'm alarmed, she's had diarrhea before, and I immediately imagine she might have left a dirty toilet behind...
but upon further questioning, he admits he doesn't know exactly where, toilet or shower, or when, just that its happened '4 or 5' times in the last month.
He says they don't mind 'helping out' but that the carer sits in the cafe and doesn't supervise Ami, I tell him I didn't know, and that she isn't being paid $25 p.hr to sit in the cafe, he maintains he has been trying to find out who to contact, I tell him my details are there, in Ami's membership details.
He gets flustered, and I suspect he hasn't even looked.
Meanwhile, scores of schoolkids swarm around us, unsupervised in the toilets, and I think it's more likely one of them was the culprit.
I end our 'conversation' and get back in the pool, swim over to Ami, who is crying on the furtherest edge of the pool.
She is very upset, and says it wasn't her, and that she hasn't done anything wrong.
It is hard to know for sure, sometimes, if Ami is telling the truth, because her drive to get more food dominates, and she will lie and deny, and she has the morality of a much younger person, who thinks being caught is the sin, not the deed.
But, she is genuinely hurt, and so is probably telling the truth, and I hug her as she cries.
I try to coax her back into our competition, but she is too embarrassed and upset, and gets out of the pool.
She is crying quite loudly as she gets in the spa, to 'calm herself down' as she tells me.
So, I go and shower and get changed, then sit next to the spa as she quietly sits and composes herself.
After a while, I tell her we should go, so she gets out and while she is showering in the family changeroom, I spot the assisstant manager on the far side of the next pool, so I hold my fury like a white-hot body-suit, and walk over to him.
I tell him that it was very badly handled, that I'll be lucky to get her to keep coming and exercising, that she is very upset, that it is disrespectful.
He looks down and only mumbles, I tell him a note or something would have been a better way to address the issue, and saying I'll leave my phone number at reception, I go there.
I know the lady behind the desk, and she is shocked that I was hauled out of the pool like that, and writes down my name and phone number.
I text my daughter Turdles, who rings back and is also furious, and says I should put in a complaint.
After the shower, Ami is quite calm, though the tears keep coming for the next hour or so.
She maintains she won't go back there, and I remind her of all the idiots we've run across, and that we just have to ignore them. Later that night, over a family dinner, her sisters talk to her, telling her she shouldn't let it put her off doing what she wants to do, and she gradually starts to smile again, and we talk about the house we looked at her, for her to live in.
The next day, she still doesn't want to go to her aqua-aerobics class, but goes fishing instead.
I'm going to take her on Saturday though, she knows how to bounce back :)
I can't help thinking, if Ami wasn't disabled, and if her carer wasn't part-Aboriginal, the swimming pool manager would not have acted as he did...
when
this big guy standing on the edge of the pool interrupts and tells me he wants to talk to me. Ami is alarmed immediately, in her experience, that means she's about to be accused of something.
There is a woman lifeguard standing with him, and they both peer down at us in the pool with these stern,
disapproving faces.
I tell him ok, but Ami keeps asking 'what?' and I know it will be useless to distract her now.
He says it's sensitive, which only alarms us both further, so I tell him it's better to do it now, and get out of the pool.
He tells me he's the assistant manager, and repeats how delicate the issue is, we can hear Ami start to cry in the pool, so I tell him he'd better be quick.
He mumbles around for a bit, then tells me someone has been smearing shit all over the shower-recess, and they think it's Ami.
I'm alarmed, she's had diarrhea before, and I immediately imagine she might have left a dirty toilet behind...
but upon further questioning, he admits he doesn't know exactly where, toilet or shower, or when, just that its happened '4 or 5' times in the last month.
He says they don't mind 'helping out' but that the carer sits in the cafe and doesn't supervise Ami, I tell him I didn't know, and that she isn't being paid $25 p.hr to sit in the cafe, he maintains he has been trying to find out who to contact, I tell him my details are there, in Ami's membership details.
He gets flustered, and I suspect he hasn't even looked.
Meanwhile, scores of schoolkids swarm around us, unsupervised in the toilets, and I think it's more likely one of them was the culprit.
I end our 'conversation' and get back in the pool, swim over to Ami, who is crying on the furtherest edge of the pool.
She is very upset, and says it wasn't her, and that she hasn't done anything wrong.
It is hard to know for sure, sometimes, if Ami is telling the truth, because her drive to get more food dominates, and she will lie and deny, and she has the morality of a much younger person, who thinks being caught is the sin, not the deed.
But, she is genuinely hurt, and so is probably telling the truth, and I hug her as she cries.
I try to coax her back into our competition, but she is too embarrassed and upset, and gets out of the pool.
She is crying quite loudly as she gets in the spa, to 'calm herself down' as she tells me.
So, I go and shower and get changed, then sit next to the spa as she quietly sits and composes herself.
After a while, I tell her we should go, so she gets out and while she is showering in the family changeroom, I spot the assisstant manager on the far side of the next pool, so I hold my fury like a white-hot body-suit, and walk over to him.
I tell him that it was very badly handled, that I'll be lucky to get her to keep coming and exercising, that she is very upset, that it is disrespectful.
He looks down and only mumbles, I tell him a note or something would have been a better way to address the issue, and saying I'll leave my phone number at reception, I go there.
I know the lady behind the desk, and she is shocked that I was hauled out of the pool like that, and writes down my name and phone number.
I text my daughter Turdles, who rings back and is also furious, and says I should put in a complaint.
After the shower, Ami is quite calm, though the tears keep coming for the next hour or so.
She maintains she won't go back there, and I remind her of all the idiots we've run across, and that we just have to ignore them. Later that night, over a family dinner, her sisters talk to her, telling her she shouldn't let it put her off doing what she wants to do, and she gradually starts to smile again, and we talk about the house we looked at her, for her to live in.
The next day, she still doesn't want to go to her aqua-aerobics class, but goes fishing instead.
I'm going to take her on Saturday though, she knows how to bounce back :)
I can't help thinking, if Ami wasn't disabled, and if her carer wasn't part-Aboriginal, the swimming pool manager would not have acted as he did...
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